Mark XXV

Iron Man vs Expert Ronan Playthrough

It's 2025 and time for Iron Man to upgrade his suit to the Mark '25. The shiny new piece of tech that released for Tony this year is the Energy Shield, which is zero cost. Having Ready for a Fight give Tony access to his alter-ego hand size early and his Futurist ability is a new incentive for playing him with the protection aspect in addition to all the tech upgrades.

Building the Suit

It's never been easier to build out Iron Man's suit. This deck runs 13 tech upgrades to increase our handsize in hero form, with Energy Shield being the cheapest tech upgrade in the game at 0 cost. Just like with any Iron Man deck, we still want to prioritize his identity-specific upgrades because they have more of an impact. Here is my personal priority:

1. Arc Reactor
2. First Powered Gauntlet
3. First Rocket Boot
4. Mark V Armor
5. Mark V Helmet
6. Second Powered Gauntlet
7. Second Rocket Boot (I would prioritize protection techs over this one)

Energy Shield & Energy Barrier

Despite not being as good as Tony's actual suit, Energy Shield and Energy Barrier do a great job in fortifying Tony's defenses and are easier to play because of their low cost. We loaded this deck with tons with energy resources so we can block damage with Energy Shield in addition to the classic reason of increasing Repulsor Blast's damage. Although Energy Shield isn't the most efficient way to prevent damage, its high tempo balances out Tony's naturally lower tempo kit and was able to keep him alive from even Ronan the Accuser's heavy overkill attacks.

Balancing Mental, Physical, & Energy Resource Requirements

Quincarrier and Ingenuity are essential resource generators for this deck to hit the resource requirements on our cards. Ingenuity provides the mental requirement Tony's Rocket Boots need to give him aerial every turn, while Quincarrier can provide the wild to play Ready for a Fight (which requires a physical resource). Moon Girl and Energy Shield also require specific resources so it's important to keep the Quincarrier available if it's needed for a specific card. Once Quincarrier is in play, the resource requirements will become a lot more smooth--needing multiple resource types in a given turn means we'll have the correct resource for something else in hand and Quincarrier can fill in what's left.

Ally Selection

• Spider-Byte: New best friend for Iron Man. 3 cost ally that can thwart for 2 and reduces its own cost for each tech upgrade Tony has?! After turn 2 Spider-Byte will always be free to play.

• White Fox: Energy resource that we want to see with Futurist or Repulsor Blast so we can play for free.

• Gambit: Energy resource that lets us peak at the encounter deck for a safe turn to flip down to alter-ego.

• Nick Fury: Mental resource, best ally in the game.

• Moon Girl: Mental resource, best ally for genius traited identities.

• Ironheart: Mental resource, solid and cheap protégé.

• Starhawk: Physical resource to round out the resources in the deck. On a turn where Starhawk is already in play and we are missing the resource requirement for Ready for a Fight, Starhawk can return himself to hand to provide that physical resource.