Shadowcat - Touch at your own peril

You can't hit what you can't touch. And if you somehow manage to try, Kitty has a few surprises waiting for you.

Welcome to my upgraded Protection Shadowcat deck.

This version takes everything that makes Kitty Pryde one of the most frustrating heroes for villains to fight and gives her something she previously lacked: serious offensive potential.

The original deck focused heavily on defensive events, counterattacks, and manipulating enemy attacks.

It worked, but it also invested a considerable number of cards into improving something Shadowcat was already exceptionally good at.

Surviving.

This reconstruction takes a different approach.

Keep Kitty's incredible defensive capabilities, eliminate unnecessary defensive investments, and turn her into a much more dangerous all-around hero.

With Fighting Fit, Hard Knocks, Dauntless, Electrostatic Armor, and The Power of Protection, Kitty now has more ways to deal damage without sacrificing the defensive identity that makes her so entertaining.

And the best part?

The villain still has a terrible time trying to hit her.

Phased – The Ultimate Defensive Advantage

Let's start with the reason Shadowcat is so difficult to defeat.

Her unique ability to switch between Solid and Phased forms.

When Kitty is Phased, she can defend against attacks while ignoring the damage they would normally deal.

That's an extraordinary advantage.

Most Protection heroes need to invest heavily in defensive upgrades, damage prevention, or healing to survive repeated attacks.

Shadowcat already has one of the strongest defensive tools built directly into her identity.

And with Mass Form, she can make that protection even more reliable.

The challenge isn't simply staying in Phased form forever.

It's managing the transitions between Solid and Phased so that Kitty remains protected when the villain attacks while still taking advantage of her other abilities.

That's where her signature events and upgrades become so important.

Kitty doesn't need to become a better punching bag. She needs to make sure the punches never connect.

And once that defensive foundation is established, the rest of the deck can focus on making her more dangerous.

Fighting Fit – Finally, Some Serious Damage

One of the biggest additions to this version is 3 copies of Fighting Fit.

This Protection event provides a much-needed source of direct damage.

Normally, Fighting Fit deals 2 damage to an enemy.

But if your remaining hit points are equal to or greater than your starting hit points, it deals 5 damage instead.

And Shadowcat is particularly well suited to maintaining that condition.

Thanks to Phased, she can avoid enormous amounts of damage throughout the game.

Meanwhile, Endurance increases her maximum hit points by 3 without changing her starting hit point value.

That creates a useful buffer.

Kitty can take some damage and still remain eligible for Fighting Fit's full effect.

With three copies in the deck, she now has a consistent offensive option that doesn't require exhausting her hero.

And unlike the defensive events removed from the original version, Fighting Fit can be played proactively during the player phase.

Five damage from a Protection event?

That's a pretty convincing argument for staying healthy.

Endurance & Dauntless – The Perfect Partnership

Here's one of my favorite combinations in the upgraded deck.

Endurance + Dauntless.

Dauntless gives Kitty Retaliate 1 while her remaining hit points are equal to or greater than her starting hit points.

Normally, maintaining that condition can be difficult.

But Shadowcat has two major advantages.

First, her Phased form helps her avoid taking damage.

Second, Endurance provides three additional hit points, giving her more room to maintain the condition.

And because Fighting Fit uses the same hit point requirement, these cards reinforce one another beautifully.

When Kitty is healthy enough:

• Fighting Fit delivers its full 5 damage.
• Dauntless provides Retaliate 1.
• Phased helps preserve her hit points.
• Endurance provides additional breathing room.

Instead of simply adding three hit points for survivability, Endurance now helps maintain two offensive advantages.

That's excellent efficiency from a single Basic upgrade.

And because Dauntless doesn't require Kitty to defend, she can punish attacks even when she isn't using a basic defense.

The villain doesn't have to hit Kitty to regret attacking her.

Electrostatic Armor – Touch Her and Pay

The original version already included Electrostatic Armor, and this upgraded deck keeps it for a very good reason.

Whenever Kitty defends against an attack, Electrostatic Armor deals 1 damage to the attacking enemy.

Now combine that with Dauntless.

If Kitty is eligible for Retaliate 1 and defends against an attack, the villain can potentially suffer:

1 damage from Electrostatic Armor and 1 damage from Dauntless.

That's 2 damage simply for attacking her.

And if Kitty is in Phased form, she can potentially avoid the attack's damage entirely.

No complicated combination of events required.

No need to spend additional resources.

Just Kitty defending and the villain paying for the privilege.

This is a much more efficient defensive retaliation package than the original version, which invested heavily in additional defensive events and upgrades.

The villain attacks. Kitty phases through it. The villain takes damage.

Somewhere, the villain is beginning to question the rules of this game.

Hard Knocks – Toughness With a Punch

Another major addition is 3 copies of Hard Knocks.

This card gives Shadowcat something particularly valuable: an offensive event that can also provide protection.

Hard Knocks deals damage to an enemy and rewards Kitty with a Tough status card when she defeats that enemy.

That creates an interesting tactical option.

Instead of waiting for the villain to attack, Kitty can eliminate a troublesome minion and prepare herself for the next encounter.

And although Shadowcat already has excellent defensive tools, Tough provides another layer of flexibility.

Sometimes Kitty wants to remain in Solid form.

Sometimes she needs to prepare for an unexpected attack.

And sometimes having an additional defensive option allows her to use her form-changing abilities more aggressively.

Hard Knocks helps create those opportunities.

It's also particularly useful when the board contains smaller minions that need to disappear quickly.

Rather than spending multiple activations dealing with them, Kitty can remove a threat while gaining additional protection.

Hard Knocks doesn't just solve a problem. It helps prepare for the next one.

