Rocket Raccoon And The Amazing Self-Murdering-Minion Machine

Rocket is squishy, but with Endurance and Cybernetic Skeleton has quite a broad range of hit points where Dauntless will work. BeatDGameMC (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/9329/rocket-raccoon-is-invincible-1.0) has previously published a deck with Rocket and Dauntless, but it used Muster Courage, so I don't think it was legal. This is my attempt to do something similar.

Anyone who has played Rocket against Ultron knows how powerful Murdered You! can be, but because Rocket lacks big attack events, it can be tricky to line up excess damage opportunities against anything tougher than an Ultron drone. Aggression has some tools (like Hand Cannon) that will do the job, but in solo play I wanted to be using Rocket's native Thwart as much as possible.

So the theme of this deck developed from these two ideas: it uses Energy Barrier and Dauntless to set up minions for Rocket's pistol, launcher or cannon or, in turns where no minion is available, just to damage the villain. Since we are planning to accept hits on Rocket we need defence options like Preemptive Strike and Side Step which will not exhaust him. Despite the name of the deck the minions don't really murder themselves (that wouldn't trigger any excess damage), but they do give Rocket a lot of help.

Because Rocket is squishy, Multiple Man and Groot are the critical mulligan targets. If I have Multiple Man in my starting hand I may well not mulligan at all to avoid the risk of drawing into a second copy. It is less thematic, but Multiple Man is the better option because he can help clear a side scheme as well as block three attacks, whilst Groot can probably only block two and thwart nothing. Either way though, one of these two will buy me the time to get some upgrades set up. Energy Barrier and Booster Boots are my key targets after that. Over the course of a game Booster Boots will save a lot of damage going on to Rocket so it is a fantastic card. Salvage allows us to mitigate the worst of the impact it has on the consistency of the deck. Thruster Boots are also a high priority because we are relying on Rocket's THW. Getting it up to 3 will deal with a lot more side schemes in solo.

In the middle game Starhawk becomes a key ally. He can consistently thwart 3 for a cost of 2 cards, whilst still being available to chump block any hit that I don't want Rocket to take. That means more freedom to keep the main scheme under control if Rocket thwarts a side scheme, and also makes it easier to get into alter ego on turns I want to use Tinkering (timing the flip can be difficult with the limited thwarting power of this deck). I may also use Multiple Man again if there is space on my bench the first time I see him after a reshuffle. I will not want three blocks, but even 6 THW for the cost is worthwhile, and it is nice to have a spare ally there in case of a Gang-Up or Assault. This phase of the game is about continuing to build out the upgrades and supports. Energy Barrier is the main target for Salvage because it is so critical to this deck. With a couple of Energy Barriers and Booster Boots out even Preemptive Strike can mitigate most villain attacks, whilst Side Step is very effective indeed. There are a lot of upgrades to get out before the deck is fully in play, so the middle game can last a while. This isn't a rush deck to put it mildly.

Drax comes out for the end game. Because the damage output from this deck can be low he gives real acceleration against the villain, and the cost effectiveness of using Med Team to keep him in play feels rather pleasing. By the end game the deck should be thinned enough that a defence event comes to hand every turn, and allies aren't really needed to chump block any more.

As you can see this is a 41-card deck. Once you have Booster Boots in play then the deck is going to be inconsistent, and a card here or there makes no real difference so I don't think that matters much. You can take out Electrostatic Armor easily enough if you are a purist on this issue.

Some cards I considered and rejected were:

• Bait and Switch. This card clearly fits because once set up, a villain attack hurts him more than it hurts me, so I'd pay for it even without the thwart. It's even better in a turn where I've played Schadenfreude. I rejected it because to get the full value I need a fair bunch of my upgrades out, Schadenfreude and Side Step in hand. By the time I'm able to bring off that combination the game is all over bar the shouting so this feels like a win-more card. Put it in if you like cool combos more than consistent victory;
• Unflappable and Hard to Ignore are staples in many green decks, but as Rocket won't be exhausting to defend (and has low Def anyway) there is too much likelihood of taking 1 or 2 damage from a villain attack to really get value from these cards. Unflappable might still be worthwhile against less hurty villains;
• Shake it Off will potentially have value when Venom comes out but can't really replace the existing defence events so would work against the deck thinning I want;
• Momentum Shift also fits the theme well, since it turns damage on Rocket into a resource. It would also help keep him in the range where Dauntless is useful, but again it could only be used in addition to the six defence events I have already, so I don't think there's room.

It's a fun deck to take against Mutagen or other minion-heavy scenarios. I've tried it against villains with lower counts of tough minions (such as Rhino with Power Drain) and it still works, albeit it loses a little tempo. The deck is viable in true solo expert and also hopefully a little bit different from other takes on Rocket.