Justice is Blind

Opening Statement

I've been playing Marvel Champions since it launched but I'm typically more of an iterate-on-someone-else's-good-deck kind of player than a build-it-myself-from-scratch kind of player. However, I was too excited to play Daredevil to wait for other people to tell me what to do, so I put this together and thought I'd share it out as a (IMO) pretty strong, straightforward starting point for folks looking to play Daredevil against Expert difficulty on day one.

Also, I figured like 20 other people would come up with this same deck name and I wanted to see if I could get in there first.

Evidence

Testing for this deck has been done in solo on Standard 3/Expert 1, which is my preferred villain difficulty. I took it through a handful of scenarios that felt like they'd offer a broad range of challenges (i.e. Mutagen Formula, Apocalypse, Project Wideawake, etc.) before running it through the Fear No Evil campaign. The deck performed really smoothly and handled all scenarios with ease, barring Kingpin, but I think that says more about the Kingpin scenario than this deck. I've used some tried-and-tested decks, built by better players than me, that I have experience piloting to success against some of the hardest scenarios in the game, and still struggled with Expert Kingpin due to its inherent swingy-ness, particularly when you've done well in campaign mode. I did ultimately defeat Kingpin, with a 1-card adjustment to help (which I'll discuss below). If I find other areas of struggle as I continue to play around with the deck, I'll try to provide updated thoughts.

- Testimony of Matt Murdock

As much of the community expected, Daredevil's kit feels very powerful. He's inherently quite versatile, with the Sense deck offering a tonne of control over your ability to handle whatever the scenario throws at you, while the low cost curve of his cards typically lets you accomplish quite a bit in a turn.

The Man Without Fear is easily his best hero card and should be played as soon as you see it - 1 damage is a small price to pay to grab the specific Sense upgrade you need in the moment.

His access to meaningful alter-ego actions incentivizes you to flip down as much as possible, which gives you plenty of opportunity to heal up the damage you'll be taking from The Man Without Fear and from taking villain attacks to the face, since this build probably wants to favour reducing damage with Heightened Hearing over chump-blocking. Karen Page is definitely his favourite support, but don't sleep on Sister Maggie.

Overall, I think my favourite thing about playing Daredevil (specifically with this deck) is that most turns feel like a bit of a puzzle, and there often isn't an obvious best play line. Even Daredevil's Billy Club, which for me is not necessarily an auto-play when I draw it, can provide some interesting decision points, with its best use occasionally being to bounce it back to hand to use as an extra resource, before shuffling it back in with Karen.

Between the cards in my hand (Deposition was even more complex and interesting in practice than my initial reading of the card suggested), the Sense deck (Enhanced Olfaction vs. Acute Tactility is usually a very interesting choice), and some cards on the table (looking at you, TMWF), it can sometimes take 5-10 minutes just to figure out all the possible combinations of things I can do with my turn. With a side scheme and/or minion on the table, you can pretty regularly use his Senses and other upgrades in this list to set up a Rube Goldberg-esque series of cascading effects that I find deeply satisfying.

I think there's going to be a lot of varied and interesting ways to build Daredevil, even just within Justice, but the card choices for this list were focused on supporting and complimenting the things the hero kit seemed to already want to do.

- Exhibit A - Top Performing Card Choices

• Deft Focus - This is such an auto-include for every Daredevil deck that I'm a little surprised it wasn't just reprinted in the Fear No Evil box. Maybe we'll see it come back in Iron Fist's pack. The Sense cards are all Superpowers, and are the whole point of the kit, so you're basically guaranteed to get value out of this every turn. Combined with Helicarrier and TMWF you can potentially play 3 Sense upgrades every turn without ever spending a single card from your hand.

• Chance Encounter - Given Daredevil's great innate thwarting, and the payoffs some of the Senses provide from defeating side schemes, this deck is leaning in to adding additional value from side schemes. Aside from being yet another upgrade for the purposes of Living Lie Detector, this card lets us replay some valuable allies, so we can run fewer allies overall. It also combos very nicely with Enhanced Olfaction on the same scheme, allowing you to go find an ally, and then play it at a reduced cost of 2. When that ally is Nick Fury, you're essentially turning any side scheme into Evaluate Threat.

  Also, Daredevil is on the card art...

• Stealth Training - This card is kind of nuts, particularly given how easy it is for this deck to thwart with precision. Worth noting that it's not a "Hero Response", so you can trigger it off of Deposition or Living Lie Detector while in alter-ego. A perfect fit for this control-focused deck, and I think it still pulls its weight against Stalwart villains, since Daredevil might not always be able to defeat a minion or two the turn they enter play, so the stun remains valuable.

• Know Your Enemy - This being 0 cost for Daredevil is a tonne of value. It combos nicely with Superior Taste, and makes it pretty easy to fire Stealth Training. There's a chance this should be 3x in the deck.

• Skilled Investigator - An easy include for most Justice decks, but even better in this deck where we're stacking value off of defeating side schemes.

  Also, Daredevil is on the card art...

- Exhibit B - Pleasant Surprises

• Blindspot - I initially just included him because he was new, but really liked the way he worked out in practice. In a Daredevil deck, he can reliably put out more confuses than Psylocke, which is saying something. And we do like jumping down to alter-ego. Matt has to keep his court dates, after all.

• Eros - This was originally a second copy of Followed, but I swapped him in to help with Vulnerable minions in Fear No Evil. Even beyond that utility, it was nice to have some more confuse for minions, so I didn't have to be so concerned about getting them off the table ASAP.

