Leave 'Em Black and Blue

Leave 'Em Black and Blue

This deck was inspired by the Winning Hand Podcast (http://www.youtube.com/@WinningHandPodcast) with their challenge to build a deck with Squirrel Girl on Episode 76 - What Rhymes with Squirrel?, as well as by BigDarsh on Discord who had sharing how awesome Spectrum can be, making the suggestion that one can hang on to Speed of Light for a turn, if not truly needed in the current turn, in order to make sure Spectrum can change form on demand. He also emphasized the important of including Soaring Acrobatics to shore up her basic powers.

With that inspiration, I decided to build an Avengers deck that is meant to eventually put Giant-Man into play and then buff him up with upgrades using Suit Up with other allies so that he could deal 4-6 points of damage per turn for up to 4 turns, with possible turns of 8-12 damage. Other allies and Spectrum herself could then contribute the rest of the damage to defeat minions, mitigate threat, and finish off the villain.

If you'd like to see a discussion of this deck, see the following video: Spectrum Leadership Deck Discussion | Leave 'Em Black and Blue

• "Demo" video that shows off some turns with the deck (thanks to instructional videos by Solo Marvel Champions for using DragnCards): Spectrum Demo Vs. Expert Ebony Maw | 20 Damage Average | 2 Rounds
• • Note that Giant-Man dealt 6 damage in each of the previous 2 rounds to those shown in the video, so he dealt 6, 6, 12, and 8 damage altogether, or 32 points of damage.

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

NOTABLE ELEMENTS:

Allies: Every ally except for Professor X is an Avengers Ally, including Hope Summers when one is in hero form. This allows the deck to take advantage fo the +1 Thw and +1 ATK from Mighty Avengers the vast majority of the time. The purpose of each ally is as follows:

• Professor X: To allow Spectrum to go to alter-ego to use Suit Up, also giving Spectrum the ability to choose her Energy Form upgrade when she flips back to hero form.
• Ant-Man (Hank Pym): His super-flexible cost meets emergency needs, while being able to sometimes enter play with up to 4 HP and remove a tone of threat or deal a bunch of damage.
• Blue Marvel: Though he is the identity-specific ally, he's an important mention due to his ability to allow Spectrum to change to any energy form.
• Giant-Man: To be built out with upgrades and deal massive damage and then finish with some extra thwarting or damage dealing.
• Hope Summers: To choose any Superpower card from the deck when played from hand, of which there are 14 choices.
• Kaluu: To pick one of the 17 events available in the deck.
• Squirrel Girl: To deal one-damage to each enemy, often removing annoying tough status cards. Note that Spectrum has a the ability to remove a tough status as well when she transforms to her Gamma Energy Form.
• White Tiger: For card draw, which can only occur when she's played from hand; however, Suit Up potentially allows this to occur multiple time.
• Black Panther: To grab a copy of Make the Call or Suit Up.

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Upgrades:

• If Inspired, Reinforced Suit, and Sky Cycle are all on Giant-Man while Mighty Avengers is in play, he can hit for 12 damage in a turn.
• Deft Focus: While there are 12 Superpower events, this is really only viable for the 3 attack events and 3 thwart events; however, it can also decrease the cost of playing the Energy Duplication upgrades to one, making it very easy to get them into play.
• Soaring Acrobatics: This card allows Spectrum to be able to use her basic powers for at least 2 instead of one even if she isn't in an advantageous energy form.

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Conclusion:
The numerous ally choices in this deck give Spectrum a lot flexibility in handling minions and schemes, while allowing her to lean into her own strengths in dealing damage, thwarting, and defending. They can protect her when needed, but at other times, she can handle her own defense and make full use of the allies' activations. With Call for Backup available, it becomes relatively easy to get Giant-Man into play and then use Suit Up to deck him out with some powerful upgrades and leave the enemies black and blue.

(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.