About Flippin' Time (or The Hellcat Strut)

About Flippin' Time (or The Hellcat Strut)

I couldn't decide between deck names since there are two key elements to this deck, so I decided to keep both names. The "main" deck name refers, of course, to She-Hulk's frequent flipping she'll be doing with this deck, which is facilitated by Professor X's confusion ability. The parenthetical portion of the title is reminscent of the song, Stray Cat Strut, by the Stray Cats. In the case of this deck, it represents Hellcat strutting around as she confidently deals with any threat thrown down by the villain.

It's been a long time since I've built an Avenger's deck, so I thought I'd see how a Hellcat Voltron deck would do, despite its counterintutitive nature due to Hellcat's Action ability. I soon discovered that such a deck can easily overcome She-Hulk's lack of thwarting and allow She-Hulk to consistently deal 3, 6, or 9 damage, making solid headway on the villain throughout the game, and Hellcat can potentially contribute as much or more damage as She-Hulk as well.

If you'd like to see a discussion of this deck, see the following video: About Flippin' Time (or The Hellcat Strut) | She-Hulk Leadership Deck Discussion

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck and/or game play strategies (in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Black Widow; Drang; and Magneto.

Deck Refinements:

• Removal(s):
  • Specialized Training: I played this card once in the first 3 card, and it was great when I did, but the deck large enough as is and could end up with too many useless hands with only 4 cards on the hero side.
  • U.S. Agent: I only played him once in the first 7 games.
  • One copy of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, leaving two.
• Addition(s):
  • 3 copies of Suit Up
  • Endurance: To allow for extra uses of Focused Rage and Clarity of Purpose and to maximize damage from Gamma Slam
  • 1 more copy of Inspired, for a total of 2: The extra one is meant to be used for Suit Up once Hellcat is built out.

NOTABLE ELEMENTS OF PLAY:

Ally Notes:

• Hellcat: primary target for Inspired and Sky Cycle, and, of course, the only target for Sidekick. Once in play, she's meant to stay in play and remove threat. Sky Cycle and Earth's Mightiest Heroes permit her to do so effectively, especially once she also has Inspired or if Mighty Avengers is in play. She is typically the first target for Suit Up.
  • A major advantage when building out Hellcat is that She-Hulk can absorb attacks while you do so, often dealing considerable damage in the meanwhile.
• Professor X: As one of only two non-Avenger allies in the deck, his purpose is to confuse the villain to allow She-Hulk to go to alter-ego. If Mighty Avengers is in play, one should utilize the other allies' activiation(s) prior to putting Professor X into play. He is meant to be the primary target for Make the Call or Suit Up (once Hellcat is in play); however, one still has to consider whether that's a viable play or even the most beneficial.
• Maria Hill: Even when She-Hulk's hand-size is 4, there are 18 possible 0- or 1-cost cards (if one counts Ant-Man but doesn't count Legal Practice or Make the Call) that can be drawn and played if an Avenger ally is in play, and still 16 cards if not. The possibilities increase significantly once Clarity of Purpose is in play, and remember that Ant-Man can be put into play from the discard pile. When he is there, we can count Make the Call as another three 1-cost cards available.

Readying: A number of cards in this deck allow She-Hulk or Hellcat to ready regularly.

• 3 copies of One-Two Punch: She-Hulk's identity-specific events.
• 3 copies of Limitless Stamina
• 2 copies of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, which can ready She-Hulk or Hellcat
• Sky Cycle: To ready Hellcat once per turn.
• Face the Past, which also adds some card draw.

Conclusion:
Once Suit Up was added to the deck, it became extremely fun. It was already highly effective prior to that, but that addition is really what made certain it could handle everything a villain could throw at She-Hulk, including expert Magneto. Part of the fun of the deck is the many ways She-Hulk might attain victory, though Hellcat was instrumental in all of them. At times, She-Hulk would finish off villains with Gamma Slam and basic attacks; other times, Hellcat would be set up to deal 6 points of damage per turn, while also being able to remove up to 8 threat. In the final battle, She-Hulk did 23 points of damage of her own against expert Magneto with a flip to hero form (2 points of damage) and 3 basic attacks of 7 points each with Superhuman Strength because Magneto had Magneto's Armor attached.

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.