Caper Crew

## Overview

*"People like that... corporations like that, they have all the money, they have all the power, and they use it to make people like you go away. Right now, you're suffering under an enormous weight. We provide...ballast."*

*The Caper Crew is here to defeat their adversaries with a combination of criminal wit and hubris! While they steal from others, they don't really need to keep the goods for themselves. Instead, they use the resources they gain from others to carry out carefully crafted machinations. As a well-practiced crew of six, their high competency and trust in each other allow them to pull off a variety of grifts, heists, and other plans on the fly. Just when you think they're pinned down, they always have some contingency plan to wriggle out of trouble and expose the bad guys!*

The Caper Crew features an elite team of high-powered minions that steal and discard other players' cards in order to enact their own strategies. They also make use of a variety of Plans that provide them additional strength or card draw and can help them pull off last-second maneuvers as bases score.

### Details

#### General

* Name: Caper Crew
* Author: AndIQuote
* Complexity: 4/5
* Version: 1
* Last updated: August 5, 2023

## Cards

Download full-sized cards in .png format here!

#### Breakdown

Caper Crew has 6 minions and 14 actions. In the style of Princesses and Avengers, its minions are unique and 5 power each, resulting in the usual total minion power of 30. Among its actions, there are:

* 1 play-on-minion action: The Mark
* 5 play-on-base actions, all of them Plans: Backup Plan, Escape Plan, Improvised Plan, Phishing Plan, Resourceful Plan
* 8 standard actions (0 that affect one or more minions): Fake Your Own Death (2x), Gathering Intel, Heist (2x), Repurposing, Team Briefing, The Con.
* 2 actions that directly increase a minion's power: Backup Plan, The Mark

#### Minions

* **1x Mastermind (5):** Talent: Move another one of your minions from here OR discard a card you do not own to move one of your minions to this base. Special: Before a base scores, you may play a Plan as an extra action.
* **1x Grifter (5):** Ongoing: After this card's owner wins a base while this minion is controlled by another player, they gain 1 VP. Talent: If a Plan is here, give this minion to another player until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Hacker (5):** Have another player reveal their hand; you may place an action from their hand into yours. You cannot play it this turn. Talent: Search your deck for a Plan and draw it.
* **1x Hitter (5):** Ongoing: Your other minions here are not affected by other players' cards. Talent: Discard a card you do not own to choose another minion here. Its power isn't added to its controller's power until the start of your next turn. If a Plan is here, you may give this minion +2 power until the end of the turn instead.
* **1x Thief (5):** Place another player's buried card, card in stasis, or action here into your hand; you cannot play it this turn. Talent: Move this minion to another base with a Plan and place an action on that base into your hand. If you do not own it, you cannot play it this turn.
* **1x Fixer (5):** Draw a minion from the top of your deck. If there is a Plan here, you may destroy it to play that minion as an extra minion here.

#### Actions

* **1x Backup Plan:** Play on a base where another player has more power than you. Talent: Reveal up to three cards you do not own from your hand. One of your minions here has +2 power until the end of the turn for each revealed card. Special: Before this base scores, if you are not winning, you may use this card's talent an additional time. Discard all revealed cards.
* **1x The Con:** Reveal your hand and shuffle all revealed cards into your deck. Draw five cards plus one for each card shuffled in that you do not own. Play an extra action.
* **1x Escape Plan:** Play on a base where you have a minion. Ongoing: After this base scores, move one of your minions from here to another base.
* **2x Fake Your Own Death:** Place a minion from your discard pile on top of your deck. You may discard a card you do not own to draw it instead. Play an extra action.
* **1x Gathering Intel:** Reveal the top three cards of another player's deck. Return them in any order. Play an extra action.
* **2x Heist:** Reveal the top card of each other player's deck. If it is an action or a minion of power 3 or less, draw it; otherwise, return it. You cannot play any of those cards this turn.
* **1x Improvised Plan:** Play on a base. You may play an extra action.
* **1x The Mark:** Play on a minion you do not own. Ongoing: After this minion's controller plays a card that affects this minion, they must reveal their hand. Talent: Give your minions here +1 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Phishing Plan:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Before the end of your turn, you may choose to draw one less card and reveal the top card of another player's deck. If it is an action or a minion of power 2 or less, draw it; otherwise, return it.
* **1x Repurposing:** Shuffle up to three actions from your discard pile into your deck OR discard a card you do not own to shuffle up to two actions from your discard pile into your deck and play a Plan from your discard pile as an extra action.
* **1x Resourceful Plan:** Play on a base. Talent: If you have the most power here, draw a card. Special: Before this base scores, you may discard any number of cards you do not own. Give a minion here -2 power for each card you discard.
* **1x Team Briefing:** Search your deck and/or discard pile for a Plan and play it as an extra action. Shuffle this card into your deck.

