Thor - We Were Swingin'

This is very interesting game theory for Thor, a hero that I think gets the short end of the straw. He can be so fun, and my favorite thing about this decklist is that it seems to understand the core of what makes him exciting instead of trying to patch his weaknesses. Excited to watch it on stream today.

Hallelujah, YES. Lovin' the love for the God of Thunder.

Jarnbjorn was huge. Great include. I'd swap a Battle Fury for Hall of Heroes in situations with more minions (was playing Wrecking Crew). If a lot of minions, probably drop 1x Combat Training and 1x Mean Swing or Skilled Strike.

But then you're not...really...swingin'. Best of luck!

It pleases me greatly seeing the love for the infamous Thor. I'm the lunatic running Thor-leadership on heroic 1 solo play and having a blast.

By the way, the last covenant streams for both arkham and marvel were amazing, true nailbiters!

Cheers!

excellent write-up for an excellent deck, Steven. i've been theorycrafting a similar deck for Hulk ever since he was revealed, and i'm so glad to see someone put into words so eloquently what i was trying to figure out in my head. when i finally get down to testing that, i'll be thankful that you've laid down a bit of the groundwork for it already here with Thor.

i particularly appreciate you mentioning that sometimes you don't even play asgard to keep the tempo going.

also, using hammer throw to bounce Mjolnir, pay for a 1-cost card, then swap to odinson is just inspired. i've long-neglected Thor, but you're making me seriously reconsider my estimation of him

Matt Resner crunched the numbers on live chat. In our win against Wrecking Crew, Spidey Protection dealt 61 damage and Thor dealt 78 damage. Not bad, considering it's likely one of Thor's worst match ups.

Thanks Steven. Your play throughs with Thor made me re-evaluate him and I have enjoyed playing with him WITH a second hero. I find he still is pretty hopeless as a solo hero getting easily beaten even by Standard Rhino simply because of the poor thwarting an Aggression Thor can bring.

Thor Aggression shines with a partner, preferably Justice but also Leadership hero can fill the gap allowing Thor to focus on bringing the Hammer down.

My own deck is almost identical except I have only 1 Combat Training and 1 Counter attack and putting in 2 Powers of Aggression as well as Hall of Heroes (the last as much for theme as anything else). Thank you for showing me (and hopefully everyone else) that Thor is not as disappointing as many experienced when he first came out.

regards David W (AUS)

STEVEN. Thank you for giving the God of Thunder his due. I've always liked the challenge of Thor's play style, and I've had a lot of fun with him in multi-player. I look forward to trying out this build.

Also, you could have called this "Anatomy of Asgard." Just saying. Missed Opportunity.

• Nate "Remember Monsterpocalypse?" Parkes

@nateparkes I totally missed that opportunity. What a great name! And of course I remember you from the MonPoc days. Those were incredible times - and we reflect on them (and folks like you) dearly.

I did try out the 3x Get Over Here, 1x Hall of Heroes build against Goblin Heroic 1 (alongside Zach with Widow Leadership), and it performed impressively. Like, truly great. I think the deck has arrived! Hopefully we'll get some other tools to take Thor into different aspects, but then again...it's Thor.

I just came here to say that I LOVE this deck!

Hey, Steven! Love the write up. Think you’ll add anything from the Hulk pack to tweak it at all?

-Nathan Bradley

@widowmaker93 That pack gives some great options. I'd probably test a Toe to Toe + Counterattack as a way to dish out a pretty wild amount of damage on command. Only problem is the mental resource for Hulk. And if Counterattack counts for "hero attacks and defeats a minion" trigger on Battle Fury, that's a really excellent way to clear a minion and stand up when you don't have Hammer Throw.

I'd probably immediately swap You'll Pay For That in for Chase Them Down. That makes Hulk even better, and it's likely to give greater dividends since Thor often takes it to the face. Combined with Toe to Toe, it's a very good little engine that Thor can run well.

Brawn in over Tigra pretty much all day every day.

I don't think Thor has the money for another demanding 3-cost event in Dropkick. I've found he's just barely on-sequence to hit those Hammer Throws, so anything more than that would get sloppy. Same with the 4-cost allies. I just don't think he has the resources for them - but getting an extra encounter card from Sentry does increase the chance of hitting your minion draw, so it's a little enticing.

At first glance probably test something like this (and likely will on stream):

-2 Chase Them Down -1 Tigra -3 Skilled Strike

+3 "You'll Pay for That" +1 Brawn +1 Hall of Heroes +1 Get Over Here

If I didn't need the thwart as much, I'd swap in Toe to Toe over You'll Pay For That.

I worry that adding more cost to the deck will remove its fundamental strength of a lower curve - but this is why we test!

I noticed this deck requires 1.5 Thor packs. Does that mean we are using slight house-rules for deck building?

I think the 1.5 might signify that there was errata to lightning strike? You don’t need multiple copies of the Thor pack to build this deck.

What about using "You'll Pay for That!" instead of Chase Them Down? It's an energy resource instead of mental, it seems like it should be easier to trigger, and has the potential to remove more threat.

Thoughts?

Sorry, I didn't notice that last comment from @Team Covenant. Has anyone tested your suggestion for: -2 Chase Them Down -1 Tigra -3 Skilled Strike

+3 "You'll Pay for That" +1 Brawn +1 Hall of Heroes +1 Get Over Here

???

@10GritSandpaper Haven't tested it yet! Perhaps that can be done on a stream - maybe even this week.

Started the Red Skull campaign on expert with this deck and Ms Marvel Justice. And damn it, we got totally stuck on Absorbing Man. He takes a lot away from Thor: Next to none minions, a high incentive to defend against attacks and also a bunch of disabling effects. We tried 5 times already, with most games either ending on turn 3 or around turn 11. Any tips?

@raumzeit77That's a tough one. It reminds me of when we were dealing with Wrecking Crew though - light on minions is a specific kind of challenge.

Things that go through my head are that you'll need to swap out Battle Fury and Chase Them Down. Look to add Brawn and You'll Pay for That. Maybe Toe to Toe. Consider any cheap attacks in the card pool that can get rid of stun. Maybe a few more allies to defend those attacks. If that's the case, you might also need to add 3x money of some kind, like the one that generates a physical resource.

I'd be curious to play the next campaign with Thor, so maybe I'll have better advice at that point.

@Team Covenant Thinking of using this to team up with my wife. She is playing Ms Marvel Justice. Thoughts?

Sorry this is really confusing. Does this build require exactly one or two thor expansion packs?

@Hongkia83just one! you only ever need 1 copy of packs.

thanks @dr00

After two very exhausting playthroughs of GMW on Standard with all the Guardian characters my partner and I went back to the beginning, playing Rhino and Klaw on Expert. I used this deck, swapping the second Combat Training for a Deft Focus (pays Hammer Throw and Lightning Strike) and Hulk for Angela. It was such a pure and innocent joy to throw that hammer every time the card showed up... Most fun I (we) had with Marvel Champions in weeks. Thanks for the deck!

After 7 in a row losses with Thor vs Rhino on the preset deck, I was ready to try anything. I was struggling with both health and threat in every game. Your deck was a quick and easy win. you are absolutely correct, the high cost of Thor's starter deck cards prevents him from getting any good flow going. I'll mention I won this game without playing the Hammer Throw at all, and I had 3 allies down at one point to deal with minions and threat while I just landed basic attacks on Rhino. Very efficient deck.

This deck is very powerful. I can't find any flaws in this deck. Also, I'm on my way back after defeating Ultron with this deck. For Asgard! Try this deck!