Thor sponges the minions

I have struggled for years to try and find a build for Thor that I like. With the recent Nightcrawler release and the protection aspect support it has brought, I've had a new idea made possible from it that I hope can make him a viable semi-support hero in multiplayer.

From my take, the big problem with Thor is his hand size. The fact he has a 3 cost support to play that makes him on par with the normal hand size of heroes makes him difficult to build. His ability to draw cards by engaging a minion mitigates this a bit, but still makes it interesting and challenging to build.

This build focuses on the survivability of Thor while he digs for minions, rather than rewarding him for looking for and killing minions as he already has inbuilt reward for that. This makes the goal to find the minions and remove them so that your allied heroes don't have to worry about them. From protection aspect I've utilised a few key upgrades to help Thor survive a board of minions and eliminate them even without your attack events. Here's the setup for the build with order of importance:

Asgard: Probably the most important setup piece as it brings your hand size up to match the other heroes in both forms. More options and deck cycling is good, especially with the inherently small hand size.

Mjolnir: Very important setup piece that also is kind of outside the list as you can search for it in alter-ego. My intended gameplay for Thor is the encounter and team makeup supports is to do 1 turn in alter-ego, so you can search for Mjolnir turn 1 to ditch to pay for setup, and then search again on turn 2 to play it as you go to hero form.

God of Thunder: These resource rocks are needed as soon as possible so that you are not having to lose your limited cards in hand for resource.

Thor's Helmet: Gives you more health, more survivability.

Endurance: Same as above, just gives slightly less health. May not be needed as early if you get the helmet down if it's paying for other damage mitigation cards.

Change of Fortune: Allows you to draw off of defeating enemies in the villain's turn. The next upgrades help make this possible.

Dauntless: Thor's ability to raise his max health so much and the fact you ideally will have minions on your board means this helps deal with them.

Energy Barrier: Obviously you won't always have this on board as it slowly dwindles in uses counters, but the priority for it's damage prevention is the villain so you don't have to defend and then redirect the damage to minions before they get the chance to hit to eliminate them if possible.

Height Advantage: Because aerial is so easy to gain in Thor, you want to try play this whenever you can as it only lasts a round. When using it you have to be aware that you must have Mjolnir on board for it to be effective. So either don't play it if you are using hammer throw and can't play Mjolnir again (although in that case you possibly shouldn't play the hammer throw) or ensure you always prioritise playing Mjolnir again.

The Night Nurse: Helps you deal with unfortunate stun and confuse statuses on yourself or allied heroes.

Unshakable: Not always needed but just ensures you are able to get your attacks off more often to avoid stun, as you will likely need the attacks to eliminate minions on your board.

Anticipation: Let's you ready when you engage a minion. If you have it set on board and a way to find a minion in hand then you can safely defend the villain with no downside to help your survivability.

Pinned Down: Just help mitigate minions that are more problematic, or stop a minion from affecting you altogether so you can ignore it and either have it slowly be eliminated or stop it being dealt to other players.

Victor Mancha: Literally just an extra ally to block hit's for you when you don't have height advantage or other damage mitigation.

Play wise you won't be focusing the villain, but more churning through your deck to keep elimination minions with hammer throw or lightning strike and passively hitting the villain while ensuring your allied heroes don't have minions bothering them. You have "Come Get Me, Bub!" and Defender of the Nine Realms to help you dig for minions to remove while keeping you alive and keeping threat down. The Jump Flip defense event also helps keep you alive with a board of minions while keeping the main scheme low, as with your God of Thunder you always have access to the correct resource type to pay it with.

Hope this build for Thor brings you all joy!