Dance Off, Bro! - Having an absolute blast with Star-Lord

Every idea has its time.  

In my last blog I wrote about my Leadership Black Panther deck, which used Strength of Numbers to power through the cards and assemble his worldbeating suit of Wakandan tech.

I also said that I was looking at revisiting old heroes while everyone else was busy experimenting with all the new heroes we just received from the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Not long after I finished writing that blog I decided to finally take a look at what Gamora and Star-Lord did.  And I looked at Star-Lord.  And I looked at my Black Panther deck with Strength of Numbers in.  And I looked at Star-Lord again.  And I looked at Strength of Numbers again.

Every idea has its time.

DANCE OFF, BRO!  ME AND YOU!

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I raved about my Spider-Woman deck as being probably the most dominant all-round deck I've played in Marvel Champions... well this Star-Lord deck is not that.

This is by far and away the most absurdly ridiculously bonkers, fun, death-defying and outrageous deck I've ever played.  Trying to explain to you what playing this deck is like just feels like death-by-hyperbole as each insane anecdote about a crazy turn blends into the next anecdote about an equally crazy turn.

Like the time that I played Star-Lord's Helmet, Knowhere, and three allies on turn 1...

...and then had three completely different allies in play at the end of turn 2!

Or like the time I was facing down a horde of minions thanks to revealing 13 encounter cards in 4 turns...

...then killed the Goblin off with a Sliding Shot two turns later anyway, because Star-Lord can blast his way out of trouble just as fast as he can talk his way into it.

From swamping Kang with a sea of allies...

...to the time (just a turn before that) when Kang had removed my whole board and left Star-Lord on 1HP thanks to a big Time Travel Tactics, only for Star-Lord to play three new allies out of hand on the next turn and Blaze of Glory for 17 damage anyway!

At times it feels like every turn of every game with Star-Lord is its own rollercoaster of incredible highs as Star-Lord runs riot in the hero phase, followed by screaming for your mother as the villain takes their turn and flings encounter cards at you like they're confetti.  Star-Lord is like Marvel Champions on crack.

12% OF A PLAN

Oh, oh, baby you've been so good to me

But please don't make it what it's not.

Well I thought we agreed on what we need,

So listen to me I'll tell you what we've got.

We've got a wham, bam, shang-a-lang 

And a sha-la-la-la-la-la thing.

wham, bam, shang-a-lang 

And a sha-la-la-la-la-la thing 

- Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang, Silver (Awesome Mix Vol.2)  

You've got twelve allies in this deck, which is a lot but just like in my Black Panther deck you want that steady stream of bodies coming through to activate your Strength In Numbers (and in Star-Lord's case to get in front of angry villains and their multiple attacks).  Peter Quill isn't someone to get too attached to the friends he meets along the way and like the song says they've got a wham, bam, shang-a-lang thing going on, so let's not make it what it's not.  Most of the allies are just there to help you surf through your deck as rapidly as possible and find one of two things: a big Sliding Shot, or an even bigger Blaze of Glory.

Sliding Shot is the card I most undervalued at first.  When I made this deck I had in mind that it was an ally-spamming deck that had some thwarts and attacks in that I didn't really care about which I was just going to discard in order to pay the costs of my allies.  About halfway through my first game I had Sliding Shot in hand and realised I could shoot the villain for 13 damage without paying a single resource (thanks to Star-Lord's What Could Go Wrong ability)... only I couldn't because I'd thrown my Element Gun away early on to pay for an ally.

Don't be like me.  Don't throw your Element Guns away.  Both the Element Gun and Sliding Shot are awesome.  You'll get the most value out of when you can chain some Daring Escapes into the Sliding Shot, but even with just the one card from What Could Go Wrong stacked against you it's a good value attack.

The other big BIG potential finisher is Blaze of Glory.  On the surface Blaze looks a bit like a supercharged Lead From The Front that gives you +2/+2 instead of +1/+1, but at the cost of dealing you a damage.  There's a couple of very important nuances to appreciate about Blaze of Glory, though:

• Firstly, unlike Lead From The Front your Blaze of Glory affects ALL Guardian characters in play.  That's not just your Guardian characters it's any of your teammate's Guardians too.  So not only does Blaze of Glory give you double the ATK buff, it also potentially gives it to 2x/3x/4x as many characters too!  I've been using my Star-Lord deck alongside Gamora and played into that potential by moving most of my Guardians allies like Groot, Cosmo and Rocket Raccoon over to Gamora.  Star-Lord turns anybody into a Guardian so he's free to play whoever he wants while his friends will need to stick to actual Guardians.

• Secondly, do you remember how I just told you that Star-Lord turns everyone into Guardians?  Well he does... but Peter Quill doesn't.  If you use Blaze of Glory for a big attack you can then switch back into Alter-Ego form before the end of the turn and everyone stops being a Guardian... even Star-Lord himself!  When that extra damage is dealt to all the Guardian characters at the end of the turn it's going to have a hard time finding any to deal damage to.  That Star-Lord is a sly one!

And, just like with Sliding Shot, Daring Escape is another good activator for Blaze of Glory - once Star-Lord is buffed to 4 ATK each Daring Escape a 0-cost cantrip 4 damage card!