#### Bases

* **(30) Famous Art Museum (5 3 2):** At the start of your turn, if you had a minion here before this turn and have more power than other players here, reduce this base's breakpoint to 0. When this base scores, if the total power here is 30 or higher, the winner draws two cards at the end of the turn.
* **(15) Local Bar (3 2 1):** Once per turn, after you play a minion here, look at cards from one player's deck equal to its printed power. Return them in any order.

## Clarifications

* **The Con:** All revealed cards are shuffled into your deck, regardless of ownership.
* **Hacker, Heist, Thief:** You cannot play any copies of cards taken from other players within the same turn, even if you already have additional copies from prior turns.
* **The Mark:** Destroying The Mark does not account as affecting the minion it is on.
* **Plans:** Any reference to playing or destroying a Plan refers exclusively to base modifiers with "Plan" in their name. These include Caper Crew's own Backup Plan, Escape Plan, Improvised Plan, Phishing Plan, and Resourceful Plan as well as Sinister Six's My Master Plan. This does not include standard actions such as Mega Troopers' Plan For More!
* **Thief:** If you choose to place a buried card in your hand, reveal it before placement so all players are aware of the card's identity. Thief's on-play ability can only target cards controlled by other players on the base Thief is played on.

## Strategy

### General

Managing the Caper Crew effectively requires steadily fueling your hand with other players' cards. Half of their minions cannot access all of their abilities unless you can discard cards you do not own. They have several means to do this, although Phishing Plan and Heist are their most reliable options for stealing cards.

Knowing when to focus on stealing versus focusing on drawing your own cards is important, too, as Phishing Plan provides the opportunity to cut your card draw at the end of the turn in half in exchange for a chance to draw someone else's card. However, outside of Fixer (specifically draws minions) and Resourceful Plan (talent draw that only works if you commit enough power on its base), Caper Crew lacks many of the drawing and searching opportunities that similar decks such as Avengers, Princesses, and Superheroes have. The Con can be particularly impactful if you have a bad/small hand or have accumulated lots of other players' cards. Shuffling all of them into your deck obfuscates your opponents' awareness of how many resources you have to trigger your abilities.

They also lack movement outside of post-scoring with Escape Plan, Thief's talent (dependent on a Plan), and Mastermind's talent (dependent on discarding other players' cards). This means that Caper Crew has to be careful not to leave too much power on a base at one time as all of their minions have high power. There are some contingencies for this. Mastermind's special ability triggers when any base scores, allowing you to play Escape Plan without warning. Backup Plan and Resourceful Plan are also ideal for sudden base swings, especially when the opponent cannot anticipate them due to Mastermind's special. Improvised Plan can be particularly impactful with the right partner faction as Mastermind playing it before scoring lets you play any action anywhere. Improvised Plan is also a great target for destruction with Fixer and returning to hand with Thief as it provides an additional action play.

Grifter's Ongoing ability triggers when *any* base scores, allowing Caper Crew to net extra VP for as long as she is controlled by another player as part of her grift. In a pinch, the Crew can also use the minions they steal from other players, although this is not necessarily reliable and they cannot use them the turn they steal them.

### Partner Suggestions

As a faction with few but powerful minions, Caper Crew appreciates partners that provide them additional search, draw, recursion, and movement. Extra minion plays are appealing as well, provided you consistently have multiple minions in hand to take advantage of them.

#### Published

* **Wizards**
* **Superheroes**
* **Tornados**
* **Explorers**
* **Vikings**
* **Avengers**
* **Knights of the Round Table**
* **Aladdin**

## Author Notes

* The font used for this faction is Bauhaus 93
* The concept for the faction, as well as most of the art, is taken from the 2008 TV show Leverage and its 2021 revival series Leverage: Redemption
* Thanks to Ludichrisness for playtesting and feedback!