I Have An Arrow for That 2.0

I heard there's a new wave of Marvel Champions out? We can travel to space and we get access to all kinds of new weapons like Laser Blaster and Hand Cannon? Sounds legit fun. I'll just grab my Hawkeye's Bow and shoot some arrows in space! Join my inner child as I write-up, discuss, and do some playthroughs with this new Hawkeye deck.

This is an upgraded deck from my last take on Hawkeye Aggression (check out the derived from section here). Since then, I've learned a lot about playing Hawkeye in a multiplayer setting. This deck can work in solo but is primed to make you the aggressive powerhouse in a 2-4 player game. Let's dive into the details.

The Plan Your crew of 2-4 heroes is preparing to go up against a terrifying villain from the Marvel Universe. Your goal is to swing big and be the damage dealer for your team. Ideally you want to shoot one arrow each round and then perform a huge base attack that would make Giant-Man proud, maybe swing for a casual 11. Wait - what?

Combo Example Let that sink in for a minute. Hawkeye is going to swing for a base of 7-11 many rounds. That's insane. How do we get there? Well Hawkeye base ATK is 2 and he gets +1 from Hawkeye's Bow. On top of that we'll get a Combat Training for a guaranteed 4 per round. Since we plan to go for face for our team we hope to get Godslayer down for an additional +2 each round. We include the new non-restricted weapon Pulse Grenade which can be used to reliable Mean Swing every time you draw it - so we will take credit for +3 more. If you are doing math at home we are up to 9 damage with only 1 card spent from hand. This leaves your 4 cards to have a Skilled Strike swinging for 11. With your remaining 3 cards you could have played a Vibranium Arrow - maybe even from your quiver. Smashing for 17 and a tough removal. Baller. This may seem like magical fairy-tale land but it's reliable and doable against most villains especially in multiplayer. We'll go over the set-up needed and the perfect ceiling turn at the bottom of this list.

The List Let's run down the list. We have a series of cheap efficient allies. There job is to block for you. With little means of thwarting you want to stay in hero form as much as possible - especially at lower player counts. That's where Hulk comes in who can often block two villain attacks.

We have a plethora of stat pumping cards. Mean Swing with Pulse Grenade, Skilled Strike, Godslayer and Combat Training can make it so you pack quite a punch.

You'll want to get at least one copy of Pulse Grenade down so you can use it as Mean Swing fodder. Also keep in mind, after you Mean Swing a grenade you can still blow it up to damage the villain! This can be great for game ending turns or to be used in a pinch.

Honorary Avenger is probably replaceable but keeps the deck cost low and helps set up combos with Angela and Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

You really want to get Down Time down to make the most of your flips and Endurance can often let you skip a flip.

Ally Selection Let's talk about the allies a bit more. We have 5 allies.

Angela is perfect to play when you have Explosive Arrow in hand or quiver. You can bring something out and potentially off it the same round.

Spider-Girl combos well with her as well or is perfect for when you want to let a minion linger while you wait for an Explosive Arrow.

Wasp is fueled by many cards but mostly Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Pulse Grenade.

Hulk is there as I said to block 2 attacks minimum.

Mockingbird is the most expensive card in your deck and once you are set up (with Hawkeye's Quiver and 2 Expert Marksman you'll be able to play her, an arrow and a big swing almost every turn!

Arrow Efficiency I mentioned before about only shooting one arrow a turn. This is a big change from my last Hawkeye Aggression deck that was all about pumping out arrows. Instead we can see a greater offensive efficiency from his pumped ATK. Let's say we plan to stay in hero form. We could played Electric Arrow arrow from quiver with our Expert Marksmans and also play Sonic Arrow from hand exhausting Hawkeye. The end result is 6 damage, stun, confuse, and 3 cards spent from hand. Instead... we could play our stun arrow, swing for 3+ and spend those resources on an ally or pumping out even more damage. The confuse can be saved for a future turn. Ideally you want to spend arrows from hand and save the ones in quiver for the right moment building a toolbox like arsenal at your disposal. If you have always double shot arrows I highly recommend spending a few games doing the opposite and see how it works out. Don't get me wrong! There are turns I play 2 arrows. Maybe Explosive Arrow to clear a guard and then Electric Arrow to apply stun but those are the exception - not the norm.

Cost is King Let's take a minute to appreciate our cost curve. 38/40 cards cost 2 or less. o.0 Let that sink in. You will ALWAYS have 1-2 options your hand! 27/40 cards cost 1 or less. This means you have lots of choices during play. Do I Mean Swing or save that resource for a cheap ally? Should I double tap arrows or play that Pulse Grenade for the future? Keeping your cost curve low with Hawkeye is the key to fun.

Set-up For Perfection To have fully optimized turns you need quite a bit of setup. With a 5 card handsize your high octane damage turn involved playing Vibranium Arrow from Quiver and using 2 copies of Mean Swing and 3 Skilled Strike from hand for a base ATK to the villain of 18. Follow up with some Pulse Grenade damage and if you hit the nuts you could shoot for a tough removal and 36 damage. Look out Thor a real aggression hero just woke up.

To do this you would need:

Hawkeye's Bow

Hawkeye's Quiver with a Vibranium Arrow attached.

Expert Marksman x2

Combat Training

Godslayer

Pulse Grenade x2

Along with the perfect hand of 3x Skilled Strike and 2x Mean Swing

Talk about combos! During a typical game my turns peak much lower, around 15-20 damage + a condition but turns typically bottom out at 7-10+ a condition and ally. So that isn't too bad!

Optional Pivots I've seen good arguments for Hand Cannon over Godslayer. Definitely a worthwhile thought. In minion heavy scenarios that overkill is clutch. I'm mainly playing multiplayer where I am just going to face so I've swapped it out. Godslayer is a 3+1 true cost resource investment. Over 5 uses that is 2.5 damage per resource. Hand Cannon is a 2+1 true cost investment. If you fully use it - you'll see a 2 damage per resource efficiency. But if that allows overkill to save excess damage - maybe it's worth it? Probably also worthwhile to bring Hall of Heroes as well

-2 Honorary Avenger -1 Godslayer

+2 Hand Cannon +1 Hall of Heroes

Also you could make the arguement for Jarnbjorn over Godslayer in this case you'll want some more physical resources.

-1 Godslayer -1 Pulse Grenade

+1 Jarnbjorn +1 Combat Training

I've also considered dropping Angela. While cheap you could include some amazing card draw allies like Ironheart. If this is you plan I don't think you can go wrong. You'll still want Honorary Avenger in case you need to make that lone offshoot to Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

-1 Angela

+1 Iron Heart

Some players prefer more economy. So a higher cost curve but with some passive income. I prefer to keep the curve low as you already have a lot to setup but I've seen players succeed with this as well.

-3 Honorary Avenger

+1 Helicarrier +1 Avenger's Mansion +1 Martial Prowess

Conclusion Hawkeye Aggression is a monster. The deck is very glass-cannon like so you are going to need to pump allies and agilely use your status conditions to get by but you can line 'em up and knock 'em down. Always remember this short comic when Hawkeye is Mean Swinging with random upgrades.