Self-Absorbed Tree Accumulates Wealth

The Deck in Short

Overview

Groot is very thematic and fun and he's great when everything goes according to plan, but most of the time he's...challenging. His ability (or lack thereof) to maintain Growth Counters makes or break the hero. To generate them, he has to spend time in alter-ego, but he has poor THW and meager resource generation to deal with threat through events. If he sits in hero form all game, then it's painfully difficult to maintain any counters because of the timing of the forced interrupt. I've had some prior attempts to get him to work with Meditation and a supporting SHIELD Justice deck, but it's inconsistent at best.

If there is one thing he's good at, it's that Groot doesn't really take damage because of his growth counters and high Defense stat. That's great for the resource cards of the 'Pool aspect, like Self Confidence, which are a triple resource while your hero is at full health!

This opens up a new source of wealth for Groot, who is usually hampered by his poor access to resources. With the newfound riches, Groot can afford to run some luxury cards like Hope Summers, Avengers Mansion, and C.I.T.T.. 'Pool has its own set of resource sinks -- cards like Blackout, Stick-To-Itiveness, or Tic-Tac-Toe. These are great for Groot, because they offer additional, consistent sources of damage/thwart for when those "I am Groot"s and "I. AM. GROOT!"s don't have the growth counters to be worthwhile.

Flip to alter-ego as much as you can. Make use of all these resources on your hero phase and push damage through allies, Root Stomp, basic actions, and upgrades. The big growth counter pay-offs are secondary in this deck.

A few notes on card inclusions/exclusions:

Allies

Gamora is a very strong ally. I think she is always worth using if you are a guardian.

Hope Summers pulls SUPERPOWER cards. Nearly all of Groots cards are SUPERPOWER. Tutoring an identity-specific card (or Healing Factor!) of your choice is nice.

Machine Man is crazy if you have the resources to spare.

Rocket Raccoon opens up use of the Flora and Fauna Team-Up event. This is 1-cost ready and a source of counters. Pretty good! The Ally itself is also quite good into minion-heavy scenarios.

You could toss-in any other high-cost neutral allies as well: Nick Fury, Snowguard, and Lockjaw might be interesting choices. The 'Pool allies are strong, but come with Amplify icons.

Events

Get in Front of Me! is a rare control option for Groot.

Get Rage-y is excellent with on-attack allies such as Gamora and Rocket.

Mulligan is central to these 'Pool resource dump strategies. Once you have your 'Pool upgrades in play, you can spend a few cards on them before playing Mulligan, which is a nice way of cheating around the "play no other cards" restriction of Mulligan. It's also a nice cycle card for Groot, who is a hero that is hungry to get many upgrades into play. You'll see your Fertile Ground or stat-boosting upgrades sooner than ever before!

Not my Responsibility is a strong candidate for inclusion. Groot can have issues with threat because of how much he likes being in alter-ego.

Side Schemes

Build Support is used purely for Fertile Ground. That card is the difference between being groot and being GROOT.

Plot Convenience would be nice, but I think it's too slow.

Supports

Avengers Mansion -- no reason not to include this card if you aren't playing a rush deck and can afford to play it.

C.I.T.T. -- Another nice resource sink.

Upgrades

Blackout -- a thwart option for Groot where you don't have to pray your growth counters are intact.

Deft Focus -- as with Hope Summers, deft focus gets tons of value in groot because nearly all his cards are SUPERPOWER traited.

Healing Factor -- wow. so much healing. With this and Fertile Ground in play, you will passively gain 6 growth counters and recover 4 every alter-ego cycle! That's a ton of damage mitigation! Ensures the "Self-" resources cards are maximally efficient.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is not worth using here. The deck has few wilds and lots of . To get the draw off that upgrade, you would have to hit a resource. Unfortunately, those are mostly on the upgrades in this deck, which are cards that should be in play, not in the deck.

Booster Boots is a great card, but isn't the best on groot because his growth counters, the very things you want to maintain, will always take the hit first.