Steve Bands Together the Beast through Meditation

I wanted to build a deck that utilized Beast. To me that meant having the most 2+ resource cards I could fit. Hero Resources, Band Together, The Power of..., & Basic Resources. My first thought was to team him with Captain Marvel but I just ended up in an Avenger's deck with Beast as a 4 cost ally that had so-so stats. I thought about a few other iterations with other Heroes that have Resources and just felt like Beast having a 4 cost never felt good. Then it hit me, Steve Rogers gives me a cost reduction making is cost benefit go from good to great.

At it's core, this is just a good stuff Ally deck. I wanted to take advantage of Rapid Response as it works well with Beast in making powerful follow up turns after you defend and trigger a Rapid Response.

MULLIGAN - The beautiful part of this deck is that there aren't any cards that are necessary for it to function. Don't Mulligan away The Triskelion, Stinger, Steve's Apartment & Team Training. These effects are hard to replace. A great hand would consist be a card (Resource or Meditation) that pays for an Ally, an efficient Ally to go with said card, and another card for building that we can pay for with the rest.

COST EFFICIENCY - Steve Rogers cost reduction allows us to play all of our allies off of 1 card in certain combinations. Meditation on turn 1 gets us Nick Fury or Beast. These lead to the most powerful starts but most of the allies enable enough early control to get the deck going.

DEAD CARDs aren't dead - Another reason I like Captain America for this deck is that if you have a card sitting in your hand, it becomes 0 Cost Ready Captain America. Having this made me not feel bad about running 5 total of Meditation and Band Together.

ALLY SELECTION - Goal 1 was a powerful ability that Rapid Response could trigger. Goal 2 was 3+ health so the Ally could get an activation and a defense after Rapid Response. NOTE: Maria Hill being so good that she ignores Goal 2. Goal 3 Stinger is a 5th ally slot for Strength In Numbers.

BUILDING BLOCKS - Stinger increases ally count and is intended to stay on board for Strength In Numbers. With Rapid Response we hope to keep our allies on board making the The Triskelion a necessity. Speaking of keeping allies on board, Team Training makes up for the damage taken by Rapid Response. Since we have Meditation, this makes us want to more actively change forms, therefore Steve's Apartment will likely see more use than in a normal Captain America game. Super-Soldier Serum is great because it isn't Hero form locked and only costs 2.

RESOURCE Package - I count Meditation as a resource even though Beast can't get it. Band Together will hopefully consistently be a 3 resource, allowing us to play our high cost Allies and Heroic Strike consistently with stun. I split the Power of... cards since we have Beast as a tutor and we have a close to even 2+ Basic and Leadership split. Basic Resources I felt were an auto inclusion.

Options Considered:

Black Knight & Hawkeye- It was between Black Knight, Mockingbird and Hawkeye for a spot in the deck. The Stun on Mockingbird won out because it is most relevant on turn 1. I'd consider swapping these in for different scenarios.

White Tiger doesn't work with Rapid Response and only has 2 health. I put in the 3rd Rapid Response over her. She might be a good to replace Maria Hill in solo Expert though.

Lockjaw - I have a soft spot for this adorable dog. He's able to discard for a resource or Captain America ready early game. He's always there waiting for you in the discard for a Steve Rogers + Band Together play. He can't be played via Meditation from the discard. He isn't the most efficiently costed ally to play from hand. Of minor note, I wouldn't want to Rapid Response him. I find I have more allies than I need enough that he sits (like a good boy).

Make the Call - doesn't work with Steve Rogers cost reduction nor Meditation.