I have the situation under control!

I have the situation under control!

I'm not running many allies, so Thor will need to tank or defend villain attacks - without basic defending if possible - rather than using chump blockers. He also wants to defend against minion attacks without basic defending if possible and defeat them to take advantage of Change of Fortune.

With that in mind I went with Jump Flip and Side Step to make me the defender without exhausting, and both of them care about the resource, which he can generate with God of Thunder or Defensive Energy.

If he does have to basic defend, you can Ready Thor with several different cards to take advantage of his 3 ATK:

• Lady Sif
• Ever Vigilant
• Face the Past
• Limitless Stamina

Build Support is here for Asgard, but if you'd rather have another ally instead of a side scheme, there are enough resources to make Blade a good option.

Key cards

• Asgard is very important to increase his hand size!
• God of Thunder (at least 1) is important to get out early because it'll pay for (and kick) Jump Flip and Side Step.
• Vivian is here for any non-ELITE minion, but Loki is a prime target! Blank him so you can defeat him without worrying about his Forced Interrupt. She also has 2 THW, so you can blank a minion (or attachment, etc.) then thwart for 2, but she'll hit the discard pile with 2 consequential damage (but she could also just attack for 1 and then chump block).
• Pinned Down can make most minions a non-issue.
• Under Control defeats minions during the villain phase.
• Change of Fortune really?!
  • Jump Flip (which also helps manage threat on the main) and Side Step allow you to defend and not take damage from most minions, and Under Control can knock them out, but by setting a minion up during the hero phase Side Step can also knock them out by itself. I think you get just enough juice to make the squeeze worthwhile!
• Eight SUPERPOWER cards makes Deft Focus a key card as well, making your Lightning Strikes and Limitless Staminas cost 0, and bringing Hammer Throw down to 2.

Hot Take

I'm not running "Come Get Me, Bub!" for the same reason I don't like Defender of the Nine Realms: While getting a minion is good for Thor, discarding until you get one is bad because you chew through the encounter deck and get Acceleration tokens sooner, which is NOT good for a hero with so little THW.

I personally feel like these cards are traps with short term gain and long term heartache.

The problem with not playing those cards though is that you're not drawing extra cards by engaging a minion, and you have some upgrades in hand which you can't play, so of course there are times when I'll play them.