The Long and Short of It: I'm playing through every hero using decks suggested to me by other players. Here is who I'm covering today:
and....
Colossus Protection
Suggested By: u/Flying_Toad
Created By: u/Flying_Toad
Encounter: Absorbing Man
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I, Standard III
This deck was the most outside my wheelhouse so far, especially for solo. Featuring no allies and focusing on defending, it relied heavily on getting set up quickly and keeping threat down. This was a counterintuitive way to play Colossus for me, because I am used to flipping often with him. However, with such little thwarting available, I had to be particularly careful about how I managed the threat. That said, this deck excels at triggering the “take no damage” clauses on a number of cards. If your DEF doesn’t hold up, your Toughs certainly will. I lost my first round on Expert, so I jumped down to Standard. The game on Standard reminded me just how strong of a rush hero Colossus can be. I actually had to play a third game where I leaned into the defense gimmick, because my second game where I rushed didn’t involve a single Protection card. This was definitely an interesting take on defense oriented builds!
Domino Basic
Suggested By: MrSelfDestruct
Created By: MrSelfDestruct
Encounter: Thanos
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: Domino All Basic
This was a really fun match-up. One of the funniest tidbits to this match was that I never actually got rid of Thanos’s Helmet, which gives him retaliate. Thanks to Domino’s Pistols and Diamondback’s non-attack damage, I was able to skirt by, receiving limited retaliate damage in return. As a whole, this deck highlighted the size of the basic package Domino can utilize. Not once did I feel I was missing power due to not tapping into an aspect. There were plenty of opportunities to feel clever, since I had to be a little more judicious with how I was using my various attacks and allies. This is a deck worth checking out, and if you want to splash in your favorite color, you absolutely could.
Ms. Marvel Justice
Suggested By: Man-is-Obsolete
Created By: Man-is-Obsolete
Encounter: On the Run
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Ms. Marvel is a top 3 hero for me, and that was reaffirmed with this deck. Her ability to generate an absurd number of resources and cycle cards using Aamir, Nick Fury, and Moon Girl is crazy. I love all the different hooks she has for card draw and combo building. I was running this in solo, but it would easily handle multiplayer threat levels. Man-is-Obsolete suggests swapping out Turn the Tide for Even the Odds at high player counts, which makes sense. This is definitely a deck I would grab for another game.
Spider-Woman Aggression/Leadership
Suggested By: Gondo
Created By: Gondo
Encounter: Infiltrate the Museum
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
This was a really fun way to turn Spider-Woman into a rush deck of sorts. Utilizing her alter-ego ability to look at the top card of the deck was incredibly helpful for safely swinging with Hulk. I also had her apartment out, which I used to reshuffle the deck for Hulk a couple of times. Between the cheap events and the 5 damage from Hulk each swing, it felt smooth burning down The Collector. This was a neat deck to revisit Spider-Woman with, and it definitely encouraged me to take another look at her kit beyond the double aspect ability!
War Machine Leadership
Suggested By: JOMO
Created By: JOMO
Encounter: Tower Defense
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
War Machine has been pretty low on my list of preferred heroes for a long time, mostly because I have always found him to be clunky. There were always leftover cards or unspent ammo counters. The efficiency puzzle just didn’t shake out to where I liked it. On top of that, I struggled to have success with him when I played with him. That all said… this deck felt really smooth to play. I still had the occasional left over card, but I felt like I was getting a lot done. Tower Defense gives a decent bit of wiggle room on flipping to alter-ego, so that may have helped. Having Suit Up to help grab Iron Man (and thus grab important tech) was a super clean way to accelerate set up. This deck left me with a much better impression of War Machine than I had going into.
Conclusion
Just kidding! This is where the Conclusion would usually be. However, we're doubling up to get this finished before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. releases.
