Arrows are Overrated

Intro

Hawkeye wants to do what he does best: Set up his kit and play arrows each turn, chipping away at the villain while stopping their activations. Unfortunately, his arrows are just not that good. Relying on them as the sole output of damage or thwart will leave you defeated or schemed out before you can fully progress in a scenario.

The concept of this build is to capitalize on Hawkeye's status effects while increasing his attacking and thwarting output to be able to actively progress on the board rather than just maintain it. I hadn't seen anyone utilize some of the updated card pool status effects available in aggression or use the player side schemes to help him set up faster. This is my attempt to fix some of his issues and create a fun version of him - even when you whiff on his arrows.

Skip to Deck Strategy to get past the kit analysis

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Self-Centered

Actual footage of you whiffing on his arrows

Hawkeye only really wants to play his own events. He has a pretty straightforward setup compared to other heroes and a similarly simple playstyle.

• Step 1: Get Hawkeye's Bow out, preferably turn 1. Get +1 ATK
• Step 2: Get Hawkeye's Quiver out and start banking arrows.
• Step 3: Get Expert Marksmans on the board to be able to play arrow events for little to no resoures.
• Step 4: Play arrow events every turn until you win, using your basic attack to deal more damage to the villain

There's a few problems with this approach.

1. Hawkeye's Quiver can be at the bottom of your deck with no reliable in-kit way to recur it.
2. Once on the board, Hawkeye's Quiver can completely whiff on grabbing an arrow event when you need it, leaving you with 2 arrow specific resource generators on the board unable to be used. No arrows in hand mean you've setup for an approach you cannot use.

All of his upgrades only help his arrows, so there's not an in-kit alternative to firing off arrows to do much of anything. Mockingbird as his signature ally has a really interesting mechanic to avoid damage but is the only card that doesn't focus on arrows in his kit.

If you are able to set up the build, you can successfully fire off an arrow per turn as intended and attack via his basic power. However, you'll find his Arrow events are fairly mediocre, especially as the game has increased variety in scenarios as time has gone on.

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Chipping Away

Hawkeye's arrows do a lot of things, but I would argue that they don't do anything particularly well.

• Vibranium Arrow is the best damage output in an arrow with 6 damage and piercing. Great for minions with Toughness or the villain. One of his best. Ranged
• Explosive Arrow is his crowd control event, allowing for 3 damage to each enemy engaged with you. This is a pretty solid event for him. The biggest distinction with this event is that it is NOT considered an attack. This means:
  • You can play this while you are stunned
  • You can ignore any adverse effects from attacking an enemy
  • You can ignore guard minions
• Electric Arrow allows you to stun an enemy and deal 3 damage to it. If the enemy is already stunned you can deal 5 damage to it, though you're probably going to want to save the status for a future activation. Ranged
• Sonic Arrow allows you to confuse an enemy and deal 3 damage to it. Similar to Electric Arrow you can deal more damage if the enemy is already confused but it's not really worth it. Ranged
• Cable Arrow is his only thwart event, offering 3 threat off of a scheme. You can ignore the crisis icons, which is nice

With only 2 copies of each event, you really have to have the quiver stocked to be able to adequately play events based off of the situation. You may find yourself wishing for a different arrow and stacking a bunch of arrows that you don't need.

Relying on arrows is a frustrating approach. With arrows, you've got a little bit of everything in your arsenal. Some stun/confuse status, crowd control, thwart, and piercing. Even then, playing just arrows can feel frustrating because you end up feeling like you're doing nothing. It takes a lot of 3 damage attacks to be able to take down an entire villain stage and you need to utilize a lot of status due to a low 9 HP health and meager 1 DEF/THW stats.

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Glass Cannon Swivel-Gun

Some people like to call Hawkeye a glass cannon. I don't think this is the right moniker for him. While he certainly has a very poor defense output, he doesn't have very solid damage output. He has:

• A base 3 ATK if Hawkeye's Bow is in play
• A majority of events being 3 damage for 2/3 ER with a status effect or crowd control
• A couple of 6 damage 3 ER events

He's solid as far as attacks but nowhere near a glass cannon on his own. Rather he's more like a swivel-gun, a reliable support system while the real cannons can do their work.

