Yeah, defense cards were pretty under-powered (I bumped them in strength a couple times too!). They're also situationally useful when a step or two away from an enemy and waiting for them to close, I think. But in a melee, yeah, they're hard to justify using. Ranged attacks having a penalty in melee's a good idea, also would have made having just high-damage ranged cards feel more balanced (and could then buff up the damage on those as they're then more situational...)