Master of Ranged Firepower

Hawkeye has always been one of my favorite Marvel characters and when I got into this game about a year an a half ago he was the one I was most interested in maining. Sadly, with him being one of the older characters his kit has always fallen short. Even in a blue deck his arrow mechanic always felt clunky and even if you build into it it tends to be underwhelming. Luckily that all changes with the new Firepower archetype introduced with the Winter Soldier pack.

I have been seeing a lot of cool ideas floating around this one card but I have been very surprised not many people have applied it to Hawkeye yet. He is someone that can not only get a weapon on command but can also ready it up if it ever gets exhausted. On top of that he is the best hero suited for RANGED attacks which means any villain with retaliate is no bother at all. This deck is broken down into 3 main parts (Firepower, Arrow Kit, Mockingbird) that will combine to make Hawkeye into a DPS machine

FIREPOWER

This is the star of the show so let’s focus on it first. Right away we want to get our weapons as soon as possible which means Hawkeye's Bow, Side Holster, and then 2 of the 3 other weapons. S.H.I.E.L.D. Sidearm would be preferable for its lower cost.

Once done we will want to build out more with Honed Technique, Warrior Skill, and Sharpshooter. Sharshooter you can wait a little on as you wouldn’t want to use it to accidentally discard important upgrades such as Side Holster and your quiver. Although you want to avoid going to alter ego, if you do it would be good to have Assault Training ready so you can recycle Firepower back into your deck.

ARROW KIT

Not much to go over here as we let Hawkeyes kit get built out naturally. Hawkeye's Quiver is high priority as always and those Expert Marksman are not too far behind. In a perfect world you would want to stock your quiver as much as possible and shoot the arrow cards you draw in your hand.

Towards the end you should have the right arrow for the job whether that's disrupting the villain, clearing the board, or doing some big damage.

MOCKINGBIRD

Mockingbird has always been a tough sell because on one hand she can block all damage that would be received which is great for a fragile hero like Hawkeye but on the other hand she takes 4 resources to loop back onto the field. But did you know you can essentially get Mockingbird in for free if you pay for her with Avengers Tower, Government Liaison, and Helicarrier? Now is all this dedication worth it? It depends. If you have a friend playing protection then probably not but if you are solo or with someone who can't protect you then yes.

The thing about this deck is that once it’s set up you don’t need to worry about paying for your events anymore. Arrows will be covered by Expert Marksmen and Firepower will be covered by Quincarrier. So why not create a Mockingbird loop where she is always on the field?

HITTING THE MARK

This sounds like a lot but by your second deck pass you should have most of this set up because of how low cost most of this deck is. Your general loop will be:

Start turn > Play Mockingbird > Use Firepower > Ready Bow > Shoot Arrow.

If you used all 3 Firepower you can flip to Alter-Ego to get it back with Assault Training or if a minion engages you you can pull Firepower thanks to Aggressive Stance. With the arrows in your quiver + what you draw you should have plenty to choose from as well since this deck only fires 1 arrow a turn most of the time.

Now let’s talk numbers. The Top Damage Hawkeye can do in a turn is 44 Damage! We have a lot of modifiers and with a perfect draw we can do 10/10/10 Damage with Firepower (3 weapons, Warrior Skill, Aggressive Energy, Directed Force, Honed Technique and 2 resource with Sharpshooter) and then use a Vibranium Arrow to do another 12 Damage (same buffs but minus Honed Technique) plus throw in Mockingbird for 2 damage. This might seem unrealistic but it is not too far off from the average number we will be hitting which should be in the high 20’s and low 30’s. The fact is by end game you will always get the modifier from Honed Technique and Sharpshooter for all your Firepower attacks and chances are you’ll be drawing a directed force or an Aggressive energy.

CONCLUSION

Hawkeye is a character that has been power creeped but still has some surprises left in him. He has his flaws (try to pair him with a thwarter if you can) but overall he is a fun character if you give him the right deck which I’m hoping this will be.