There's too many events...

For starters: Yes this deck has 46 cards and that's a bit more than the optimal 40. That's because I almost never put all of them in at once (see later). I usually run around 40-42. I have all of them listed because when I'm "packing" to go somewhere I take all of them and then figure out what I want to USE when I get there.

I'm playing this deck solo through all the campaigns and scenario packs in order, currently midway through mutant genesis (so haven't tried Next Evolution or Mojo yet) and the only villain I haven't been able to beat is Ronan. Most of the time I can do them first try, Loki and Hela in particular took me a few.

The two primary objectives when playing this deck are "always be Ready" and "Get upgrades out quick". Once you get into tempo, it's borderline unstoppable.

Upgrade prioritization is usually: Web Bracelets, Unflappable Hard to Ignores Electrostatic Armor / Flow Like Water Armored Vest (This would be higher EXCEPT in most cases the villain doesn't hit hard enough to be an issue until 2nd or 3rd stage. If you can't defend all the damage, this goes up the priority list a bit) Judoka Skill (this one might not even go in my deck if the villain isn't too punchy, and it's more "insurance policy" than anything) - if you don't have any good defense cards and you take a heavy hit from the villain, judoka will help you still trigger hard to ignore/unflappable and not have to worry about damage. Usually it gets played on my second run through the deck if ever.

In the previous iteration I had some criticisms for Desperate Defense (since you ready automatically anyway). DD is fantastic because it gives you two extra defense (which sometimes you need) and readies you (which is great for assault and/or minions because then you're STILL readied going into your turn). It also increases the chances you have a defense card in your hand, because you need to play one almost every time you get attacked.

Your upgrades are doing a lot of the work here. Once you get the Hard to Ignores out, you're usually keeping the main scheme down faster than it's building up so you can even afford the villain scheming here and there, and it saves your Phantom Flip for side scheme maintenance.

Ghost Kick is going to be doing most of your offensive work, along with slow-but-steadies in the form of Flow Like Water and Electrostatic. Web Binding is a fantastic minion-killer and keeps you from having to defend that second time.

Defiance is the absolute winner on this one. By eliminating the boost card, coupled with Gwen's amazing DEF of 3 (4 if you've gotten out the vest) you're RARELY taking damage and rarely dealing with boost effects. Sometimes it gets wasted on something like Advance that didn't have any boost icons to begin with, but meh. It also (like the other defense cards) triggers things like flow like water, web bracelet, etc to get your upgrades all firing off. At a cost of zero? chef's kiss

Expert Defense is my second most used event. Again, your goal is to play a defense card (to trigger upgrades) and get your DEF past the point where you took no damage (to trigger unflappable/hard to ignore). At a cost zero? so great.

If you're sticking to ED and Defiance you're probably going to come out of the activation phase with more cards than you started with. It's tempting to ghost kick or phantom flip here, but I try to save that unless I'm doing really well (or there's a +encounter card side scheme) because I still need to deal with my encounter card(s). I usually will Pirouette and Punch pretty much any treachery (then I don't have to deal with it at all), even if it doesn't have boost icons (still 1 damage to the villain but not great). It's tempting to use it on a minion/side scheme with lots of boost icons, but generally that doesn't work as well in the long run. Knock out those treacheries, you can web binding the minion before it's an issue, and staying in tempo is better in the long run than doing excess damage to villain.

What Doesn't Kill Me is helpful from time to time - I try to avoid going into AE at all (it's a pretty rare game that I do it even once) because the resulting scheme pileup is too much for her low thwart, and with all that defense you're not usually getting hit. So I feel like it's a nice insurance policy but I don't use it often.

George is great, but don't approach him with urgency. Play him if you can, but your obligation is probably going to take him out of play and it's better to stay in tempo than get him back.

Counter Punch is one of those cards that I've gotten really lucky with situationally, zero cost means you still have some resources available to drop upgrades or play things in the player phase, and will still trigger web bracelets and Dizzying Reflexes. It's also decent with weaker minions to just get them off the board and/or with stronger minions so you can weaken them enough for a web binding to kill them.

The two player schemes I added more for multiplayer. IMHO the benefits in solo aren't as strong, but my cousin plays thor and some of his stuff is expensive, it'd become more worth the cost if it helped BOTH of us out but I haven't really tested the theory.

Med Team and Night Nurse I don't ever use solo, but depending on who I'm with in multiplayer sometimes I throw one or both in. Keeping expensive allies up is a nice bonus and can help an aggression player stay fighting instead of blocking, and getting rid of status cards is always good.

In a perfect turn, you'd use either Phantom Flip or Ghost kick on the player turn to also get another use of basic powers. But a lot of times I'll use them during villain defense to clear a minion or scheme before it can activate, figuring that pre-emptive strike is more useful than having one more basic attack.

Allies: The deck I started playing with here included Jocasta and she's useful for event recursion, but honestly I rarely want to spare the three resources. I'm seriously contemplating just removing her because she's usually just used as a resource. I almost never need her for chump blocking.

Fury: I know the argument most players use is card draw here. But GENERALLY blowing a card plus four resources' worth of cards to get three cards feels like you'd have done better to just not have him in your hand in the first place, and this deck already has so much card draw I sometimes get stuck discarding by force anyway. I tend to not use him at all early game but he's literally won the game for me MANY times due to his ability to effectively hit for six, chump block and he's gonna die anyway so who cares if he took a lot of damage. He can either outright kill most minions (two if the setup is right) or do a huge smack on a villain (and in solo the HP is lower). I don't think I've ever PLAYED him in multiplayer with this deck.

It's probably become pretty obvious by this point, but this deck shines in the villain phase and your hero turn might be nonexistent and/or just dropping another upgrade or two on her. That's pretty normal. It also violates the norm of "lots of allies" - I think there's a reason that gwen's hero cards don't include any - she definitely needs a lot of events to keep her running and allies would actually sabotage her strengths. Lots of low-point reactive events do a lot better for her than the chump blocking she'd get out of allies, and the more cards she plays the more cards she gets to play.

Don't take any damage, get those upgrades out and it's all about reaction.

Bonus: In campaigns that allow you to take cards from other aspects (so far sinister motives and mutant genesis), Justice helps compensate for your thwart sucking balls. Make an Entrance is my go-to (I added three during the SM campaign) and I've been using MAE and Skilled Investigator for the MG campaign, although I'm seriously considering swapping out SI for Under Surveillance.