The 'glass' part of glass cannon definitely applies here. His defense is pretty weak but somewhat bolstered by his signature ally.

• His 1 DEF stat means that defending is essentially useless and is almost never worth it
• Mockingbird, while on the board, allows for a potentially infinite loop by spending a resource to reduce all the damage from an attack. She is added back to your hand to let you play her next turn. If you end up getting another attack as an encounter card, better hope there's another ally in play or you have a good amount of HP to spare

There's also some other major weaknesses he has. These aren't just limited to defending and need mitigating in any reliable build.

• His attacks rely so much on status that they aren't very versatile. Ranged is nice but probably the most underpowered keyword to have. There's no overkill in-kit. Piercing is limited to Vibranium Arrow, which you don't always want to waste on low HP minions
• While there's a good amount of status effects in-kit, it doesn't feel like there's enough to flip as much as you are encouraged to/need to
• His low 1 THW stat with two 3-thwart events means that you can't rely on his kit to control the board once a side scheme comes out or the villain schemes
• With such low HP and limited defense, he needs to have allies to chump block
• He needs to flip often to recover when necessary, even though he gets no benefits from flipping (other than taking advantage of a confused status)

Other than that, the biggest weakness of his kit is the sheer amount of setup needed to really get him going.

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Setting Up Twice

Hawkeye is a setup heavy character first and foremost. Unfortunately, he has to set up two entirely different economies because the resources generated by Expert Marksman only apply to arrow events.

To set up his arrow economy, you need a few cards on the table:

• Hawkeye's Bow is required to play any arrow event
• Hawkeye's Quiver is necessary to be able to bank arrows and adapt to the situation
• Expert Marksman (at least 1) is needed to reduce the cost of arrows so that you can play other cards in hand and progress the game

You also need an entirely different economy to play allies, upgrades/supports and other events. You're looking at at least a resource generator or two as well as some necessary healing/HP buff cards to increase his chance of survival.

I think the best approach to set him up quickly is to have economy that overlaps with arrow events so we can utilize them instead of relying on Expert Marksman as an extremely limited resource generator. Either way, it's going to take a bit for him to feel like he can do much.

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Aggression for Hawkeye

Hawkeye lacks in pretty much everything as an all-rounder, which also adds to his flexibility when deciding on an aspect. Generally, he needs some solid basic cards to help with healing and setup as staples to his deck and some chump blockers. Other than that, you have to set up his different economies: One for arrows and one for other allies/events. This second economy is built primarily to play other cards - other cards that provide far more value than arrows at first.

For this build, I chose to focus on aggression. I wanted to make sure I could get some more attack power to really focus on progressing through a scenario while utilizing basics to control the threat on the board. I could easily choose justice but didn't want to be relying on arrows for the majority of my damage output. By focusing on aggression, I wouldn't put myself in a position where I would be spinning my wheels setting up too much and still just chipping away at the villain. Plus, it would be more helpful for steady/stalwart villains where status wasn't as useful and a rush approach was more necessary.

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Deck Strategy

This deck was created with an increased focus on Hawkeye's status effects so that he can flip every turn or every other turn, utilizing the extra card draw in Alter-Ego to set up faster. Other than that, the deck is filled with lower cost allies to chump block/thwart and other attack cards to make sure arrows and status effects aren't wasted on low HP minions.

Early game will focus on getting out the basics of Hawkeye's kit while setting up some more general supports and upgrades. You'll survive by using low cost chump allies when you need to and flipping when necessary by taking advantage of status effects. This helps to cycle through the deck faster and get his quiver. After you have some arrows banked, you can rush the villain down, playing an arrow every turn and using your basic attack and other events and allies to attack the villain, cycling Mockingbird when needed to avoid damage. For steady/stalwart villains, you'll focus less on status and more on rushing the villain, continuing to utilize low cost allies to chump block while banking attack events and ignoring the status in the kit.

