Aerial Diversity Leadership (A.D.L.)

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Sam Wilson combats violence and inequality in Harlem as a social worker and as the Falcon. Over the years, he has learned that you can find strength within diversity.

So Sam has recruited a motley crew of aerial heroes (including some birds), as well as a few intel specialists.

Together, they will fight for justice under Falcon's leadership.

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Overview

Damage:	★★☆☆☆
Thwarting:	★★★1/2☆
Survivability:	★★★★☆
Economy:	★★★★★
Reliability:	★★★1/2☆
Early Game:	★★☆☆☆
Difficulty to play:	★★★★★

Note: I have only played a few games against Expert Klaw (solo) to test the deck, and I have won most of them. I don't know how this play in multiplayer. I assume that his ability to control the encounter deck is best in solo.

I'm still making tweaks, but I thought that I would share this list sooner rather than later because Falcon has just been released. Folks may be seeking some inspiration on how to play him.

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Main Strategy

This is a Swarm deck, which means that it uses lower cost allies to deal with the battlefield and then block (i.e. get defeated) so that your hero's health is preserved.

The key cards to play asap are:

• Battlefield Awareness
• Aerial Recon
• Falcon's Flock - economy that can be recurred using Sam Wilson's AE ability Bird of a feather
• other resource generators (Quincarrier, Team-Building Exercise, Clarity of Purpose)
• some allies

To accelerate your setup and to find your powerful events, I have included some non-Aerial allies that draw cards. You'll definitely draw through your deck at least once every game.

• Maria Hill, Nick Fury, White Tiger.

If you get all of them into play, then you will be able to ...

• deal damage and thwart, depending on the board state

• control the encounter deck to make the Villain phase less threatening

  • keep a low boost card on top for the Villain's activation (especially scheming).
  • keep a high boost card on top for the Villain's attack that will be chump blocked by an ally.
  • keep a devastating card on top and feel the relief of knowing that it won't be an encounter card that you'll draw and have to suffer it's reveal.

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Special mention: Strength in Diversity

This card is VERY good! The thing I appreciate about this card is its versatility. It can remove threat and/or deal damage, as per the needs of the current board state. It's good enough that I included Leadership Training so that I can recur them.

You will usually have between 4-6 Traits in play. If you get this exact setup, you can have the maximum of 9 Traits in play.

• Falcon → Aerial and Avenger
• Cannonball → adds X-Force
• Hugin & Munin → adds Asgard and Bird
• Nick Fury → adds S.H.I.E.L.D. and Spy
• Vivian → adds Android and Champion

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How to play the deck

Control of the top card of the encounter deck

In my Overview section, I mentioned that one of Falcon's biggest strengths is his control over the top card of the encounter deck.

• 2-3 icons

  • discard it using his hero ability Eagle-Eyed after you play an Aerial card. The Villain's next activation will hopefully be weaker.
  • use it to make your events more impactful (Bird of Prey, Bird's-Eye View, Up, Up, and Away).
  • use it to boost your basic power (ATK, THW, DEF) (Battlefield Awareness).

• 0-1

  • discard it using his hero ability Eagle-Eyed after you play an Aerial card. Hopefully the next card will be a higher boost to power up your events (Bird of Prey, Bird's-Eye View, Up, Up, and Away) or your to boost your basic power (ATK, THW, DEF) (Battlefield Awareness).
  • leave it on top to make the Villain's next activation weak. And you can make an informed choice of which form is best for you to be in at the end of the player phase.

Also, pay attention to the actual card itself.

• If it's a weak encounter card, then consider taking it (Aerial Recon to generate a recon counter. These counters can be spent when you need some breathing room to set up or to deal with a busy board state.

• If it's a devastating encounter card, then consider discarding it using his hero ability or a hero card, regardless of the boost icons.

Threat Removal

You can always trust that you can remove some threat every round.

• Cannonball can thwart for 2 most turns without taking consequential damage. He can stay in play for the entire game.
• Falcon can thwart for 2.
• other allies can thwart for 1-2.

If the top of the encounter deck has 2-3 icons, you'll be able to remove a chunk of threat if you use one of these cards:

• Bird's-Eye View is able to thwart up to 6 threat.
• Battlefield Awareness is able to thwart up to 5 threat.
• Redwing is able to remove up to 3 threat.

