Public Defender

Daredevil's greatest superpower is not his superior, mutated, senses. It's his ability to suffer and get back up. Protection is Daredevil's most thematic Aspect and I will hear no arguments otherwise. His kit clearly recognizes this and yet it creates tension in building a Daredevil Protection deck. You see, Daredevil likes going to AE a lot, but Protection decks often rarely need to hit AE at all. So what is the solution here?

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I propose the following.

Firstly, let's look at Player Side Schemes. Not a common sight in a Protection Deck. We're using 1-cost PSS to get 2-cost upgrades which isn't a great value at first glance. But throwing Senses on the PSS gives us Cable-like refunds when we beat it, and can trigger Nelson and Murdock for Confuses. Astonishing X-Men in particular is interesting because N&M allow it to Confuse Steady Villains. Additionally, our 2-cost upgrades are really, really important to our build, so having a tutor for them is nice. Plus, of course, the deck is made to benefit the rest of the table.

So since this is a deck with PSS, let's make sure we can clear them. The obvious engine for this is The Best Offense... paired with Army of One and The Man Without Fear. Innate Reflexes beats out Armored Vest here by making sure we're seeing real value off that combo starting from turn one.

A neat interaction, which I haven't seen discussed much online, is Jump Flip. This is killer Daredevil tech because The Man Without Fear allows you to play it during the Hero Phase by preventing its damage. This helps us control the Main while handling side schemes. Unfortunately it does not Trigger Superior Taste.

Now let's consider the tension inherent to Protection Decks. We currently get DEF up to 4 with Innate Reflexes and Ronin and have a card that likes big DEF. So why not just slide Armored Vest and Defensive Conditioning in here? Diminishing returns. Daredevil likes going to AE and has great recovery with Sister Maggie. Taking some damage is no problem at all, we're not aiming at perfect blocks here. As a problem-solver deck, our eye is on tempo play, not big combos. We want to be happy actually playing The Best Offense... the first time we see it to solve problems or advance Player Side Schemes rather than waiting for a full trip through the deck before coming online.

So how do we block for the table with 4-5 defense on a given turn? Stand Alone is an obvious answer, but that "doesn't work" if you're first player. Except that it does. You see, at some point we simply Pinned Down a minion and that minion attacks us for zero after we block the villain, triggering Stand Alone. Between this and Heightened Hearing We keep incoming damage pointed at us and manageable until we eventually heal it all up with Sister Maggie again. Pinned Down is also just a phenomenal card in general and especially with Daredevil as it instantly deprioritizes a minion that's harassing a player until Raising Hell or whatever can deal with it.

Stand Alone also has a neat interaction with Face the Past. Bullseye has a When Revealed that causes him to attack before Face the Past is done resolving. Stand Alone triggers, we then block all the damage from Bullseye (thanks Innate Reflexes) and immediately ready again off Face the Past.

Finally Stun Gun is there, in part, to support Jump Flip but also because its basic use has gone from fine to great with enemies like Purple Man and Tracksuit Mafia running around.

It is my view that, when faced with this evidence, the Villain has no choice but to concede the verdict. The defense rests, your honor.