Secret Agent Ham

There's a ham who leads a life of danger
To everyone he meets he stays a stranger

Secret aaagent man, secret aaaagent ham...

Agents of Shield is coming, and you know what that means: Nick Fury straight out a swimsuit catalogue, babee. It also means a new keyword: Vulnerable. According to the release article, vulnerable means a minion '[gets] discarded when they would be stunned or confused.' Importantly, this dodges when defeated effects. That's pretty cool right? Well, I guess we'll have to see, but one of the issues I've had with Thwip Thwip! (don't get me wrong here, I absolutely adore this card more than you know), but its power is really scenario dependent. You have a multi-villain scenario, stun 2 villains? Have a villain with Steady, well this one event just does it all for you. But when the villain has Stalwart? When you don't care about stunning that 1 ATK minion? Well, it kinda goes down a bit. So hopefully we'll see a bit more life in AoS box. And seriously though, it's a great card even without that, so you can even play this deck like right now even. It's been tested on existing scenarios, and it's just a ton of fun. Blah blah blah I know, let's get into it.

International Ham of Mystery

Spider-Ham's hero ability Spider-Nonsense gives him a toon counter every time he takes damage, and these counters can be spent as resources and to power up some of his cards. So to augment that as much as possible, we have a lot of self-damaging cards. Keep in mind that you only get 1 counter whenever you take damage, not 1 counter for each damage you take. Thankfully a lot of cards here will deal just 1 damage.

• Rogue: works so well in this deck. Deals 1 damage to Ham to gain +2 THW and +1 ATK for the rest of the phase. Think of her as a 4-cost ally that thwarts for 4, attacks for 3, and generates a resource every single turn. She is quite possibly the strongest card in this deck. Wait, I thought Protection could thwart? Rogue's here to do a lot of heavy lifting to change that.
• Petulant Pig & Taunt: take some damage, gain a toon counter, and draw some cards. Everything a growing pig needs to get stronger and smash evil.
• Thwip Thwip!: what's better than stunning 2 enemies or fully stunning an enemy with Steady? Getting a toon counter at the same time, of course.
• Spider-Tingle: this is a great card here. Get all of them as quickly as possible, and let the rain in. Draw extra cards with Symbiote Suit even. Keep in mind two things. One: you don't have to trigger them (you really should, but like... don't kill yourself), and two: if you draw a treachery and have multiple in play, you only have to lose one of them: a treachery that's already cancelled can't be cancelled again, so the ability doesn't fully resolve. And if it isn't obvious, deal the damage to Spider-Ham every time; he's kinda into it.

To help fuel this strategy, the deck includes Down Time and Symbiote Suit (I swear to god I tried to make it without the suit, but it's just so perfect; you get extra stats for your readies, more hitpoints to work with, more cards to trigger Spider-Tingle, drawing more cards, more healing, it quite literally does everything you want). There's also Med Team, but try to use it more for your allies. Speaking of allies, we've already mentioned Rogue being perhaps the best card in the entire deck, but the others are pretty great too.

• Captain Americat: gets toon counters, shuffles your strongest cards back into your deck? Mandatory high-fives? What's not to love. Don't spend time healing him though; cats have many lives, so let him leave and come back as much as possible.
• Siryn: who has decent stats, 3 HP, and only 1 consequential? Well, Rogue, but also Siryn! She can also help stun minions when she attacks. Take that, vulnerable bad dudes.
• Spider-Man: no Across the Spider-Verse here to help you get him into play, but Spider-Ham's toon counters do just fine. He also has decent stats, only 1 consequential, and 3 hitpoints. What a crazy coincidence, eh?

Suit Up

There's a lot of economy here with toon counters, drawing cards from Petulant Pig and Taunt, but there's a few more:

• Specialized Training: heck yeah, I love drawing cards. Why not draw cards when you draw cards? Front Line Specialist is generally the best option since you'll get more hitpoints and can usually trigger it the turn you get it with Petulant Pig/Taunt, but you can go for anything but the extra DEF to be honest.
• Energy/Genius/Strength: why have doubles when you just generate so much economy printed directly on your hero? Well, you don't start the game with many counters, and trust me, you'll be spending them. This helps you set up those expensive allies and value engine pieces. You'll use them.
• Avengers Mansion: it may seem weird not having Helicarrier in a deck prepared to rush into a S.H.I.E.L.D.-themed box, but I promise the extra resource is worth it since cards are so much more valuable than cost reductions when you have some much government funding anyway.
• Helicarrier: oh wait, where did that come from? It's still a good card, and a decent target for Build Support. If you don't want to fit the theme and save ONE WHOLE RESOURCE (or no resources if you just grab it with Build Support), Team-Building Exercise is a good alternative cos every Spider-Ham card is a cartoon. But just go with the Heli.
• The Daily Beagle: ya like dags? I mean toon counters? Yeah, those. I love toon counters. This gets your more of 'em. Neat.
• Symbiote Suit: I swear I tried to make a deck withou- oh, I already said that. But seriously, it does everything, even draws you cards. Seriously what is not to love about this card?

Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?

International hams of mystery need all the best gadgets to... you know, eat hot dogs or whatever it is they do. You know, I don't really know? But here's some great gadgets nonetheless.

• Astonishing X-Men: you will literally never trigger the response, but were you aware that you don't need to? Just thwart it for 5 my dude. Stun and Confuse E-VER-Y-THING. Great for just stabilising after a bit too much petulance and taunting.
• Cartoon Physics: defy the physics of reality cos you're a cartoon and survive anything (assuming you have at least 2 HP remaining).
• Huge Wooden Hammer: BONK
• Organic Webbing: extra readies with Spider-Man. With your increases stats from everything, you'll get a lot of mileage out of it. Be sure to buy the warranty, but not the extended warranty; that's always a scam.

So that's it, that's the deck. Punch stuff. Get punched. Get paid. ??? Win. Then have a martini. You've earned it.