Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
oxthearsenal · 78
I thought it might be nice to publish decks that use more readily available product, as there are likely some new players joining that are looking to use what they can purchase rather than feel left out for not having all the OOP cards. For the first set of this series, I'm going to stick to core set heroes. This should help give new players an idea of what they should buy after getting the core set and playing the game a few times.
This build uses the core set, Civil War, Black Panther (Shuri hero pack), Falcon, Winter Soldier, Hercules, and Jessica Jones. These should be fairly readily available, though Jessica Jones is a little difficult to find as of this deck's creation. If you have already obtained what you need to build the previous decks in this series, then you will only need to pick up two hero packs to build this one.
Falcon let's you play with the top card of the encounter deck faceup, and he uses the icons on encounter cards for his different effects. He also has the aerial trait on his hero form, which is something to keep in mind as your card collection expands to include cards that can interact with it. It also comes with the Captain America title upgrade, which can only be played if you are playing Falcon or Winter Soldier, and lets them wield Cap's shield in the game.
Winter Soldier is an aggressive hero, and as of this write-up there hasn't been much movement in the aggression aspect recently that has shaken things up, so much of what this deck does outside of Black Panther's kit is similar to his pre-constructed deck, with a few differences.
On to the deck!
Right out the gate, we have all the Wakanda allies that are definitely available in-print. This consists of Aneka, Ayo, and Okoye - otherwise known as the Dora Milaje. This is a neat little sub-mechanic that sort of mimics Black Panther's Wakanda Forever! mechanic. If you can get all four of these cards into play, you will have a cool series of triggering their special abilities every player phase.
The White Wolf, aka the Winter Soldier, is also in Wakanda under the watchful eye of Nick Fury. These two allies provide threat removal support and card draw. What you will want to do is get Winter Soldier in play and attach Bambino to him. Take out a minion, deal overkill damage to the villain, and remove 2 threat from a scheme? Yes sir!
Spoiling for a Fight will fetch said minions and ready your hero, who will have 5 ATK once you have Aggressive Conditioning, Combat Training, and Innate Aggression in play. The tactic upgrade Suppressing Fire, attaches to the minions you fetch, providing healing when your hero defeats them. Note: your hero has to attack and defeat them, not an ally; any ability on a card that has (attack) after the bold type generally counts as your identity attacking as well as their basic attack.
Don't have a Suppressing Fire in your hand when you fetch a minion? Air Cover has got you... covered.
Which brings us to the big aggression attack event, Firepower. This card is bonkers, and with Energy Daggers and Panther Claws each having the weapon trait and an ability that can activate even while exhausted, you'll be able to do two instances of 3 damage for the cost of Firepower from your hand and a resource. Helicarrier and Quincarrier can pay for it, which is exceptional value for the damage it deals.
Of course, having a third weapon upgrade would make Firepower even better. Remember when I said you wanted to give Winter Soldier Bambino? That's your third weapon upgrade, and it too does not need to exhaust to use it's ability. You can attach Bambino to Mockingbird also if you're in a pinch. Do not attach it to Nick Fury.
Swaps!
Admittedly, Bambino is not the best solution to having a third weapon upgrade for Firepower. As of this deck build, however, the weapon upgrades that are in-print are very limited. Winter Soldier and Bambino are here because they're fun and thematic to me and the threat removal helps, but you could swap them out for Deathlok a S.H.I.E.L.D. Sidearm. This would get a more reliable third weapon upgrade out. If you're good with going over the 40 card minimum, you could just include Deathlok and three copies of S.H.I.E.L.D. Sidearm along with Bucky and the Really Big Gun. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Sidearm attaches to Mockingbird and Nick as well, and isn't as big a loss if you attach it to Nick.
If you wanted a more elegant solution to including weapon upgrades for Firepower, you would need to do a bit of searching to find the packs that have them, or find an online site that sells individual cards (this would be the cheapest route). I recommend getting three copies of Pulse Grenade, or the NeXt Evolution expansion which has Psimitar and Sidearm.
Otherwise you'd be looking for Thor's hero pack or Galaxy's Most Wanted expansion, both of which are long out of print. Godslayer, Jarnbjorn, and Hand Cannon are the worthwhile additions. These all have the restricted keyword, which means you can have a maximum of two restricted cards in your play area. Godslayer and Jarnbjorn are unique (one copy per deck), while Hand Cannon allows you to run three copies in your deck but are limited in play by the restricted keyword.
The Dora Milaje allies and support provide excellent effects once in play as a team, though not vital to the deck's strategy. They provide threat and minion removal mostly as well as contribute thematically. You could swap them all out for other cards of your choosing if you like.
All that said, this build is fun to play for damage but not so fun to remove threat. You might need a thwart buddy to play with you to handle scheme heavy scenarios.
Other New Player Series decks:
New Player Series #1: Spider-Man Protection
New Player Series #2: Captain Marvel Justice
New Player Series #4: Iron Man Leadership