Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
Saan · 3821
When I first saw Boot Camp, I thought "Well that's way too expensive to want to play." You have to find it and play it for 3 resources, meaning it has to deal a LOT of damage for it to be worth it. Also, you need to play a decent amount of allies in order for it to even do damage, which are also quite expensive. Overall, I didn't think very highly of the card.
But every once in a while, I'd think "Man, Wasp could attack for 4 damage," and "Tigra attacking for 3 is great vs a lot of enemies...". Finally I figured I'd make a deck to try it out, and man oh man, I'm pleased with the result.
I decided to make it in Captain America, firstly because Steve's ability is super relevant to playing the allies you want to. Secondly, you can just sit around defending attacks while your allies do all the damage, since your defense is your strongest stat. Then, if you have a free card for the turn, you can ready anyhow to either attack or thwart as needed.
Anyhow, lemme go through the deck and chat about it a bit. It'll be a long write-up, but what the hell.
Allies Galore
Before I get to the actual allies, I want to cover Boot Camp. I'm running 2 because I really want to see it. There's decks out there that only run one, and I think they're insane for doing so. I've often considered running 3, and I still am, just because it feels so bad if both copies are near the bottom. Dead cards suck, though, so I just have the two for the moment.
Obviously we want several allies, so we're basically playing all of em. I want them to be Avengers, so that leaves out almost all the Neutral ones. War Machine could go in, but he's expensive, and I'd probably be taking out a cheaper Ally for him, and the deck is expensive enough as it is. Brawn is the only non Avenger ally here (other than Agent 13, but there's nothing we can do about her). He's included just for pure value. 5 HP for a cost of 3 is great regardless, and if he's attacking for 2 each turn, plus thwarting for 1, that's a massive 8 damage and 4 thwart until he has 1 HP left. With heals, the dude can just last forever.
Wasp is a card I go back and forth on, mainly because she needs energy resources to function. As I've tuned the deck more and more, I've ended up with less and less energy on cards, and I'm not sure if she'll make it. As it is, if you get her out, she's tons of damage for the cost.
A notable Avenger that's missing here is Hulk, and I'm hoping the reason is obvious. I really don't need him as a blocker, and I really, really don't want him attacking and hitting an energy (or wild) resource, wiping out the rest of my Allies.
Money 'n' Heals
In order to keep everyone alive, First Aid has to make a showing. It's worth anywhere from 4-8 damage, depending on who you play it on, which is nutty for 1 resource. Because of the amount of allies there's almost always a good target, but it's fine to hold for a turn or so in order to get good value out of it.
Honorary Avenger is also here, since it both makes Brawn play nice with Avenger's Tower (and Agent 13, but I honestly rarely play her), and also provides a small "heal" for allies for 0 cost. This actually used to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes, so that I could use allies who had maxed out on damage in order to ready Cap, but that's only worth 2-3 damage, whereas an additional HP can be worth 2-4, depending on the target. If it's on She-Hulk, it can be worth 5!
Because of the expense of the deck, we're running almost every econ card allowed to us. I could also run Helicarrier, but so far it just seems like its unneeded. I'm playing Quincarrier over Heli because the Wild resource can help out with Wasp and Valkyrie, as well as the occasional Heroic Strike and Thor, if I haven't found a Super-Soldier Serum yet.
Honestly, Super-Soldier Serum is another great reason to run this deck in Cap. Having 2 cards that generate a resource that you can use on anything, and can be used in both Hero and Alter-Ego form is fantastic. Once the deck is set up, you're basically playing allies for free.
Team-Building Exercise is a card to consider, since we have a lot of Avenger traits on cards, but I'm pretty much not playing it for the same reason I don't also have Helicarrier: it just seems like overkill. Also, it's only usable in Hero form, so it doesn't stack at all with Steve's cost-reducing ability. More or less, being able to flip to Alt-Ego makes the card redundant.
Because I have nowhere else to discuss it, I'm playing Endurance. Usually I prefer Down Time, if I'm going to run one of them, because I think recovering for more is usually better than gaining more HP that takes longer to recover if you fall low. However, I generally don't lose too much HP with this deck, since I'm defending most turns, and I'm flipping down to Alt-Ego often enough in order to get cheaper allies that I can recover enough to keep me healthy. Also, Steve's Apartment provides additional healing, making Down Time even less relevant. I might be able to get away with not running Down Time or Endurance, but it's nice to have a buffer if things get a little crazy.
