Winter's Weapons Against Cold-Hearted Killers

Winter's Weapons Against Cold-Hearted Killers

This deck build was inspired by a discussion with about99ninjas56 in some YouTube comments; hence, the inclusion of Firepower and Directed Force. They also suggested Moment of Triumph for healing. Although not included in my deck, it's easy to see how effective that would have been in keeping Winter Soldier's health up.

In my case, I included a fair number of allies to keep the schemes in check when combined with Winter Soldier's hero ability, Lethal Protector. Once two or three weapons are in play, the damage output grows very quickly.

If you'd like to see a discussion of this deck, see the following video: coming soon from Winter Soldier Aggression Deck Discussion | Winter's Weapons ... I will be also adding two "demo" videos that show off some turns with the deck (thanks to instructional videos by Solo Marvel Champions for using DragnCards).

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck and/or game play strategies (in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Drang; Nebula; and Magneto.

Deck Refinements: I originally had all S.H.I.E.L.D. allies in the deck but decided to replace them with Bug and Wolverine in order to have allies who could continue to thwart indefinitely, though I always eventually used them to defend with.

• Other Key Removal(s):

  • Sidearm: I didn't play this card in 7 games and was never tempted to do so.

• Key Addition(s): N/A

NOTABLE ELEMENTS:

Interactions with Directed Force:

• Winter Rifle: This weapon adds piercing and ranged to Winter Soldier's basic attacks, allowing him to pump up those attacks to 6 with Directed Force (or 7 if Combat Training is also in play)
• Firepower: Since Firepower is a ranged attack, Directed Force increases its damage by 2, while Cybernetic Arm increases it by 1 more, giving this the possibility of 6-damage per weapon exhausted, maxing out as high as 18 points with 3 weapons in play.
• Metal Punch gains overkill when Cybernetic Arm is used to pay for it. With the addition of Directed Force, this event can reach 10 points of damage.

Weapon Choices: While there are a lot of great ways to go for weapons, I decided to stick with 1-cost weapons that could stay in play indefinitely by being attached to Winter Soldier.

• Jarnbjorn was an easy choice because its ability can still be used even when this card is exhausted, so one can often use Quincarrier or Directed Force to deal extra damage on an attack even if Directed Force could not otherwise be played.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. Sidearm: While this card could potentially be played on a S.H.I.E.L.D. ally, knowing I could always put it in Winter Soldier meant it could stay in play indefinitely and have its ability triggered a couple of times from a basic attack for some extra damage.

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Conclusion:
Though this deck has a relatively large numer of weapon upgrades and resource generators, it sets up quickly, while allowing Winter Soldier to deal damage regularly to minions and the villain and also maintain control of the schemes. By the second pass through the deck, the villain is typically being put on ice due to the devasting Firepower being unleashed.

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.