Sir Thompson and the Space Knight

Since Flash’s assault and siege, I trow, were over-past,
To brands and ashes burnt that stately burg at last,
And he, the traitor proved, for treason that he wrought,
Was fitly tried and judged,—his fortune elsewhere sought
The truest knight from space, Venom, with his kin,
Who vanquished villains, and with Excelsior did win.

Sir Thompson and the Space Knight

Symbiotic Bond is one of the strongest abilities in the entire game, turning a single point of health into a . It's limited per phase and most decks don't even get the most out of this limitation. This deck aims to fill that gap by providing an outlet during the villain phase. Enter: Excelsior, which is a great weapon in its own right that has an resource dump to deal 2 damage after defending to any enemy, not just the attacking one. Putting them together is like peanut butter and things that go really well with peanut butter, giving you extra damage, changing your fortune, and giving you extra cards.

Justice & Courage

Face the Past and challenge those who would seek to destroy. Or cry out, and call forth your challenge: "Come Get Me, Bub!" And minions answer. Ensure to use Symbiotic Bond first as Tough status cards disallow to 'take' damage. Cry out again, and Taunt the villain, drawing 3 cards (and 4 with Spider-Sense). When playing in multiplayer, consider Hard to Ignore or Energy Barrier instead as there will be many foes to challenge. Even if there's an Aggression player at the table, you just need to defeat one minion per villain phase to get the most value, so there will be plenty of targets for them.

After enemy attack, defend true with cuts both ways, stand in defiance, parry with grasping tendrils, and finally you can flaunt with a jump flip or two. All cards allow defending without using a basic defense and without exhausting. Other options include "I Can Do This All Day" (costs 1 but can be used even on minion attacks), Preemptive Strike (costs more and does more damage that defiance but does not work if the boost has 0 boost icons), or Side Step (pings damage but does not remove threat). Also keep in mind that even when you cancel an attack with Grasping Tendrils, the enemy is still considered to have initiated an attack and Spider-Sense and Unflappable will still trigger to allow you to draw cards.

Generosity

The value engine of this deck is a little subtle. There are no double resources and no bursts of resources, but you have access to Symbiotic Bond every phase and nearly 30 cards in the deck costs 1 or less, and only 12 cards cost 2 or more. For that reason, the main value pieces are:

• Gamora: your trusty squire can discard until finding an event; with 28 of them, there's plenty of value to be found.
• Assess the Situation: spend this last and if you don't need it, draw into a bigger hand.
• Face the Past: gets you a bunch of cards, thins your deck (for the small good it will do), and importantly, introduces a bunch of nice crunchy 2-health minions into the game in the form of Enraged Symbiote; 2 is the perfect number for Excelsior; if you can handle the extra damage, you can have many turns in a row of lots of card draw, and they're the perfect minions to get from "Come Get Me, Bub!"
• Taunt: spend 1 to draw 3 and spending 1 to draw 4 is even better.
• Project Rebirth 2.0: draw in alter-ego and easy trips with Ready for a Fight
• Change of Fortune: 2 cards‽ Excelsior + Symbiotic Bond make this trivially easy.
• Spider-Sense: draw a card every time the villain attacks you, even if you taunted first.
• Unflappable: if you defend and take no damage might not always trigger actually, but there are a few toughs in here to help you achieve that and Jump Flip helps with smaller minion attacks

Mercy & Honour

Since Change of Fortune is one of your best draw tools, you can tee up your enemies to be on <2 health and defeat with Excelsior; Cuts Both Ways can help too, but it's not always reliable since you won't always know you'll draw it.

Your best tools are Multi-Gun and Venom's Pistols. Multi-Gun can hit everything for 1 damage, your basic ATK is 2, and your Pistols can each add +1; in addition to that, Savage Attack can help bring even the biggest minions into defeat range. What's more, remember that Excelsior can be used after defending the villain's attack to defeat the minion before they get the chance to attack. If you time your strikes carefully, you can get the most value.

A typical turn after "Come Get Me, Bub!" or Face the Past involves using any of the above methods to get it down to 2 health in the player phase. In the villain phase, using one of the many defense cards in the deck to defend, prevent all damage from the attack due to being Toughened, and draw a card from Unflappable. Then, after the attack, use Symbiotic Bond to generate a resource for Excelsior to defeat the minion before it can attack, drawing 2 cards from Change of Fortune and being set up really well for next turn to keep up the momentum.

Nobility & Faith

You'll be taking a lot of damage, despite defending a lot, so you'll need ways to heal up. And remember, you can get some easy swaps to alter-ego with Behind Enemy Lines and Ready for a Fight. In addition to your normal REC, you have:

• Angel's Aerie: builds a counter every time you defend (remember, you defend when playing a defense event, even Grasping Tendrils) for some burst healing late game; also remember that one use removes all counters. You don't get to save some for later.
• Project Rebirth 2.0: provides extra healing or card draw

Sir Thompson's challenge begun,
Wielding sword en plus d'gun
With valourous swing and savage attack
Furious blows ring out: Snicker-snack!
As furious foes cry out in pain,
The King in Black—victorious in battle again