Matt, Don't Quit Your Day Job

Deck Pitch: We never flip to hero and let the law and some careful planning take out the villain.

A while ago I put together a Jennifer Walters deck called Don't Quit Your Day Job where the whole point was to take advantage on one of her worst cards and beat the bad guys by taking them to court. This is just that same deck but with Matt Murdock. The write up for this is mostly the same as well since most of it functions the same.

Inspired by decks like https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/10156/playing-poker-with-natasha-romanoff-1.0, https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/49445/tony-stark-director-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-1.0, and my own https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/53190/don-t-quit-your-day-job-1.0 that never want to flip up, here's a Matt Murdock deck that has him working with law enforcement and a burying the villains in paperwork. He might not be able to lash out and push them for fear of losing his practice, but he can still sniff out evidence that leads to convictions. Just like the other iteration of this deck, this goal may not be feasible depending on who you are going up against, but the challenge is to win without flipping to hero.

Basic Deck Strategy

This deck is very build reliant since we aren’t gonna be going into Hero form if we can help it. So we need to get our supports, upgrades, and allies to help us get the job done. If we are playing solo we really need side schemes to help us end the game because that is where a solid chunk of our damage is coming from. In a very ideal scenario we can wring 6 damage per side scheme we defeat. So we aren’t playing a very fast game with this deck.

Mulligan Priorities

1st - Permanent Threat Removal/Prevention (Beat Cop, Disguise, Foggy Nelson, Nelson and Murdock
2nd - Temp Threat Removal (Allies or Surveillance Team)
3rd - Side Schemes and our additional damage (Command Center and Sky-Destroyer)

Sniffing out Evidence

In order to have a good case, Matt has to go digging for some leads that will give him a leg up on the opposition. This is one area that he is able to beat out Jenn as a lawyer. He has a lot more tools at his disposal. Deposition is the most powerful card in your arsenal because it in the only way for you to get out Sense cards. Karen Page and Deposition go hand in hand when playing this deck. You really only have two Sense cards you'll be using Superior Taste and the MVP Enhanced Olfaction. Put Enhanced Olfaction on any scheme you feel like with Deposition and thwart it to give yourself a big discount on the ton of set up cards you have to play. Our gameplay loop will look a lot like his once you can manage it (it does take some good draws, but is easy to keep going).

Play Deposition and put Enhanced Olfaction on the main or a side. --->
Use Disguise and/or Foggy Nelson to finish the scheme. --->
Use the trigger from Enhanced Olfaction to get out an ally or a support. --->
Exhaust Karen Page to shuffle Deposition back into your deck and draw a card.

So with this we are weaponizing the Villain's schemes to get the law on them even more. If you happen to have a side scheme heavy game Nelson and Murdock will be able to keep the villain confused a decent bit so you're not having to work as hard to keep threat low on the main.

Opening Statements

We’ve done all the prep work we can do for our time in court and now it’s time to put it into action. We gotta make sure all our witnesses show up and that we can question them effectively. Beat Cops are a huge source of passive threat removal so once you can get one on the stand, do so ASAP. I don’t think there is a more important card to get out except for your making sure you have your snappy suit on (aka Disguise). The villain scheming against you every turn is gonna add up really quick if you don’t have a way to deal with it the game is gonna be over before you can get off the ground. We’ve put together an effective case, but the prosecution is going to hammer us hard, so we have Counterintelligence to push back against their Advance.

Since the main scheme is probably ticking up at an average rate of four per turn, that gives us a baseline for how much threat we need to shake every turn. Our Beat Cops can almost cover than by themselves and Surveillance Teams and good in a pinch, but we want to hold onto them for Homeland Intervention.

Expert Witnesses

We have a handful of high profile names we can call on to help our case. They each serve a specific purpose to help us defeat the prosecution.

Sentry can help us get more evidence and is a powerhouse once he takes the stand. No one has the will to object to him being here.
Husk is our closer. Once you have laid out your case, she can keep pressing your position until the villain folds. Play her late game.
Jessica Jones is snapping photos to help support are case, the more evidence the better she is. Play her mid game when side schemes are piling up.
Monica Chang helps present our evidence. Play her early and mid game to get our Surveillance Teams or to refresh them.
Nick Fury comes in clutch with whatever we need in the moment. Good to play whenever you need an immediate boost.
Quake is here to clear the gallery if things get too crowded. In minion heavy scenarios get her out early to chip away at them.

Closing Arguments

The prosecution isn’t gonna rest until they are beaten into submission and unless you wanna flip up to hero to close things out, we have a pretty strict path to achieve this. Now if you don’t mind not challenging yourself, just go hero mode and beat face. But if you’re trying to stay alter-ego, we are very reliant on dealing damage strategically by defeating side schemes or playing SHIELD cards.

If we can manage it we can do six damage whenever we pop a side scheme with Command Center and Followed. Finishing Lay the Trap hits the villain for eleven which is a decently flashy way to end things.

Sky-Destroyer is here to slowly chip away at the villain or the minions by a little bit whenever you Homeland or play a SHIELD ally. It’s unlikely to win you the game on its own, but it can manage things for you.

There’s one Cell Phone here to help give you a slight boost towards either thwarting or punching. Call in help as needed.

Additional Evidence

If you are taking this one into multiplayer, it’s probably fine as is in two player for handling most of the threat (once you’re established). But higher than that, it’s unlikely to be able to handle the higher numbers you’ll be seeing. Since you’re more likely to have other players to handle damage in high player counts, feel free to lose Followed, Command Center, and Sky-Destroyer in favor of Vigilante Training to recycle Homeland Intervention. Even then, it’s gonna be struggling to really deal with everything that gets put on the table, so hopefully your fellow players don’t mind helping when you get in a pinch.

There is a version of this deck that ran more Cell Phones to squeeze a little more out of your allies. I traded those away in favor of adding Counterintelligence to give you a little more protection against losing to a burst in threat. In multiplayer it may be better to switch this trade since Cell Phones can sometimes function better than Counterintel.

Most decks I run Monica Chang in are recursion decks meant to play her repeatedly. So I had to break away from that for atleast one deck. If you are more interested in that playstyle, trade the Followed cards for Chance Encounter. I might also throw in Dum Dum Dugan to give you a little more damage.

If you want to cut this deck down closer to 40, be my guest and good luck to you. I was struggling to make any cuts and every time I did I found another card or two to include in its place. I guess you could trim down the allies or cut out some Beat Cops or Surveillance Teams, but I was really having a hard time doing that. This deck may be cursed to be inefficient, but it’s a jank deck anyway, so we may have to settle for that.

I built this deck before Jessica Jones came out, but if I had gotten my hands on her cards before publishing it I would have 100% included Spider-Woman in this deck for all the damage she is capable of dishing out.

—- Munkey