Captain Marvel Leadership
Suggested By: MegiDolaDyne
Created By: MegiDolaDyne
Encounter: Spiral + Fantasy + Sci-Fi + Horror
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: Captain Mutant
Captain Marvel is a top 3 hero for me, so I knew going in that I would probably enjoy playing this deck. What caught me off guard is how absolutely amazing she is with Mutant Mayhem. With her draw engine, it is super easy to get more than one Mutant Mayhem into hand. Then with Beast on the board, the second Mutant Mayhem is essentially free, because you can grab her three resource Energy Absorption card. With Children of the Atom giving all of your allies (except Spider-Woman) the X-Men and X-Force trait, you have a lot of flexibility on how to use Mutant Mayhem. This was a really fun deck, and it is absolutely worth trying out.
Hulk Protection
Suggested By: KnightAdz
Created By: KnightAdz
Encounter: Risky Business
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: Hulk Protection
Luckily, I rolled into Risky Business with Hulk! Granted, I generated that luck by rerolling when I got Ronan, then again when I got Mansion Attack, and yet again when I got Magneto. So as luck would have it, I rolled Risky Business on my first roll (that followed the first three)! I’m going to be honest here… I truly don’t mind Hulk, particularly in multiplayer. But I do have some limit on what I want to take him against.
Something that I liked about this deck was all the healing available with a basic recovery. After his lab and Down Time are out, you’re healing for 8 with each recovery. It lets you lean into his health pool as a resource in a fun way. I am a sucker for Starhawk, and I love how he interacts with Hulk by helping to smooth his hand in hero form. I had a good time, and it did give me a hankering to try a two-handed game with Hulk again.
Nebula Justice
Suggested By: stumpyfjord
Created By: stummpyfjord
Encounter: Wrecking Crew
Difficulty: Expert
Deck: Nebula - Justice
A long while back, Nebula used to be in my top 10. She has faded somewhat, mostly because I hadn’t felt the desire to revisit her. This was a fun deck to go back to her though! Float Like a Butterfly is a neat inclusion here. I like that you can time your techniques to confuse an enemy and then have a boosted attack with your attack technique. Wrecking Crew was mildly interesting, because it undercuts her strongest solo technique, Wide Stance. Since you have to target the active villain’s deck, you aren’t always able to perfectly set up the villain phase. With how much confuse was available in solo play, it opened up the option of using the Sonic Rifle as a damage source (even if it can’t be boosted by Float Like a Butterfly). I had fun with this, and I’d be interested in pairing it up in a two-player game.
Vision Leadership
Suggested By: fantastic_fox_79
Created By: fantastic_fox_79
Encounter: Kang
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: Vision - Air Supremacy
I love Vision’s versatility! When he first released, he felt unwieldy, but in hindsight I am not sure why. This deck certainly didn’t feel that way, though I did keep forgetting that Vivian isn’t aerial (namely because her Basic version is). Having a non-attack like Aerial Supremacy gave a nice way for Vision to deal damage even when he was in Intangible form, which helped smooth out the sequencing when playing cards. It was a fun deck concept, and I enjoyed it!
X-23 Justice
Suggested By: ArbiterFrosty
Created By: ArbiterFrosty
Encounter: Dark Beast
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: X-23 Justice
This was a tough one for me! I have been coming around to using fewer overall allies, but having only one ally took some adjustments.I figured that after my earlier plays with AndyN’s single-ally Venom deck, I would have a decent grasp of it. Despite the similarities in recurring a single ally, this deck played very differently. I lost my first two games against Dark Beast. I couldn’t decide if The Savage Land discarding cards was causing the issue, or if I wasn’t understanding how to pilot the deck. So rather than change things up, I just buckled down and tried again… and again. The third time was the charm! I had to be more patient, but I was able to set up the framework and get Honey Badger cycling with Sisterhood and buffed with Danger Room. In the end what really impressed me was how many similar mechanisms this deck shared with AndyN’s Venom deck (recurring an ally, taking damage to generate resources/buffs, lots of healing and status effects), while feeling and playing completely different.
Conclusion
(for real this time)
Thanks for sticking around for the double feature! My next few will also be double features, as I finish out the series. I did get a lot of extra decks submitted to me that I want to cover, so given enough time, I may even have a bonus article to cover a few of those. See you next time!
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