Star-Lord: Green and Gray

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

osw819 · 697

drawing

Green and Gray - Nickel Creek (youtube)

The video above ties this deck all together along with the description below. Hope you enjoy the song!

Green and Gray

My first thoughts when building Star-Lord:

-Mitigate the encounter cards he'll be dealing with.

-Most of the Guardian allies are gray and with Knowhere and big impact cards like Avengers Mansion and Helicarrier, I wanted to go with the The Power in All of Us build.

-theme

I'll try to focus on mechanical reasoning first and thematic afterwords.

What could go wrong?

A lot. A lot can go wrong. With multiple cards possibly coming off of the deck, you're in for a lot of trouble. Obviously, this is mitigated more in multiplayer, but I always still try to build as self-sufficiently as possible for solo flex or to not burden my friends.

Heimdall costing 2 and letting you know what you're about to put in front of you is incredible. Black Widow for 0 resources?! Nick Fury or Avengers Mansion played for 1 resource? Yes please. Element Gun for free? A+++ would recommend. There is a limit of once per round, so choose wisely. There will be turns when you draw more than one of these ideal targets. That's where The Power in All of Us comes in.

Smooth Talker

This is maybe my favorite part. One thing about protection that isn't fun is having the cards in your hero phase and/or having to spend them and then not having them in the villain phase. With Smooth Talker, you can put the cards you want in villain phase like Get Behind Me! on top and get a different resource to use instead. Not going to flip back to hero this turn? Put Perseverance or Preemptive Strike back on top. Want to utilize your What could go wrong trigger for next turn? Put the high cost card back on top for next turn. With so many encounter cards seen each turn, your potential for unexpected damage is high. That's where Jet Boots and Bad Boy come in. Bad Boy even throws you in Alter-Ego form, so you'll be in this form more than you might think. Cosmo but you know exactly what the card will be? Feels like cheating!

Mitigating the encounter cards

Nine allies. Yes. Nine! Besides Groot, they're not meant to stick around. Always be blocking. Don't forget you're getting +1 THW to all of these allies from Leader of the Guardians being out. (They're also all guardians because of Star-Lord's static ability)

Black Widow's value definitely goes up when you're seeing more cards a turn.

Brother Voodoo lets you find high impact cards like Sliding Shot or Daring Escape for getting more cards in front of you for Element Gun or Sliding Shot.

Cosmo when used in alter-ego form will not take consequential damage since you can put a known card on top first.

Groot is here to keep you alive from sudden attacks and general defending in the villain phase. High priority to play Groot if you're going to be in hero form at end of turn early in game.

Heimdall is a superstar here. 2 cost if played in hero form with What could go wrong? and being able to reorder the 2 you leave on top is clutch. Sequencing is important here.

Nick Fury for 1 resource to draw three and block/thw/atk is just nuts. What could go wrong?!

Nova Prime defeats a non-elite minion. Great! 3atk/2thw with 3 health and 1 consequential each? Great!

Rocket Raccoon is just a solid ally. I'd call this a flex slot. If the scenario is minion-light, I'd swap for Ironheart.

Starhawk is possibly a flex slot, but the replayability helps tremendously early if you can make it come back to hand for those times the other allies are not showing up yet.

General thoughts:

This is a ally-centric, non-leadership deck. It will play similarly to leadership, but with less permanance for allies as you're not building towards strength in numbers or avengers assemble. Don't be afraid of the encounter cards. Your strengths lie in pushing your luck!

the theme

"That one time his hand slipped and I saw the dart sail away
I don't know where it landed but I'm guessing between green and gray
I thought nothing of it but it still haunts him like a ghost
With all eyes upon him except two that matter the most"

Star-Lord is a Bad Boy in the middle of Knowhere just trying to impress this green beauty: the two eyes that matter the most.

"Green is the color that everyone sees all around me
Gray is the color I see around her she's just a blur"

Star-lord sees her differently. The background of her hero card is gray. I dunno. I'm not a writer. Go with it. Come with me on this silly journey.

