Dogs of War

EDIT: List seems to have CITT in it for some reason. This was a misclick, should be Crew Quarters.

Everyone loves dogs, right? But I think Domino has a particular affinity for them that other heroes can't match. Not only is she the only hero in the game with a unique dog support card in Pip, she has notable synergies with the two basic dogs, Cosmo and Lockjaw. Let's go into detail about each of these good boys one by one.

Pip, as a pug, is an abomination of unhealthy breeding practices and is also of course Domino's most trusted canine companion. And his potential is nigh-limitless. Learning to play Domino to her full potential largely comes from learning to use Pip; stacking White Fox on top of your deck before milling her, recurring Jackpot multiple times, not to mention just being able to grab any important setup pieces that you might've missed earlier in the game or grabbing an event to deal with a tricky minion or side scheme. In order to make the most of Pip we also include Professor X and Psylocke to confuse the villain, allowing us more opportunity to visit our boy as often as possible.

Dog #2 is Cosmo, and he will be the team's muscle. Knowhere's adorable chief of security combos very nicely with Domino's ability to swap the top card of her deck with a card in her hand, meaning as long as you always activate Cosmo before discarding anything else he'll never take consequential damage. And that even includes the extra consequential damage that he'd be dealt from Enraged. With Boot Camp, Enraged, an Energy Spear, and a trusty Sidearm in play Cosmo will be able to hit for 7 ranged piercing damage every turn, forever. More than enough damage to single-handedly take down most minions, which will also trigger War Room for you. And even before getting set up with all that he can also just be a consistent source of thwart that also enables you to mill your Dig Deeps, White Fox, and your third and final dog, Lockjaw.

Lockjaw isn't always going to be your best play or your best boy, but Domino has a lot of self-mill both from her own cards and Weapon X. On top of that, she has high potential economy from Jackpot recursion. On the flipside, her thwarting situation can be a little bit shaky at times. Lockjaw, therefore, exists as an emergency outlet that you will have more consistent access to than most other heroes in the game, and with the high number of resource cards we play sometimes you'll get turns where you play your entire hand and still have another four resources to spend on Lockjaw. Not the strongest or the cutest of our bunch, but you can always count on the big teleporting mutt to be there when you need him most.

We're out of dogs now, but we still have a few more tricks; Assess the Situation can be played in Alter-Ego, and with your AE card swap you can even play the same copy twice in one turn, which can be a strong play to make with your leftover cards. Sharpshooter and Deft Focus are staples, Avengers Mansion is difficult to play but if Domino hits a big resource spike she can play it to massively improve her consistency. Crew Quarters will help heal off the self-damage we deal with Weapon X, Deadpool has done some dogsitting for Domino in the past and will also help our thwart situation, while being a potential secondary target for Sidearm and even Enraged if you're not too scared of acceleration tokens. And with that, go and let the dogs out. Cry havoc and let them slip. Release the hounds. Any number of other dog-related idioms that I've forgotten, do those too.