Ms. Marvel -- Solo Gauntlet Challenge

So for a while I've been doing random heroes vs. random villains to keep skills sharp and try out different builds that I wouldn't normally think of trying. To add to the pressure to try new cards, after I determine the Hero and Aspect I then randomly generate one card from those sets that I have to include a full playset of. Yeah, sometimes you get Energy or Strength and nothing much changes, but sometimes you get something a bit more spicy.

Then I set the decks up against a gauntlet of random advanced villains (or heroic if I'm feeling like that) to see how long they last. Best 2-out-of-3 wins a match; the hero will continue to go on if they win, or are retired if they lose, and then the next hero has to take the challenge.

For whatever reasons it took me a while to realize I could just share the results here for others to learn from, mock, or ponder in sherry-wreathed seclusion, as they felt. So here's the current deck! There'll be more coming.

Ms. Marvel and Leadership were generated, and then it was a full suite of 3x Enhanced Awareness that she had to play. Which is...interesting. Kamala doesn't usually need too many extra resources, but I'm stuck with them for this challenge, so I decided to see what I could make with it.

The Leadership pod is nothing special; just abuse Rapid Response to Great Victory. What I have found interesting is that the costs of spamming Rapid Response frequently means Ms. Marvel rarely has additional resources to double-hit with her usual Big Hands or Sneak By; exhausting just to get more draws out of her Wiggle Rooms and save her buddies some damage was the usual use of her Morphogenetics. And as expected at 2-cost all of the Enhanced Awarenesses are largely unplayed early on in the game, and even later they become more luxury plays than necessities.

As for individual card choices...

1. As with any Rapid Response deck you want to abuse as many come-into-play abilities on your Allies as you can. As Kamala can easily get 8 to 9 cards on her Alter-Ego side, expense was not as important as effects.

2. Again, as she's usually pretty card-rich on Alter-Ego side, I usually include one Avengers Mansion in her decks because she can easily get it going and still do something else of value in the turn. And if you don't get it out first time through the deck, you'll certainly get it out the second time.

3. Some Allies are worth keeping out as long as possible, especially if you can't find your Rapid Responses -- prime example is Heimdall, who is worth every penny. The one First Aid is both spot healing for Kamala when she can't flip back to Alter-Ego and to keep an important ally in play (namely, Heimdall).

4. With 5 Recovery Kamala usually doesn't need extra boosts to getting more healing, but one Endurance gives her a refreshingly large boost to survivability.

5. The usual Leadership standouts of Get Ready and Make the Call aren't pulling their usual weight in this deck. Ms. Marvel's huge amount of card draw and selection means there's frequently better things to spend your resources on than pulling someone out of your discard. The main value of Get Ready has been to use up Heimdall or Falcon to Rapid Response them, and I'd say Make the Call has been just resource fodder close to 70% of the time. If I remake this deck again right now I'd probably keep 1x Get Ready and replace the other 3 with something else...even a few more First Aids would fit this deck better.

6. But another thing I'd change is try to find a few non- resources, as some of the villain challenge attachments and etc. can be tough to meet sometimes, and Ms. Marvel doesn't get keys to the Quincarrier (although I could put in Honorary Avenger to take care of that...).

Any other questions? Let me know! Here's the track record so far...

ROUND 1: Advanced Green Goblin (Mutagen Formula) w/Bomb Scare RESULTS: 2-1

Not the most terrifying of modules to add, but the random Confuse from Bomb Scare is really annoying. The Goblin's only win was a turn when he got out three Side Schemes in one turn (thanks to me refreshing my deck), and then Masterplan with a host of guarding goblin minions in play -- this deck does not AOE at all (two Big Hands a turn isn't AOE the way She-Hulk or Iron Man can do it). The other games were just the usual grinding out Allies for value and then a flurry of Big Hands and Ally attacks.

ROUND 2: Advanced Rhino with Doomsday Chair RESULTS: 2-0

A much more impressive side scheme didn't help Rhino very much, poor guy. If you mulligan aggressively to find your Threat removal him starting out with Breakin' & Takin' isn't that bad for you. The one game where MODOK came out I basically ignored him and worked on the boss. Both games were won with +2 Acceleration tokens on the main scheme, but a win is a win!

ROUND 3: Advanced Ultron with Bomb Scare RESULTS: 2-1

I guess HYDRA wanted payback, because here they are, working with an omnicidal robot to launch nuclear weapons. Sweet, guys. Given Ms. Marvel's trouble with multi-target Attacks, pushing Ultron to Stage 3 was really important; it can easily handle one big swing a turn, but can't do much with tons of drones swarming the field. Most of the games were spent on Agenda 2B, and once Ultron gets to Stage 3 putting threat on the Agenda instead of a drone was almost always the right choice (unless Hawkeye was around, of course).

As before, once this deck stabilizes the board, it usually only takes one more pass through the deck to set up the hand you need to destroy the villain. Ultron was defeated with +2-3 Acceleration tokens, but the world was safe again for Inhumans and their friends.

Round 4 coming soon...