Reversecard, Dies Emblem
Reversecard is a unit that joins in the third map of Dies Emblem, along with 3 other units that fulfill very similar niches: Krow the auto-galeforce dex based-swordmaster, Ignis the knife wielding shopkeeper, and Devisio, probably the second most important unit in the earlygame for their ability to completely sidestep Dies Emblem’s very punishing trauma system. Anyway, let’s take the middle case, here’s Krow’s stats
So let’s not beat around the bush, RC’s stats and growths are all strictly worse than Krow’s, who’s stats are also just barely good enough for galeforce once per turn after any sword attack to make them viable. But hey, Dies is a game with FE4 based trading, so having a good inventory (or even one you can sell for a lot of gold) can make a bad unit good. And Reversecard probably-
…has nothing of value. If you were wondering, Krow’s inventory is worth a solid 5900 to sell, RC’s is worth a pitiful 1200 for their +3 defense armor and 3 might dagger. Also, to be clear, Dies enemies are jacked, Reversecard is lucky to find a fight that doesn’t one shot them, let alone one where they can dink an enemy for actual damage. Oh, also, since we haven’t talked about it yet, being knifelocked in Dies…it’s like, fine, I guess. Knives use half of strength and dex for damage calcs, which is bad for Reversecard tho.
But hey, in Dies, you can have bad stats, and bad items, and bad growths, and still be okay if you have good skills! RC’s first skill is just shade, but hey, less chance to be targeted is pretty solid when everything kills you in one hit. The second skill though, is what turns Reversecard from a shitty meme unit, to a legitimate superstar of utility. Tremble, mortals, and rejoice!
Vehicles in Dies are special units that can be ridden in by infantry, the first vehicle you get has 4 slots for units to ride in, plus a driver, who has to be in the vehicle for it to move. In the first few maps, yeah, this is nothing special. But starting around chapter 5, Dies allows you to load units into vehicles in the prep screen! And vehicles only take 1 deployment slot, no matter how many units are in them. This effectively makes it so that Reversecard can be freely deployed on any map in the game that allows you to bring a vehicle (almost all of them). And hey, when there is no opportunity cost to bring a unit, all of a sudden a filler unit that can shove your units, drive vehicles, pick up chests and interact with map gimmicks, and throw poison knives becomes a very attractive unit to invest in
The best part about this, in my opinion, is that combat Reversecard is truly unfixable. They can mayyyyybe take an effective dagger and slice up a mage with it, but aside from that, even chip damage is a big ask. Despite this, there is a lot an extra unit can accomplish. For example, a few maps after RC joins, the party heads to a city called the underdome, which is the first major difficulty spike of the game. On this map, there are little trucks you can drive around. They can’t attack, but they have fairly solid defenses, and moving them in range to bait or block off enemies is crucial to completing the map cleanly. The map also has a lot of houses to go in, with various rewards that you don’t want to miss. However, the map is effectively timed, and it’s a short timer for a map with this much combat, so having an extra flunky to make dialogue checks frees up your cavalier to choke a point. Without playing Dies, it is hard to understand how valuable an additional warm body can be, which is why you should go play it. Genuinely, the unit design is bonkers, but it interacts with the map design in such a delightfully funny and memorable way that it’s hard not to get addicted.