Strange & Friends

This is my take on the ally swarm style for Dr. Strange, with what cards I have currently and what's now released. It's been a lot of fun playing and testing this deck to figure out how to optimize this build. For those who are going to be playing this deck for the first time, your objective will be not only to keep your fellow players alive but to make full use of your allies and try to recycle the ones you need. You should remain in hero form for most of the game, if not all, and use your invocation deck to toughen your allies or players, deal big blows, and thwarts, with the occasional Magic Blast too. Be decisive in which allies you bring down, and don't be afraid to chump block with any like Maria Hill or Mockingbird, who have effects that benefit the table if you recycle them with Rapid Response or bring back to hand for later use with Regroup.

Breaking down some of my choices of cards to include, we'll go over the allies first:

Black Knight

• Piercing is a strong tool to have available if you're table needs someone to break tough since you can also deal your damage as well. Don't be afraid to use him on minions as well in order to help control the board.

Black Panther

• His effect feels very consistent in this deck, especially since you only have 2 choices of events to attach to him. So it'll either be a future use Make the Call or if your deck is still full, picking Summoning Spell means you are guaranteed an ally in the next few turns. The consequential damage he takes for his basic abilities is high, but for the effect and the body, I don't mind it for this build.

Kaluu

• A searcher that allows you to pull an event card, note how the effect doesn't state it needs to be a specific color/hero card. With that, you can easily search for any of the events you might need.

Squirrel Girl

• A cheaper ally to include in the deck alongside Kaluu and Maria Hill, her splash damage to all enemies on the board is nice for control again. Her damage can be used to clear multiple tough status cards, or even be the final touch to a few annoying low-health minions.

Hawkeye,Nick Fury

• These two shouldn't really require any explanation in this build. Hawkeye is excellent board control, and if you have cheaper allies to throw in to block with, he can be around and help control minions from overwhelming you. Nick Fury has great situational use, whether is dealing big damage, thwarting, or even just getting you more resources. Not to mention, he is still a body you can use with his basic powers, then throw in front of an enemy attack.

Maria Hill, Mockingbird

• These two are also cards that work really well in this deck with the amount of recycling that's included here. With Maria, who doesn't love a table-wide card draw? As for Mockingbird, her effect of stunning an enemy can help prevent several attacks if you combo her with rapid response.

Next, we'll go into the event cards I've chosen to include in the deck:

Make the Call

• As stated in the beginning, this card will help with pulling allies that you weren't able to get back with Rapid Response. Don't be afraid to use this to pull back some of the higher-cost allies if you need their effects/utilities. On the other hand, you can also pull back cheaper allies too if the situation calls for it. you should feel super flexible with this card and use it as needed based on the game situation.

Spiritual Meditation

• Card draw is greatly appreciated in this deck as it provides you with resources and tools, and having a 0-cost one is amazing.

Summoning Spell

• Only one of, but still extremely powerful in this deck. For 2 cost, you cycle through the deck in order to pull one ally regardless of their cost. Seeing as how the lowest cost amongst allies is 2, it's basically a free summon of an ally straight from the deck, while if you happen to pull a higher-cost ally, then you have stronger effects on board earlier on. This card also helps some allies like Black Panther, with either loading the discard with a Make the Call, or even Kaluu, in milling down some of the cards so you have better chances at pulling events.

Finally, we'll tackle the supports/upgrades I've chosen to include in the deck:

Regroup

• Regroup is an amazing card that serves multiple uses. For one, you can bounce an ally you want to back to your hand to use for the next turn after chump blocking, and being a 1-cost card means you're not spending too much to guarantee an ally to be played the next turn. If you don't end up using that ally, that's still an additional resource card to your hand, which helps pay for any events or other allies you may have had prior.

The Triskelion

• I've included this card in the deck at this time on the assumption that at some point you'll eventually hit the ally cap of 3. Occasionally I've hit this cap, which has me still thinking I'll keep this in for now, and if you're toughening your allies up, you may hit the cap yourself.

Rapid Response

• Like regroup, a useful card, but limited to one per player, hence why I only have 2 of them in this deck. The effect is too good to pass up though, with being able to bring an ally back at the cost of dealing one damage to them. This can be used with Maria for more card draw, Mockingbird to put stun back onto a minion, and Nick Fury for more of his effects, the options are there for you.

The Sorcerer Supreme

• Also a no-brainer card I feel to include, +1 to hand size doesn't hurt at all if you're going to remain in hero form for as long as you can.

This deck is far from perfect, and of course, adjustments can be made if desired. Feel free to give it a run, and let me know what you think!