Going Knowhere Fast: Disco Death Race 2000

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
StarLord Ldrship 1 0 0 1.0
LIDERAZGO COMBO TEST 0 0 0 1.0
Star-Lord of the Avenger-Guardians 0 0 0 1.0
Star-Lord of the Avenger-Guardians 0 0 0 2.0
Star Lord Leadership 1 0 0 3.0
Star-Lord Combo (bleu) 0 0 0 1.0
Asgardians of the Galaxy (Star-Lord) 0 0 0 1.0
Star-Lord-Leadership 0 0 0 1.0
Star Lord test 0 0 0 1.0
Starlord party bus 0 0 0 1.0
Five Stairsteps O-o-h Child (STAR LORD 80+ DMG in One Turn) 0 0 0 1.0
Going Knowhere Fast_modified_Leadership 0 0 3 1.0
Going Knowhere Fast_modified_Leadership 0 0 0 2.0
avenger starlord 0 0 0 1.0
Going Knowhere Fast: Disco Death Race 2000 0 0 0 1.0
Going Knowhere Fast: Disco Death Race 2000 0 0 0 2.0

dr00 · 38765

WELCOME RACERS, TO THE MOST DANGEROUS RACE IN THE GALAXY!

This SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!!!

Seats start at 5,000 units, but you'll only need the EDGE!


Star-Lord

Star-Lord is ready to rock and rumble in the most dangerous race in the galaxy, and he's bringing a lot of racers. Thanks to a few support cards and Star-Lord's ability, he can go 7 wide with allies for some particularly powerful turns with Strength In Numbers.

By now, many of you have heard of the impressive ability Star-Lord has to leverage building up a lot of allies, hitting the boost button so everyone can go out in a Blaze of Glory, but Quill can just duck into alter-ego to save everyone from certain death. But there is so much more to it than that. In this write-up, I'll explain the card choices, strategy, and then close with some important things to keep in mind when piloting this deck.

First, let's look at the race roster:

  • Star-Lord: goes down, so you won't have to!
  • Ant-Man: easily playable at any cost
  • Black Knight: provides some valuable piercing
  • Falcon: has strong stats and a good enter play ability
  • Hawkeye: can help clear the board of minions as they enter play
  • Hawkeye: low-cost little hawkeye in training
  • Squirrel Girl: lost-cost and wonderful enter play ability; definitely makes an impact on arrival!
  • Stinger: a vital component of the deck's strategy

Vehicles:

  • Bad Boy: can save Star-Lord from a fiery death
  • Helicarrier: this S.H.I.E.L.D.-sponsored vehicle helps pay your setup costs
  • Quinjet: helps fill out your roster more quickly

Racetracks:

Star-Lord Maneuvers:

What is important here is that all of the allies can be played for 2-3 cards from hand, so you can get your racers out as quickly as possible without having to pitch many as resources. There are a few 3-4 cost, which would normally slow down other heroes, but thanks to "What could go wrong?" Quill can play them with ease. Also, Nova Prime unfortunately doesn't have the right license to race, but he's a great member of the pit crew or as a stand-in if you don't have enough racers yet. He has a nice played from hand ability, so he's definitely worth playing before you can go 7 wide. One more important thing to note is Stinger cannot be played without the Avengers trait on your identity, so we've included Make the Call and Quinjet (you can only bring Stinger onto the board with Make the Call, Quinjet, or if a fellow player gives Star-Lord Honorary Avenger).

Getting your roster to 7. You start with 3 allies +1 Avengers Tower +1 Knowhere +1 The Triskelion +1 Stinger. It is important that every ally has the Avengers trait for the Tower and Guardians trait for Knowhere, so we bring an entire roster of avengers, and Star-Lord does the rest with his hero ability.

So what is the benefit of doing this? Well, you have several tools to ensure you have an exciting race: Avengers Assemble!, Blaze of Glory, Daring Escape, Moxie, Sliding Shot, and especially Strength In Numbers.

The Combo Turn

The combo isn't as simple as Blaze of Glory, alter-ego: win. There's a bit more nuance depending on the current standings. Let's look at a few of them.

Starting in Hero Form

When starting in hero form, you can start as above: play Blaze of Glory, go down so your allies won't have to, ???, and profit!

Alternatively, you can start with Strength In Numbers, then play Blaze of Glory, and you'll have a few other options before ducking into alter-ego. Attack or thwart with Star-Lord, then play Daring Escape to ready him and do it again to get a lot of value from his increased stats. Those extra encounter cards also make Sliding Shot more powerful, easily dealing 13 damage each if you use Star-Lord's ability and play all 3 Daring Escapes. Definitely do not sleep on these! Additionally, you can stabilize the board state with Gutsy Move, which will be able to clear an enormous amount of threat along with your hero's and allies' improved THW stats.

