Hawkeye - Not your typical Protection

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Protection Hawkeye 0 0 2 1.0

Ashcarr · 222

I've always been a little underwhelmed with Hawkeye. His entire deck is built around, you guessed it, arrows. Nothing has really been printed to support him or his playstyle. I did happen to stumble upon this idea when I was randomly assigned Hawkeye and groaned until my brother jokingly said, "Just go Protection Hawkeye," and a stroke of genius crossed my mind.

I've now ran this deck through Expert Rhino, Klaw, Mutagen Formula, Taskmaster, Absorbing Man, Crossbones, Zola, and Red Skull in two player games and won against them all so I'm happy to finalize the picks.

The idea here is that Hawkeye has garbage stats, he has garbage abilities, and frankly he has nothing going for him outside of his own cards which requires other hero specific cards to finally pay off.

First thing we need to address is his abysmal stats. He can't take a hit and stay in the fight and he can't thwart. Obviously we added Clea because she's a cheap chump blocker that will keep coming back. We also added Ironheart for mostly the same reasons though she doesn't keep coming back, but draws a card. Nick Fury offers a ton of flexibility. And finally, Iron Fist is just an automatic inclusion in any Protection deck because he's just that good.

Allies out of the way, Muster Courage is the real MVP. Hawkeye is one of those heroes who is in a unique position to actually play this card without having to feel bad about missing out on hero specific cards due to his Expert Marksman cards. Keep in mind, the card becomes considerably worse playing on Normal difficulty, but it's always Expert or Heroic for my play group and I. Tackle and Momentum Shift help him stay aggressive while keeping him in almost all game.

Finally, we do play expensive resource generators like Avengers Mansion, Helicarrier, and Quincarrier to help pay for his super expensive hands. Tenacity will help ensure that Hawkeye doesn't have some dead turns of drawing all arrows with no way to empty his hand. It was a problem I faced in the first game I played him in and it happens often enough starting as early as the second time through the deck that Tenacity really does some work of helping him fire three arrows to empty his hand.

9 comments

Mar 11, 2021 DukeWellington · 5017

I applaud you for taking on my least favorite hero in the game, and the hero with the least synergy potential. Also, running Tenacity is a gutsy call.

I think you might need some Power in All of Us to pay for those expensive basics (like Tenacity). Maybe still include basic Mockingbird. Maybe swap Black Widow for Brother Voodoo. Do you ever actually use Down Time? Just some thoughts.

Mar 11, 2021 Ashcarr · 222

I'd see dropping one Tenacity for the missing Energy, but wouldn't play Power in All of Us. All the basics are things that come in and stay in including Tenacity. Ideally you never need to use Tenacity, but it's there for awkward turns where you have a hand full of arrows which happens once you have a bunch of upgrades out and have thinned the deck.

Basic Mockingbird seems fine, but if I were to replace Black Widow I'd replace her for Nick Fury. He's a more flexible ally than basic Mockingbird and doesn't conflict with his signature ally. If signature Mockingbird didn't keep coming down turn after turn it wouldn't be a problem, but because once you see her she's always in play that makes basic Mockingbird just a dead resource.

Mar 11, 2021 Tuark · 115

Basic Mocking Bird can't be put in the deck because Hawkeye already has her as an ally. According to the rules you're only allowed to have a single copy of a unique card in your deck.

Mar 11, 2021 DukeWellington · 5017

@Tuark You can put one copy of each unique card, so you can have one copy of basic Mockingbird. You just can't have both versions of the character in play at the same time.

Mar 11, 2021 Tuark · 115

Quote from the rule book: "A player cannot include more than one copy of each unique card (by title) in their deck.". It clearly says by title, both Mocking Bird's have exactly the same title thus excluding the basic Mocking Bird from Hawkeye's deck.

Mar 12, 2021 DukeWellington · 5017

There is a difference between a card and a character. If the rules were intended as you suggest it would say "a player cannot include more than one copy of each unique character (by title)". Let me ask you a simple question, what is the difference between signature ally Mockingbird and basic Mockingbird? I would like to know an answer. They are different what?

Mar 12, 2021 DukeWellington · 5017

I decided to send in an official rules question to FFG, so hopefully we get an answer (I haven't seen an official answer elsewhere).

Mar 12, 2021 Tuark · 115

@DukeWellingtonThe reason they can't use the term "character" is because there's other unique card types. So they have to use the term "Title". Mocking Bird is the only card so far that is unique but has two cards that are used in deck building with the exact same title but different stats or abilities. I'll be curious to see how FFG judges this.

Mar 14, 2021 ThatIrishSOB · 1

@DukeWellingtonYou can find the answer to this in the rules reference guide under Unique. If you have any doubts about what constitutes the title you can find a breakdown of the card anatomy on page 21.