Strength in Efficiency

Progress

Ironheart has 3 traits on her 2nd and 3rd version, and 2 out of 3 of those traits are uncommon ones. Yes, the version number counts! This makes her great for Strength in Diversity (SiD). Get to version 2 or 3 and play a single ally, and its doing 5 damage/threat removal, which is already worth it for the cost (in solo). This deck can easily achieve that on turn 2.

The max that we can reach here is 11 traits, but 9 or 10 is more reasonable and enough to close out games. Throughout the game your goal is to build out more traits, while you are building up Ironheart's progress counters. You might think that focusing on collecting traits would get in the way of her progress, but that's not the case at all! These allies, as well as SiD itself, will help push Ironheart towards progress more efficiently.

Making Themselves Useful

With SiD, you want your allies to stick around for a long time, so that you always have a board full of many different traits. Having them all just sit there doing nothing once their health gets low isn't efficient, so we've assigned them new tasks:

• Strength In Numbers (SiN): What better use could your allies serve than to draw you cards? More cards is always good, but for Ironheart specifically, this will help her build up progress counters faster.
• Ready for Action: This is a great card that I don't see too often. It works perfectly here. Ironheart has 3 base defense and with her upgrades she can go up to 14 health. So she can usually handle attacks on her own, but you don't generally want to chump block with this deck so having extra blockers while you develop your board is very helpful. It also lets you attack or thwart with that ally without taking consequential, which you won't do often but works great in the right situation.

I also mentioned that SiD helps with progress counters. This is because of how it lets you divide the damage and threat removal however you want. Ironheart loves that, since you can leave a minion or scheme with just enough left to be defeated by Fly Over or Photon Beam. This gives you two progress counters instead of just one. Its also a resource, which you can use as a for Moon Girl or Child Prodigy.

A Diverse Crew

Beast, Blade, Deadpool, Grant Ward, Hugin & Munin, Kaluu, and Spider-Ham all give two new traits. Blade and Kaluu share the Avenger trait, so just have one or the other out. Brawn and Moon Girl both have the Champion trait, which you already have, but they are both worth playing early on to help you build out and can be swapped out later for more diverse allies.

Riri has the genius trait, and Ironheart has the champion trait, which means that Moon Girl can be played at any time. And there is enough resources here that you can usually draw the full 3 cards. Brawn generates a resource while he's exhausted, and this deck has 2 great ways to make that happen- SiN and Ready for Action. With SiN, you get card draw, and then a resource to pay for those cards. With Ready for Action, you can give him a tough card and then after he blocks on the villain phase, he'll start your next turn already exhausted. You can even use that resource to play another Ready for Action on him for free!

Beast is a classic Ironheart staple. He can grab Stroke of Genius, furthering your progress and drawing you another card. He also just so happens to have 2 new traits for us! (Riri is only genius in alter ego, so I'm not counting it here.) Blade and Grant Ward are fantastic simply because they are cheap. (We can also pay for the on Grant Ward's response easily) Don't bother paying the to activate with Blade. Instead, use him with Ready for Action, Strength In Numbers and Strength in Diversity. Kaluu is pretty good as he can potentially draw one of our events that we want to see like Fly Over, Photon Beam or Strength In Numbers. Deadpool and Hugin & Munin are mostly here just for traits.

Early Game

Like any Ironheart deck, you really want to focus on getting progress counters early. Getting to Version 2 not only makes Strength in Diversity playable, but gives her a 5 hand size in hero form. You want to get to this point ASAP. Make sure to use her Child Prodigy ability on turn 1, and mulligan for other cards that give you progress counters like Ronnie Williams, Stroke of Genius, Fly Over and Photon Beam. Ingenuity and The Triskelion are also cards I would try to play early if you see them. Not having The Triskelion later in the game reduces how strong you can get Strength in Diversity. A secondary priority is to start playing allies. Beast, Brawn, and Moon Girl are some of the best early game options, as they help speed up your progression.

Final Thoughts

The allies that are just here for traits are pretty interchangeable. Spider-Ham is a pretty good alternative option. Black Panther is good option to get your leadership events back. When it comes to those events, I sometimes feel like I want a 3rd Strength In Numbers, but I landed on 2 here. If you want, you can bump it up to 3 copies, and also consider Face the Past. Her nemesis gains tough, but only at the end of the villain phase, so you can just defeat her as soon as you play her and not deal with that. Also both Strength in Diversity and her version 3 hero ability don't count as "attacking the villain".

Strength in Diversity is a strange card, in that it's an alliance card that is just better used for solo. Its hard to get enough additional traits form other players to make up for the extra per-player cost. This deck excels in solo, but I've been testing it in a 2 player expert S.H.I.E.L.D. campaign, and it still feels great! At that count it goes from a 2 cost event to a 4 cost one. With 2 players its really easy to ramp the traits up past 10, and doing 10+ combined damage/ threat removal wherever you want for 5 ER (effective resources) is still fantastic! Highly recommend this one at 1 or 2 players. I think if you go higher than that, you should try coordinating with the rest of your group to bring extra new traits

Overall, this is a pretty classic Ironheart deck, with a twist. Strength in Diversity fits so smoothly into her general game plan, that I think she is one of the best heroes for this card. Highly recommend trying this out. If you do, let me how how it went!