Aside from Sliding Shots and Blaze of Glory most of the rest of your deck is allies and card draw to help you set up some of those big Sliding Shots and Blazes!  Because I'm using Strength In Numbers some of the allies lean towards the side of being weaker on stats but having a good ability (eg. Mockingbird, Maria Hill, Ironheart, Squirrel Girl, Hawkeye etc) so that you don't mind turning them sideways to draw cards instead of attacking.  At the other end of the scale I like the dependable damage from Drax, and Wonder Man helps add some real muscle to your Blaze of Glory turns.  

And I almost forgot just how good it feels to play Nick Fury for 1 resource thanks to What Could Go Wrong.  It feels really, really good.

In the list I've shared above I've got Black Knight but that could be whatever ally you most prefer.  I think I've currently switched him for Miles Morales but I'm also looking at US Agent because he's most able to block an attack without automatically heading for the nearest discard pile.

Oh and one final word for about the only cards I've not talked about in this deck... Star-Lord's Helmet is nucking futs and the Jet Boots are actually really helpful too.  In a deck that's already chock full of draw effects (Strength In Numbers, Maria Hill, Ironheart, Nick Fury, Daring Escape, Knowhere...) having a 1-cost upgrade that can give you a hero hand size of 8 is just crazy good.  Iron Man has to sweat half the game to get the sort of hand size Star-Lord just slaps down onto the table for 1 resource.

And finally, finally... I said I've been running Star-Lord next to Gamora.  Blaze of Glory does benefit from having more Guardians around to buff so you may also want to take a look at my Gamora deck.  Compared to the sheer audacious tomfoolery of Star-Lord she's a very effective but also very dull hero... but she undeniably does get through a lot of work.  

She just feels a lot like Ant-Man but without the lols, to me.

And that's it: last week I accidentally made one of my most dominant decks with Spider-Woman, and this week I've just as accidentally made probably my most wild and crazy fun deck with Star-Lord.

Let me know if you give it a try and what you make of it.  Now if you don't mind I'm off to save the galaxy again...

My Most Dominant Solo Deck (& More)

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog, so what have I been up to in the meantime?  Well, I've been playing quite a lot of Spider-Woman, but that's kind of jumping to the end of the story...

Last time out I left it where I'd been left feeling bruised and battered by repeatedly slamming into expert Campaign Ronan at full speed in my Galaxy's Most Wanted playthrough.  I wasn't having fun any more and thought maybe I'd find something else to play against instead.

Not long after I wrote that blog the lockdown restrictions eased a bit here in the UK and we finally got to go away on a little family holiday to a cottage on the Welsh coast.  It was Wales in May so it was sunny, windy, wet and beautiful... sometimes at different times but often all at once.

When I got back home and picked my Marvel Champions cards back up I actually felt suitably refreshed after my little break so I was ready to try and take Ronan on again.  I tinkered with my deck choices a little - Ant-Man dropped the Protection aspect that had failed him against Ronan to pick up Lay Down The Law and play Justice instead, then I dropped Scarlet Witch entirely to bring Captain America in Protection.  We suited up and began another GMW Expert Campagn run...

Drang was up first.  In my first playthrough I downed him easily with 5 units for the market, and this time I went one better and had him under complete control to exit with 6 units to spend in the market.  We loaded up on goodies then went straight onto the Collector and attempted to Infiltrate the Museum.  In the first game it was really close and I was about to win then he packed me up in an Inconspicuous Box a turn before I finished him off.  Try again... close, but this time I spent so much time removing cards from the collection that he destroyed me on Collector III.  

I realised I was too slow to deal damage now I didn't have Scarlet Witch.  I couldn't burn past Collector III quickly enough without the Molecular Decays and Hex Bolts.  For the first time ever I switched up to playing three heroes and I added Scarlet Witch to the fight.  The games took noticeably longer when running three heroes alone but the results were the same - I got close every time but I lost every time.

And more importantly: win, lose or draw I wasn't having fun.  The constraints the Collector places on you are so binding that you rarely get to cut loose and actually show off what your heroes can do.  It's a frustrating scenario, one I know I can beat but just don't actually enjoy playing through to make it happen.  And behind it was Escape The Museum, which I hated on my first playthrough.  Behind that was Nebula, and then Ronan.  And none of it looked fun.

Galaxy's Most Wanted got kicked unceremoniously to the curb.

COMFORT FOOD

I'm still relatively new to the game and I've got just as much to explore in old content as I have in the new stuff, so while everyone has been getting really excited about the new heroes I went in the opposite direction.  I've been looking back at some of the heroes I've played before but was never really happy with, revisiting Black Panther, Hulk, Spider-Woman, Captain Marvel and Thor among others.

I've also been playing almost exclusively against the evolving version of my own custom Rhino & Green Goblin scenario (above), just because it's proven to be the most fun and dynamic scenario I think I've got available.  I've gone back to the article where I shared that scenario and updated it for the latest versions of those two encounter decks but in short what I've been trying to do is give the villains more distinct personalities in how they play out.  The Rhino deck hasn't changed very much, though he's a bit more focused on smashing up your Upgrades and Support cards, but I've been constantly tweaking the Green Goblin deck to make him feel devious and dangerous and I think I'm close to nailing it down now.

