"Yellow Submarine"

"Yellow Submarine"

"We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine" - The Beatles, 1966

"Yellow" because I'm using the yellow aspect
"Submarine" because this deck is designed to "stay down" in Alter-Ego and only occasionally surface to Hero form. With that in mind I only added cards which can be played or triggered in either form (or Alter-Ego only).

That's one reason I'm running Helicarrier over Quincarrier (I have to be an AVENGER - i.e. in hero form - to play it), and why Government Liaison isn't included.

Core plus Four

This is ALSO a Four Pack deck, using only cards from the Core and the following packs / boxes:

• Black Widow
• Sinister Motives
• Vision
• Gambit

That said, this is just a slight variation of my Black Widow - Core plus Four deck, to which I've added a single card: Spycraft. This helps protect against an Advance while you're in either form. You'll get it right back in - or if you flip down to - Alter-Ego if you have Safe House #29 in play!

Testing Record

Expert Rhino: 5-0

• These games were incredibly easy. I ended every game with no threat on the main, no side schemes and no minions.
• On turn 1 Breaking and Entering is fine, but you'd rather have Covert Ops or Professor X
• If Rhino gets a Charge you want to flip up and take an attack because it will be MUCH worse if he has both Charges at the same time. Also, having Attacrobatics will negate his boost (while also dealing damage) and Grappling Hook ensures he won't get another attack.
  

Expert Klaw: 4-1.

• All of these games were VERY long for solo play (90+ minutes)
• Flipping up to Hero form if you have Professor X or Nick Fury to block is a great way to keep threat off the main.
• Counterintelligence looping (see the numbered bullet points below) is very powerful against Klaw who got at least 2 Acceleration tokens in every game I played.
• You really need to get control of the board as early as possible. The one loss I had was because every single turn another minion (or two) was coming out. Yeah, they're only scheming for 1, but it adds up and I didn't have Quake out yet to make them pay for it. Eventually I was at a point where my entire turn was used to deal with minions and I couldn't remove enough threat from the main so I schemed out!
  

Standard Ultron: 3-0

• I chose Standard over Expert because Ultron has SO many hit points, and only played 3 games because the third went CRAZY long! Sky-Destroyer was a DRONE in my first 2 deck passes and it was hard to stabilize early.
• Unless you're insanely lucky you'll always lose Main 1. On Main 2, as long as you have Quake in play take the DRONE instead of extra threat. After the DRONE schemes for 1 (which is better than adding 2 threat with the other option), exhaust Quake to defeat it.
• Ultron only makes new DRONES when he attacks, so staying down keeps DRONES from piling up. Treacheries, a Side Scheme and Main 2 become the only way new DRONES are created.
• Ultron has a lot of Attachments (Vibranium Armor and Concussion Blasters being the worst IMO), so you'll need to flip up to Hero a little more often than when you're playing Rhino and Klaw.

Playing the deck | Counterintelligence Looping

Use Meditation to play allies, Covert Ops, and Sky-Destroyer for 3 less. Get a confuse on the villain when you can, but you can also rely on Counterintelligence, especially once you're built up a bit:

• Villain Phase:
  • 1) Trigger Counterintelligence to deny 3 threat
  • After a minion schemes exhaust Quake to torpedo it for 2 damage
• Player Phase:
  • 2) Use Safe House #29 to return Counterintelligence to hand
  • 3) Use both Black Widow's Gauntlets to play it with no cards from hand, which lets you...
  • 4) ...draw a card with your Mission Prep Response
  • Play a S.H.I.E.L.D. card to get "free" damage from Sky-Destroyer (15 S.H.I.E.L.D. cards in the deck will trigger Sky-Destroyer).
  • Thwart or Attack with Agent 13 to ready Sky-Destroyer
  • Play another S.H.I.E.L.D. card for more free damage!
  • Play at least one Black Widow PREPARATION card so that when you do flip up they'll more-or-less neuter the villain. Triggering them is like launching missiles from a sub :)
  • Deal with threat efficiently using allies, events, or Surveillance Teams
  • Deal with any minions which have popped up. Sky-Destroyer does some work here, but don't forget that if you can afford to have the minion scheme Quake can deal 2 damage to them!
  • Draw up to 6 cards, because you're still in Alter- Ego

Chance Encounter

Chance Encounter finds an ally and adds it to your hand, and my favorite target is Winter Soldier since he's frequently going to be played for 0! If you need a Confuse though, Professor X or Dazzler fit the bill. HOWEVER against Ultron Quake is very valuable, so at times you may grab her instead!

Too many allies!

I think this is a great blend of allies for this deck, but I often found myself with three on board while I was wanting to play another. In those cases I'd get what I could out of each ally and if one doesn't "leave on their own terms" (self-defeating with consequential damage) I'd just push one out when I played the fourth ally.

It does lead to some fun moments though:

• Use Winter Soldier to Thwart 2 from that Side Scheme which had 4
• Play Chance Encounter on that scheme
• Play Nick Fury, who pushes Winter Soldier out, and draw 3 cards.
• Clear the Side Scheme with Nick, and se Chance Encounter to return Winter Soldier to hand
• Play Winter Soldier for free because you have plenty of PREPARATION cards in play, which pushes Nick out. You don't care because you don't need him to block since you're staying in Alter-Ego, he leave play at the end of the round anyway, and Winder Soldier has been "fully healed".

Expanding the card pool

I really love playing with a limited card pool, but there are a couple cards I'd like to include that weren't in the packs I selected:

• Under Surveillance from the Thor pack is welcome in ANY Justice deck!
• Spider-Man: Miles Morales from the Wasp pack for some burst damage
• Wiccan from Scarlet Witch will "whiff" a little less than he typically does for me because I could use Global Logistics to stack the encounter deck.
• Vigilante Training from the War Machine pack to shuffle Breaking and Entering, Global Logistics, and Homeland Intervention back into the deck
• Build Support from Next Evolution to get Sky-Destroyer into play sooner. The fastest game I played got Sky-Destroyer into play and turn 3 while the in longest I played it kept getting discarded with "discard a random card from your hand" effects and I wasn't able to play it until my third deck pass!