I built this deck over six months ago, inspired by a forum post from Mr. Puffin Rabbit saying something along the lines of "speed factor cards are very weak, so I recommend only having six blocks for them." I quietly took that information and decided to abuse it. He doesn't know that though; Sorry Puffin!
x4 Power Dive
x4 Avengers Assemble!
x3 Jab of Justice
x4 Comrades in Arms
x4 Hurl the Shield
x4 Winged Wonder
x4 Sky Strike
x3 Stars and Stripes
x4 Dive Bomb
x2 Star Spangled Soldier
x3 Drop the Hulk Bomb!
x1 These Colors Don't Run
x1 Pure Justice
This deck was my main choice for the first half of league play and posted the best results for me all the way through. There were some slight adjustments as I acquired some cards along the way and tuned, but this ended up being the final build. While it is predominantly a mono deck, it's still a completely themed deck that abuses the synergy between the ridiculous number of speed factor cards these two Avengers have. The foundation of the deck started from Comrades in Arms, which I'm still unsure why it only costs three. Avengers Assemble! is also a great supporting card, making your early game all about setting up big plays. A lot of theme decks need the power to be around six or seven before things get into place, but this deck is all literally about speed!
Our strategy with this deck is simple: We want to get our keepers out early and follow up with some huge damage around power five and six. Don't hold anything back. Even if you feel like your opponent is holding a speed block against your early Comrades in Arms or Power Dive without the special effect, just do it. We want to apply constant pressure and almost every card threatens a lot of damage, so let's thin out the blocks early and overwhelm our opponent. If your opponents are blocking your keeper setups, your five power Sky Strikes and Stars and Stripes will be hitting for great damage anyway.
If you get your keepers on board and things are going as planned, the game turns into autopilot. Once your opponent is out of speed blocks in hand you can consider all of your cards to be unblockables. Sky Strike hits the deck for four before turning over a speed block? Your Comrades in Arms and Avengers Assemble! give you the extra reach damage to get the full seven. The real star of the show when your keepers are on board is Dive Bomb. It's very easy to smack your opponent for 10-20 damage by using only one card from hand. Chaining from the deck (or graveyard) is very powerful, especially when the damage is in small packets that add up fast and is really hard to block.This deck transitions well into late game with some extra surprises in Drop the Hulk Bomb which automatically sets off your keepers, and the incredibly powerful super rare These Colors Don't Run. If you don't have this card, don't worry about it, just fill in the block with something Dive Bomb can chain with. Pure Justice is also in as a last resort but quite honestly I feel it's a weak link in the deck as the games rarely last that long -- again, if you don't have this card don't worry about it. I do not recommend using the Captain America card Deflection, as Dive Bomb is significantly better synergy with this deck. While Earth's Mightiest Heroes fits the theme very well, I found much better results in Power Dive as it is much more important for our early game and can also be triggered by Dive Bomb.
The deck is very easy to build as it is mostly Rise of Heroes and quest cards, along with some Unleashed uncommons (I do not believe Stars and Stripes is available from the Prize Wheel, unfortunately). You don't need the super rares for this deck, so I hope some of you guys will give it a try and let me know what you think. See you next time.
You've got 4 copies of "hurl the shield" as your only keeper-killers in this deck, and they only work on lvl 4 and below. Is this a typical ratio in your good decks? I'm always torn on how many keeper-killers to include. If you're playing a deck with hardly any keepers, it's a waste to have too many, but if it's a keeper-heavy deck, you wish you had more. I usually end up with at least 6 or 8 of different levels, but then there are good cards I can't include.
ReplyDeleteHi Scotty, as for straight keeper-kilers, I try to include at least three if I play any at all. As Scott mentioned, in some decks I try to get a sneak peek at my opponents keeper's and hold a block if I think it will be problematic.
DeleteIt's a fine strategy in decks like this that are aggressive early on as you will get a good read on your opponent's deck if it is themed with your early game pressure.
As for Hurl the Shield, I think it's fine as the only keeper destruction in this deck because we want to play a fast paced game that doesn't stretch to late game where big keepers become a problem. It's also a Cap card playable from Dive Bomb, so there is more to it than just keeper destruction.
Great deck. Comrade-in-Arms is a great, cheap card!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see another good blog dedicated to this game. Looking forward to more articles!
ScottyMcJ - I personally don't ever worry about the "lack" of keeper killers in this deck... I watch the discards carefully in hopes of seeing a preview of a powerful keeper before it is able to be played so if there's something REALLY terrible you can save a block for it in your hand!