Spider-Woman Encounter Force

What do a Energy Converting Mutant, a Psychic Soviet Space dog, and the super-powered son of a Witch and a Android all have in common? Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. feels that you, Jessica Drew, can help gives these individuals the knowledge they need and lead them in a way to handle any situation. Mission, Go!

Thanks to Journeyman2 on the Marvel Champions LCG discord, who pointed out some factors in an early iteration which were holding the deck back

Vision

This deck originally was conceived as something just to try and find an interesting home for the Havok ally, as it got a good bit of negative press when it was first revealed. However after a surprisingly successful series of early games without much tuning, the skeleton of the deck seemed very competent and so I set out to see where this can be taken to with a little discernment.

For Standard II/Expert II games I have felt for a while that Global Logistics is among the best solutions in the game to having consistent success for this game mode. The strongest/most powerful solution? No, I do mean the most consistent. It doesn't enable the flashiest plays in the game, but it does let you substantially mitigate the randomness from having to deal with the remarkably more difficult cards in this game mode. It goes a long way in making a unfair game into a manageable one.

Results (Over Iterations of refinement)

Two-Handed Expert Zola + Mister Hyde Mod (Aggression Wasp Duo) : Win

Two-Handed Standard II/Expert II Taskmaster + Default Mods (Aggression Wasp Duo): Win

Two-Handed Standard II/Expert II Tower Defense + Default Mods (Protection Spectrum Duo): Win

Two-Handed Standard II/Expert II Thanos + Default Mods (Protection Spectrum Duo): Loss

Solo Standard II/Expert II Rhino + Sinister Assault Mod: Loss

Solo Standard II/Expert II Venom + Anachronaughts: Loss

Solo Expert Venom + Anachronaughts: 1 Loss. 1 Win. (Second Game is when deck reached final listing)

Solo Standard II Sandman + Default Mods: Win

Solo Standard II Klaw + Default Mods: Win

Solo Standard II Crossbones + Hydra Assault, Hydra Patrol, and Legions of Hydra: Win

Solo Standard II/Expert II Crossbones + Hydra Assault, Hydra Patrol, and Legions of Hydra: 2 Losses, 1 Win(Win achieved after teching in Under Surveillance)

Game Plan

Now, the "Encounter Force" (Havok, Cosmo, and Wiccan) were brought in as cards that can capitalize on playing Global Logistics, which you are effectively doing as often as possible. You don't need to to just throw away those dangerous cards now, these guys can do it for you instead and let you profit for doing the spywork. Jessica Drew's Alter-Ego ability also works well to know if it's a good time to use any of these allies, though typically is only relavent in the early game. Additionally, Blindfold joins the team to provide more intel and ensure particularly egregious cards don't see the table. This is most effective when you have multiple Encounter Force Members on board who can filter cards for each other and use in the best order. Havok can take zero pip cards and turn them into free attacks or thwarts, getting them out of the way for Wiccan to deal more damage. Cosmo is going to be the perfect intermediary here regardless.

Maria Hill and Nick Fury are good cards you'll be happy to see, getting to setup pieces sooner and giving smooth Thwarting (Damage as well for Nick) into chump blocking will be appreciated. Quake being a two cost chump blocker that can also hit decently when needed is especially good when this deck has damage issues early into setup. Monica Chang gives us a couple more S.H.I.E.L.D. traits to look at for Global Logistics and a chump blocker in herself. The Surveillance Team she brings out is also more valuable with the extra deck encounter deck knowledge you have, as it makes setup disruption cards into almost a reprieve instead of a game-killer when they are only taking out a Surveillance Team with 1 use counter. Another important characteristic is that it's 2-cost, and so it will be at least tied for the highest cost support/upgrade we control every time we see Overwhelming Force, which is more relevant then may seem when you can turn a particularly lethal encounter card into a blank.