The Power of Protection – Better Resources, Better Options

One of the most important changes in this reconstruction is the addition of 2 copies of The Power of Protection.

The original version invested in cards such as Defensive Energy and Nerves of Steel.

Those cards can be excellent in decks filled with Defense events.

But this version has a different philosophy.

With relatively few Defense events, dedicated defensive resources can become too situational.

The Power of Protection offers a much broader application.

It provides two resources when paying for a Protection card, making it useful for a much larger portion of the deck.

That includes important offensive options such as Fighting Fit and Hard Knocks, along with Kitty's remaining Protection events.

And unlike a resource generator that must first be played and then exhausted over several rounds, The Power of Protection provides immediate value.

This is particularly useful when Kitty needs to respond quickly to a changing battlefield.

The goal isn't to generate more defensive resources. It's to make the entire Protection package easier to play.

Less specialization.

More flexibility.

Exactly what this upgraded Shadowcat needs.

Not Today! – Defense Still Means Control

Despite the increased offensive focus, this is still very much a Protection deck.

And Kitty hasn't abandoned her ability to control threat.

The deck retains 3 copies of Not Today!, giving her a useful way to combine defense with threat removal.

This is particularly effective because Shadowcat already wants to defend regularly.

Rather than treating defensive actions as purely reactive, Not Today! allows those actions to contribute to controlling the main scheme.

And that's only part of her threat-management potential.

Kitty's signature cards already provide excellent tools for handling schemes.

Airwalk, in particular, gives her another way to remove threat while exploiting her unique mechanics.

This is one of the reasons the deck can afford to remove Bait and Switch.

The original version used Bait and Switch to manipulate enemy attacks while removing threat.

But Kitty doesn't necessarily need that additional layer of attack manipulation.

She already has strong defensive capabilities and reliable threat-removal options.

By removing Bait and Switch, the deck makes room for more flexible resources and offensive tools without abandoning its ability to control the game.

Kitty doesn't need to invite trouble. She's perfectly capable of handling the trouble that finds her.

Preemptive Strike – The Villain's Own Worst Enemy

The deck also retains Preemptive Strike, one of the most entertaining defensive events available to Shadowcat.

This card allows Kitty to interfere with the villain's boost card and potentially turn that boost into damage against the attacker.

It's a perfect fit for her defensive style.

Rather than simply absorbing an attack, Kitty manipulates the situation to her advantage.

And because Preemptive Strike is a Defense event, it can interact with her form-changing mechanics.

This gives Kitty another way to influence the outcome of an attack while maintaining control over her defensive options.

Combined with Electrostatic Armor and Dauntless, the villain can find itself taking damage from several different sources during what was supposed to be its own attack.

And unlike a conventional retaliation strategy, Kitty doesn't necessarily need to suffer damage to make that happen.

The villain brings the attack. Kitty brings the consequences.

Solid, Phased, and Everything in Between

One of the most satisfying aspects of Shadowcat is that her effectiveness depends on understanding when to switch forms.

And this upgraded deck preserves that tactical depth.

Phased is her defensive sanctuary.

Solid provides access to different interactions and opportunities.

Her signature cards allow her to manipulate those forms while contributing damage, threat removal, and defensive utility.

The new Protection package complements that flexibility.

Fighting Fit gives her direct damage without needing to attack.

Hard Knocks eliminates enemies while potentially providing Tough.

Dauntless punishes incoming attacks.

Electrostatic Armor rewards defending.

Not Today! converts defensive actions into threat removal.

And The Power of Protection helps finance those options.

The important part is that none of these cards requires Kitty to abandon her signature mechanics.

They simply give her more ways to capitalize on the situations those mechanics create.

She doesn't have to choose between being difficult to hit and being dangerous.

She can be both.

Less Defense, More Protection

That might sound contradictory, but it's the central philosophy behind this reconstruction.

The original deck invested heavily in defensive events and upgrades.

That approach reinforced Kitty's survivability, but it also created situations where certain cards could become redundant or difficult to use efficiently.

After all, Shadowcat already has an extraordinary defensive identity.

She doesn't need every card in her deck to help her survive.

This version redistributes those resources toward broader usefulness.

The removal of Powerful Punch, Bait and Switch, and some specialized defensive economy cards creates room for:

• More reliable direct damage.
• Better resource flexibility.
• Additional protection through Tough.
• Passive retaliation.
• Stronger synergy with her hit point management.

And because Kitty retains her signature defensive abilities, the deck doesn't sacrifice the qualities that make her unique.

Instead, it addresses the situations where the original version could struggle.

Particularly when the villain needed to be defeated quickly.

The best defense isn't always another defensive card. Sometimes it's making sure the enemy doesn't survive long enough to attack again.

Final Thoughts

This upgraded Shadowcat represents a more balanced and aggressive interpretation of one of Marvel Champions' most distinctive heroes.

The original version was already extremely difficult to defeat.

But this reconstruction gives Kitty more ways to turn that survivability into meaningful progress.

Fighting Fit provides consistent offensive pressure.

Hard Knocks combines damage with additional protection.

Endurance helps maintain the conditions required by Fighting Fit and Dauntless.

Dauntless punishes enemies for attacking.

Electrostatic Armor adds another layer of retaliation whenever Kitty defends.

The Power of Protection improves the efficiency of her Protection cards.

And her signature abilities remain the foundation of everything.

The result is a hero who can defend, control threat, eliminate minions, punish attackers, and deliver meaningful damage without depending entirely on her basic activations.

She's still the same Kitty Pryde.

Still impossible to pin down.

Still capable of walking through walls, ignoring attacks, and making the villain look ridiculous.

But now she's considerably more dangerous when she decides to fight back.

Go ahead. Take your best shot.

You can't touch her.

But she can definitely touch you.