Spectrum - Captain of your Agile Flight

Spectrum has been a favorite Marvel Comics character of mine for a few years, so I was eager to try her in Marvel Champions and she doesn’t disappoint! While her different energy forms make her a very versatile and fun champion to use, she also has a lot of “hidden” power in the simple fact that she is the first champion to innately have the “Aerial” trait without needing to dig around for a pair of Rocket Boots or a Cloak of Levitation.

Not seeing too many Spectrum Justice decks on MarvelCDB, I decided to try my hand at one of those for the Mad Titan Campaign. First, for full disclosure, I’ve primarily run this deck in two-player games with my girlfriend, who’s running a Ms. Marvel Aggression deck - so your mileage may vary if you don’t have a dedicated damage-dealer as your partner ;)

I did successfully run through Mutagen Formula on Expert as a test, so I do have that under my belt (though that deck was very slightly modified - a second The Power of Justice was used to play a late-game Venom. I’ve since cut that second PoJ in favor of another copy of One Way or Another, as the extra cards are typically more useful for this deck). As I continue to play with this deck, I’ll update any big findings or changes here.

As for “Why play Spectrum in Justice?” the first reason for me is Agile Flight. Yes, it’s an expensive card, and therefore harder to justify for characters for whom “Aerial” is a more conditional trait. But if you’re playing One Way or Another a lot - as this deck does frequently - then having an Agile Flight chambered and ready to go is a great response, especially as you can use it to trigger Turn the Tide, Skilled Investigator, and Justice Served. Ideally, you’ve got some Energy Duplication and Sense of Justice out to defray the cost of Agile Flight - and these and Deft Focus are absolutely your first priorities to play - but even if you’re sacrificing the cards you just drew from One Way or Another for Agile Flight, it can be a more-than-fair trade if you can trigger the extra damage, card draws, and readying from your other upgrades. And, since OWoA lets you choose which side scheme you bring into play, maybe you can grab one that gives you a nice benefit after you defeat it!

As for the other cards in the deck, Lay Down the Law is of course a natural fit for Spectrum; I went back and forth over whether to include a full three of these, and there’s absolutely an argument for it given how cost-effective it is. But for me, I decided to cut down to just two so I wasn’t too reliant on flipping energy forms in order to play cards. Don’t get me wrong, the constant flipping is part of the fun of Spectrum, but I felt I needed more options in case I didn’t have a Speed of Light or one of her other form-changing powers in my hand. Also, this deck does struggle at times to deal damage (see above about it mainly being used on a team with an Aggression player!) and having more cards that help with readying, such as Justice Served and Ready to Rumble, helps get some more mileage out of Gamma form on turns when you need to mop up some bad guys.

Your allies can also all help you with damage to varying degrees. With all the threat-mitigation in this deck, you can get some pretty reliable use out of Venom, and Wraith can swing for three and then either chump block or be used to negate a nasty boost effect.

And that about wraps up everything I have to say on Spectrum so far. She’s a great character, both in Marvel Champions and in the comics. And if you’ve read this far and you want to know more about her, then I highly recommend you check out her adventures in the 2013 “Mighty Avengers” series (by writer Al Ewing and illustrator Greg Land), 2014’s “Captain America and the Mighty Avengers” (by Ewing and illustrators Luke Ross and Iban Coello), and 2015’s “The Ultimates” (by Ewing and illustrator Kenneth Rocafort).