• Specialized Training - This deck might be the best home for Specialized Training that I've found so far. Unlike most heroes for whom 5 threat can be a bit of a chore to clear, Daredevil can often clear this the same turn it comes down. So far, I've only ever used it for Combat Specialist, because I've found he wants the extra damage more than anything else, and it's particularly good in a deck that can reliably activate more than once in a turn. That said, I think you could make an argument for any of them, depending on the situation.

• Generation X - Justice side schemes are... not the best... but I was really happy with this one! Daredevil only has 3 attack events, so the ability to tutor one out has been really helpful. Most of the time I've fired this to grab Cross-Examination when I'm set up to do a bunch of damage at a clutch moment.

- Exhibit C - Tightening up the Gaps

• Damage - In my testing, I've found Daredevil to be a touch wanting for damage, most noticeably in scenarios that churn out a fair number of mid- to high-health minions. Ultimately, this might argue for Aggression being Daredevil's best aspect... but I wanted to play with some of the new cards that came in his pre-con. In terms of what we have in Justice to shore up damage that fits reasonably well with our gameplan, both Turn the Tide and Followedhave been helpful. At the moment, 1x Followed feels sufficient, but it's worth noting that Turn the Tide is anti-synergistic with Enhanced Olfaction. This might make the case for axing one for another Followed.

  Also, Daredevil is on the Followed card art...

• Health - 10 is respectable, but given that (in keeping with the theme of the character) we're more inclined to get up in the mix with enemies than let our allies take hits, and that we want to liberally use The Man Without Fear, the extra 3 health from Heroic Conditioning is welcome. I also like it better than the much cheaper Endurance as 3 thwart hits a lot of side scheme break points in solo.

• Resource Generation - Daredevil has cheap cards instead of an in-kit resource generator, and while not terribly interesting, Helicarrier was simply the best option available. It does smooth out a lot of turns. His pre-con didn't come with the double resources, and you can probably play without them if you like, but I've found them mostly very valuable, with only the odd hand in the late game where you find yourself having nothing better to do with a double than overpay for a 1-cost card.

Cross-Examination

So, after all that, am I certain that this is an optimized Daredevil deck?

Of course not!!

I think there's lots of room for tweaks to this deck depending on preference and the scenario you're facing. Plus, it's still early days with these cards, and my testing sample size is not huge. More games may change my evaluation of some of the card choices.

- Witnesses who might provide stronger testimony

• Under Surveillance - I swapped out 1 x Turn the Tide for this when taking on Expert Kingpin in campaign mode, and it was worth its weight in gold. Probably just straight necessary for the deck in that fight. Aside from it's standard value, it has the added benefit of increasing the threat removed with Living Lie Detector. However, Daredevil is typically such a thwarting machine that I haven't yet found the need to run a copy against other villains. More time will tell whether Under Surveillance warrants a permanent deck slot.

• More/Different Side Schemes - 3 player side schemes in a deck that really wants to defeat side schemes may not seem like a lot, but between One Way or Another and Focus the Senses being re-playable, I've generally found this to be enough.

  You could consider:

• Build Support Daredevil has lots of supports he likes on the table, but Helicarrier is the only one giving you full value from the Build Support discount.

• Lay the Trap - ehhhh.... It's a bit of extra damage, which is fine, but I don't like that you can only hit the villain, when mid-health minions are the more desirable target.

• Going Undercover - Honestly, this is probably worth more consideration than I've given it. The effect is pretty powerful in solo, especially for a deck that can handle side schemes as easily as this one. We're getting a similar, if more restricted, effect from Blindfold, and it's often a way to ensure we can jump down when a confuse isn't available, so I see the potential here. If you include Going Undercover, you could consider cutting Blindfold entirely.

- Witnesses who might not stand up to heavy cross-examination

• Professor X - Prof X is a staple in a lot of the decks I play, and he's good here, but I think there's an argument to be made that he's just not necessary. You have access to a lot of confuse for the villain between Blindspot and Nelson and Murdock, as well as access to some consistent stun for minions via Stealth Training. Additionally, the overall thwarting power of the rest of this deck kind of diminishes the value of Prof X's 3 thwart. Plus, Daredevil wants to be the one to clear all the side schemes so he can fire his Senses. In the end, I don't think it hurts to have him in the deck by any means, but I could see replacing him with a card you're more excited to play with.

• Move in Shadow - Let's be clear, this card is definitely good at 1-cost with the Martial Artist discount, and it makes it very easy to trigger the response on Stealth Training. The question is just whether Daredevil actually needs it. It's been great every time I've played it... I just don't play it every game.

  But... Daredevil is on the card art, so...

Closing Argument

It took me a couple games to really get my head around the set-up-and-pay-off playstyle that Daredevil likes, but once I did this list seemed to naturally coalesce around his gameplan, and generally enhance it. As a result, the deck feels like it has a pretty distinct identity, despite using a lot of staple Justice cards.

I intend to keep tinkering with this list, and would welcome any insights folks might have, particularly if you've had a chance to take it for a spin!

I'm really excited to see what the community does with Daredevil, and I have no doubt that the many creative deckbuilders on this site are going to come up with some ultra-powerful builds that really show off Matt across all aspects. But until then, I'm going to keep doing what I believe Daredevil does best: Bring Justice to the people!

I rest my case.

The Verdict

This deck is guilty of being a heck of a lot of fun, and I sentence you to try it out and share your thoughts!