Hop On My Arrow, I'll Protect, You Lead (Duo w/Hawkeye)

Wins/Loses: 11-6 (65%)
Pros: Both can stay in Hero Forms for the majority of fighting. Cons: Not enough Thwart.

I picked these two for the famous picture of Ant-Man on Hawkeye’s Arrow. I thought it would be fun to play them, but also I had not played with Hawkeye and I wanted to see how his mechanics worked. So, I think I will dive straight into my losses and then I will discuss my overall thoughts on my victories.

Ultron:Ultron is a beast anyway, and I was lucky and had all the right cards for Klaw, who I could never really beat consistently. As a preface, I know that playing one-time against a villain isn’t an indicator of much, but for this purpose I wanted to document some struggles I had. One of the main struggles was the cards I received. I mulliganed, then played my Bow. I received more Leadership cards than Arrow Events. I still thought I was in the clear since I had chump-blocking. In the end I got Ultron to Stage II, but as all Stage IIs go, it ramped up on me. Drones were now starting to eat up the board, and it didn’t help that they now had +1 to their ATK and HP. When it gets overwhelming, I think my problem is I get too nervous about the longevity of the game and therefore try to ramp up myself by dealing all damage I can to Ultron instead of worrying about the board state. I also let the threat get away from me and to put the ever-increasing burden of worry on me, I revealed a Shadow of the Past for Hawkeye, Quick Striking him and killing him. There was no way Ant-Man was going to take on all those drones (4) and Crossfire.

Wrecking Crew: Normally, I don’t have a problem with these guys, but I am starting to think my strategy of killing one at a time may not work ALL the time. I usually go for Wrecker and Thunderball first, Piledriver, then Bulldozer, since Hawkeye mostly ignores Retaliate. In this case the threat kept scheming up and the encounter cards were not forgiving! I also forget to make sure the villain I don’t want taking the lead needs to have the LOWEST threat, and so therefore I was haunted by multiple switches of the villain, not being able to really plan ahead:(

Drang: He started out pretty easy, I got him to Stage II fairly quickly, and all was almost well until Shadows of the Past came out (Crossfire really wanted to get in all Hawkeye’s games). Between the Barrage and the damage and my ignorance in remembering where my health was at, Drang made work of me. It’s something that I am always humbled by...needing to remember that I cannot stay in Hero all the time! Switching is key and when to switch. I thought I thwarted enough to have both Heroes switch to Alter-Ego, then of course a “Villain Schemes” is revealed and hell ensues. Ultimately, if I were to play multiple times, I would definitely get him, but for the purpose of this journey, it was an utter failure.

The Collector-ETM: I love playing the Collector both Infiltrate and Escape, because I love the strategy involved and the constant paranoia of failing...I’m not even being facetious, I really do love them. This particular scenario needs Thwart, which from my Cons above, I lack. I should say, I did switch out some cards throughout my journey, because either some cards were lackluster, or I ended up using them for resources. With that said, I still feel we went pretty far with this dup, going into the last Scheme and taking him to 4 HP! So, again, one game isn’t the greatest indicator, however I felt they did damn good in putting on a show and trying to Escape!

Nebula: I played some cards wrong with Nebula in that I should have left more to chump-block to keep Hawkeye around more. As one of the pictures notes, I had 17 threat on the Main Scheme, and I went for broke, using Ant-Man’s ability of flipping to Giant dealing a damage to her, then used Giant Stomp to deal 8 damage, and I believe since it was an attack card, I rightfully killed Ant-Man since he had 1 HP left before using the card (Nebula’s attachment had her gain Retaliate). So now it was to Hawkeye to be the savior...somewhere I miscalculated but I was going to lose on scheme the Villain Phase anyway so I went for it all...Hawkeye used Vibranium Arrow, and while I haad Electric Arrow, there was no resources or ways to ready Hawkeye to ready the bow. Nick Fury came in dealing four damage and attacked for 2...my miscalculations were...true...Nebula was at 1 HP, therefore Villain Phase, turn one I lost….There were only two times the attachments became a hindrance as far as all at once attacks, but the ones that remained usually were pests, i.e. Cutthroat Ambition and it’s no more the 5 damage:(

Ronan: The one I feared playing because he was the talk of the town. When I played the campaign with Drax Protection, I lost so quick it wasn’t even funny….well, it kind of was...so here we are to play the penultimate match for my first Dynamic Duo Adventure, and it wasn’t all that bad...I mean I lost, but I got him to Stage II, he ended I believe at 6 or 7 HP, so it becomes that, “well, if I played a couple more times I could have one.” He is a beast with the mechanics of encounter cards and the constant pummeling of increased attacks. I, more times than not, used the Milano for cancelling treacheries, than I did removing threats on the First Scheme.

Major Takeaways: I feel like these were great decks, because all of the green that is on the chart, were all done in surprising fashion...in other words, I really thought I would win less than I did, for numerous reasons: staying in Hero too long, not enough thwart, lack of stun/confuse, etc. Some of the green/victories did come at a cost...Ant-Man, the protector, sacrificed himself in Mutagen Formula and Taskmaster. This is when the question of, “does it go back to playing solo?” comes into play, which I found does not, which made me really think if Hawkeye could finish the deal...in the case of Klaw and Explosive Arrow twice...it rang true.

There may have been nothing profound here but hopefully someone got a few tips, or at least likes reading about others’ small reflections on a subjectively amazing card game!