One more option you have is with Avengers Assemble!. It will ready all of your allies and give them higher stats. If you play it after Strength In Numbers, you can give them all a chance to activate on that turn, especially with the improved stats from Blaze of Glory. Another option you have is playing Strength In Numbers again to really punch through the villain with Sliding Shot so you don't lose your allies.

You definitely don't want to activate your allies too many times, so it's perfectly fine to leave them all at 1 HP and just start drawing cards. You can play Avengers Assemble! to allow your allies to activate twice, but don't do this if too many of your allies would be defeated unless the villain would be defeated that turn. Team Training is here to support your allies, or alternatively, you can mix and match, sending some racers to thwart/attack again and saving some in reserve to draw more with Strength in Numbers.

With any extra resources, don't forget about your Element Guns.

Starting in Alter-Ego Form

When you start a turn in Alter-Ego, Blaze of Glory is not going to be a great option unless it would help you close out the race, so an alternative has been included: Moxie. With Moxie, you can give Star-Lord a little more oomph when he activates this turn along with Daring Escape and give him a little more stability for the villain phase. Additionally, starting in alter-ego is a wonderful position for the following combo:

Strength In Numbers, Avengers Assemble!, Strength In Numbers, Sliding Shot, Daring Escape x3, Sliding Shot x3

With the above and a full board state, you'll draw through an extra 17 cards, which likely means you can Blaze of the Glory on the following turn before flipping back down. Additionally, you can keep Star-Lord alive with Jet Boots, draw even more cards with your helmet, can make the board state a bit more stable with a powerful Gutsy Move.

Strategy Wrap-up

The highest priority on your first time through is playing Avengers Tower and Knowhere so you can have as many allies as possible. These will increase your ally limit and also help your setup time by reducing the cost of your allies or drawing a card when you play them, respectively. The next in the priority is playing as many allies as you can. If you have to spend some as resources, thankfully Make the Call is there to assist you. Play Strength In Numbers as often as you can (even with only one ally) to reduce your setup time. Once you have a decent board state, you can start focusing on your combo turns, so try to set this up as quickly as possible. Then: combo, combo, combo!

Rules and Regulations: Things to Consider

Remember to play Stinger with Make the Call or Quinjet. Star-Lord cannot play her from his hand. If you happen to draw both at the same time, you can use Stinger as a resource, then play Make the Call afterwards.

Knowhere will help your setup time as well, but remember that any allies brought into play with Make the Call, Quinjet, or Rapid Response will not trigger the card draw. However, Star-Lord's ability will allow you to trigger Knowhere, since his ability is constant (it's always 'on'), and Knowhere only checks 'after playing' (which includes placing the card in play, paying its cost, and resolving all of its enter play/play effects).

Moxie can only be played when you chance from Alter-Ego to Hero form, but it's a cheap way to keep the pressure on the villain, because you won't want to Blaze of Glory on a turn you end in Hero.

Daring Escape isn't a great value on its own. An encounter card for a hero ready isn't super great honestly, but with Moxie and Blaze of Glory, your hero activations will be stronger and definitely be worth it. Additionally, it helps improve the power of Sliding Shot, Gutsy Move, Jet Boots, and Star-Lords's Helmet.

Don't forget your Element Guns! Any extra resources in your hand you didn't need should be spent for 3 extra damage, as long as you don't hamper your setup.

Don't be afraid to lose allies to keep yourself alive. You have Make the Call and Quinjet, or Avengers Tower and Knowhere to replenish your roster. You can also include Rapid Response if you want some extra security.

The final thing to consider is the extra encounter cards you get every turn. These can actually be quite brutal and put you in a tough position, so don't start going full throttle if you don't think you can deal with the consequences yet. If you want some more survivability, you can go for Endurance and/or Down Time. Additionally, you can use Booster Boots (and remember that you can use 3 copies at a time). Remember that Bad Boy can help you out in a pinch as well.

Final Thoughts

Just going 7 wide, Blaze of Glory and swapping to Alter-Ego can get a bit boring after a while. Thankfully, there are quite a few more options available. It's an adrenaline-fueled rampage, so I hope you enjoy it.

Special thanks to Remedy of Alter-Egos and BananaCrapshoot of The Side Scheme for their help in making this deck.

