Let Me Help, Mein Freund!

Overview

I've been wanting to build a Star-Lord deck recurring Nightcrawler for quite some time. Once I saw Ops Room in Falcon's pack it all clicked as it added one additional, somewhat sneaky, benefit to Nightcrawler recursion.

Important Note

While Nightcrawler's interrupt says "When an X-Men character would take any amount of damage...”

It is important to note that Nightcrawler IS an X-Men character. So, as long as he is defending, you can trigger his interrupt when he would take damage.

This is all I could find of Star-Lord and Nightcrawler together...

Why Nightcrawler with Star-Lord?

Again, as I've said before I'm biased...

But there are multiple benefits to Nightcrawler recursion here:

• Nightcrawler costs the magic 3 cost for a Star-Lord deck. An extra encounter card is a little less concerning if you know you can ignore damage from the villain's primary attack.
• Once you get Knowhere out, he also draws you a card every time you play him.
• Once you have Leader of the Guardians out he can THW for 3 every turn.
• When Nightcrawler defends and triggers his ability, he also triggers Astonishing X-Men.
• And finally, once you get 1, 2, or 3 copies of Ops Room out you can trigger the interrupt(s) to remove threat wherever it is most helpful before triggering Nightcrawler's interrupt, ignoring whatever damage is left, and returning him to your hand to do it all over again.

Wait... Star-Lord has a plan?!?!

True. Star-Lord doesn't typically go into this sort of thing with a plan, but there is a bit of setup to get this engine to leave the station.

First, we need to find Nightcrawler. We need to mulligan hard for him. We have Face the Past, Nick Fury, and Nick Fury, Sr. To help us zip through the deck and set up while we're searching for him.

If we don't get him in the opening hand that's ok though. If we find Groot, he can serve a similar function in the meantime, but more on that in the allies section below.

Second, we want to get set-up with some of the building pieces mentioned above. Some of the key pieces are:

• Build Support to cheat in Quincarrier for more consistent resources to trigger Nightcrawler's interrupt. In the meantime the deck does have 15 and 6 resources as well as Enhanced Reflexes.
• Leader of the Guardians to bump everyone's THW up by 1 particularly adding to Nightcrawler's worth each turn. This is also a great target for Superpower Training.
• Knowhere to add card draw each time Nightcrawler or another Ally is played (once per turn).
• Finally, getting 1-3 Ops Rooms out allows us to keep the main scheme in check while we're getting setup, particularly with the use of Nightcrawler and/or Groot defending.

Third, once we get Nightcrawler up and rolling as well as some (if not all) of the key setup, we can just play as the cards come. Our allies and Element Guns will do most of the work, with support from events as they come.

Additional Notes

Player Count

So far I have tested this deck in solo and 4-player.

In solo it's been a blast with an insane level of control over the board state.

In multiplayer it is very flexible. Able to put out generous amounts of THW or some significant ATK if needed as well, with serious survivability either way.

Thanks Astrodar for hosting the web-cam game last week. It was a blast to test this in multiplayer. Thanks to Caldias, The (Chase), and Bannaners as well. It was great to play with y'all!

Complexity

This one is a bit complex with the intricacies of response windows between Nightcrawler, Ops Room, and the other triggers off of him entering play as well as defending. Once you figure that out though, it's pretty easy to pilot.

Allies

• As mentioned above, Groot is another key part of this deck. His ability to trigger Ops Room is fantastic because he heals after defending. With Ops Room it is feasible to keep him on the table for the whole game helping with minion ATKs.
• Nick Fury and Nick Fury, Sr. Are also very fun with Knowhere. Effectively providing 4 and 3 card draw respectively if they are the first ally played that round.
• Drax, Gamora, Nova Prime, and Rocket Raccoon round out the extra ally slots phenomenally well as they traditionally do in other decks.

Other

The Player Side Schemes here are great ways to thin the deck, but they're also very easy to clear and have fantastic targets in this deck.

• Build Support should always be used for Quincarrier as it's the only way to pull it in.
• I like to use Superpower Training for Leader of the Guardians, but if you already have it out either Element Gun is also a great target. The Element Guns are not a priority for me until I have some of the rest of the engine set-up though.
• Astonishing X-Men is great because Nightcrawler will slowly chip away at it each time he defends, because he's never taking damage. The nice thing though, is that it is NOT a forced response. So you can wait until you're ready to trigger it.

The Power of Protection Seems like a strange include on first glance as there are 2 copies and only 4 targets in the deck, however it adds extra wilds as well as a cheaper way to get Nightcrawler in since you're paying for him nearly every turn.

Once everything is set-up you may have some extra resources. That is where C.I.T.T. comes in.

Ready for a Fight and Practiced Plan are hard to pass up now for most characters in protection. I chose one of each as Practiced Plan is another resource in the deck. They are also nice, as they can both sit on the table for whenever you happen to need to trigger Ready for a Fight, but then you can get it back out again the following turn for the next time you need it.