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Deck Setup

A reliance on arrows and attacks mean that we want to mulligan hard to get an upgrade/support out turn one as well as Hawkeye's Bow when possible. Low cost allies are also nice to start out so that they can chump for you. Here are your mulligan targets, in order of importance:

• Hawkeye's Quiver is the main target to start banking arrows, even if you don't have the economy set up to justify playing them yet
  • While this is the priority mulligan target, it's not absolutely necessary at first. As a low cost upgrade in a deck with a good amount of deck cycling, you'll end up getting it out fast regardless
• Quincarrier is the best resource generator because it generates a resource rather than reducing the cost. Sometimes hard to play turn 1 along with his bow
• Martial Prowess is a solid pick early on to reduce costs of most arrows and all the other attack events
• Ironheart, Spider-Girl, and Sunfire are helpful to perform a single action and then take the first hit from the villain. Ironheart in particular is the best because of the extra card draw
• Build Support will help to get out Quincarrier and set up the build faster
• Endurance isn't a terrible turn 1 card, especially if you don't have an ally in hand
• Expert Marksman is fine to play if you don't end up with anything else but I wouldn't mulligan for it
• Hawkeye's Bow is loosely a mulligan target but you can also just grab this via Hawkeye's Weapon of Choice Alter-Ego ability so it's not as important.

Ideally after turn 1, you can confuse the villain via a Sonic Arrow or Professor X and Psylocke and plan a flip to Alter-Ego to get the extra card draw and set up further.

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Compensating for Something

The rest of the build is centered around mitigating what I believe to be Hawkeye's biggest weaknesses:

• Attack Versatility
• Thwarting Potential
• Not enough Status
• Lackluster Defense

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Arrows but Better

Hawkeye's attack is his strongest in-kit basic power but it lacks versatility. Playing a basic attack for 3 and one of his arrows just isn't enough sometimes, especially with so much focused on status. You might be tempted to utilize multiple arrows in a turn but it's hardly ever worth it and you aren't likely to have multiple arrows you need to play all of the time.

A couple of cards really make it so he can attack more efficiently.

• Drop Kick works as a better version of Electric Arrow, complete with an extra point of damage and a card to draw if using a resource. While this build is primarily , it's not the main focus. The combination of Quincarrier, Martial Prowess, Helicarrier, The Power of Aggression and Expert Marksman (when unplayed and in the deck) still allow for this to be played very easily a lot of the time.
• Clobber is a low-cost attack card that returns back to your hand, perfect for periods of time where your hand is full of arrows and you can't play much. Sometimes something simple can be extremely helpful
• Hand Cannon is incredibly useful, letting you utilize a high base attack, increase that attack, and gain overkill when needed. Extremely relevant for minion heavy scenarios
• Combat Training gives an extra ATK stat boost. Because you're heavily encouraged to use your ATK every turn, an extra point of damage is always solid

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Thwarting made easy

Hawkeye thwarting with his basic power? What a waste! While Cable Arrow is perfect in solo for 3 threat side schemes, there just isn't enough of them to manage threat on the board while also flipping to Alter-Ego. Mockingbird is great but can't be relied on for thwart.

Thankfully, we can utilize some other allies to really help with thwarting.

• Professor X, Snowguard, and Spider-Man offer 3 thwart if you choose those enter play options and are perfect for most side schemes
• Psylocke is primarily used for status but can easily be used for 2 thwart when needed, especially if the villain is already confused via an arrow or Professor X
• Brawn isn't who you would think of as an amazing thwart machine, but his ability allowing him to attack and remove threat from a scheme turns him into a 1ATK/1THW every turn for all 5 of his HP.

With all of these and so many focused on thwarting for 3, we can really justify and utilize Build Support to be able to help with setup.

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Status Overload

Hawkeye has good in-kit status options but sometimes it feels like there just aren't enough instances of each in his kit. By adding some more status, we can really utilize a stun/confuse lock to its full potential and not risk dying as often.

• 2 copies of Drop Kick bring the number of stun cards up to 4.
• Professor X and Psylocke bring the number of confuse cards to 4, with Psylocke able to confuse two times for only 4 cost!

