Oops, I joined the Villain! (Marvel players Worst Nightmare)

"They have cookies! So..."

– Deadpool, from the Villain's team.

 
Overview :

• Play Style : Yes
• Fun: Yes
• Difficulty : You are difficulty, yes
• Power level : NaN
• Recommended Player Count : 2+
• Ideal Aspect Partner : Anyone who is okay with you doing this ;)

Concept :
Have you ever dreamt of joining the villain's side? Well, this deck is for you!
Use it as a joke or as a nightmarish challenge in a 2+ (ideally 4) players game.

Create acceleration tokens, make the villain attack more, heal the villain, prevent damage from them, deal harder encounter cards to others players, and more! :)

It is a highly customizable deck (see below) and you can be as mean as you want, really.

How to Defeat the Players — A Story in Three Stages:

1 - They think you're cool :)

• You show-up at the game night. The others don't know a thing...
• "Tonight, I was thinking maybe a Rhino or Absorbing-Man, I want to crush a villain with that new hero pack I bought!" they say, full of hope.
• "Wow, a Deadpool deck? I LOVE that character in the comics! And the hero looks so fun too, good thing we're doing an easy villain, putting Acceleration tokens could be tough haha" says another impatient gamer.
• You all sit at the table. You quickly explain what Deadpool's kit does but stay evasive about the rest of your deck...

• At first, everything seems normal. You play an Energy Barrier to protect yourself in Alter-Ego, same with the Energy Shield.
• "Oh, you have a Ready for a Fight + Practiced Plan deck? That's smart! Yeah sure, you'll go in hero form only to immediately die and come back to alter-ego with an extra Acceleration token, but at least you'll prevent a thwart activation each time. I think we can win before this becomes a problem :)"
• "And, at least, you can draw with Moira MacTaggert each turn, nice combo!"

• "Now, you're playing Exhausting Personality to add another Accelaration token. Great, that's two villain activations gone!"
• "Still no Chimichanga Truck or It Ain't Over... though... don't worry, we can hold the main scheme a bit longer! ;)" 

• "Oh, you're using Taunt and Bait and Switch in combination with the stun status cards we put on the villain, smart way to avoid that downside! A shame you didn't draw what you needed with Taunt...and that there was only 1 threat on the main scheme..."

2 - They start doubting... :/

• They still cheer for you... How naive are they? You'll soon find out, hopefully when it's too late for them... (villain's sidekick laugh)

• "Oh that's also a Children of the Atom deck!? But you haven't played a lot of allies yet. Or is that just for The X-Jet, ok yes, I guess you need the to pay for Ready for a Fight and Energy Barrier"
• "Oooooh, you also have the Stepford Cuckoos, okay it makes more sense, you can protect us from bad encounter cards, especially Deadpool!"
• "Oops, you just died again with Taunt, it really can be tricky to use haha."
• "You generate FOUR resources!? Great use of your Montage resource card, those Acceleration tokens are really paying off!"
• "And heeere is the X-men/X-force/X-factor ally!!! Rogue can be a beast with the right combos, you probably have another Energy Shield for her. Right? Right?"
• Narrator: But it wasn't for her.
• "What?"
• You: "What?"
• Narrator: "What?"
• "Anyway, be careful, you attached your Energy Shield to the villain instead of her... Well, you probably have 3 copies of it... Or a great combo that needs an upgrade attached to the villain, I didn't know they released a green version of Take That!, I love this archetype!!!"

• "It's weird you never recover though, or attack, or thwart, or ever exhaust your identity to do anything except Exhausting Personality!"
• "Oops you died again with Taunt :p"

3 - They realize you work for the Villain! :o

• "Okay, what's going on??!"
• "I'm sorry, but this is the third time you draw 12 cards with Exhausting Personality and you still haven't found your It Ain't Over...!?!?"
• "You haven't used your Katanas at all, and I don't think you're scared of losing 1HP considering how many times you literally DIED this game!"

• "Stop playing cards that forces a Villain attack! Mike has been stunning Absorbing-Man 3 times this turn, look at him, Mike's crying now!"
• "Wait..are you... Are you still playing while I'm talking? Aaaand you just died again, great!"

• "....... (inhale and exhale deeply)....... I'm sorry, it's just that...you haven't even played this round yet and... okay, I'm sorry, it's my turn I know. I'll thwart Specialized Training down to 2, almost done, guys! Then I'll attack the Villain for 8 damage damage and...... Oh for @*$%'s sake, WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW?"
• In this instant, you are just casually preventing 8 damage with a combination of Energy Shield, Montage, The Power of Protection (counts for 2 ), The X-Jet and the icons you drew with Taunt + Exhausting Personality. A tense smile appears on your teammate's face. Mike is crying a bit more.
• "Okay, okay then... I'll attack for 6 more and...sure, cancel half of it with an Aerial Intervention, I don't care. Then 2 more damage with my hero! Oh and 4 more with my Wolverine ally, he's fine he still has 1HP thanks to Mike's Danger Room Training. Okay, your turn, traitor!"

