Johnny Cage enters Marvel Kombat: Wonder Man, as intended.

Johnny Cage is a narcissistic Hollywood action star, obsessed with fame, the spotlight, and proving he is more than just an actor.

In his world, the supporting cast (known as "allies") exists only as stunt doubles and background lighting for his performance.

Some get exhausted, some get cut from the script, but all of them exist for one purpose: keeping Johnny ready and/or Ionised for the next fight scene!

Now is time for Johnny to enter the.....

Overview:

• Play Style: Use allies to ready/boost your hero. Maximize Ionic Physiology and heal a lot!
• Fun: Very High (play tons of events and heal).
• Difficulty: Medium+ (1 or 2 tricky interactions but the rest is simple). Have a look at the Example of a mid-game turn at the end ;)
• Power level: Strong.
• Recommended Player Count: Any (see changes for multi at the end).
• Number of cards: 41, with 2 PSS. See variants at the end.

This deck won against multiple Expert villains, including Venom Goblin (adding Everywhere All at Once of course :p ), Apocalypse, Magneto and more.

My Frustrations with Wonder Man — Foreword:
Upon reveal, I had very high hopes for Wonder Man, and felt a bit disappointed after playing him for real as I found issues in his design (imho!).

• He's not as tanky as expected! Energy Siphon requires HPs, you cannot stun reliably in the early game, and you often need your basic THW so DEFending is tricky. Going to alter ego is hard in true solo without confuse effects so you mainly rely on the Ionic Physiology healing. But...
• Keeping cards under Ionic Physiology feels doubly bad: 1- you cannot heal, and 2- you lose on potential damage. So you should often empty your Ionic Physiology. But...
• You already need your basic activation to THW or DEF. So ATK is low priority.
• And you're stuck! He could have really benefited from more ways to discard cards under Ionic Physiology.
• Also he's really reliant on his upgrades and support to do things. Having Jet Belt and Mr. Hollywood makes all the difference.

After trying a few different approaches, I decided to fully embrace Wonder Man’s Johnny Cage self-obsessed energy (). I wanted to play him "as intended', which means "playing 3 cheap events, healing 3, attacking for 4 ATK, repeat". This is what I loved about him when revealed :)

"The only REC I care about is RECording!”

Concept:
Here is the approach that finally made the hero click for me:

• Set-up fast with a lot of low-cost allies and events, so you can play your key upgrades more easily.
• Do you own stunts: take some big hits on the chin and then quickly heal by spamming a ton of 0-to-1-cost events (stun the villain, or sacrifice the cast of allies to give you more time). Always keep advancing the movie/game: the only REC you care about is RECording!
• Ready a lot and regularly empty Ionic Physiology for maximum efficiency!
• Make your fight (and thwart) scenes even more impressive with stats from the supporting cast: Regularly reach 7+ THW or 9+ ATK. Oh and FATALITY them to ready!
• YOU are the center piece. Not some random legion of extras (allies)!

How to play this deck / combos:

1. Early game

• Hard mulligan for any of your five 3-or-less-cost allies! 9 of your events cannot be played without an ally in play! Otherwise, hard mulligan everything else for Superpower Training, Jet Belt and/or Mr. Hollywood. You are the star after all!
  • Jet Belt lets you discard cards from Ionic Physiology. Remember that you can use the second Hero Resource on an event to immediately replace the discarded card and heal 1 in the process!
  • Mr. Hollywood is pure value for all your events, or a free Ant-Man.
• Yellow Jacket is great to get another shot at finding a key upgrade early.
• Avengers Compound is super good here because you really don't want to discard your allies as resources (except Thor maybe).
• Don't hesitate to take 3 damage with an Energy Siphon as you can heal some of it even on turn one.
• In the first villain phases, try to keep your AVENGER allies in play by defending or taking it on the chin. You actually want damage on yourself so you can maximize your healing.
• Try to stun the villain any time you see Starstruck.
• But don't hesitate to sacrifice the cast when the star of the movie is in real danger, or before a deck reshuffle, or if other allies in hand.
• Thor and Mighty Avengers are not priorities. But if you can play any of them early that's incredible value!

2. Mid-game

• No need to actually overpay anything once Mr. Hollywood is here! 0-cost Active Altruism is 3 thwart + 1 heal.
• Find a way to play Thor: Avengers Compound + a later Energy Siphon, or Call for Backup! Careful though because once Thor is in the Compound, he's stuck there unless you actually play him ;)
• Then Inspire him to be a Mighty supporting actor! He can reach 5THW and 5ATK, perfect to """Teamwork""" with (see below).
• Mighty Avengers is very good as long as you use it 7+ times. Easy with 7 allies + 3 Teamwork.
• Superpower Training can still play "What Are You?" if played late. Call for Backup can still find Black Panther.
• Black Panther is another copy of either Teamwork or "I Got This".

