You Did This to Yourself

From one captain to another: stop hitting yourself!

Nightcrawler is here! You know what that means: time for another... Captain Marvel deck? Wait, come back! I know I've posted like, wow is it really only five? Well, it's six now. And one of them is just an update of an earlier deck, and this deck is an update of that one? And no Aggression yet? Curious. Ok, so a-anyway... this is like my all-time favourite deck ever. It's Protection as you've never seen before. And I don't have Nightcrawler yet. Hell, I still don't have Jubilee. Things take a long time to ship to Middle-Earth, but thankfully a couple proxy cards are easy enough, and I'm so in love with this deck. In fact, it's my absolute favourite way to play the game, and I've been looking forward to Nightcrawler for some time for one card in particular to give this deck new life.

So we all know that Green is all about defending, using a super sky high DEF stat, ignoring all the damage, and getting lots of value while doing so: you have Hard to Ignore, Electrostatic Armor, and Unflappable, plus roughly half a billion** '+2 DEF, and if your hero takes no damage...' events to fuel it (with a slight margin of error). Captain Marvel even gets to 3 DEF with her Captain Marvel's Helmet and Cosmic Flight. With all that card draw and Superpower Training, you know you can get them on the board easily. But you know what? I told you this isn't your average Protection deck, and ain't nobody got time for that. We not afraid of tanking hits with our face, and we love making the enemies facetank for us. It was a fun archetype in the early days of Champions, but it hasn't kept up with the influx of new strategies and archetypes. Enter: Change of Fortune to really change this deck's... fortune*, or you know whatever. Let's get into it.

Comeuppance

To play this deck, you have to forgo everything you have ever learned as a Protection player. Repeat after me: 'I shall not defend'. Thine enemies are soft and squishy and fold like... a thing, that folds really well. It's not a perfect metaphor. Also, and this is really important, you want to defeat things in the villain phase. Change of Fortune is such an impressive draw engine, but you have to be a little patient. Instead of going out guns blazing and fists flying, just let them do all the work for you.

Repercussion Studies

In addition to Change of Fortune providing you a constant influx of cards, this deck has a lot of options for resource generation and smoothing.

• Commander: Hey, what card is that? Well, it's not a card; Carol's alter-ego ability is just absurdly powerful. Start the game with 7 cards. Go up to 8 every time you flip down with Symbiote Suit. In a multi-player game, don't forgot to share the love.
• Energy Absorption: A triple resource card is so absurdly powerful. It's why we can take expensive allies like Karma and Nova without breaking a sweat. Don't feel bad about using this to play down some of your 2-cost cards either. Just keep the energy flowing.
• Alpha Flight Station: Provides card filtering at a baseline, letting you turn useless cards (like that second copy of Change of Fortune) into something more usable, or hopefully a non- card into an , or all those Counter-Punches and Side Steps you have leftover in the player phase. Don't forget that it turns into card advantage while in Alter-Ego and lets you draw 2 for the card you filtered away. Always be sure to use it before you flip up and keep some fuel around if you're about to flip down.
• Quincarrier: Repeatable resource that's also usable in Alter-Ego. Very notable that Energy Channel's first ability to store counters is an Action, not a Hero Action. It is preferred to Helicarrier even though you can't play the former in Alter-Ego. You have plenty of resource dumps. On that note:

Energy Energy Energy

One majour feature is how much of the deck can be used for multiple purposes. As a cornerstone feature of Marvel Champions, you can use any card in hand as a resource or a card. This takes it up even further. 24/40 cards produce (including 2 and several cards that produce more than 1). Energy / Energy Absorption / Enhanced Reflexes produce , , or let you filter 3 cards into more , respectively. Also, just literally every card you have that maybe you don't need right now. Not the right time to play Dauntless, Endurance, or Symbiote Suit? Channel them into your many various resource dumps. And what shall you do with all of that extra you may ask? Well I'm glad you did:

• Rechannel: Captain Marvel's hero ability lets you use an to heal 1 damage and filter a card. Keep in mind that you need to have damage to heal, so definitely keep taking attacks directly so you can make the most of this. It's a very overlooked and strong ability.
• Nova: Just sits on the board usually, attacks for a bit, but then also helps you pump into 2 damage a piece every time an enemy attacks.
• Photonic Blast: 3-cost for 5 damage feels pretty bad, but 3-cost for 5 damage and draw a card? Feels pretty good! Especially feels good when you Energy Absorption to spend on it.
• Side Step: Has an requirement for the damage ping.
• Energy Channel: The main dump. Can store up to to deal 10 damage (that's five). Perfect for closing out games and pushing past a board stall.

Deflecting Palm

Ok, so how does this deck win? We still have to punch bad guys in the face, and I've already highlighted a couple of good options like Photonic Blast and Energy Channel, but here's how you punch enemies in the face... with their own fists:

• Karma: Did you pull a big minion? Aw, must be so sad... for the villain! Turn that minion into several rounds of blocks and counter attacks. You can even thwart if you want to spice things up.
• Nova: Honestly, this dude is severely underrated. He costs a lot, but Energy Absorption helps you pay for it very easily, and any if your hand or on the board is now worth 2 damage. He can also attack for another 4, so he wasn't all that expensive in the end after all, was he? Keep in mind that Change of Fortune requires 'you' to defeat, so be careful about using his ability. Definitely flip shots at the villain all game, and it's very helpful for getting enemies down to defeat range with your other cards.
• Counter-Punch: Well sometimes you gotta do your own punching. With Symbiote Suit, you punch for 3, which is a really good rate for 1 card.
• Side Step: Prevent damage and ping one back. Very useful for clearing toughs or just getting that one extra damage you need to defeat an enemy.
• Dauntless: You're taking a lot of undefended damage, but thanks to impressive healing, damage prevention, and increased health pool (explained more in the next section), it's not uncommon for this to be on for a large portion of the game, even after an entire villain phase of attacks.
• Energy Barrier: The other piece de resistance. This one is a little better than Side Step in that it prevents the same amount of damage (3) but deals a total of 3 back. Very importantly, you do not have to ping it back at the enemy attacking you. Preventing damage from several minions in a row and offloading to damage onto another one that gets defeated before it can even attack feels so great. Now you get to draw cards for it!

