Combined Arms Formation - Air Support

Here's my offering for boomguy's Winning Hand challenge to build a deck that includes Joining Forces.

Episode 69 - Joining Forces

spotify / youtube

Since these Avenger/Guardian Alliance cards work best at Multiplayer, I've created 4 decks that support one another with synergistic team-ups, hence the title Combined Arms Formation (the designation given to military units comprised of multiple different types of forces working in concert). The other parts of the formation can be found here:

Combined Arms Formation - Logistics (Bishop)

Combined Arms Formation - Infantry (Rogue)

Combined Arms Formation - Armor (Captain America)

How This Deck Works

This deck gets the title of "Air Support" because it surveys the battle from above and carpet bombs the threat from multiple schemes... but it does NOT include significant support for the Aerial keyword.

Star-Lord works well running a board of thwarting allies, because Leader of the Guardians boosts all his character's thwarting ability (including his own). Star-Lord doesn't need to do damage, so Element Gun and Sliding Shot are low priority.

Star-Lord can make little thwarts of a single scheme (often the main) with his basic activation and his allies' basic activations. But if there's even one side scheme, Problem Solvers and Even the Odds become good value. You'll often want to use Star-Lord as the Guardian in this combo, since he can achieve the highest thwart stat on his board.

Team-Ups

• Star-Lord has lots of Avengers and Guardians that make good targets for Joining Forces whenever Bishop plays it.
• Problem Solvers is an Alliance card that other people can help pay for. You can also us "What could go wrong?" to discount it by 3!
• Because Problem Solvers and Even the Odds remove from EVERY scheme or side scheme, Player Side Schemes often end up being free money, so encourage the other players to get them on the board ASAP.
• Spider-Man has to be played from hand to get his bonus (no Joining Forces shenanigans for this ally), but you can use "What could go Wrong" to play him easily. Playing him to clear Build Support or Superpower Training is a flex play!
• If you need a big, multi-scheme thwart, but they're all in the discard pile, you can ask Rogue to Touch one of your Justice allies and recur it with Superpower Adaptation
• Because Star-Lord's allies are often dealing with threat rather than blocking (the other Combined Arms Formation decks are quite protective), the extra ally slot from Knowhere is beneficial. Note that the card draw only happens if someone plays a Guardian, not when a Guardian is put into play by Joining Forces.
• Three copies of Honorary Guardian are pretty flexible. Putting them on other heroes is preferred, since it will allow Captain America and Rogue to play Groot and Drax receptively (though these allies can already be put into play easily). Attaching one to any avenger ally will allow them to hold an Energy Spear (looking at you Tigra).
• Captain America is running three copies of Shake it Off, which is great for Star-Lord since it can help him stay in hero form longer without having to heal up.
• Wraith can cancel the boost ability of any boost card revealed by any player, which can prevent people from being exhausted, having minions put into play with them, or (at the very least) keep counters off Pursued by the Past.

And that's the deck! And that's how it works! If you have any thoughts or changes, or things that should be cut or included, let me know in the comments! Hope to see some of you at Gen-Con '25 to beat up on Loki/Enchantress for the first time!