Moving onto events, we have Global Logistics, which I've put more than enough praise on. I however would not count on this as your means to "manage" Standard II / Expert II beyond two players though. It can still setup plays for the Encounter Force, but you won't be able to have control over what 4 different players see. Also be mindful of when NOT to use Encounter Force abilities on a stacked encounter deck. When you flip those cards you get to play GM a bit and assign boosts and encounter cards, so don't throw anything away for a Cosmo activation if you are able to set up a soft villain phase. United We Stand is somewhat meh early game, so you likely have an easy mulligan/resource then unless your allies and control tools are falling into place. It has tremendous value though, especially with Captain Marvel and Wiccan, but it can stretch the value out of Havok farther than you would expect and is still good on Quake in those tight early games where we still are looking for damage. Both of these are also zero-cost Aspect cards, and because of this we get Spider-Women to 3-value stats early on with little effort and 4-value very frequently after setup.

Double resources have plenty of targets here so we play them. Didn't opt for any Power Of cards due to the somewhat inconsistent targets, the deck also has an easy time setting up with no upgrades or supports above 2-cost, so we don't really miss those extra resources. For the Supports, Command Team was a late addition that fixes many problems that may show up and is a very versatile solution when trying to solve a board. Allowing you to be more aggressive with your allies early on is a huge boon, especially when multiple minion threats touch the board at once. Additionally we squeeze more value out of Nick Fury before he discards himself, and it also feels great using on a Quake or Blindfold under Team Training so that they can use their 2-value stats again before chump blocking. We get better encounter deck manipulation with our Encounter Force cards by letting us discard more known factors in a given turn, which feels particular good on Havok who loves being able to either keep carrying value on zero-pip cards or Maximize damage when the opportunity is lined up. Lastly, its great to use to help fix your hand economy with Captain Marvel, which can come up often with The Viper. We covered the benefits of Surveillance Team when discussing Monica Chang. I don't feel the need to mention Team Training outside what I have already said, but you do just have a lot of value Ally activations in the deck. Usually after you play this is when you can finally switch from controlling the game to actually looking for ways to end it. The Triskelion is great for letting you still get in a reliable stream of allies in to chump block and activate while we keep the Encounter Force and Captain Marvel on the field, while also just being the cost-free target for Global Logistics once it is in play.

In the upgrades, Deft Focus works with 9 cards in our deck which leaves us with plenty of targets for this cheap piece of setup. Even if we don't count Pheromones for how often it can be a hindrance in Standard 2/Expert 2, that is still 7 targets with all really good affects for cost, while also either contributing or capitalizing on the stat gaining for Spider-Women's Hero ability. Endurance is an important card for the early game survival to keep us out of Alter-Ego form before we can reliably play Global Logistics and control our flip down. Skilled Investigatorr pays itself off very quickly, while also being a easy means of early stat boosting with its zero-cost.

Performance Review and Potential Changes

Overall I am pretty content with where this list sits. Standard II and Expert II is pretty challenging even with bringing your own level of nonsense into the game. I love how this deck seems very competent at both Solo and Two-Handed, while also sticking mostly to the theme I went in with, and playing a very low to the ground control style. This has honestly become one of my favorite control oriented decks available right now. It's not perfect though and has plenty of room for improvement if you want to shift your goalposts a bit. I had only really tested Standard II/ Expert II solo a few times in the past before testing here, and man was that a bit of a wake-up call. Acceleration icons have always been more dangerous in solo, but combining that Permanent Steady and Crossbones innately having Piercing leaves Spider-Woman's 4 best cards all essentially dead. Definitely switch Under Surveillance in for Skilled Investigator in solo. You get enough value out from your in kit upgrades and Deft focus that it's not completely necessary (Especially since I know I didn't resolve it more than three times in any of my solo games). The room that the big green van gives you is too good when you have so many surge strings and incites you have to watch out for in Standard II/Expert II. The deck can be pivoted a couple ways. I wondered how a more control devoted list with Spycraft would look like, or a version that maxes Command Teams with Recursion tools to shove your value into tempo, and many other ideas. The list is tight though, and I feel it is unlikely you would change one card in this list without changing another, especially when having to play with the ratios SW's deck-building requires.

I hope anyone that plays this enjoys. I certainly had fun getting things to this point, but am definitely taking a good long break from Standard II/Expert II. Happy playing!