i survived '26 and all i got was this fucking awesome deck

Things are gettin real, y'all. This year has been a crazy one for me. Lots of real life stuff happened that prevented me from attending CoH '26. My job was in jeopardy. I had emergency surgery. And that's barely touching what happened to be honest. And I know people like to complain about the blog post deck descriptions, but hate all you want, it doesn't stop y'all from reading 'em. And if you want a description, the deck's over there on the left. You've got eyes. I know I'm the 'meme guy' but you know what? I use memes to make the deck description fun, and it has never stopped me from pouring in effort into making the best decks I can.

But I'm really proud of this one, and I'm feeling really emotional today. A lot of y'all know that I'm from the US but have been living in NZ for a long time. I did everything I could to vote but pretty sure it didn't count, but my county, my state, and my country showed up for me anyway. Hoping for a similar result here in NZ as voting ends tomorrow (we get ten days y'all).

So it's my post, and I can turn it into a blog post if I want, but this isn't a sad blog post. This has been one of the toughest years of my entire life, and I'm on the other side of it. I'm so happy and emotional today about everything. It's even my birthday. Well, it was a couple weeks ago, but I get to have my birthday leave from work today. I went to buy half a cheesecake and they just sold me the whole thing for half off. Quite literally one of the best days of my life.

What does any of this have to do with anything, let alone a deck? Well, call me Ishmael, but this deck is my white whale. I have been trying for years, so, so, so, so, so, so, so many times (for those of you counting at home, this is the 8th iteration of a deck I've been working on but haven't published in 6 years). It has finally achieved everything I've wanted it to do, and it's happening to coincide in a time in my life where everything is starting to go right. So if y'all play this deck, I hope you appreciate the time, attention, and emotion I've poured into it, that in spite of my terrible year, it hasn't stopped me from pouring effort into making this the best it can be.

--

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

I want to first thank Schmendrix for suggesting Mission Planning. It was absolutely the card I needed to get everything to work. I also want to thank Caldais for finding out a fun interaction with Enraged and The Direct Approach (even if it's not in the deck anymore, it was there for a while and definitely used in certain matchups).

So, ok. You do have eyes and you can see the deck, but you might want some help with how it works. If you've made it this far, know I love you and I got you.

It's built around cheap allies with good stats and low HP so they can have even better stats with Righteous Purpose, and almost everything here is at 2 or less HP to get those bonuses right away. Attach Enraged and Energy Spear to skyrocket their ATK to the moon, and what's that you say? You don't want them to die to consequential? There are no consequences here, as long as you go nuts with a little Mission Planning and As One!. On turns where you can't attack, you can turn all your allies sideways to draw a bunch of cards with Strength In Numbers.

Remember that you can pay 1 for Ant-Man and 1 for Wasp to have them come in right away with 1 HP for a 4/4 and 3/5, respectively with Righteous Purpose. Captain Marvel is technically 4-cost and really expensive, but she draws you cards every time she activates, so she can help pay off her cost over time as you get her to 1 HP, and even gives you a rebate on Mission Planning (but not As One!, which is honestly sad). Stinger comes in right away and can thwart or attack to turn her into a 3/3 that gives you an extra draw from Strength In Numbers. And finally, just remember that Throg doesn't have to take the tough, even if you have an ally. It's sometimes relevant to get him buffed right away.

There's 3 side schemes to help you set up and to turn on Mission Planning. Build Support helps find Righteous Purpose or The Triskelion. Lock and Load finds Energy Spear (remember it can only attach to a Guardian ally), and Superpower Training gets you Finesse, which is one of the best identity-specific resource generators in the entire game.

And of course you have some of the most fair and balanced cards ever with Pheromones, Contaminant Immunity, and Clarity of Purpose.

I do have some suggested modifications, depending on what you're up against. Replace Angela with Marvel Boy if there's a lot of retaliate (especially Zola or M.O.D.O.K.), and replace Wasp Thor if you're facing something minion heavy. If you need more side scheme disruption, replace As One! with The Direct Approach and thank Caldais for that one as you remember you only take the normal consequential for thwarting and not any extra from Enraged (just remember that a thwart is not an attack, even if it uses your ATK).

So that's it. That's the deck. Just play allies, draw cards, play Mission Planning or As One! and have some real fucking satisfying turns as your wave of allies crushes the villain's schemes.

I hope everyone's year hasn't been as tough as mine, but I hope everyone is feeling as elated as I am now. See you in the next write-up, space cowboy.