Doctor Strange: The Mightiest Hero

When Earth's Mightiest Heroes (EMH) came out my play partner and I tried to figure out the best use for it. There were thoughts about what heroes did the most damage or would benefit most from attacking or thwarting again...and then it hit me. Use it to kneel an ally to get Strange back up to cast another spell. His spell deck is his most powerful mechanic. Each spell does far more than any other card in its cost slot. Its biggest limitation is always that you don't always have the right spell on top for that turn and that you can only cast 2 at most if you have your cloak. In comes EMH. With the Red Skull box we got a bunch of cheaper Avengers allies in Leadership that would be cost effective to flood the board with and use to stand strange, or just use as normal. Would it work as schemed up was the only question.

Well, first it got tested in a 2 player game where we ran the campaign with this deck and an also very broken Captain America Protect deck. We cake walked through all 5 scenarios, even stalling because we wanted more of the allies against Taskmaster for a whole extra time through his deck because we could. This is II/III expert difficulty as that is all we play.

I played it some solo as well. It beat Taskmaster, Mutagen Goblin, Zola, Red Skull, and Crossbones on first tries. The only loss I had was against Klaw where I had Doomsday Chair as the side scheme and I got the side scheme twice and the attachment to bring MODOK back to life on one of them as well...in short...bad luck I couldn't play my way out of.

The strategy is pretty basic. First time through the deck focus on getting out Wong, the Cloak, and your econ. Keep control of the threat and stay alive through a combination of stun and allies blocking. If you got a decent amount of your setup during the first time through the deck, turn on the gas the second time through and it does amazing amounts of damage (26, I think, was my best single turn). No surprise, Crimson Bands is the key damage dealing card and it creates a stun lock. Toughness keeps you nearly invulnerable to damage and keeps your allies standing for longer (so they can block for you more than once. Blocking is better than healing and allies are your best blockers...and you have a lot of them). Images is easy threat control and confuse can be turned to stun with Vapors to cycle that. Of course winds is the econ engine...why am I only talking about the spell deck? Well, when you cast 3-4 of them in a turn on the regular (EMH or Master of the Mystic Arts) they are your entire strategy. Why spend econ on anything else beyond replacing allies once you have your board state established. Frequently I would use Master of Mystic Arts and just leave Crimson Bands on top to continue the damage and the stun lock availability over more turns. It just ticks like a machine.

Now, some weird card choices:

Honorary Avenger: I am big on cards that cost 1 or 0 to fill in final slots in a deck. I hate wasted cards in a hand more than anything so, while 3 and 4 cost cards are amazing you cannot build a whole deck of them and have turns with maximum efficiency. If I play a 3 cost card, I assume that is 4/5 of my normal hero hand early game. I need something that is 0 at that point. This is one of those options. It also, most importantly makes Wong an Avenger so I can get 4 heroes out as a bonus with Avengers Tower late game. It also gives me the option to use Wong to stand me with EMH if I am at full life or if I like my top spell. If he has only one life left he sure isn't attacking as he is a key card in making sure I have the right spells when I need them. Worst case its a bonus hit point so an ally can attack again and THEN block instead of just waiting to block.

First Aid: I only list this because I have heard that on the forums people hate this card. I don't get it. Cost efficient. Easy play option if I only have a couple cards left after my big play. Healing keeps you on your hero side longer and keeps important allies standing when you need them. This card, along with Seven Rings and my allies are why I am only in Alter Ego form when the game starts, if I flipped my obligation, or if I desperately need to use Mystical Studies to find the cloak or Wong. Threat is not as much of a problem when the villain never gets to scheme.

Avengers Tower normally would be an odd choice, but with the theme of the deck this should be pretty self explanatory why it made the cut.

No, I don't really love some of the allies and would rather have other allies that do more for their cost...but its about Avengers for the stand, blocking, supplemental damage, and threat control. Maria is my one non-Avenger choice and she is just too cost efficient for 2 threat removal at 2 cards spent (card being played, 2 cost, 1 drawn to replace). Since I played this deck 2 player in the campaign she is only net loss of 1 card when played and can completely change your partner's turn if you are first player with that extra card for them.

Last note. This was the first time I tried Team Training and the card is AMAZING. Don't sleep on it.

Feel free to ask questions and enjoy. Its good.