Kitty Hits the Griddy 2: Electric Boogaloo

Card draw simulator

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Derived from
Gwen Hits the Griddy 121 98 13 1.0
Inspiration for
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journeyman2 · 18629

Shadowcat can guarantee the triggers on Unflappable and Hard to Ignore using her Phased constant effect, with minimal investment and often ending up with more cards in hand. With her defense well covered from her kit alone and extra resources from Quick Shift and Unflappable to prepare tech; we look to Repurpose to provide her with excellent burst thwart and damage.

Using some neat cards like Jocasta, who recurs Quick Shift, and Forcefield Generator, which protects against small pings until going out in a blaze of glory, we can control and set up until it's time to burst down the villain.

This deck was inspired by my previous deck, Gwen Hits the Griddy. Shadowcat and Ghost Spider have some notable differences. Ghost Spider readies easier for Repurpose, while Shadowcat takes no damage for cheaper. Ghost Spider's damage potential is higher, but Shadowcat's better economy and thwart give her a flexible early game. Ghost Spider runs True Grit and Web-Warriors, while Shadowcat can afford and avoid the downsides of Forcefield Generator.


How Does Shadowcat Work

Take a look at this video from community member SC0E who put out a great video explaining Shadowcat! This is a great primer on all the little quirks she presents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2431JkwTEqY


Basic Form Technique

  • Phased is a Forced Response, making it mandatory to flip after an attack or defense and giving it timing priority over regular Responses
  • Solid is merely a Response meaning the flip from Solid to Phased is optional after attacking or defending
  • Attack and Defense cards count as attacking and defending for Phased and Solid, in addition to basic powers
  • Basic defending or playing a (defense) event only begins the defense. The defense shares an end window with the attack, so Unflappable and Solid/Phased do not trigger when Shadowcat plays her (defense), but only after the defense ends, which is after step 4 of the enemy attack

Basically, we want to end every hero phase in Phased, by flipping from Solid with our last attack of the turn (remember we don't have to flip after every attack since Solid is optional). Then we want to defend the villain attack, guaranteeing we take no damage.


Intermediate Form Stances

  • When an enemy attack begins we can use Quick Shift. As an Interrupt, it immediately draw 2 cards, before the attack resolves. As a (defense) card, this makes the attack considered defended without needing to exhaust

  • Ready to Rumble is essentially Indomitable for any aspect. If we exhausted to defend and thus trigger the Forced Response on Phased to form change, we can trigger Ready to Rumble to ready. This is useful if we need to defend again or to start the hero phase unexhausted, guaranteeing an attack that can return Shadowcat to Phased

  • Counter-Punch can trigger after we defend and use the Forced Response on Phased. Since it is an attack, it gives us the option to flip back to Phased. Useful if we need to defend again, or the first thing we want to do in the hero phase requires being phased such as Selective Intangibility, Airwalk, Phase Strike

  • After the defense finishes, we will draw 1 card from Unflappable, remove 1 threat from the main scheme with Hard to Ignore, and deal 1 damage to the attacker with Electrostatic Armor

This is the baseline, and it's already very good. Now let's turn it up a couple notches.


Advanced Form Mastery

Very important is that Phased is a Forced Response, so the flip to Solid occurs before all of our "after defends" Response cards such as Unflappable, Hard to Ignore, Electrostatic Armor, Ready to Rumble, and Counter-Punch. The order the Response effects trigger is interchangeable. Rarely it matters, but remember that these can be triggered in the order of your choosing for when it does. More on this later.

We could not play a Quick Shift drawn off of Unflappable here, since Quick Shift's Interrupt timing is at the start of the attack; but we could play Counter-Punch drawn off Unflappable, triggering a form change).

  • If we start in Phased, defend to flip to Solid, then Counter-Punch to flip back to Phased, our Hard to Ignore trigger will benefit from our ability to ignore crisis, since we are still in the same response window of "after you defended and took no damage". This would not work if Shadowcat ended in Solid, and is one example for the order of the triggers mattering

  • If we draw a second Quick Shift off the first, it is immediately playable, allowing us to draw 4 cards. Quick Shift can also draw into Counter-Punch, which will be relevant later

  • In multiplayer, Quick Shift can make Shadowcat the new target of an attack since it is playable on an attack made against any player and (defense) makes her the defender. For example, in 2-player, Shadowcat basic defends the first attack from Phased, Unflappable draws Counter-Punch, Counter-Punch puts Shadowcat back in Phased, Quick Shift pulls the second attack, fully resolving in Phased amounting to two attacks with no damage taken. Shadow and Steel also draws attacks against any player and works best from Solid, saving a Ready to Rumble or Counter-Punch and being paid for with Solid's free resource


Benefits so far:

Since we have effectively turned off the villain for most of the villain phase with little effort, we really only need to answer encounter cards and beat the villain. My answer is Repurpose. Increasing ATK takes care of minions and the villain, increasing THW takes care of side schemes, and the ready is good security against exhaustion/status and makes sure we can always get to Phased.


