Ironheart SCL 17-5 Spies and Cheap Events

Deck Writeup:

This was a very difficult round against Venom Goblin. Because Ironheart has a lot of ways to build already in her kit, I focused the deck on having lots of card draw, blockers, and ways to get the board and threat back under control. I did not include One Way or Another because there are only two targets for it, and I rarely had a lot of spare thwarting that I felt I could spend on a side scheme. Coulson and Nick Fury helped to play Spycraft, which was quite clutch, as it usually stopped either Shadows of the Past or Under Fire. Target Acquired was almost always a good play as well, with several boost effects that put cards into play - and the boost effect on the Monstrous Symbiote could easily be game ending if your HP is low.

Ironheart is one of the strongest control heroes in the game once she reaches stage 3, with upgrades that deal 3 dmg and remove 3 threat each turn, a base thwart of 3, and access to progress counters that deal 2 damage without attacking - she is the complete package. The difficulty is in getting to stage 3 Ironheart without losing the game. My approach was to take the first 3 to 5 turns to stabilize. In my first two games, I got 6 and 8 different encounter cards on the first turn (due to repeated surge effects and Under Fire). So on my first turn, I prioritized playing defensively: getting out allies to block and soak indirect damage, removing the existing threat so I could control where the glider was going to go, and maybe getting out a support card or something to boost my health. I always blocked the first attack with my hero. Ironheart’s DEF stat is her best at the outset, and I got Exhaustion in enough of my practice games to know that it wasn’t worth trying to keep my hero ready. The 1 thwart was not going to make or break my turn two, and defending with my hero usually gave me space to take some additional indirect damage.

While I stabilized, I tried to find ways to use Ironheart’s hero specific events to build up counters while cleaning up the board and the threat. I usually needed to flip down to heal after all the attacks in the first encounter phase, so getting the threat down was usually my primary focus in turn 2. Turn 3 was also focused on threat removal, since I’d flipped down on turn 2. Turn 4 was then spent catching up some more, taking out minions and cleaning up the main schemes. Once I managed to unbury myself from the first turn of encounter cards (which often meant pitching build cards I’d rather play like Ronnie Williams and Ingenuity), then I would start building. (The one exception was Tony Stark’s AI which I always played, because filtering through and grabbing key cards is so important.) Whenever possible, I used my identity-specific cards to remove threat and minions to start building up my counters. Usually I could flip to stage 2 by turn 3, just by using my events on threat and minions. From turn 4 or 5 on, I usually needed fewer resources to keep control of the threat and minions, and was able to focus more heavily on building up my board, flipping down every other turn to heal (Ronnie Williams healed me more than she gave me progress tokens), and generating progress tokens. I did not usually start pushing damage onto VG until turn 8 or 9, and by then I had flipped to stage 3 and was building enough progress tokens to finish VG in a single turn (usually 12 to 14 tokens, with the help of allies, Photon Blasters, and my attack). I never had to resolve the 3 cards I got from flipping VG to stage 3. So while slow, I focused on playing defensively, avoiding loss conditions, and then taking control over a long game - which is Ironheart’s biggest strength after all!