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Masters of Chumping

Hawkeye defending? That's not going to work. While Mockingbird has a very solid ability to mitigate damage and there's a lot of stun in the deck, using the resources to play her early on and set up her loop is just too many resources. We've got a few allies that help out with defending here, particularly the low cost ones.

• Ironheart is a fantastic chump blocker that also gives you an extra card to draw. 2 cost
• Professor X can chump after you've used his basic power and enter play effect. 3 cost
• Spider-Girl can stun/confuse a minion. 2 cost
• Sunfire's enter play ability isn't always going to be used, but when you do it's a massive help to get rid of difficult attachments. 2 cost
• Brawn is a good chump blocker for overkill effects to significantly mitigate the amount of damage you end up taking. 3 cost

All of the other allies also can chump once you've utilized them to their full extent, though it isn't their primary purpose. Most of them utilize staying on the board for at least one more turn.

To help out Hawkeye's health, we've got Endurance to increase his HP to 12 and we've got Crew Quarters which allows us to utilize all those flips down to Alter-Ego to recover health without having to exhaust.

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Other Card Considerations

There were a number of other cards that didn't make it into the final version of this build for one reason or another.

• Bug synergizes well with using your basic attack but at best he's a chump blocker who heals. Not worth keeping compared to the other 2 cost allies
• Marvel Boy is another 2 cost ally that allows for piercing but doesn't stay on the board long enough to justify the cost and was easily replaced by better allies
• Plan of Attack is great for getting arrow events in hand, but we've gone over why we can't rely on arrows. Just ended up diluting the deck
• Piercing Strike is a fine card that is only useful in specific scenarios. Clobber ends up being the winner here solely on the fact that you can play it twice in one turn which makes it as effective as Piercing Strike for tough status cards while also adding significantly more value in any other situation
• Lock and Load is a solid PSS with only 2 threat to clear but Weapon of Choice already does this and Hawkeye's Quiver isn't a weapon
• Smash the Problem works when it works but ends up whiffing a lot of the time. Useful in very specific situations but because it's an event and not an upgrade, it just isn't worth a place in the deck without a way to bank it for later/have it on the board permanently
• Superpower Training was another PSS I considered but 2 ER and 3 thwart just to grab Hawkeye's Quiver isn't worth it compared to the value from Build Support. With only three 1-cost targets, it becomes useless late game, even if in some situations it could help get Hawkeye's Quiver a bit faster
• Ready to Rumble and Surprise Attack both work with flipping often but end up being used as resources more often than not
• Sharpshooter was seriously considered only has 6 targets in the arrows. Because there's no extra resources in kits, this ends up helping for a maximum of 2 damage per attack. It just didn't end up working for him as well as other heroes with built in double/triple resources to take advantage of

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Specializing the Deck

Not every situation can utilize the same exact deck, and there are some slight modifications you can make if you'd like.

• Quincarrier and Helicarrier can be overkill in some situations and the two 3-cost supports primarily serve to be targets for Build Support. You could easily take one of these out and remove Build Support if you wanted, filling up the space with more events
• Clobber and Drop Kick only have 2 copies each. While the deck isn't so overwhelmingly focused to justify another Drop Kick, you could easily bump up the copies of Clobber to 3 by taking out the upgrade/support of your choice (my recommendation would be Combat Training)
• Lockjaw can be swapped for Snowguard if you find yourself needing a chump blocker and running into hands with resources and arrows that you don't want to play

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Results

At the end of the day, this is still a Hawkeye deck. While at times you really can have a ton of fun and turn the character into a fairly solid hero, expert scenarios with a lot on the board to start out can be tough to manage while setting up. I imagine some of this is mitigated in multiplayer, but I haven't tried it yet.

Of course, the worst matchups for a build like this are the same type of build that this hero has always struggled with: those where status isn't a valid strategy or that punish drawing out your setup. Thankfully you can still utilize the rest of the deck to deal damage fairly quickly and rush the villain down with a moderate amount of success.