Learn How to Take a Punch

So now you how to defeat your enemies, let's learn how to stay alive while doing so. You have so much survivability, but some of it's a bit more subtle than others:

• "Come Get Me, Bub!": Gives you a tough and heals you for 3. Use when you're out of minion fuel, but also lets you easily face tank the villain that turn.
• Side Step: Prevents 3 damage! Also pings the attacker. Good stuff.
• Cosmic Flight: Prevents 3 damage! Also gives you Aerial... which is only really useful for Crisis Interdiction, but please don't sleep on this card. It's not Multitasking, but it's still great.
• Endurance: 'Heals' 3. And if you don't need it, you've got plenty of ways to use it for something else, just like:
• Rechannel hero Action: Spend an to heal 1 and draw 1. Great for cycling your hand and getting the right cards you need.
• Energy Barrier: This pulls double duty of course by preventing a lot of damage while also progressing your wincon. It deserves a second mention, but remember that you can ping the damage elsewhere? Defeating enemies before they get to attack lets you dodge on-attack triggers or just all of that damage in the first place. It remains one of the best and most versatile cards in the deck.
• Symbiote Suit: The piece de resistance is of course the Symbiote Suit. Gives you very relevant 3 THW / 3 ATK stats, 7/6 hand size, 5 REC, and 10 hitpoints. The extra encounter card is often a boon as it gives you more minions to destroy.

Harsh Justice

We Can't Ignore Hard to Ignore (It's literally in the name), so how does this deck deal with threat? Everyone told you Hard to Ignore was the only good thwarting in Protection? Well, they aren't exactly wrong, but we aren't defending here, so we've gotta look at other options.

• Karma: If you're desperate and the stars align, you can get a decent 2-3 SCH minion who can start thwarting for you. This isn't very reliable though.
• Nova: If you're very desperate, don't feel bad about using him to thwart for a measly 1. If it helps you clear a side scheme or something, just do it. There's plenty of damage here.
• Spider-Woman: Now we're talkin! Confuse and 2 THW. What's more, you don't really need chump blockers so she usually gets to thwart twice.
• Crisis Interdiction: I know it's sad, but hear me out. You have so much money as Carol, and removing 2 threat from 2 things is often pretty crucial. It feels even worse, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta and play a To the Rescue! cos you don't have Aerial or only one scheme in play. We're Protection; we're used to scrounging the barrel.
• Symbiote Suit: You didn't think I forgot about this did you? You're never defending. Who cares about REC? You've got a THW of 3, so use it. Honestly, this is a pretty huge game-changer for the deck as so many side schemes are at 3 threat. Once this is in play, you've got so much more power with your actions, it more than makes up for the downside of getting extra encounter cards.

You Did This to Yourself

if you'd like to make customisations, here is some of my experience through testing:

• Northstar: Tried it with earlier versions of the deck that were using Preemptive Strike as a backup. I never used Preemptive, so I certainly didn't need Northstar. There's plenty of survivability here, so it was unnecessary.

• First Hit: Seems like a good idea, and it's just a perfect fit, right? icon, hits enemies when they attack you. It's overcosted... sigh yeah nothing feels worse than playing two of these to defeat a 3-hp minion and draw 2 cards for the effort. Counter-Punch, despite being is just so much better.

• Jump Flip: only removes 2 threat from the main and doesn't really help our wincon. It's certainly better than some other options, so if you are desperate for more threat removal, this is a good one.

• Preemptive Strike: The original version of this deck had Preemptive Strike, and it was such a sad cut. In a multiplayer setting, definitely consider throwing it in though. You get the keep the original dream alive, also help save someone at the table and keep punching the villain in its stupid face.

• Build Support, Superpower Training, Specialized Training: They are all great in theory, but we're really struggling with thwarting as it is. Besides, the targets aren't great, and you don't have trouble playing them anyway. In a multiplayer game if someone brings Specialized Training, be the ultimate team player and auto-select Front Line Specialist.

• The Power of Protection and The Power in All of Us are quite awkward. I often had Energy Barrier and The Power in All of Us or Enhanced Reflexes and The Power of Protection. There are enough resources in the deck already though, and there were times where things were clogged up with resources. Even with so many resource dumps, I ran into issues. I don't think they're worth it, but maybe you have a different playstyle.

• The Night Nurse: This was in the original deck, and I do recommend it in status-heavy scenarios, especially for multiplayer. I think it's great for her Obligation if that ever comes up, but you can often exhaust to get rid of it, and Counter-Punch is so cheap at dealing with status. It just ended up never being used.

• Defensive Energy / Electrostatic Armor / Nerves of Steel: There just aren't enough Defense events. Even when you add some more in, they don't always get played. These just sit on the board forever, feeling sad and useless. And remember, don't basic defend! Electrostatic seems perfect here, but there aren't enough defense events to fuel it, even if you add in something like Jump Flip, and if you're making a basic defense, things are pretty dire for you, my friend.

• Just all of the 'if you defend and take no damage' things. We're not defending. Although we can get to 4 DEF with her helmet and the suit, that's a lot of setup. Meanwhile, these cards are just clogging up your hand.

So that's the deck. I hope you enjoy it and remember: stop hitting yourself!