"But for him every one of those evenings turns into a night
With another hotel room where he lays awake to pretend
That he's doing fine with his notebook and Discman for friends"

Discman == walkman. His memory of his mother is so important and while he's always got the facade of Star-Lord, Peter is always searching for something missing like fame, money, his father, or understanding of his place in the world night after night as he's sleeping in different places across the galaxy.

""I want you to love me" he whispers unable to speak
And he wonders aloud why feelings so strong make the body so weak

This hit me as the end of Endgame with the new Gamora and his future going foward.

The hook:

"Green is the color that everyone sees all around me
Gray is the color I see around her she's just a blur

Its a green deck, but it's gray at heart for this neutral outlaw-turned-hero chasing the ever-moving Gamora.

11 comments

May 14, 2021 Bastionfour · 2

Why wouldn't you include Ironheart?

May 14, 2021 osw819 · 697

@BastionfourThat's a good question. I mentioned swapping raccoon for her if you wanted. Rocket Raccoon and Cosmo are the slots i would also consider dropping for Ironheart, but comparing their upsides, Ironheart only draws a card. Rocket can thw 2 or overkill, Cosmo can evade consequential. They both have more upside than the card draw and they both synergize with guardian trait. Knowhere draws a card on these two. If knowhere is down, Cosmo does what ironheart does, even if it just gets defeated while defending. In a pinch, C.I.T.T. can also untap one of these whereas Ironheart couldn't be untapped.

Those little synergies had me dropping her, but you absolutely can make that change with minimal impact.

May 14, 2021 Bastionfour · 2

Why couldn't Ironheart be untapped? Starlord makes all allies Guardian traited. Assume that means that Knowhere will also activate with any ally that you play as Starlord in Hero form... Agree that probably Rocket and Cosmo have more upside, but I was even thinking to throw it in anyways (even if it takes you to 41.

May 14, 2021 osw819 · 697

@Bastionfour ah. Duh! I forgot about the guardian trait benefit when I answered. Nice catch. I always went to 41 in my shaper decks in netrunner. Why not 41 here too!

May 14, 2021 jrec15 · 152

Really really like this. Need to play it after I think through any tweaks. But been thinking through where to start with Starlord and this is exactly what I wanted. I doubt it's the strongest he can be, but it definitely seems to make him more consistent. I like how you thought through how useful his alter ego can be to save events for the villain phase. I hadn't thought of that but really enables him to flip effectively in protection.

May 15, 2021 dr00 · 38773

that's such a cool idea about Heimdall. it's a shame you can't look at the top 3 first lol, but at least you'll know the boost and regular encounter card coming your way

really love the theme as well. seems like star-lord will be great in any aspect, but this is the first try at protection i've seen. good job ;D

May 15, 2021 jrec15 · 152

Thoughts after playing: Black Widow is actually my favorite part of all the protection cards here. She's great because her ability only cost 1 resource and you can leave her out forever. So not only is she cheaper and more reliable than Get Behind Me, I often prefer her effect of drawing another card as well. She also cancels surge and Get Behind Me doesn't. She also works on any card, not just treacheries. And she's 3 cost for his ability. Amazing.

But unfortunately my biggest issue.. I just wish Get Behind Me! was better. 2 effective cost to only cancel a When Revealed on a Treachery and ultimately still have the villain attack you. It still saved me a few times by preventing Villain schemes, but it still just feels like so much to pay.

May 15, 2021 jrec15 · 152

May 16, 2021 RJM987 · 1

This guy eats Green Goblin's lunch. Keep him on II and then flip, use the 3 encounter cards to draw 8 cards and DESTROY him the next turn!

May 18, 2021 Tbal · 1

This sounds really exciting, love the theming and good to see other aspects getting used by starlord. Everyone's loving the leadership stuff of course, but I hadn't considered these synergies. Heimdall is a great call, as is smooth talking those villain phase defense events. Nice work, can't wait to try it out.

Jan 02, 2022 M3t4lB0x (TLM) · 3037

Absolutely love this deck! Well done!