Cap is insane
Finally, I've got to acknowledge that some of the reason this deck works is because almost anything works in Cap. The dude has a pretty premium deck, and you can get away with a lot. Is this deck better than just running the standard Events that Aggression likes so much? I'm not sure, but I also kinda don't care. I'm just happy that there's a second archetype emerging for Aggression.
| 7 comments |
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Mar 10, 2021 |
Mar 12, 2021It works pretty well for Black Panther, also. If you run Team-Building Exercise, then Shuri and The Golden City are targets. Being able to flip down to alter-ego and draw 2 with the city to get more allies into play feel really good, and you can run some Mighty Swings off your hero weapons. |
Mar 12, 2021Hey, I was really exicted to try this out. I start with the fun fact: I was able to beat expert Rhino, Crossbones, Absorbing Man and Taskmaster for the first try (literally first in the case of last three, I did not play any RORS yet). This means the deck, but I would say CAP itself is still A+ hero. In the other hand there are two options: I was very unlucky or the deck really struggles sometimes. There were so many rounds when the cards were so dead like: 1-2 resource, 1-2 first aid (0 ally on board, max hp or 1 dmg), bootcamp when it was already played, 1-2 resource generator, 1-2 honorary avenger or useless captain america card like helmet. So there is a quite high chance (especially if a few card is already on the board like 1 serum, avengers tower, 1 ally, shield etc.), that you are going to end up with a dead end. The only upside in this scenario is, that CAP can ready himself. For this reason I am not convinced, for harder scenarios like heroic1. I see the potential and understand the deck concept, but twists are needed IMHO. Like removing honorary avangers or similar. Or I was really really unlucky multiple times not getting the cards in at least an almost normal way. |
Mar 12, 2021I really like this deck but I had similar issues as szuper. When the draws hit right, you're flush with resources and throwing down allies like a boss. Feels great. But, too often, you get junky hands filled with multiple copies of First Aid, Honorary Avenger, and Shield Block/Shield Toss. It's a bummer to throw away most of your cards because you can't do anything with what you drew. I think I'd cut Brawn and the copies of Honorary Avenger for some thwarty events like Into the Fray and "You'll Pay for That!", which would also help pay for Wasp. If your heart belongs to Boot Camp Brawn, I'd cut Avengers Tower instead. You lose out on the tribal bonus, but playing your allies with less of a discount also makes you less likely to flood the board and bump up against the ally limit. |
Mar 12, 2021
I personally think that Into the Fray might be too expensive, especially since it also requires a minion, so both drawing it when you have the spare resources to play it and when there's a minion on board might be asking too much, but it might be fine to swap in if you're going into a more minion-centric encounter. I like "You'll Pay for That!" since it's both cheap, thwarts (for when you need it; I've been playing alongside Scarlet Witch Leadership, so I usually don't have to worry about it much), and contains that all-important energy resource. I think another card to consider is Lie in Wait, again because it's cheap, has an energy symbol, and can sit on the board until you need it, so it's not going to clutter up your hand. I'll probably try 2 and 2 of Lie and "YPfT" and see how that makes me feel inside. |
Mar 13, 2021It is not about the first draw, it is about the too often happening in game draws. For me threat was not that big of a deal, but I have to admit, that CAP sometimes did 4-6 (depending on Fearless Determination). And I forgot to mention that I swapped Sentry with War Machine since game one. Mainly because of thematic reasons, but in the other hand for THW and for one potential block, also he is still an Avenger. It was working like as intended. However I hadt he issues with Wasp, so I will have a look again on the possible energy cards you both mentioned. And one more thing: in multiplayer I think this will shine much more, as the game is longer. Not to mention with a possible leadership partner, when you can play Boot Camp twice. |
Mar 15, 2021
So far, the changes to the deck to make Wasp more playable seem not amazing. I never really want to play "You'll Pay for That!", and Lie in Wait is nice, but only if I have a free resource. I almost always have a target for Honorary Avenger, it costs 0, and is usually worth 3-4 damage. If I don't have a target, holding it for a turn is usually fine, or just pitching it to play something else is good too. I kinda just like the original version more. I think, if anything, pitching Wasp is probably the better thing, if something needs to go. Maybe just swap her for Hall of Heroes or something useful. |
Cool deck!
Indeed Cap is the guy to make this work. Not much I would change here, maybe Wasp as you said, because of her limitations, otherwise I think it's as solid as it can be.
Good job!