Thor - We Were Swingin'

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Thorts and Prayers 0 0 0 1.0
Thor Aggro 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - We Were Swingin' (hulk) 1 1 0 1.0
Thor - Aggression 03 0 0 0 1.0
Thor Aggression 1 1 0 1.0
Thor - let’s go! 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - We Were Swingin' 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - Thrill of Battle 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - Love and Chunder 0 0 0 2.0
Thor - The Revengers 0 0 0 3.0
Thor minionkiller 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - Thunderstorm! 0 0 0 1.0
Thor modern 0 0 0 1.0
Thor modern 0 0 0 2.0
Thor - We Were Swingin' Some More 0 1 0 2.0
Thor - Lightning and Thunder! 1 1 0 1.0
Only Trust Your Fists 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - God of Thunder 4 5 0 1.0
Thor - Craneo Rojo 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - We Were Swingin' (Solo version) 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - MTS campaign vs Loki 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - We Were Swingin' (v. Ultron) 0 0 0 1.0
Thor - We Were Swingin' 1 1 0 1.0
You got a mean swing, Point Break 12 7 0 1.0

Team Covenant · 5180

This deck was birthed from the sadness of seeing Thor in play and running the numbers on his signature cards. Everything just seems...expensive, especially for a Hero who has a self-nuking 5/4 hand size that, ironically, is solved via a card that takes an entire turn to play - Asgard. Compare God of Thunder to Super-Soldier Serum, Shield Toss to Lightning Strike, etc. For such a significant downside in the 5/4 hand, nothing seems to make sense.

And really, that's what makes Thor so interesting.

The question answered by this deck isn't "How can we make Thor the best hero at the table?" but instead "How can we make Thor as good as possible?" To my surprise, that exploration led to a build that may indeed make him the best hero at the table if you get a number of fortunate minion draws.

Instead of trying to correct for Thor's hand size weakness, I wanted to play into it. Thor wants to be in Hero mode. You'll be having those 4-card hands. How can they play out as powerfully as possible?

The first step was making sure that the curve was ridiculously low. The second step was making sure to pack enough 1-cost cards to have an efficient "free" play after a Hammer Throw returned Mjolnir. Play Hammer Throw, use Mjolnir to play the 1-cost, then flip to Alter-Ego. That's peak Thor, so it needs to happen whenever possible.

The core of the deck is:

4 STR swings with Mjolnir and Combat Training.

Battle Fury with Hammer Throw to stand up and swing again or flip and recover.

Mean Swing and Skilled Strike to do big damage for 0-cost.

Jarnbjorn for the turns you need to Mean Swing and Hammer Throw on the same turn. It's 1-cost, and also gives the occasional damage by burning your "can't play" Battle Fury or Combat Training. Still testing the slot.

Sometimes I don't even play Asgard. You give up an entire turn to do so, and you really need to consider whether or not it's worth giving up your momentum. The games may not last long enough for a few extra cards to pan out.

Depending on the scenario, you might drop Chase Them Down and Tigra to have better Hulk odds, particularly if there's less minions dropping.

I'm running Down Time because Thor is about the only hero who can't afford allies to block attacks every turn, and he has a high enough health stat to need those bigger recovers. It's also 1-cost. Yes, I was wrong. It's a playable card. Top play here is Recover -> Use Mjolnir to play Lady Sif -> Recover again -> Play Mjolnir. Nothing like recovering 12 health.

I've been playing this on the Covenant streams, and honestly have been quite surprised with the results. It's really good. Unexpectedly good. And while it looks like you're just face tanking like Thor would, it takes a lot of finesse. You need all of your Hammer Throws to land (it's your best card) and you need to be exceedingly careful with your mulligan. If you have a clean hand, play it. Otherwise, you risk drawing into a Hammer Throw + Hammer Throw + Asgard hand and it's miserable.

Throughout the game, don't jump on the first chance to use your double resources. If you have a 4-card hand with a 2, 1, 1, Double in it, consider playing the 2-cost and keeping the double. Those double resources open up God of Thunder and Hammer Throw in a much more efficient way.

Once you get one God of Thunder out, you're going to start cruising. It's a huge priority, as it means you have Hammer Throw into 1-cost play + flip moving forward. Sometimes I won't play the second one. I'm still experimenting with it. Often, it's overkill, and if you're choosing between the second God of Thunder or a Hammer Throw, take Hammer Throw.

Ultimately, this is the best Thor deck I can build right now. It arose from a significant amount of testing and test draws. The curve just kept getting lower and lower as I found myself stuck on inefficient hands. Now things are running quite smoothly.

Best of all, I'm actually enjoying Thor. I might be enjoying Thor more than any other hero I've played. And maybe, just maybe, he's actually quite good.

