Between the Monsters and the People Who Need Me

This is my go to Peter deck for playing solo in expert 2, and it plays like a snowball. You have to be methodical in how you approach each villain on this deck. The goal is to capitalize on Defense and do a lot of thwarting through it. There are 2 cards here that really want you to thwart through defense: Containment Strategy and Jump Flip.

But here's the deal, you have to keep up with the encounter and know a lot about what's left in there. If all of the side schemes are discarded, don't hold on to Containment Strategy. If you're going to use allies to thwart after the next villain phase (and you KNOW both Dark Dealings are in the discard pile), drop all of them.

If you know there are some minions who are likely to come out, keep 1 or both Spider-Tracers around. Also, quick side note, Spider-Tracer is NOT max 1 per minion. So attach both and get a 6 thwart out of them. You'll draw enough that you'll often find both of them in the lifespan of a minion.

The build here is to capitalize on Peter's draw power and resources to be able to play and replay lots of allies and his best attack event. Speaking of allies, their goal is to help you with threat (if it gets out of control) or minions (if you get swarmed). So they are worth prioritizing. This deck has enough drawing that you can cycle back around very quickly. So if you have to give up Electrostatic Armor or Specialized Training to play Nick Fury, that's okay! Do it. I promise they won't stay in your discard for long.

For Specialized Training, don’t or rarely actively thwart it. Get Containment Strategy on it, and let all your defense cards like Jump Flip on minion attack damage or defends on villain attacks be what thwarts it. I always prefer Defense Specialist, but if you need the extra thwart or attack or health, choose what the villain is trying to capitalize on.

I limited the number of perfect defense upgrades because those can often distract from the deck's goal. So you only have one that you need: Unflappable. That's the only card to try not to pass on. The same can be said of Avengers Mansion.

In Expert 2, there's a boost that deals a damage to each character you control, so watch out when you have your allies at 1 health left. You're using them for activations, not blocking. So if Jocasta is out and you haven't used the defense event attached to her, then don't get her 1 away. For your allies, we use the core set card Med Team to be a great healing card. This can help keep Moon Girl on the table. BUT, when you get close to the shuffle, you need to use her activations or block so she'll make the shuffle.

Either way, Jump Flip is meant to help prevent damage taken outside of an attack, Nerves of Steel help you get the bonus. But feel free to use it if you defend and get a stream of "Give the villain 1 additional boost card for this activation," which you'll see a lot.

This deck has the highest win rate for me on Expert 2, however, you HAVE to keep up with what's in your deck and what's in the villain's deck. Try your best to go down when you know you're going to draw up into Moon Girl or Ingenuity. Don't lose the game over it, but it's okay to feel uncomfortable and still go down...unless you know both Dark Dealings are in the encounter deck and there's only 8 cards left in the encounter deck.

Whew, there's a lot here. It's crazy how powerful it can become, you'll have rounds where you'll have 10 to 12 cards in your hand. Allies will help manage board state, you'll be in between the monsters and the people who need you.

One last note. This deck was specifically built for Expert 2 where you need a ton of patience to wait for the right opportunity to strike. It will feel weird to play on other levels, but it should work just fine, you may just have to exercise more patience than you're used to.