“Tell the cast to die off-screen.”

3. The Teamwork + "You Got This!" + Mighty Avengers interactions

Sequencing can get tricky sometimes. Jet Belt is your joker to solve the puzzle in your hand every turn (by discarding a card under Ionic Phys), try to exhaust it with caution.
Also be mindful of the triggering windows of Teamwork and "You Got This!", both happening just before calculating the damage of a Wonder Man's basic ATK (see the March 6, 2026 FAQ about the Leading Blow event).

Here are a few use cases you may encounter:

a. Earth's Mightiest Heroes:
With only Earth's Mightiest Heroes in hand it's easy. Just make sure you're exhausted and have 2 cards under Ionic Physiology (IP from now on). You'll ready with 3 IP cards. Basic ATK to empty IP.

b. Earth's Mightiest Heroes + "You Got This!":
If you also have a "You Got This!" in hand, it's a bit more complex. Have only 1 IP card, and exhaust your hero somehow. Play EMH, exhaust an ally, ready yourself, reach 2 IP cards. Exhaust in order to basic attack/thwart, play "You Got This!", discard the just-exhausted ally, add "YGT!" under IP to reach 3 IP cards. Resolve the basic power for 1+3+X ATK (X being the ATK of the discarded ally) or 2+X THW. Empty IP if you attacked.

Still following? Now let's try with the 2 blue events.

c. Teamwork + "You Got This!":
Have only 1 IP card, initiate a basic attack/thwart, play Teamwork, exhaust an ally to get +Y ATK/THW, add Teamwork under IP (for a total of 2). Exhaust your hero to pay the cost of the basic power, play "You Got This!", discard the just-exhausted ally, add "YGT!" under IP to reach 3 IP cards. Resolve the basic power for 1+3+(2xY) ATK (Y being the ATK of the discarded ally) or 2+(2xY) THW. Empty IP if you attacked.

d. And with Mighty Avengers in play:
If Mighty Avengers is in play, your allies in play get +1/+1. Note that this excludes allies that are discarded, which means there is a little anti-synergy with "You Got This!". But it's still worth it imo because it's very efficient with your normal allies activations, and with Teamwork.

e. And with Thor in play:

• Ideally, you always want to exhaust your 5 ATK / 5 THW Thor whenever you play Teamwork!
• Thor just never basic thwart in this deck. He can basic attack once in the game. Never defend with him unless you're about to lose.
• With him in play, you can regularly reach 7+ THW or 9+ ATK.

 
4. Example of a mid-game turn

• Let's say you start with 2 cards under Ionic Physiology (IP=2).
• Play Kaluu with Jet Belt+Quincarrier, discarding a card from under IP. Add an event to your hand. (IP=1)
• Basic THW for 2 with Kaluu (and Mighty Avengers).
• Initiate a basic attack.
• Play Teamwork, exhaust Thor, gain +5 ATK, place Teamwork under IP, heal 1 (IP=2).
• Play "You Got This!", discard Kaluu, gain +1 ATK (because Mighty Avengers can't affect him in the discard pile), ready your hero, place "YGT" under IP, heal 1 (IP=3).
• Finish resolving the attack. Deal 1+3+5+1=10 damage, empty IP. (IP=0)
• Basic THW for 2.
• Play Active Altruism for 0, remove 3 threat, place the event under IP, heal 1. (IP=1)
• Play Earth's Mightiest Heroes, exhaust Stinger (played earlier), ready your hero, place EMH under IP, heal 1. (IP=2)
• Basic THW for 2.

==> That's a total of 5 (cheap) cards played, 9 threat removal, 10 damage, and 4 healing. Note that most ATK could also be THW in this example.

Other cards to consider:

• Go to 40 cards by removing Mighty Avengers, but it added a lot of fun to me.
• Add 1 to 3 Everywhere All at Once if you play in multiplayer and/or a scheme-heavy scenario! I love this card!!! Most of the time 1 copy is enough as you can recur it with your Signature Sunglasses if needed.
• Evaluate Threat is great: it finds Mansion, Quincarrier, or any ally!
• Build Support is also an incredible PSS to get either Quincarrier or Mighty Avengers!
• I used Crew Quarters a lot at first (instead or on top of Endurance in multiplayer) and it's very good if the villain hits VERY hard.
• I also added Strength in the build for a long time to ease the early game and to not spend too much HP in Energy Siphon.

“Fatality. Credits roll. Standing ovation.”

Anyway, enjoy, have fun,
and don't forget to drop a like/fav, it's always appreciated :)