If you use the top of the encounter deck to power any of these cards and the next card atop of the deck is also has a high icon count, then you can use another one of these listed cards to do more damage.

Strength in Diversity can remove 4-6 threat, up to a maximum of 8.

Damage

You can always trust that you can deal some damage every round.

• Cannonball can attack for 2 most turns without taking consequential damage. He can stay in play for the entire game.
• Falcon can attack for 2.
• other allies can attack for 1-2.

If the top of the encounter deck has 2-3 icons, you'll be able to remove a chunk of threat if you use one of these cards:

• Bird of Prey is able to deal up to 7 damage.
• Battlefield Awareness is able to deal up to 5 damage.
• Redwing is able to deal up to 3 damage.

If you use the top of the encounter deck to power any of these cards and the next card atop of the deck is also has a high icon count, then you can use another one of these listed cards to do more damage.

Strength in Diversity can deal 4-6 damage, up to a maximum of 8.

Other tips

Falcon is a complex hero due to...

• having multiple cards that can interact with the top of the encounter deck,
• sequencing the order which to play cards
• deciding when to flip down to his AE to use his ability
• managing the allies in play (hint: use them as fodder and chump block, except for Cannonball).

I may update this section with further playing tips later, once I've played more games.

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Other potential cards

Allies:

• Aero and Cloud 9 - I played my first game with them. I had them both in play at the same time, and I found them to be underwhelming for their cost. I'm willing to try them again, but maybe only choosing to put one of them into play, or possibly even just one in my deck list.
• Spectrum - You can tutor Redwing using your AE ability, and use it to pay for Spectrum and tuck Redwing underneath her. Spectrum would then be a 3/3 with 5 health. That's good value. However, I find Falcon to be vulnerable in the early game, so I chose to prioritize cheaper allies that can ATK/THW, block, and possibly draw cards to get me setup quicker.

Additional "ready" effects:

• Ready to Rumble - inexpensive and somewhat "on-demand".
• Flying Formation - too expensive. Your allies' ATK/THW aren't high enough to make it worth readying. I'd rather just play another event or ally instead.
• Flight Squadron, Command Team, Inspiring Presence - Most of your allies' ATK/THW aren't high enough to make it worth readying. Also, I think the current list is in the sweet spot of having enough set up cards to play and resources to play them. In my experience, adding more setup cards meant that I would draw hands that required me to discard pieces to pay for things, leading me to either being not properly set up or simply not playing those cards until the late game (which by that point, those cards feel unnecessary). They just bloated the deck.

More damage:

• Go All Out - does 6 damage. Can do 7 damage once Vibranium Microweave is in play. It's a good card; however, I'm not sure what to cut. I pre

Better ally stats:

• Inspired, Lead from the Front, Team Training - In my experience, adding more setup cards meant that I would draw hands that required me to discard pieces to pay for things, leading me to either being not properly set up or simply not playing those cards until the late game (which by that point, those cards feel unnecessary). They just bloated the deck.

  If you want to make your allies' stats better, than I think that you're building a different deck that has different priorities.

Player Side Schemes:

• Of course they can be very useful. However, you may not be able to clear them in the early game when they are the most impactful. Also, you will draw through your deck quickly, and so tutoring specific cards is not necessary. Also, you have plenty of resource generating cards; therefore, getting cards for "free" (i.e. no resource cost) is not necessary.

  If you still want to add some into the deck, I would suggest:

  • Superpower Training - to get Battlefield Awareness into play.
  • Build Support - to get Quincarrierinto play early.

Misc:

• Strength In Numbers - I mentioned in the Main Strategy section that you want to draw cards to cycle through your deck quicker, so why aren't I playing this card? Because you need to exhaust your allies to deal with the board state. Drawing 3-4 cards is great, but it doesn't help you survive being engaged with multiple minions, or with keeping the main scheme clear of threat in the early game.
• I'm curious to try Make the Call so that I can recur:
  • Maria Hill & Nick Fury to draw cards,
  • Sunspot to damage 2-3 enemies,
  • Redwing to take advantage of a 2-3 icon card atop the encounter deck, or
  • Hugin & Munin to ready our hero (i.e. after using [Soup Kitchen](/card/53007, exhausted by a encounter card, etc)

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