Tech Picks

Similar to my previous deck, Gwen Hits the Griddy, rather than double down on our defensive efforts, we will be looking for ways to turn our defense into offense. This is primarily for 1-2 player counts, where being well-rounded is better than being laser-focused.

  • Repurpose is a great way to supplement the offense of heroes with good access to readies

  • Electrostatic Armor is our main tech choice. It already flows well with our 1-2 defenses per round and is cheap. We are running two because this will be our primary Repurpose target-

  • Plasma Pistol makes the cut over Energy Barrier in our 2-cost spot. Shadowcat takes damage so irregularly, that getting the pings from Energy Barrier is inconsistent. Plasma Pistol is useful to tee up minions to the right health or ping toughs to let our large attacks thru

  • Forcefield Generator is a great one-of. Because of how little damage we take, it can stick around for awhile without discarding itself from its Forced Interrupt. Being max 1 and having good longevity means we really only want one copy, but it can stick around for a mega turn!

  • With Repurpose, Shadowcat Surprise, Ready to Rumble, and Professor X, we have 10 readies in deck to make use of these boosted stats. Ready to Rumble is showing that it is more flexible than Indomitable here, since we can trigger it in the hero phase after attacking and triggering a form change). The sequence would be Repurpose->attack->form change->ready to rumble->attack. At any point we are in Solid, we can play Shadowcat Surprise using Solid's resource and Deft Focus to deal 3 damage and attack again!

  • Remember when we said we would come back to drawing into Counter-Punch off of Quick Shift/Unflappable? When we Repurpose for attack in the hero phase, and then defend in the villain phase, we can trigger Counter-Punch to deal our boosted ATK value! This works because Repurpose boosts last until the end of the round, and as established earlier, the response window stays open throughout all of our "after defends" Response effects. This boosted Counter-Punch can be played off of any of the numerous defenses Shadowcat will make or as a card drawn by Quick Shift/Unflappable. I've played some 7 ATK Counter-Punchs with this deck, but presumably it can get as high as 9!

  • Thwarting sequencing is a little more restricted, since we still need to attack at least once to get back to Phased. Ready to Rumble is tougher to pull off since a basic THW won't trigger a form change. But when Shadowcat does boost, ignoring crisis while Phased can be beneficial to maximize value with fewer readies

  • Professor X is useful as a confuse+3 THW that isn't tied to stopping an attack like Phased and Confused is. The 3 THW means we can more often use Repurpose to boost attack, and his built in ready effect can let us swing again. We aren't running Utopia because triggering the ready effect is less reliable as Shadowcat doesn't need allies, much like Ghost-Spider


Superpowers


Notables

  • Jocasta probably deserves her own section. She gets us a 3rd use of our best card, Quick Shift, turning her into 2 ER for 4 THW and a block, or 2 ER for 2 THW and 2 blocks. Insane value. Getting 3-4 free blocks per deck cycle allows us to save our exhausts for big Repurpose turns

  • The X-Jet is a good economy card for the things Deft Focus can't touch, like the tech cards and allies. Honorary X-Men is here to give Kitty Pride the X-Men trait so she can benefit from the in alter-ego. Useful to clear a few cards that give us a hard time like Frozen and Seduced. The +1 hit point is situationally useful, against Ebony Maw’s spells for instance

  • Phased and Confused can sometimes be a hindrance since we can't trigger Unflappable if the villain doesn't attack. Turning off a villain attack and then drawing into Quick Shift feels really bad. It’s expensive and doesn’t working with Deft Focus or Solid. The confuse is useful, but against non-steady villains, Professor X is a better confuse. Phased and Confused can be good in circumstances where Shadowcat is stuck in Solid or if she can hit Unflappable by defending a minion instead. It can buy time early game, before our Unflappable engine is set up. Just be careful when playing it that it doesn't shut down the engine entirely!

  • Kitty's Room is amazing burst heal. With two uses and a REC, mitigated by our copious readies, she can heal 7 damage quickly. Shadowcat can take no damage over the course of the game, but using her health as a resource can generate a lot of tempo in certain situations. Having the option to heal quickly comes in handy. When combined with Phase Control, she can choose the healing or draw depending on what's useful or what is in hand. If we have Phase Strike and the villain has an attachment, rolling into Phased is prudent. If we just REC and have Shadowcat Surprise, roll up to Solid to pay for it and ready. If we have no way to attack, roll up to Phased to prepare for the villain phase

  • In multiplayer with my Colossus deck, I replace x1 Plasma Pistol with x1 Shadow and Steel. It can draw attacks from other players, trigger Unflappable, and deal some damage to the villain or hopefully clear a minion. This helps preserve Colossus' toughs

Should We Only Defend From Phased?