-Steven

You can see the first on-stream play here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2sisbE0jqw

Win against Wrecking Crew Heroic with this deck here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g61Vd7VFMD0

Win against Goblin Heroic + Ronan with the 3x Get Over Here, 1x Hall of Heroes variant here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP74uLm-OFc

Inspiration for the deck name and insufferable inside joke on stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07_rnlBezQg

26 comments

Jul 27, 2020 ImpossibleGerman · 13933

This is very interesting game theory for Thor, a hero that I think gets the short end of the straw. He can be so fun, and my favorite thing about this decklist is that it seems to understand the core of what makes him exciting instead of trying to patch his weaknesses. Excited to watch it on stream today.

Jul 27, 2020 KingOfRohan · 4182

Hallelujah, YES. Lovin' the love for the God of Thunder.

Jul 28, 2020 Team Covenant · 5180

Jarnbjorn was huge. Great include. I'd swap a Battle Fury for Hall of Heroes in situations with more minions (was playing Wrecking Crew). If a lot of minions, probably drop 1x Combat Training and 1x Mean Swing or Skilled Strike.

But then you're not...really...swingin'. Best of luck!

Jul 28, 2020 tiagoasmus · 72

It pleases me greatly seeing the love for the infamous Thor. I'm the lunatic running Thor-leadership on heroic 1 solo play and having a blast.

By the way, the last covenant streams for both arkham and marvel were amazing, true nailbiters!

Cheers!

Jul 28, 2020 dr00 · 38765

excellent write-up for an excellent deck, Steven. i've been theorycrafting a similar deck for Hulk ever since he was revealed, and i'm so glad to see someone put into words so eloquently what i was trying to figure out in my head. when i finally get down to testing that, i'll be thankful that you've laid down a bit of the groundwork for it already here with Thor.

i particularly appreciate you mentioning that sometimes you don't even play asgard to keep the tempo going.

also, using hammer throw to bounce Mjolnir, pay for a 1-cost card, then swap to odinson is just inspired. i've long-neglected Thor, but you're making me seriously reconsider my estimation of him

Jul 29, 2020 Team Covenant · 5180

Matt Resner crunched the numbers on live chat. In our win against Wrecking Crew, Spidey Protection dealt 61 damage and Thor dealt 78 damage. Not bad, considering it's likely one of Thor's worst match ups.

Jul 30, 2020 CBRAvengerIronMan · 1

Thanks Steven. Your play throughs with Thor made me re-evaluate him and I have enjoyed playing with him WITH a second hero. I find he still is pretty hopeless as a solo hero getting easily beaten even by Standard Rhino simply because of the poor thwarting an Aggression Thor can bring.

Thor Aggression shines with a partner, preferably Justice but also Leadership hero can fill the gap allowing Thor to focus on bringing the Hammer down.

My own deck is almost identical except I have only 1 Combat Training and 1 Counter attack and putting in 2 Powers of Aggression as well as Hall of Heroes (the last as much for theme as anything else). Thank you for showing me (and hopefully everyone else) that Thor is not as disappointing as many experienced when he first came out.

regards David W (AUS)

Aug 05, 2020 nateparkes · 296

STEVEN. Thank you for giving the God of Thunder his due. I've always liked the challenge of Thor's play style, and I've had a lot of fun with him in multi-player. I look forward to trying out this build.

Also, you could have called this "Anatomy of Asgard." Just saying. Missed Opportunity.

  • Nate "Remember Monsterpocalypse?" Parkes

Aug 06, 2020 Team Covenant · 5180

@nateparkes I totally missed that opportunity. What a great name! And of course I remember you from the MonPoc days. Those were incredible times - and we reflect on them (and folks like you) dearly.

I did try out the 3x Get Over Here, 1x Hall of Heroes build against Goblin Heroic 1 (alongside Zach with Widow Leadership), and it performed impressively. Like, truly great. I think the deck has arrived! Hopefully we'll get some other tools to take Thor into different aspects, but then again...it's Thor.

Aug 08, 2020 animus · 192

I just came here to say that I LOVE this deck!

Aug 13, 2020 widowmaker93 · 1

Hey, Steven! Love the write up. Think you’ll add anything from the Hulk pack to tweak it at all?

-Nathan Bradley

Aug 13, 2020 Team Covenant · 5180

@widowmaker93 That pack gives some great options. I'd probably test a Toe to Toe + Counterattack as a way to dish out a pretty wild amount of damage on command. Only problem is the mental resource for Hulk. And if Counterattack counts for "hero attacks and defeats a minion" trigger on Battle Fury, that's a really excellent way to clear a minion and stand up when you don't have Hammer Throw.