Sales Pitch: I wouldn't recommend something so strongly if I didn't believe in it.  I think my Rhino/Goblin scenario is really good fun. You should try it out.  End of sales pitch.

But what I really wanted to do was share a couple of my hero decks, where I've found new angles for old heroes.  I've checked on MCDB and I can't see many/any decks quite like these so hopefully I'm showing you something that is as new to you as it was to me!

Momentum Drop /// Spider Woman /// Aggro & Protection

I don't usually play 'true solo' with just one hero but if I'm starting an unfamiliar hero from scratch I'll often have a quick solo game or two to check that the deck makes sense before I move it on into using it properly.

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I've never had a deck that so completely destroyed Solo scenarios like this one has.  It's a resilient and dynamic all-rounder that has handled some big scenarios like Kang and Infiltrate The Museum with complete ease.

This deck started with a very simple premise: I like Momentum Shift but I never get to use it because it just costs so much. In Spider-Woman I can get Finesse and Martial Prowess to lower the cost of Momentum Shift, so let's give it a try. I honestly didn't expect to be making my new favourite deck when I threw this together, but I did.

She's capable of dealing a lot of damage very quickly (Skilled Strike, Venom Blast, Hulk, Drop Kick), but she's also got some of the best control elements in the game (Pheromones, Drop Kick, Iron Fist) with Pheromones in particular buying her tons of time against the villain. She's also a tough cookie with lots of healing effects (Momentum Shift, Energy Barrier, Night Nurse, Contaminant Immunity) and she's often got 3 DEF as well thanks to cards she played in her turn.

More than any other hero I've ever played I think this Spider-Woman is the total package - aggressive, controlling and tough all at the same time.

What you're looking to do is set up the full suite of cheap resource generators - Deft Focus, Martial Prowess, and both copies of Finesse.  There's a lot of crossover in the cards that they can reduce the cost of so most turns you're getting to use all your extra resources somehow and that feeds back in more attacks, more heals, and more +1/+1/+1 boosts for Spider-Woman.

I gave her a try against my nemesis: The Collector (though on Standard not Expert) and she killed him off on turn 7 with her resource generators fuelling a massive turn of Drop Kick -> Venom Blast -> Skilled Strike -> Jarnbjorn activation  -> Hulk (with a physical icon for 2 more damage).

Jessica Drew is not a girl to be messed around.

Aggression

Skilled Strike is the classic Spider-Woman activator, a 0-cost aspect card that can easily turn Spider-Woman into a 4 or 5 damage attacker. Drop Kick is great aggression/control mixed into one card, and you can reduce the cost with Finesse and Martial Prowess so it's easier to trigger the stun and card draw. Jarnbjorn the control piece whose activation cost can be paid by Finesse, and then Hulk and Spider-Girl as cheap and effective allies.  It's a solid package - low cost and aggressive, but able to board control.

BTW: I did look at using Angela instead of a Skilled Strike, but for Hulk purposes I wanted to keep the physical resource in the deck.

Protection

I wanted to showcase Momentum Shift and I've done that, with extra damage redirection from Energy Barrier. With those two cards (and Contaminant Immunity and the stuns) you can keep Spider-Woman in hero form longer than you'd expect and just keep shrugging off damage and throwing it back at the villain. Unflappable was a late addition and it's not a deck that so obviously defends a lot, but I find that she does get a high DEF very often so defending and drawing into more juice for your events next turn is a solid play, and Unflappable is a cheap activator of her ability when you play it too.

Wakanda Mining Co. /// Black Panther /// Leadership

This deck answers the main problem I've always had with Black Panther - the time you spend twiddling your thumbs and hoping not to die while you try to assemble your armour, and then cross your fingers to draw Wakanda Forever! I've done it on Protection and while throwing 30 permanents onto the table worked eventually it always struck me as sooooo dull.  

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It's the Wakanda Mining Co. deck: just dig and dig and dig and dig until you find what you're looking for!  Strength In Numbers is the turbo boost I was looking for to assemble my kit and start swinging for Wakanda faster than I've ever been able to do before.

I'm using 12 strong allies, most of them cheap. Yes, 12 is A LOT of allies, but this reflects how important it is to get them out in multiples for Strength of Numbers.  And it's worth remembering it's possible to get 5 allies out at once thanks to Stinger and Triskelion, although in my experience you're usually killing the villain long before you max that potential. Stick a couple of them into play and start drawing cards with Strength In Numbers and you should be able to snowball momentum and build up to some big turns very quickly. 

Between Strength In Numbers, Assess The Situation and Nick Fury (and things like Maria Hill or Golden City) you should be cycling your 40 card deck as quickly as if it was just 20 cards, which is going to give you a steady stream of double resource cards to play your Black Panther kit more quickly and then multiple Wakanda Forevers in a turn.

It's kind of a shame to conscript so many of Earth's mightiest heroes to your cause only to hand them a pickaxe and telling them to get digging... just remember it's for the greater good of Wakanda. 

The spice must flow!