44 comments

May 15, 2021 BananaCrapshoot · 4636

Man this is so good! Much better than the one I published

May 15, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@BananaCrapshoot lmao thank you thank you

May 15, 2021 Schmendrix · 4203

Can't wait to get this to the table! Love your thematic write-up.

May 15, 2021 Ret · 1

Does Make the Call and Quinjet really bypass the restriction on Stinger?

May 15, 2021 neothechosen · 9806

Star Lord really brings it for leadership decks! I built one fairly close to this in order to OTK the villain, but then realized Stinger's limitation. Doesn't matter, the combo still works without her, by the way, so even if it turns out you can't play her in here, it should be all right.

I see how we can interpret Make the Call and Quinjet to circumvent the restriction from playing her as SL, but ultimately, I think a ruling should be made about it. It looks too much like a loophole that will be subject to errata anytime soon.

May 15, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@Ret yes, since 'put into play' is not the same as 'played'

@neothechosenyeah, definitely feels a bit wrong haha. and even without her, you can still go 6 and often will have turns without the full 7 anyway. i do agree there needs to be a ruling for clarification and that it's subject to errata (specifically Make the Call)

it feels scummy, but that and the Blaze of Glory damage dodge feel very Star-Lord lmao

May 15, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@Schmendrix thank you for your kind words. i hope you enjoy it! let me know how it goes :D

May 15, 2021 TonyStark · 47

Love the writeups you guys do.

Sadly, I already hated the interaction between Blaze of Glory and flipping Star-Lord to save non-Guardian allies (ZERO thematic sense). Now I also realize I hate that Knowhere doesn't only increase your limit if you have all Guardian Allies. :(

May 17, 2021 journeyman2 · 18683

Does Knowhere work when the ally you play doesn’t have the Guardian trait without Star-Lord’s ability? It does say “after” and his effects says “control”, does the after occur after the ally is under your control and thus changed to Guardian?

Nice concept!!

May 17, 2021 wehehe · 129

Nice deck here. You I think you just nailed with the concept. Since I got Star Lord last friday I was thinking in how to build a deck which can combine Avengers Assemble! and Blaze of Glory and just found yours here...

Avengers Assemble! decks were already powerful, but I think that now, with Star-Lord and Blaze of Glory they are simply crazy. How many rounds you usually need to setup your "big-turn"?

May 17, 2021 sc00ter1979 · 1

wait i'm confused - how can you play stinger in a star lord deck? doesn't the identity have to be avenger?

May 18, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@TonyStark well, i think it makes sense for star-lord to kind of break the rules, but i get you. it definitely feels a bit scummy haha

@journeyman2 yep! star-lord's ability is constant, so the ally gains guardian as soon as you place it in play and pay its cost. after that, knowhere checks to see if you played a guardian ally

@weheheglad you like it! to be honest, it only takes a few turns to start going, and depending on the difficulty, the game is over before you can have a full 7-ally turn for everything. i think what's so fun about it is you can kind of just have turns doing what you can instead of just durdling until you find all your pieces lol

@sc00ter1979you cannot play Stinger in this deck, but you can put her into play with Make the Call and Quinjet. here is the entry from the RRG i.imgur.com

May 28, 2021 fergan · 21

Great write up man! As always splendid job, I tried this deck yesterday and had an absolute blast! It certainly feels a bit scummy to be able to play stinger with Quinjet or Make the Call but I really think that they should keep at least Make the Call as it is, because I think that part of the idea of the card is to be able to play allies you usually couldn't play, maybe they can errata it to something like "you have to be able to play the ally" (with better wording ofc) and keep the ability to play your teammates allies from their discard piles. I think I'm more on the boat of nerfing Blaze of Glory to always do 1 damage, but I think it's thematic right now and fun as hell :P

May 28, 2021 dr00 · 38765

hey, thanks @fergan! yeah, so much of this deck feels super scummy, but definitely on brand for star-lord lol

maybe they'll change it at some point, but the current position actually is explicitly clear in the new RRG that it's allowed. they just want to make sure everyone knows blue is the best colour lol :P

May 29, 2021 Vortilion · 187

I dont understand, why dies switching to alter ego save the alles from taking the dmg from BoG?

May 29, 2021 Schmendrix · 4203

Any ally that doesn't have the printed trait Guardian loses the Guardian trait granted by Star Lord's hero power when he switches to AE.

May 29, 2021 Vortilion · 187

Oh, makes sense! Thanks @Schmendrix

Jun 01, 2021 Draz999 · 7

cant play stinger, you need the avenger trait to play her !