I'd probably immediately swap You'll Pay For That in for Chase Them Down. That makes Hulk even better, and it's likely to give greater dividends since Thor often takes it to the face. Combined with Toe to Toe, it's a very good little engine that Thor can run well.

Brawn in over Tigra pretty much all day every day.

I don't think Thor has the money for another demanding 3-cost event in Dropkick. I've found he's just barely on-sequence to hit those Hammer Throws, so anything more than that would get sloppy. Same with the 4-cost allies. I just don't think he has the resources for them - but getting an extra encounter card from Sentry does increase the chance of hitting your minion draw, so it's a little enticing.

At first glance probably test something like this (and likely will on stream):

-2 Chase Them Down -1 Tigra -3 Skilled Strike

+3 "You'll Pay for That" +1 Brawn +1 Hall of Heroes +1 Get Over Here

If I didn't need the thwart as much, I'd swap in Toe to Toe over You'll Pay For That.

I worry that adding more cost to the deck will remove its fundamental strength of a lower curve - but this is why we test!

Sep 06, 2020 elchien · 1

I noticed this deck requires 1.5 Thor packs. Does that mean we are using slight house-rules for deck building?

Sep 06, 2020 nateparkes · 296

I think the 1.5 might signify that there was errata to lightning strike? You don’t need multiple copies of the Thor pack to build this deck.

Oct 24, 2020 10GritSandpaper · 13

What about using "You'll Pay for That!" instead of Chase Them Down? It's an energy resource instead of mental, it seems like it should be easier to trigger, and has the potential to remove more threat.

Thoughts?

Oct 24, 2020 10GritSandpaper · 13

Sorry, I didn't notice that last comment from @Team Covenant. Has anyone tested your suggestion for: -2 Chase Them Down -1 Tigra -3 Skilled Strike

+3 "You'll Pay for That" +1 Brawn +1 Hall of Heroes +1 Get Over Here

???

Oct 26, 2020 Team Covenant · 5180

@10GritSandpaper Haven't tested it yet! Perhaps that can be done on a stream - maybe even this week.

Nov 04, 2020 raumzeit77 · 1

Started the Red Skull campaign on expert with this deck and Ms Marvel Justice. And damn it, we got totally stuck on Absorbing Man. He takes a lot away from Thor: Next to none minions, a high incentive to defend against attacks and also a bunch of disabling effects. We tried 5 times already, with most games either ending on turn 3 or around turn 11. Any tips?

Nov 05, 2020 Team Covenant · 5180

@raumzeit77That's a tough one. It reminds me of when we were dealing with Wrecking Crew though - light on minions is a specific kind of challenge.

Things that go through my head are that you'll need to swap out Battle Fury and Chase Them Down. Look to add Brawn and You'll Pay for That. Maybe Toe to Toe. Consider any cheap attacks in the card pool that can get rid of stun. Maybe a few more allies to defend those attacks. If that's the case, you might also need to add 3x money of some kind, like the one that generates a physical resource.

I'd be curious to play the next campaign with Thor, so maybe I'll have better advice at that point.

Nov 19, 2020 gibby290 · 2

@Team Covenant Thinking of using this to team up with my wife. She is playing Ms Marvel Justice. Thoughts?

Feb 04, 2021 Hongkia83 · 1

Sorry this is really confusing. Does this build require exactly one or two thor expansion packs?

Feb 04, 2021 dr00 · 38765

@Hongkia83just one! you only ever need 1 copy of packs.

Feb 07, 2021 Hongkia83 · 1

thanks @dr00

Jun 14, 2021 ElFluppe · 1

After two very exhausting playthroughs of GMW on Standard with all the Guardian characters my partner and I went back to the beginning, playing Rhino and Klaw on Expert. I used this deck, swapping the second Combat Training for a Deft Focus (pays Hammer Throw and Lightning Strike) and Hulk for Angela. It was such a pure and innocent joy to throw that hammer every time the card showed up... Most fun I (we) had with Marvel Champions in weeks. Thanks for the deck!

Jul 16, 2022 Schnautza · 46

After 7 in a row losses with Thor vs Rhino on the preset deck, I was ready to try anything. I was struggling with both health and threat in every game. Your deck was a quick and easy win. you are absolutely correct, the high cost of Thor's starter deck cards prevents him from getting any good flow going. I'll mention I won this game without playing the Hammer Throw at all, and I had 3 allies down at one point to deal with minions and threat while I just landed basic attacks on Rhino. Very efficient deck.

Apr 23, 2023 juny · 44

This deck is very powerful. I can't find any flaws in this deck. Also, I'm on my way back after defeating Ultron with this deck. For Asgard! Try this deck!