SuperNova40 · 2
DISCLAIMER
To start off, I originally built this deck using the Kitty Surprise deck. Over time and a lot of plays, I started to customize the deck around my personal playstyle. Most of my games are with 3 or 4 players, so I decided to build a full brute force deck without worrying about defending or thwarting. So, this deck may not work very well in a solo or 2 player game. If you are in a 3 or 4 player game, make sure you have someone at the table that can block for you with a protection deck, or has some sort of stun abilities/cards.
With that out of the way, the build idea is around Kitty Surprise, but treated as Quicksilver. I wanted to try and get Shadowcat with a base 3 attack with Combat Training and see how much I could boost that through supporting cards and ready ups to attack 2/3/4 times in a turn with 3-11 damage per attack depending on board state and card draw. This deck is slightly setup focused, as combos are based on playing cards for free, or with little resource usage to make the most out of the 5-card hand.
* Ally *This deck has only 2 allies. One is the mandatory Lockheed, and the other is Sunfire. As explained above, I’ll always try to use Lockheed in Solid form to dish out extra damage, attack, and have a free block on the next villain phase. As for Sunfire, I use him essentially as a 3rd Phase Strike. He doesn’t get played unless the Villain has an attachment that needs to be rid of. At a cost of 2, Sunfire is one of the more expensive cards in this deck.
* Event *The deck has almost half of the cards as events. The 9 mandatory cards from the Shadowcat deck, along with Mean Swing, Skilled Strike, and Surprise Attack. Airwalk gets played when I’m juggling form for ready ups. As a superpower, airwalk can be played for free with Deft Focus. Mean Swing is used once Jarnbjorn hits the table, or Hand Cannon if it isn’t out yet. Jarnborn is the primary target for Mean Swing, since you don’t have to exhaust Jarnbjorn to use its ability. So, if you Mean Swing exhaust to attack for an extra +3, you can still pay the physical resource to get an additional 2 if you have any unplayable cards in your hand. Phase Strike is used for damage output. With the board setup using Deft Focus and Martial Prowess, you can pay 1 resource in Phased form to get the bonus action from this card. If you are in Solid form, you can potentially play this card for free with the 2 free resources from Solid and Martial Prowess and the -1 from Deft Focus. When playing this deck, I always try to juggle my form to end in Phased to get the 0-damage guarantee from defending. When playing Quick Shift in this form, you also get to draw 2 cards to have a 6 card turn. If you do have to end in Solid, it is a bail out for you as a free defense. Anything that keeps you from going into the Player phase exhausted is a huge bonus. Shadowcat Surprise is a free ready up that deals damage. Skilled Strike is a 0 cost +2 to a basic attack, which you will be doing a lot of. Surprise Attack is good for keeping you in Phased form. If you play a Quick Shift to defend, once you swap to Solid, you can use the Solid resource to get a free 4 damage out of Surprise Attack. This will also flip you immediately back to Phased. If you are having to defend without a Quick Shift, if you have a Battle Fury on the table, you can potentially use the Surprise Attack to kill a minion, thus readying you back up in Phased form.
* Resource *This deck just uses the 3 basic double resource generators. The most expensive card in the deck is 3. There are only 4 total 3 cost cards. 2 of those cards will have table resource generators to bring the cost down, only Phased and Confused is the sole always 3 cost cards. I don’t use The Power of Aggression because only 4 cards in the deck get the +2 benefit. All other Aggression cards are 0 or 1 cost. You can add 2 of them if that is your preference, making the deck 42 cards.
* Support *The only support card is the required Kitty's Room. I’m sure there are other beneficial support cards I could add to this deck, but my goal was to try and make all the cards cost either free or 1. Support cards wouldn’t gain any benefit from Solid, Martial Prowess or Deft Focus. As for Kitty’s Room. I don’t use this card much. My goal is to stay in Hero form from turn 1 until the end of game. I have not gone into Alter-Ego once in entire sessions. The main cause of Alter-Ego swap for me is Shadowcat’s obligation. This means that if I were to spend a resource on Kitty’s Room, there is a possibility that I would never flip down to use it. If my hand is bad or I’m exhausted going into the Player phase, I will occasionally get it down. If nothing else, it can protect my other upgrades and support cards from nasty discard Encounter cards.
* Upgrade *Like the Event cards, the Upgrade cards make up nearly half of the deck. These cards are where the deck comes together as a true Aggression powerhouse. Acute Control is usually played with Deft Focus. I try to always get this card down when I draw it. This is because if I have a good combo in my hand, I just flip into phased to still take my big swing at the Villain, or hopefully, be in Phased coming out of the Villain phase. Battle Fury is used as a ready up and can combo with Surprise Attack as needed when defending. Combat Training is used as a +1 buff to bump Shadowcat’s base attack from 2 to 3. Deft Focus is very important in this deck. It is used to get superpower cards down for free or works in conjunction with other resource generators to get cards down for free. Endurance is used as a buffer for the low life of Shadowcat. It also helps offset the self-induced damage from Battle Fury. Fluid Motion is a free +1 damage for the phase after the first attack event. There are 8 attack events in the deck, which is enough to justify this card. This could be swapped for something else, but you get the +1 enough that it doesn’t feel bad. It also can be used as a blocker for your other upgrades during a forced discard. Hand Cannon is extremely versatile in this deck. It can be used as a target for Mean Swing, as a basic +2 with overkill which works with Battle Fury, or with Mean Swing targeting Jarnbjorn to get a +5 with overkill. Intangible Interference is usually skipped over, as you rarely thwart. If I have no use for Deft Focus on the turn, I draw into Interference I’ll play it for free. Jarnbjorn is used solely as a target for Mean Swing, or to offload resources to get a bit more damage on turns when needed. The latter use is more for emergencies or when we are trying to win on that turn. Martial Prowess is a resource generator, mostly needed for Phase Strike in Phased form. It also helps with getting Shadowcat Surprise played for free if Deft Focus isn’t down yet. In this version of Shadowcat, Phased and Confused is basically a resource card. I may have used it once or twice in the 6+ months of playing Shadowcat. It would have been out of emergency to keep someone or myself from dying. Ready to Rumble is a free ready up, with how Shadowcat flips forms so frequently.
* Conclusion *I’ve had great success with this deck in group play. It has been really satisfying being able to dish out Villain phases worth of damage and ending with full health outside of self-inflicted. I have played through every campaign from the core box through Mutant Genesis with deck, with slight modifications based on scenario (No Battle Fury on non-minion-based encounters). I’ve also done all the scenario packs with this deck. I haven’t done any Expert playthroughs with this deck, so I’m not sure how it would fair in that instance. If you do build this deck, let me know any suggestions or recommendations. Thank you, and good luck!
@Brian-V Kitty Surprise (Attack) for original inspiration. You should definitely take a look at his deck for a more rounded attack/thwart playthrough.