Jun 01, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@Draz999yep, that's correct !

but you can put her into play with Make the Call and Quinjet as explained in the deck description :)

Jun 27, 2021 LitteBear · 1

The condition of triggering Knowhere is "a player plays a guardian ally" which means an ally should be played from hand to play. So the ally should have guardian traits during the whole condition (in hand and in play), but star-lord can only guarantee the second half of the condition. Except that, it's a very nice deck, thanks for sharing!

Jun 27, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@LitteBearpeople have explained it better than I in the comments, but it has to do with the fact that star-lord's ability is constant, so it turns on immediately when it enters play and is always either on or off. knowhere checks after it has completely finished entering play and all relevant triggers for doing so have resolved. basically, it definitely does work, but I'm glad you liked the deck! hopefully you can enjoy all the extra card draw that comes with it :)

Jul 08, 2021 Cosmic_Outlaw · 1

Are you sure you're allowed to resolve one part of the Hero Action effect but not resolve another part of the same effect, just because you flipped throughout the phase? Seems kinda cheesy. In my opinion, an effect is to be resolved when it triggers and if there are additional criterias it enters a queue - even if the initial trigger condition is no longer valid. It's one effect and you triggered it, meaning you have to resolve the full effect.

Or is there another reason why you clarify this move of starting in Hero and switching to Alter-Ego while playing BoG?

Jul 08, 2021 Schmendrix · 4203

@Cosmic_Outlaw This is a fine way to play, but doesn't match the rules framework of the game, so far as we understand it from the developers. There is no "stack" or "queue" in this game. Blaze of Glory establishes a lasting effect for the bonus for phase, and the second sentence triggers only when the triggering condition is met (at the end of the phase). This is our best understanding of how the rules work based on a wide range of rules responses from the designers, but they have not weighed in on this card.

Jul 14, 2021 rstorcdk · 4683

They seriously need to make a Marvel champions game on steam or something. This will clear a LOT of the debated rules that people have.

Sep 18, 2021 nungunz · 4224

Any updates for September?

Sep 19, 2021 dr00 · 38765

hey @nungunzthanks for the comment. I think dropping black knight, falcon, and/or kate bishop Hawkeye for Kaluu or White Tiger is a solid play. if playing with an avenger hero, then giving you honorary avenger would help with Mighty Avengers if you want. you could also run United We Stand or Earth's Mightiest Heroes. there's also some nice leadership options, such as "Welcome Aboard", Band Together, and Regroup, the event and support are especially good for multiplayer. there aren't toomany 3 cost cards, but getting 2 resources from band together is still worth it, but I'd recommend no more than 2 copies.

the main improvement though is the two allies who help accelerate your deck

Oct 27, 2021 Dawncaller · 4

Great deck and thanks for updating card recommendations in your last comment :)

Oct 28, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@Dawncaller glad you're enjoying it!

Jan 07, 2022 Telcontar · 400

@dr00 any update you'd make to this with newer cards?

Jan 10, 2022 dr00 · 38765

@Telcontar hey sorry for the late reply. sometimes marvelcdb doesn't let me comment, but it seems to be working now lol

i posted in a comment above, but i think i'll go through and edit the decklist directly. basically White Tiger and Kaluu can easily replace a few of the current allies like Black Knight, Falcon, or Hawkeye to build faster. i also really love Regroup for letting your allies chump block and you can play them again, especially for White Tiger. and finally, Band Together is insanely good. i think 2 copies is correct, and if you draw one in your mulligan hand, you can use Smooth Talker to swap it with the top card of your deck. as long as it's giving you 1 energy, it's helping you build, but you can easily get it to 3, which is an important number for Star-Lord for Bad Boy, Element Gun, Leader of the Guardians, and Sliding Shot

Jan 10, 2022 Telcontar · 400

@dr00 all sounds good, thanks!

Feb 01, 2022 Marctimmins89 · 270

Hi @dr00. I tried building a similar deck to this today and had very limited success over and over again against Kang. I think I'm piloting wrong. The main issue I'm having is I have a bunch of 2HP allies on the table (no Team Training), exhausted thanks to Strength in Numbers, with no way in hand to ready them. Even using Blaze of Glory or Avengers Assemble! is only so useful because they still take consequential damage and kill themselves off and I have to rebuild the board state. Do you nuke the allies off, use them to chump, keep them on the table at all costs? Interested in how you manage the workforce. Big fan of your decks. Thanks for the help.

