Iron Man - Mission Critical

Designed primarily for threat management, this deck still does significant damage if played correctly. It has a lot of threat management, damage, and toughness, leaving Iron Man an incredibly well-rounded ally to any team at the mid to late stages of the game. It is more effective in multiplayer than solo, but once you have a few upgrades to the suit, this deck solos fine.

How to Play

Please note this is just for guidance, you can and should play as you want to

• Your priority is to get to 4+ upgrades on your suit as soon as possible so you can play viably as Iron Man

• Attack cards like Repulsor Blast or Supersonic Punch should be mulliganed until it's safe to put the suit on

• Stay as Tony Stark for the first 2+ turns and Mulligan/Futurist liberally to play these cards in the following priority:

  1. Stark Tower
  2. Avengers Mansion
  3. Suit Upgrades

  Upgrade Priority:

  1. Arc Reactor
  2. Mark V Helmet
  3. Powered Gauntlets
  4. Powered Gauntlets
  5. Rocket Boots
  6. Mark V Armor

  7. Rocket Boots*

     *You can choose not to add your second Rocket Boots, sacrificing 1 HP for a card you can farm resources from by using Stark Tower to bring it back to your hand and then spend it again, giving you free resources if you're in your Tony Stark identity. The choice is yours.

  The above upgrade priority is listed here in case you have options as to what upgrade you can play but aren't sure which one you should prioritise. Regardless, you should always look to play as many suit upgrades each turn as you can until your suit is built

  4. Beat Cop
  5. Pepper Potts
  6. Quincarrier

• Look to play Stark Tower as soon as possible. Once it is in play, discard a suit upgrade anytime you have one, then exhaust Stark Tower to bring it back for a free resource once per turn

• Once your suit is built, you should look to stay as Iron Man more than Tony Stark until your hit points get too low, and stop using futurist and mulligans so that you can slow down the number of encounters coming at you and your teammates

• Look to thwart as your basic ability whenever you are Iron Man, then immediately use Arc Reactor and thwart again

Allies and How to Use Them

General Use

• Nick Fury - Remember to use him to defend an attack before he leaves after the round.

• Daredevil - Use in general play.It's usually best to thwart instead of attack.

Against Minions

• Quake - Best against 1-2 minions.

• War Machine - Best against 3+ minions.

Against Multiple Schemes

• Jessica Jones

A Note on Repulsor Blast

This deck is not as focused on Repulsor Blast as other Iron Man builds out there, and so sacrifices some damage, but it's consistently excellent at thwarting and does decent damage at the same time. There are also more than enough energy resources in the deck for Repulsor Blast to remain an option for those that want to get blasty.

Variation

I like to play with a lot Hero Resource cards such as Enhanced Awareness, but if that's not your style of play or you consider them less than optimal, you could drop these cards and replace them with extra damage cards such as Haymaker, or threat reduction cards like Emergency. Whichever cards you replace them with, they should be energy generating cards wherever possible - Just keep in mind that you also need mind consistent resource generation to stay AERIAL with Rocket Boots, and you should stick as close to the minimum number of cards (40) so that you can build your suit in the fastest possible time.

(Tested on Expert difficulty with 1, 2, and 3 players)