King Groot

I.Am.Groot

It's easy to see how well Groot goes with Protection. Now I can see where it'll be tempting to go with Justice and I can agree, it's a great way to really bolster his flaws, but today we're going to look at this Flora Colossus in his element.

"It's not easy being green; Or is it?"

What does Protection offer this already tanky, damage-soaking, mad-lad? It offers you the comfort of being able to hang on to your Growth Counters so that you can bring your plans to Fruition (I am pun.) But really, growth counters are the heart and soul of being an effective Groot! With Protection you can horde them like some sort of green-thumbed maniac and keep them for times that count like... "I. AM. GROOT!" & "I am Groot"

"Wait, what's his name again?"

These cards allow "Tree who shall not be named" to really dampen a Villain's day with either massive damage or a gigantic chunk of threat being consumed by an honestly relatively cheap set of cards. Deft Focus allows us to play not only his costly events, but his initial cost for the upgrades are also Superpower types. Entangling Vines Lashing Vines etc.

"But how do we ensure that we get what we need?"

Groot rewards us for doing what he does best, tanking damage. And this is why we want Unflappable. The important thing to note is that due to growth counters, you just remove them instead of take damage. With Fertile Ground and Avengers Mansion rearing its ugly head again. (Honestly a take it or leave it. But sometimes you just need to dig for those upgrades.) And to give yourself some distance from threat building up, max out on Hard to Ignore to maximise your defence's utility aspect.

"But what about burning through the deck so fast?" Groot's ability to deal damage and tank via growth counters and Root Stomp make having an extra encounter card quite trivial at most. Worst case scenario, Groot with Armored Vest and Vine Shield really isn't going to take that much damage. (Look at that Rhino, 7 Def, what you gonna do?) It goes without saying, sometimes you just want a breather to spare your growth counters, so relish in the time to relax that 3 copies of Never Back Down affords you. And if you have Lashing Vines then you can stand right back up and get in there!