Feb 01, 2022 dr00 · 38765

hey @Marctimmins89 thanks for your comment. Avengers Assemble! and Blaze of Glory are ideally meant to be something that closes out the game, literally going all out in a Blaze of Glory. Team Training is fairly crucial if you want to use these before the endgame. if you don't have it, simply draw up a lot of cards, and you can use Star-Lord himself with Blaze of Glory to do a lot of damage along with Daring Escape, but the best combo is honestly a bunch of Sliding Shots. Blaze of Glory does a lot of damage, and you can cheat away the extra damage to your characters, that's fun, but it's not the best combo the deck has.

as for chumping, rebuilding, etc., i think a perfectly viable strategy involves not using Strength In Numbers with every ally. Ant-Man for example can be played early game for 1 or late game for 4 with a large healthy pool and can then be used to attack multiple times. but you would then play Blaze of Glory to attack with whoever is left ready, and flip down to keep everyone aline. it's also totally fine to use some as chump blockers (especially so you can reset Ant-Man later on). you have things like Make the Call and Rapid Response to rebuild. you can also include Regroup (which is currently the best option imo).

another facet of this deck that has emerged with later releases, is Kaluu, White Tiger, and Band Together, which allow you to rebuild very quickly after losing some of your army. Star-Lord has the capacity to rebuild very quickly thanks to the above cards since they are relatively cheap and can still find the tools and resources you need.

i hope this helps, and thanks for playing the deck! i'm glad you're enjoying it, and i hope this helps out

Feb 01, 2022 dr00 · 38765

oh one last thing i forgot to mention. definitely don't be afraid to use Avengers Assemble! to play two Strength In Numbers in the same round. all your allies are exhausted, but starting your turn proper with like 20 cards feels so amazing.

Feb 01, 2022 Marctimmins89 · 270

Very helpful, thanks! You mentioned a couple of newer cards you think might suit this style. I also considered adding Mass Attack (from Spectrum's prebuilt... I don't know how to link cards in comments sorry) as a way to use some allies for medium damage while saving others for Strength in Numbers. Cheers.

Feb 01, 2022 dr00 · 38765

@Marctimmins89 oh yeah, Mass Attack is a good one too! i actually hadn't considered that. he can easily play it and can always trigger it. he can also give everyone +2s very cheaply as well. good catch!

as for tagging cards, just use # then start typing the name of the card (no space after the #) you can also do symbols with $

Aug 24, 2022 wojciech · 7

Nice deck. For me, it's not so effective buy satisfying

Sep 22, 2022 dr00 · 38765

@wojciech i stopped getting email alerts and missed this. thank you for your kind words! glad you've enjoyed it :D

Oct 16, 2022 Remo · 4

Hi @dr00, nice deck to play with. I modified it a little bit to better correspond to my way of playing, but it was a real pleasure to discover yours.

This deck build is very close to the She Hulk Draw & Slam from BrianV inspired from your Black Panther Wakanda Forever and Ever and Ever...

Among the three heroes, it seems to me She Hulk is the best suited for this leadership engine. Thanks a lot for your contributions.

Nov 25, 2022 dr00 · 38765

@Remo hi remo thanks again for your comments. again apologising for missing it until now! it wasn't on purpose. yes, i agree. i think Star-Lord benefits less from the huge amount of card draw since he has so much built-in value, but i think it's really fun to do a lot of Star-Lord-y kind of things that seem like cheating lol, drawing 7 cards (or even up to 9! with Longshot and certain scenarios like the recent Sabretooth or Project Wideawake), then using Blaze of Glory to get a lot of value out of your allies and jumping to alter-ego to avoid the damage ping. glad you're enjoying it! what changes did you make?

Nov 27, 2022 Remo · 4

@dr00 no issue at all, I am not connected everyday as well and only discovered a trace of your message today in my spam mailbox!

Please find the link to my modified deck based on yours marvelcdb.com

It turns out to be strongly modified in the end ;-) but the fun is the same to me!

Mar 28, 2023 Cro · 1

@dr00 This looks fun - can't wait to try this out!

When playing 2p, how well does this deck perform with someone else playing Aggression. Is the threat removal sufficient?

May 26, 2023 dr00 · 38765

@Remo yeah, that's great! always love to see how these decks evolve and change over time :D

@Cro threat removal is usually in the form of a bazooka rather than spot removal, but you can simply use your allies to thwart as they come into play and get ready for the big combo turn with Avengers Assembles and/or Blaze of Glory. or you can simply use those events or Gutsy Move to remove a lot of threat at once

aggression could probably just keep the minions in check until you one-turn kill the villain. how did it play for you?

Mar 06, 2024 Aometora · 1

I guess you will never play Nova Prime as it will bork Avenger's Tower.