Ionic Maintenance

With this deck, Wonder Man becomes an all-round hero who would rather stay in hero form than flip back and forth.

When you start the game, mulligan hard for your upgrades and Wonder Fans. Getting one or two upgrades into play is a great start. But the most important upgrade in this deck is Jet Belt.

Why? Jet Belt lets you generate a resource by discarding a card from underneath Ionic Physiology. You can then use that resource to pay for an event, tuck that event underneath Ionic Physiology, and heal yourself. The more you use this engine, the more Wonder Man can keep doing what he does best.

To make sure you always have an event available, the deck runs 23 events. Not all of these are ideal in solo play. Relentless Assault and Into the Fray require a minion to be in play, Unified Strike requires an ally to attack, and Yaw and Roll requires you to thwart first. In multiplayer, however, these requirements become much easier to meet. There's usually a minion somewhere on the table, and there's a good chance one of your teammates has an ally in play.

This deck includes Throg and Thor Odinson. Both can enter play with a Tough status, which is extremely useful. Whenever you or a teammate puts an ally into play with Tough, you can use Unified Strike to have that ally attack. Add Wonder Man's own attack—which can reach four—and you get a lot of value while still protecting the ally from consequential damage. The Tough status stays on the ally... great stuff.

Thwarting comes from Active Altruism, Into the Fray, and Yaw and Roll. All of these are events, meaning they can eventually be tucked under Ionic Physiology to heal you for 1 damage each.

In a two-handed game, I often found that I had more opportunities to thwart than there was threat on the board. That actually worked in my favor: I could clear the remaining threat with an event, leaving me free to attack.

At first I thought this was bad for Wonder Man—I was losing all those tucked-away cards! But then I realized that discarding them simply makes room for more cards, and therefore more opportunities to heal.

Preemptive Strike works beautifully with Wonder Man. You take only the villain's printed damage, keep your hero ready, deal damage back to the villain, and heal yourself for 1. All that from one cheap card!

I added Spider-Girl and Sunfire to give us even more opportunities to play Unified Strike. Spider-Girl can provide some relief from a troublesome minion, while Sunfire can easily deal with a nasty attachment—especially since this deck is packed with Energy resources.

Quincarrier provides an extra Energy resource, but its Wild resource can also be useful when you need a different resource type to discard an attachment. Helicarrier is included mainly with multiplayer in mind, although it's still a perfectly good card to play in solo.

Last but not least, the deck includes The Power of Aggression and Aggressive Energy. Both provide Wild resources while offering additional benefits. And of course, Energy is here for obvious reasons.

I've played this deck around 15 times now, and I'm still having a lot of fun with it. I've played it alongside Hulkling, Hercules, Tigra, Bishop, and Magik, and it has stood the test every time—in both Standard and Expert.

If you've read this far—and especially if you give the deck a try—feel free to leave a comment. Your tips, thoughts, and experiences are always welcome and greatly appreciated!