NOTE

It is important to highlight that this Leadership deck is not an Avengers deck. In fact, this deck hasn't been designed to empower the allies, they are just a tool to fulfill Strange magic purposes.

Introduction

The main objective of this Leadership deck is to maximize the usage of Strange Invocation Deck. To aid on this purpose, some focus will be done over three basic mechanics for him:

• To constantly cycle this deck.
• To ready Strange for being able to use the invocations.
• To be able to easily pay the invocations and some powerful Strange cards. To do this there are several alternatives, which of course can be combined: drawing cards, reducing the cost of the cards, increasing the size of your hand, and/or having resource generators.

While Doctor Strange plays with the villain, his allies should support him dealing with the minions, and helping him to have accessible the most interesting invocation card at every moment and granting him cards enough to do what he is interested on at the moment.

During the game your deck will run out of cards several times, so don't be shy to discard the ones that you don't need at the moment, they will be back to your hand even before than you could expect.

Core cards and why

Beginning with his first main mechanic, besides Wong his other main ally is Cosmo. As the main usage of both of them should be to cycle the Invocation Deck (using the espacial dog at every moment with the Invocation Deck, as all its cards are Events and it is impossible to miss on that), it is important to have one or both of them on the game as soon as possible; to aid on this purpose Summoning Spell can be a helpful tool, while on the other hand Rapid Response will grant them a "second life" if they are defeated (as Cosmo will prevent the consequential damage, Seven Rings of Raggadorr can give them extra durability, and the deck will run out of cards quite fast so discarded allies can easily appear once again, it will be enough with only 1 copy of this). Once they are on the game, Get Ready is a good alternative for being able to cycle with them even faster the invocation need at a concrete moment. Of course we can't forget for this purpose the own Stephen Strange natural talent.

Now that we have clear the tool for making easier to have accessible the needed invocation at a moment, let's focus on how to pay for it and still being able to do more things. Obviously the addition of the three double resources is a must have (Genius, Strength, Energy). Quincarrier and Helicarrier (although this doesn't generate a resource, the result is the same), combined with Strange's The Eye of Agamotto will be our resources generators items.

And finally the cards that will make us to draw more of them, which has a double usage: it will be easier to get the card you need, and the more cards you have in your hand the more resources you have to pay for some other cards: Nick Fury, Maria Hill and White Tiger as allies, combined with Avengers Mansion and The Sorcerer Supreme (although it doesn’t give you literally one card, it will allow you to have more cards in yout hand when in hero form). For this purpose we can't forget about Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, Mystical Studies and Winds of Watoomb invocation card.

Up to this point we have a basic deck of 31 cards, containing 5 allies on it.

Gameplay

The first card you should bring to the table is Strange's Cloak of Levitation, so if in early stages you have the Mystical Studies but not the cloak, do not hesitate to use if for bringing it. On the other hand, if it is already on the board, Wong and The Eye of Agamotto should be, normally, the next ones to be obtained (I mean "normally" because if you are in a hurry and you need to get rid of somebody or to remove threat from a plan, then maybe Magic Blast or Astral Projection is what you need at that moment).

While for removing threat Strange has a decent basic attribute and cards such as Astral Projection and Images of Ikonn invocation, when focusing on dealing damage he shouldn't trust on his basic attack, for this purpose he has the Magic Blast and Crimson Bands of Cyttorak invocation; in the case of both invocation cards they also bring him 1 round of relative peace thanks to the Confused/Stunned effect they also add to the Villain (when used against him, which should be the usual).

But although striking hard and removing threat is always a good plan (well, to be honest, striking the villain is the way to win the game, while removing threat a very important action for not losing it), Winds of Watoomb is probably the best invocation, so if you are lucky and once that card is on the top of the Invocation Deck you also have in your hand the Master of the Mystic Arts card, for just 1 resource you can draw 6 cards without exhausting your hero! (and if you are extra lucky and you have the 2 copies of this card in your hand at the same time, for just 2 resources you get 9 cards!!).

If the enemy minions start to appear and become a problem, then you can use your allies to deal with them. Remember that Rapid Response and how fast the deck runs out of cards will make them to appear once again sooner than expected. Consider also that the Toughness status you can give to them with Seven Rings of Raggadorr can prevent them to receive the consequent damage.

Finally, as it hasn't been mentioned at any point on this guide, do not underestimate the utility of the Vapors of Valtorr invocation: if the Villain (or an annoying enemy has obtained the Toughness status, just turn it into an Stunned or Confused one paying 0 resources!

Useful cards

Up to this point only 31 cards have been mentioned, so to complete a (ideally) 40 cards deck, the following ones are interesting choices:

• Strength In Numbers: One more way to add cards on your hand, and without having to pay any resource for it (only this played card).
• Innovation: Once again, it can help specially Wong and Cosmo to stay on the game a little bit more.
• Inspiring Presence: The same explanation of the previous card applies here, in addition that you can use once again a powerful ally to attack/thwart (well, maybe it doesn't work quite well if he/she receives more than 1 consequent damage every time he/she acts).
• Command Team Once more interesting card that works quite well with Wong and Cosmo for cycling the Invocation Deck looking for the needed card.
• The Triskelion: Up to 3 allies can be protected with Seven Rings of Raggadorr invocation... and allies do never bother.
• The Power of Leadership: Depending on the cost of the other Leadership cards included, it can be an interesting potential double resource. Considering the mentioned core cards it will be used only by 4/31 cards, which is a a 13% of the cards from the deck (up to a 32,5% on a 13/40 cards deck).
• About the allies, there is no a list for me. Just include 2-3 more of them, the ones you prefer. On this proposal, Kate Bishop Hawkeye has been included as per 2 resources you have an attack 2 ally, and Clint Burton Hawkeye as his response ability is perfect to deal with minions... but I normally don't need to play them.

The following cards at first glance may not seem to be interesting, but as their cost is very low (just 1 resource), they are cards that once played they remain on the table and they allow you to stay longer in hero form and thus trigger powerful spells and invocation cards (don't forget that Strange's hit points value is quite normal). They are more useful than initially expected:

• Endurance:
• Crew Quarters
• The Break-In!

Sets used

As a reminder for me, the sets belonged when designing this deck are:

• Core Set
• Captain America
• Ms. Marvel
• Thor
• Black Widow
• Doctor Strange
• Hulk
• The Rise of Red Skull
• The Once and Future Kang
• Quicksilver
• Galaxy's Most Wanted
• Star-Lord
• Gamora
• Drax
• Venom
• The Mad Titan's Shadow
• War Machine
• Valkyrie