• You proceed to play Vivian.
• "Sadly, Mike just spent 3 resources to remove that nasty Attachm...oh no! Oh no, please don't targ..."
• But too late! You already blanked the Specialized Training and now Vivian removes those last 2 threat on it, putting it in the discard pile of Mike instead of the Victory display, ignoring all text on it... Oops.
• "You monster!"
• You play the White Queen and discard the tough status card that Mike spent so many resources to keep.
• "You MONSTER!"
• Time to make Mike draw with IPAC. Too bad he doesn't have many events in his deck... He still takes an extra encounter cards though.
• "YOU MONSTER!"
• Now you turn your attention to Rogue. It would be a shame if Wolverine were to lose his last hit point before next turn... Too late, he just did.
• "YOU MONSTER!!!! What will you even do with her 6 ATK, defeat Mike?!"
• No, just chilling. You'll win soon enough anyway. Oh by the way, time to die again with Taunt.
• "Unbelievable... at least you're done, we might still be able to win in a turn or two if the Main Scheme doesn't pop this next villain phase. Hang in there, Mike!"

• "Okay so, that'll be 15 Acceleration tokens for a total of 18 threat. Villain is confused for Mike. He attacks me. Then you choose not to use Ready for a Fight this one time it could be useful to prevent a scheming activation, of course. Deal 1 card to each... Argh, Mike loses his Avengers Mansion with his first card, and 1 ally with the second card you gave him... But it's okay I drew a weak encounter card which...."
• You raise a finger to Interrupt (quite literally) and exhaust the Stepford Cuckoos. The reroll gets them an Advance, incredible value for 1 psi counter! That should end the game.
• "Is that even legal? Doesn't it say I can choose whether I want to use the Cuckoos ability or not? It could read something like.....".
• They rushed through Denial and Bargaining, you should really go before the Anger stage of grief comes.
• "Arh bloo-bloo-glapi-blob! Gloop-bloo..."
• Okay, now they're getting confused... This is your time, you look at the camera for the first time:
• "My job here is done!" you say before vanishing in a cloud of red smoke.

Play it how you want

Bad effects summary:

• Add Acceleration tokens: Deadpool, never recovering, his attack/thwart events if you really want to die turn 1, Exhausting Personality during first turns only, Ready for a Fight, Taunt, Bait and Switch, and Rogue or This Card is Fire in a pinch.
• Not actually dying in alter-ego: Energy Barrier, Energy Shield, Aerial Intervention, Stepford Cuckoos, Starhawk absorbing indirect damage and getting back in your hand.
• Removing stun from villain: White Queen, Taunt and Bait and Switch.
• Preventing damage to villain: Energy Shield + all your / resources (including The Power of Protection for 2 and Montage for 4 ), Aerial Intervention + Starhawk or Vivian.
• Drawing your : Moira MacTaggert, Exhausting Personality, Taunt and often ending in alter-ego.
• Other nuisance: Rogue sniping allies, Vivian cancelling Player Side Schemes, IPAC extra encounter cards, Stepford Cuckoos rerolls, White Queen discarding tough status cards from heroes/allies, or confuse/stun from villain/ELITE minions.

Customization and other combos:

• Add more Energy Barriers if your friends start bringing Hulk to get rid of you in alter-ego (that would only be fair :p ).
• If there a multiple villains, bring 3 copies of #shield .
• Storm could be used on a 2-threat-left Main Scheme to trigger her interrupt before actually using her 2 THW. You could put some extra threat on Players Side scheme or Side Schemes with Hazard icons.
• Black Widow could be used in combination with Stepford Cuckoos and The X-Jet.
• Against nasty minions, "Come Get Me, Bub!" coul be worth the tough.
• First Aid heals the villain, or minions just before the attack that was supposed to finish them.
• Mutant Education + X-Mansion is a nice way to see Exhausting Personality every turn thanks to your alter-ego ability. Plus it can heal you so you stay at 2 HP instead of 1. It was in the deck originally but it takes a lot of cards.
• Enhanced Reflexes for even more and when you don't have much to pay for.
• Probably even more "tools" that I missed :)

2-3 important things if you ever play this deck:

• Trying to hide your intentions at first and slowly make your teammates realize (like in this write-up) sounds fun but...don't do that to your friends.
• Make sure everyone at the table (including you) is okay with you trying your best to prevent others players from winning :)
• The challenge is a bit more fun if you "teammates" allow you to take actions during their turn. If not, the deck still works as intended (being a nuisance) but you won't optimize your moves as much ;)

 
Anyway, enjoy, have fun,
and don't forget to drop a like/fav, it's always appreciated :)