Iron Man - Red Gold

"... Is it a job for Iron Man?" ~Iron Man

Player Count/Type : 2-4p / Johnny/Timmy
Power Level: High
Complexity: Med
Key Cards: Honed Technique, No Quarter, Dive Bomb

"Build your suit before unleashing massive attacks on your foes" ~D.M. Tip

Preparing for the Endgame

This is a deck I've wanted to get working ever since Air Cover hit the streets. I was recently inspired to give it another go after seeing ClassyRobot's Nick Fury deck "Overkilling in the Name". Big Edit - Air Cover is a support and NOT an upgrade, but still feels thematic.

Tony can't avoid attacks in Hero form like Nick can, but he can stay in AE until his suit is built, and that gives you a few turns to find your combo pieces.

You need to mulligan hard for resource generators like Ingenuity, Quincarrier, and Martial Prowess. Pepper Potts is also decent to get out, but you can't rely on the resource type she generates consistently.

Tech is always important early, But remember that Air Cover is a support, and not an upgrade, so prioritize your hero tech cards as you can. The extra copies you can't play can stay in the deck to help power Repulsor Blast or can be played later when the first one runs out of fuel.

Going for the Gold

Once set up, the general idea is to target a Marked low-health minion with a Honed No Quarter. You can use your Powered Gauntlets to more easily get them to their last health. You can boost it up to as much as 8 damage, netting you 7 cards, but you'll get a chance to dig for 5 cards at a minimum.

When you dig for the red gold, you're looking to amass enough resources to immediately launch several more attacks in the same turn. If there are more minions to take out, drop a Honed Dive Bomb, or if you have your hero attacks in hand, you now have several more resources to pay for them.

Remember, that even after you've got your suit built and your board state steady, it's okay to flip down later in the game to take advantage of Stark Tower and Hall of Heroes. You can grab a recently used Air Cover to set up a minion summoning combo and grab those extra 3 cards after your next turn starts before flipping up to dish out some serious damage.

The Red Aftermath

Keep repeating this process and cycle through your deck until the villain is defeated.

There are several cards in the deck that are flexible, so you'll want to pay attention to what villain you're facing and swap them out as appropriate.

The flexible slots are the 2x Moment of Triumph and 2x One by One. You can technically replace Spoiling for a Fight as well if you are in a minion heavy scenario and/or you are have several other minion summoning players in other aspects.

On our sideboard we've also got 2x Into the Fray, 2x Take That!, and 2x Relentless Assault.

Consider the following when filling these flex slots:

• If you are in an encounter that requires a quicker tempo to drop smaller swarms of minions early on, you have One by One.

• If you need a bit more threat management because your team is slacking, bring Into the Fray.

• If you have friends that regularly use enemy attachments, bring in a few copies of Take That!. This could be Iceman, Cyclops, Rogue, Valkyrie, and even X-23 or others.

• If you don't have a reliable source of defense or healing from your team, such as not having a Protection player, consider adding Moment of Triumph. Alternatively, you may want to keep this in the deck if threat is a concern so you can stay in Hero form as long as possible.

• Relentless Assault is there for encounters with an increased number of medium to larger health minions to more easily set them up for No Quarter or just clean them up between big damage turns.

All of these cards are energy resources, to keep your Repulsor Blasts as potent as possible. At the same time, they interact in one or more ways with the deck's functions, either getting boosted by Honed Technique, or working well with excess damage against a Marked minion.

There are a few other considerations I had, including Follow Through, but I opted to keep the card count down just enough to be able to find enough tech and resource generators early on.

Overall, I think Iron Man is a great home for this kind of deck and Air Cover is super fun. It has many components and moving parts, but multiplayer provides some breathing room to build your suit and board state, letting your teammates cover early threats. There are some challenging resource marks to hit, but with a little bit of patience and some planning, you'll be able to hit everything with Martial Prowess for the No Quarter requirement and Ingenuity and Quincarrierto go Aerial and pay for Honed Technique.

Additionally, because you can get Rocket Boots or Mark V Armor back with Stark Tower, you can use them to pay for an early Honed Technique if you can't scrounge up enough resources.

I hope you have a blast with this in mutiplayer. I sure did!

~Peace!