Aamir and Angela

"Put Into Play" Deck Series

The release of the Player Side Schemes has been the biggest change to Marvel Champions in some while. With the ability to put cards into play, rather than playing the cards directly, this has opened up some card combinations that were not previously possible.

(For those who would like the reference, according to RR1.5 in the “Play, Put Into Play” section: “Some abilities cause cards to be put into play. This bypasses the need to pay the card’s cost as well as any restrictions or prohibitions regarding playing that card”)

In this deck series released over the next few days or so, I would like to share five decks that highlight cards that can now be played without restriction through the use of Player Side Schemes:

You Get One Shot… featuring Call for Backup --> Gamora

The G.I.R.L. In Cerebro featuring Build Support --> Cerebro

Adamantium Upgrades featuring Build Support--> Weapon X

The Magnificent Multiple Men featuring Build Support--> Knowhere

Aamir and Angela featuring Build Support --> The Bifrost

Aamir and Angela

This final deck in the series may just be my favorite because it was so satisfying to finally find a combo worth playing with The Bifrost. I have been working on trying to find a deck that could make use of the Bifrost in a meaningful way, but found this very difficult. One of the biggest challenges for using The Bifrost is that it likely typecasts the deck into Aggression so there are some Asgardian allies to use. There are a pretty small list of allies you can use however, and it really doesn't function that different than Cerebro except that you can use The Bifrost in hero form.

To be perfectly honest, I've never really been all that enthusiastic playing the Asgardian allies: Valkyrie, Thor or Heimdall don't particularly excite me; Thor has some uses but nothing to build a deck around; Throg ends up in quite a few of my decks, but you really want to have a minion in front of you

Angela is easily the best of the bunch - a 0-cost ally is amazing, plus she provides a block. There is some serious value here as long as you can deal with the minion she brings. The biggest challenge though was finding a way to have The Bifrost target Angela consistently. If you could find a way to get Angela back into your deck over and over again, you could keep using The Bifrost on just her, playing a free ally over and over again. The challenge then is finding a character who can get Angela back into the draw pile and there aren't a lot of heroes who have a reshuffle ability.

Aamir Khan

Angela has a mental resource, so Wasp could recur her with her G.I.R.L. ability. However, I've already done a deck which uses a similar concept with Professor X, so I wanted to look in a different direction.

Ms. Marvel though became a really interesting choice because of Aamir Khan's ability to put a card on the bottom of the deck and draw a card. Normally, I'm using Aamir to set up a killer combo for a big turn at the end of the deck. But here, since we're pulling Angela back from anywhere in the deck, it really doesn't matter that where that card goes. So this was the start of the deck, allowing Ms. Marvel to play Angela on demand, which would always provide 2 ATK, a block, and a minion.

Turning the Minion into an Advantage

Obviously, having to put a minion into play was intended to be the drawback for making Angela free. However, this really allows us to play a super combo with Ms. Marvel where we use Melee along with Honed Technique and Embiggen! in order to attack two different enemies for 8 damage (9 with some Warrior Skills). This will destroy the minion you pulled with Angela, and allow you to then do 8 damage to the villain.

But the real sweetness comes when you can put a copy of Marked on the minion. Because you can use Angela to soften up the minion first (or pierce a tough), you can have overkill damage through the minion added to the villain. For example, if you put a 4 HP minion into play and then take it down to 2 HP using Angela's attack, you'll be able to overkill 6 damage with the first part of the Melee attack, and then 8 damage with the second.

Finally, the best part of playing Ms. Marvel is that you can always pull Melee back again using Ms. Marvel's exhaust (and maybe even stash it again under Bruno Carrelli) so that you also have Melee upon demand. This creates a situation where you can regularly put down Angela and know you have the means to destroy the minion she brings. Plus, Angela will regularly be around as a block for you.

Other Cards To Combo

Chase Them Down becomes a very sweet way to remove threat, as you'll be able to reliably kill a minion every other turn, and you'll be able to use Shrink to up it to 4 THW for no cost.

Battle Fury is also a pretty fun one to have down, as you can play it after you kill the minion with the first half of the Melee attack. If you play Chase Them Down, using the same response window you can trigger Battle Fury to ready if you used Morphogenetics to pull Chase Them Down back. Or, if you are exhausted before you attack, if the minion isn't a guard minion, you could use the 1st part of Melee to attack the villain and use the 2nd half to attack the villain, using Battle Fury to ready yourself to pull Melee Back.

Throg becomes a 2nd ally that you can target with The Bifrost. One interesting combo is that you play Angela on the turn you flip down, bringing a minion. Pick one with the lowest scheming possible, as it'll be sitting on the table for your Alter-Ego flip. Then, when it's your turn again, use Aamir to put Throg back into the deck and play him with The Bifrost. You'll have the minion in front of you, giving Throg a tough. When you flip to hero form, you'll then have 3 blocks available, with one from Angela and now two from Throg. This strategy likely will work better in multiplayer when you can afford to let another minion scheme though. Chances are, the table will appreciate the extra blocks you can throw out.

Hall of Heroes could be a trap card. You really need to kill enough minions to have it be worth your while. Because you may do something like 14 damage to the villain each time you Melee, in solo play you likely won't defeat 3+ minions. However, if you play multiplayer, Hall of Heroes becomes a much better play.

What Goes Under Bruno?

In terms of strategy, I would recommend using Bruno to stash a copy of Melee for you so you always have one to play. You may need to hold Melee in your hand for a turn after you pull it back again, but that is generally worth it. Kamala gets a lot of cards, especially because she also has Teen Spirit to add more cards to hand.

I also really like to stash The Locust under Bruno, because this is another way to try and get Chase Them Down or Melee if you ever find yourself without a copy.

Rounding Out The Deck

With the Biokinetic Polymer Suit, you'll have the mental resources needed to trigger Honed Technique. But we're still including all three double resources plus The Power of Aggression in order to play Melee and Throg, plus it comes in handy when getting Honed Technique to the table.

Warrior Skill is another fun way to boost the attack on Melee. It's probably overkill at this point, because you already have to set up Embiggen and Honed Technique, but it is fun to hit for even more!

Ending

Fair warning, this deck plays much smoother in multiplayer than in solo play. There is some threat removal, but it's not super reliable in the early game. Plus, in multiplayer, you can alternate playing Angela and Throg giving the table more blocks to work with. It's pretty sweet to pull a minion and then just whammy it with an massive attack with overkill... only to then resolve essentially another Swinging Web Kick on the villain!

Incredibly satisfying combo to pull off. And one that you can now reliably do every other turn!

As always, thanks for reading through this walkthrough and checking out my deck. If you haven't checked out the other decks in this series, please consider clicking on the links higher up in the write-up. Likes and comments are always appreciated!

Until next time Champions...