Monica Knows and Cleans Everything

Pop quiz: who's the best S.H.I.E.L.D. ally in Marvel Champions?

• Nick Fury? nah
• Agent 13? as if

Oh hello, Monica from Friends, played by 90s TV sensation Courtney Cox. You seem to know the answer even though you told me to ask this question...

That's riiiight, it's Monica Chaaaaang. Thank you for that wonderful que- I mean answer, Monica.

--

This deck's basic strategy is to grab know-it-all problem-solver Monica Chang with Chance Encounter over and over and over and over again, getting free Surveillance Teams + extra counters once they're all in play so she can clean up the mess you've made with One Way or Another. With the combination of The Power of Justice, Super-Soldier Serum, Government Liaison, Helicarrier, and Steve Roger's Living Legend ability, she can be played again and again very easily. With Sky-Destroyer, you're also doing 2 extra damage with each cleanup because we're super efficient like that.

Monica's know-it-all & cleaning services offer a whole bunch of benefits, including card draw and deck stacking. Nick Fury helps accelerate through your deck and is also a great target for Chance Encounter when Monica is already cleaning the board. Global Logistics and One Way or Another are included to draw through your deck and/or stack your deck for more quality draws. Gotta gain that knowledge, y'all. The fact that One Way or Another also grabs the side schemes you need to defeat to trigger Chance Encounter helps further lubricate this well-oiled machine, and Skilled Investigator also fits into that strategy perfectly.

Monica Chang is the premier ally in this deck, but the rest are still useful. Firstly, they all carry that important S.H.I.E.L.D. trait, so they can be reduced in cost with Government Liaison, exhausted for Global Logistics, and trigger Sky-Destroyer when played. Agent 13 unfortunately means we can't use Agent 13, but the extra thwarting power is helpful for clearing side schemes since that's what this deck wants to do. Nick Fury as always comes in, draws some cards, refuses to elaborate, and jumps in front of a villain attack for you and dies. But hey, it's just a flesh wound, and he'll be back soon enough. And finally, Quake is a cheap ally who coincidentally has the Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. trait and wants to stay out on the board, helping to clear minions whenever you flip to alter-ego. For that reason, she's a great Global Logistics target.

Early on when setting up, it's ok to pitch Monica Chang since you can easily find her again with Chance Encounter. You don't have to play Surveillance Team because Monica will keep fetching them and adding counters. Early in the game, it's more efficient to allow Monica to grab you a Surveillance Team since that's 4+ counters for free that can be used up over time. Near the end of the game, it's better to leave them all in play and just add 3 per round since you can use them all immediately. At the start of the game, focus on getting down Super-Soldier Serum, Government Liaison, Helicarrier, and/or Sky-Destroyer. Steve's Apartment is a pretty nice engine piece as well if you can get early enough. Even before you get all the pieces in play, you can start building your cleaning crew.

Government Liaison and Living Legend are often at odds with each other. Unfortunately one is hero only and the other is alter-ego only, and you will often use the Liaison for allies (there are a few non-ally options, like Helicarrier, Sky-Destroyer, and Surveillance Team, but you will play the first two hopefully only once, and you will hopefully never need to play the teams. However, this does give you some flexibility as well as providing easy targets for Global Logistics.

Global Logistics is one of the best cards in this deck. It's an often-overlooked tool in the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's kit, but it can provide an enormous amount of value. Use it before drawing with Nick Fury, Fearless Determination, One Way or Another, Steve's Apartment, Skilled Investigator, or drawing up at the end of the player phase. You can discard things like Surveillance Team, separate multiple copies of cards like One Way or Another so they don't clog your hand, and move a card to the top so you can draw it right away. Although in some cases it simply 'gives up a resource' on your turn, it can help make up for that immediately with the above benefits. Additionally, it can be used on the encounter deck to shift Side Schemes around to draw them, or to the bottom so that you can fish them out with One Way or Another, or just general utility to soften up villain attacks and encounter cards for the round. Never underestimate this card's power.

Miscellaneous tips and tricks:

• feel free to pitch Cap's shield if you can't play it turn one. You won't be blocking that often, and you can still play Heroic Strike without it. You lose Shield Block and Shield Toss though, so keep that in mind when playing scenarios with overkill or swarming minions.
• Try to keep your Surveillance Teams one 1 counter. They can be targets for Global Logistics and even things like Caught Off Guard. Of course use up that last charge if it will mean the difference between clearing a scheme or not, but at a certain point, you'll want Monica to come in with 4 threat removal immediately. If she also brings another Surveillance Team with her, that's great. So any time you have all 3 in play, just use one of those last counters before playing her again (even if you don't need it)
• There aren't any thwarting events because you generally have enough between Heroic Intuition, your allies, teams, and Fearless Determination. If you find that you need more thwarting, feel free to add things like Even the Odds, Problem Solvers (when playing with Guardians), and/or more Heroic Intuition to ensure you draw it more quickly. Definitely include more Skilled Investigator to meet the needs of the table and reward others for helping you out.

And that's it. Thanks again, Monica for all of your help. You're the best!