The benefits of defending from Phased are clear:

  1. Take no damage
  2. Draw 2 cards from Quick Shift
  3. Trigger Unflappable and Hard to Ignore

If Shadowcat cannot meet these criteria, then she should not defend. She typically only wants to flip to Phased off of Counter-Punch or after spending the Solid in the hero phase; rather than flipping to Phased from a defense trigger.

Having reliable access to starting in Phased and using Quick Shift three times per deck cycle (with help from Jocasta), should keep us covered; but what should Shadowcat do when attacked while in Solid, such as after a first defense from Phased or the rare occasion of starting a villain phase in Solid?

My baseline advice is don't defend in Solid, unless able to meet 1., 2., or 3. above. Blocking some damage is not worth the expenditure in exhausts or resources. There are a handful allies that can stick around as emergency chumps, but don’t be afraid to tank a full attack. Kitty's Room can burst heal Kitty Pride, so taking damage is a minor inconvenience.

However, if we can guarantee a combination of the above points, defending from Solid becomes a better value proposition.

  • Quick Shift can get us 1. and 3. for instance, by flipping to Phased and thus taking no damage. Though losing the draw 2 is a shame. Definitely evaluate if it is worth it to burn a Quick Shift this way before playing it, as holding it for next turn to defend and draw 2 is also viable

  • Defending a minion attack or having Forcefield Generator active can guarantee 1. And 3, while also saving some energy counters

  • Multiplayer provides more reason to defend from Solid. Shadow and Steel can use the Solid resource, hitting 1. and 3. We can use Counter-Punch after our first defense from Phased to flip back and take a second attack from Phased. Lastly, we can exhaust to defend in Solid as long as we have an in-hand Quick Shift for the second defense from Phased

8 comments

Jan 23, 2023 journeyman2 · 18629

With an extended break between releases, I've decided to revisit decks that I made and never published for whatever reason, some even had nearly finished write-ups. Lapses in inspiration, motivation, or life getting in the way got in the way of some aspect of either my testing process or writing process and as time went by they got left in the unpublished bins of history. I've decided to recycle and publish them, whether half-tested, half-written, or otherwise.

Today's is a Shadowcat deck! Shadowcat was the first hero I started testing via TTS, right after working on this deck: Gwen Hits the Griddy. I stalled for a long time writing this up, just because I wasn't sure if they were too similar, the heroes themselves already being fairly similar in Protection. What I found about both is, while they can invest a bunch in defense and make great multiplayer defenders, in solo that's overkill. The access to readies and strong economy, made me consider Repurpose for Shadowcat. I ended up completely finishing the write-up, but dragged my feet since the theming wasn't terribly strong and I couldn't find great images. The lack of images, makes this write-up even more "thesis-like" than usual, as another commenter put it. Shadowcat was fairly complex and I tried multiple times to create decision tree charts to include for her, before scrapping them. I never got it together and was about to just publish "as-is", when dr00 put out his excellent Drunken Master deck!

With Ja'Marr Chase and the Bengals hitting the griddy into the AFC Championship game yesterday, I thought this would make a great installment for this series! I hope you enjoy my take on Shadowcat and that the primer is helpful to answer any questions!

Jan 25, 2023 IcyHaze · 62

Just wondering, but any reason you are running only one copy of Hard to Ignore? I usually feel with decks that can take it, either want all three or none at all.

Jan 25, 2023 journeyman2 · 18629

@IcyHaze Other Protection decks, particularly basic defending Protection, don't have the thwart capability that Repurpose decks have (or that Shadowcat in general has), so they rely on Hard to Ignore more. Our greater thwart and the fact I only play this deck at 1-2 players, mean that we use this strictly to counter the step 1 villain phase threat. Ultimately, it is not as important as getting out tech or Unflappable, but it is still useful to save Repurposing for THW here and there and it is unique with her in that she is the only one who can trigger it even when there is a Crisis icon out (with specific sequencing)

Jan 26, 2023 AncientEpithet · 636

Excellent write-up, thank you for sharing! You made some very interesting choices. I love seeing thoughtful one-ofs and out of the box additions. Very well done!

Jan 28, 2023 journeyman2 · 18629

@AncientEpithet Thank you! Your Hulk deck has the same intentionality to it. Kindred spirits :)

Feb 28, 2023 Arczi · 1

There is so many cards I love in green decks that are in this one. And they do the whole game there. Nice one.

Mar 10, 2023 journeyman2 · 18629

Thank you @Arczi! This was a fun little combo to come up with

Oct 20, 2023 morscordis · 1

Any recommendations for 4p? I'm playing through mutant genesis as two player 2 handed... I think where going to do two perfect defense for sentinel, with angel in justice and nova playing dive bomb. I think kitty is well rounded enough to protect the two major players while also being useful for thwart or attack. This build looks fun, but I see you recommend it for 2p.