Drone Slayer

Drone Slayer

This deck was specifically built to thrash Ultron, taking advantage of Rocket's "Murdered You!" Response and Rocket Launcher. The combo will always deal excess damage to ALL 1-HP Drones, drawing you a card for each.

With Hall of Heroes in play you'll also get a Glory counter for each drone defeated this way, and if you play Schadenfreude before launching your rocket, you'll heal 2 for each one damaged as well.

You can watch the matchup here, although it only drew 29 cards over the course of the game (I've drawn as many a 45 in a game before).

Every card is specific for this matchup

Allies:

• Bug can defend a Drone every turn and be healed by a basic attack with Rocket (also a Guardian)
• Groot can block drones indefinitely (also a Guardian)
• Hulk gets you 5 drone blocks, but also this deck has 21 cards with an resource, so in a pinch you can use him to defeat all the drones
• Ironheart is your classic "draw, thwart / attack, block the villain" ally
• Sunfire can knock off the annoying attachments Ultron gets
• Thor will block the villain on his Tough, then can defeat all the drones in a pinch
• Throg will block the villain on his Tough, then attack something for 2, then block the villain again (also a Guardian)

Events:

• "Bring It!" draws more cards
• One by One will knock out 2 drones and draw you two cards with "Murdered You!" as long as the still only have 1 HP each (i.e. Upgraded Drones isn't in play)
• Precision Strike is cheap healing for Rocket which will also draw you a card with "Murdered You!". In addition to Gang-Up and 2X Assault in the Standard set, Ultron provides 2X Rage of Ultron and 2X Swarm Attack, so you'll likely take a couple extra attacks in this matchup

Events not included:

• Relentless Assault was in the earliest version of the deck, but after losing to a Gang-Up and/or Assault and/or Rage of Ultron in the same encounter phase a couple times (you chew through your deck so quickly that you're getting an extra encounter card pretty often), I swapped them out for Precision Strike
• Chase Them Down didn't make the cut because of I've Got a Plan. With Thruster Boots you can thwart for 3, play I've Got a Plan to ready and raise your THW by 1, then thwart for 4 more (2 + 3 without the boots).

Player Side Schemes:

Rocket Launcher - which will be the primary target for MOST of your Battery Pack charge counters - is the key to this deck running smoothly, and you'll get two opportunities to tutor it with Lock and Load and Superpower Training.

Resources:

Six resources looks like a lot but you'll need some doubles early for building, and when you draw a ton of cards they're nice to see!

Supports and Upgrade:

• Hall of Heroes is going to draw you a TON of cards in this deck, because every time you use Rocket Launcher you'll ("YOU" will!) defeat multiple minions, adding a Glory counter for each. Rocket likes to flip down to alter-ego, so you'll make good use of them.
• Knowhere is here primarily for the extra ally slot because I like leaving Thor on the board as a "panic button", but you may also get a card draw out of it with 3 Guardian allies in the deck.
• Ingenuity can only be played in alter-ego, but Rocket likes to flip down so it should be easy to do. Having a board resource lets you play 17 cards (2X I've Got a Plan, 3X One by One, 3X Precision Strike, 2X Reload, either Player Side Scheme, 2X Batteries, 2X Pistols and your Boots) with no cards from hand, and since you'll cycle the deck pretty quickly you'll see them often.

Mulligans

The cards you like to see in your opening hand are any combination of the following:

• A cheap blocker: Ironheart or Throg will do!
• Ingenuity
• Cybernetic Skeleton gives you +2 HP and + ATK, so you'll be able to defeat that first drone with excess damage for a card draw
• Rocket Launcher, but it's okay to get this a bit later

A Salvage is NOT a welcome site in your opening hand, unless you mulligan a Battery Pack or Rocket's Pistol - or use one of them to pay for something else - because you won't have any TECH in your discard pile to take advantage of its ability.