Ship's Doctor

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
Doctor Strange "Tough Enough" Heroic Ally Swarm 1444 1194 41 1.0
Inspiration for
None yet

adsarf · 321

From everything I had read about the difficulty of the GMW campaign, I knew that I would need the strongest hero in the strongest aspect to have a chance of beating it in solo expert. Ever since @Mag's Heroic Ally Swarm (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/1771/doctor-strange-tough-enough-heroic-ally-swarm-1.0) that has meant Dr Strange leadership.

For my version of this classic deck I wanted to use all-avenger allies and Earth's Mightiest Heroes to get off even more incantations. I also used Strength In Numbers for draw. From @schmendrix (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/9871/we-all-know-who-s-in-charge-thor-leadership-1.0) I shamelessly stole the use of Sky Cycle which enables the same ally to trigger Strength In Numbers or Earth's Mightiest Heroes twice. It also enables the use of Air Supremacy, but to be honest mainly when your board position is already dominant. You could swap that card for something more consistently useful like an Avengers Mansion.

Card draw with this deck is very strong. With Winds of Watoomb on top of the invocation deck and two Master of the Mystic Arts you can draw nine extra cards. One Strength In Numbers can add another six, so you can see 20 cards in a single turn - more with Sky Cycle and a second Strength In Numbers. Between Astral Projection and Images of Ikonn there is plenty of thwart, especially as all that card draw ensures that you see those cards frequently. If there is a weakness it is probably damage output. Crimson Bands of Cyttorak and Magic Blast are fantastic cards, but there are only three of them; Magical Enhancements can be underwhelming when used on Strange himself to attack (although with help from the infinity stone and Earth's Mightiest Heroes I put 9 damage on Ronan in a single turn, which was nice).

For all that I did not achieve my goal. I defeated the first 4 villains but I didn't understand the importance of leaving the stone on Nebula at the end of her scenario, and I just couldn't keep up with all the encounter cards that Ronan draws. I had to drop back to standard for that final scenario. Maybe I'll try again with Captain America.

8 comments

Jun 11, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

Love it!

Don't fixate on Ronan, it doesn't mean anything about the deck, really. I've managed to beat him with ONE deck (justice Cpt Marvel), and only came close with a bunch of others overusing thwart cards (including Ant man, Cap, Black Panther...) or crazy damage output (She Hulk). I really think he was made for multiplayer (less encounter cards per player that way), my win with Cpt Marvel may have been one in a million for all I know!

So nevermind Ronan... this is a cool deck, good job!

Jun 11, 2021 adsarf · 321

Thanks @neothechosen. Standard Ronan was fun, but expert campaign Ronan was a bit much for me. Quick games though!

Jun 12, 2021 Immanent · 1

this might come off as arrogant, and you'd have all the reasons not to believe me; but i actually managed to beat solo true expert GMW first try (except for a really unlucky start with nebula) with leadearship Strange. My deck is built around the broken mechanic of Cosmo, who can basically mill your invocation deck and along with Wong, fix whatever you need; add in EMH and skycicle, well, you can see where this is going. You can easily stunlock the villain and remove threat quite fast by voltroning Cosmo, that and with the turbo draw every turn thanks to winds(sometimes even twice a turn) you can just crush anything really. That said i love this concept and it looks like a fun deck! Not so much meta probably, but that's okay too

Jun 12, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

@Immanent I don’t think you’re being arrogant at all. In fact, I got very close to several wins with Leadership Voltron decks against Ronan, true solo, but ultimately lost by very little each time! However, that was BEFORE Cosmo was out. Broken as he is, I think your plan is bound to work, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see an errata / nerf before long.

IMO Ronan will be easier to deal with in the coming months. I think the game creators are slowly stirring us towards playing more GUARDIANS and giving them tools to win this. It’s already started: Blaze of Glory, Cosmo, and check out those new cards from the DRAX or VENOM sets (like “Think Fast”… confusing the villain for 1? IF you’re a Guardian? Pretty obvious…)

Jun 12, 2021 Immanent · 1

@neothechosenthat errata is definetely coming, there's no way it was intentional as it is! the deck is so OP i had turns where with a full hand and nothing more to do! no threats on board, no minions, villain stunned/confused or both, me and my allies though..crazy

i did try the BoG 7 allies build on Star Lord, my friend was playing Strange and giving me Honorary avenger, but ultimately we were overwhelmed by Expert GMW, maybe i was meant to play differently, but i didn't find SL to be such an over-the-top hero. I still have to check out Gamora, seems strong, but nothing crazy about her; and i'm with you for that hype train of Think Fast, game changer for sure!

What are your predictions on Drax?another bound to fail 4 handed hero or maybe he will be better than Thor and Hulk?i think for sure as a concept he's a pretty amazing hero! will be tons of fun to play, but i'm afraid he will lack performance..

Jun 12, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

@Immanent Honestly, I started by thinking Drax would be OP, but then saw the "4" hand size... And from what I understand, if you block with allies, you don't get the vengeance counter because the villain actually attacks your ally... This may force us to resort to protection, I'm affraid it may give us another dysfonctional "Hulk".

I'm working on an OTK scenario for him (dying to try, can't wait for my pack!) . I'm pretty sure it can be done IF you manage to keep control of the board long enough, but THAT's going to be the real challenge. If it works, it'll be incredible.

So I'm actually sitting on a fence about Drax, but I do hope they got the "crazy strong warrior" type right this time!

Jun 12, 2021 adsarf · 321

@Immanent the Cosmo/Doctor Strange combination doesn't seem like it would be much fun to me. Did you enjoy the game playing that way?

Jun 13, 2021 Immanent · 1

hell yeah i did! i was so tired of struggling on GMW expert campaign, especially on ronan after trying a bunch of combinations, it became frustrating, and i don't consider myself a bad player at all. playing a deck this good was definetely refreshing, it's like a whole another dimension! they did us dirty with that campaign, so i had to use the big guns to overcome that challenge, it's the ultimate deck imho, you can even enjoy replaying old scenarios on heroic in safety with it. cosmo just opens up a lot, before him i used the same concept but had to rely on Wong to cycle, and while it was op too, it didn't give you twhart or damage doing it; now you can play a voltron with 3/3 stats while you select which invocations you can use, and wong doesn't feel needed anymore really, it's just a nice plus for the heal or some more milling in a pinch. on a side note, be aware that strange's alter ego action can be used once per phase! that means on the turn you flip back on that side, you can mill another card during the villain phase!