Iron Man: Reuse, Reduce, Repurpose

Resourceful cave-dweller with a really efficient generator for his gun

The Pitch (#notsponsored)

Fundamentally, Iron Man is a fantastic candidate for a Repurpose-centered build. He appreciates Tech upgrades more than most, making him more willing to get high-cost upgrades into play for the sake of hand-size. With Arc Reactor, he has reliable readying too, meaning that the bonuses from Repurpose can get twice as much use.

Now of course, Repurpose is painful because you have to discard one of your precious Tech upgrades which may take ages to get into play again. Not so! Iron Man can keep up with losing Tech more easily - while in alter-ego he can easily recover Tech from his discard pile with Stark Tower, and while he's at it, scout ahead for his next upgrade with his alter-ego action.

You know how he can easily have issues with hand-size in the early and mid game? Repurpose is a 0-cost card, so there is no worry about not being able to play it when it does come up (unless you have no Tech upgrades in play at all, in which case, you have much bigger problems). Mark V Armor, as an exception among Iron Man upgrades, can be Repurposed without much hesitation, due to the amount of damage reduction in this deck. The only drawback of this is that it might affect Dauntless.

Deck Structure

Repulsor Blast Setup

"So anyway, I started blasting". To keep Repulsor Blasts as powerful as possible, exactly 20 out of 40 cards in the deck have resources (shifting towards 15 out of 23 if all long-term upgrades and supports are in play). This results in a fairly dependable 5 damage a pop, and a rare but certainly possible 13 damage (as the legends foretold). White Fox is also in the deck to get a nice unexpected freebie when Repulsor Blasting, but she is not worth paying for normally.

Allies

None of these allies are strictly necessary (especially you, War Machine). Victor Mancha is excellent at taking a hit from a minion (or the villain, in emergencies) and is cheap to get out. White Fox is not particularly good but will be free to get out with Repulsor Blasts. War Machine exists in this deck because he has to, but I expect he can come in clutch in an Ultron game.

Events

This deck is very light in terms of defense cards, since the upgrades should do much of the heavy lifting. Defiance is cheap and makes the Villain's attacks more predictable, making Forcefield Generators easier to manage. Taunt is fantastic for big turns and chisel retaliation damage, but is mostly there to give Forcefield Generators a little more use at the start of your turn before they are Repurposed. Bait and Switch would be a suitable alternative to Taunt if there was dire need of thwarting. True Grit has some situational synergy with Repurpose (by allowing yet another powered-up basic thwart), but is mostly there for control for when you will inevitably be exhausted and cannot thwart for much in your turn.

Resources

All 3 double resources are included to increases the chances of getting a cheeky 2-resource generation with Pepper Potts. There are no other resource cards since this deck has a fair few generators.

Supports

All of the supports are self-explanatory, since they help with card economy, except for Angel's Aerie, which is an inexpensive way to never have to recover.

Upgrades

11 of the 15 upgrades have the Tech trait, and all 3 of the temporary upgrades are 2 or 3-cost tech upgrades, for maximum Repurpose efficiency.

Ingenuity is a must-have in any Genius deck, and all of the other non-identity upgrades are fairly generic for protection decks, except for Energy Barrier and Forcefield Generator which are very well-suited to this deck. Dauntless is also convenient for this because Iron Man can increase his maximum HP more easily than others.

Strategy

Repurpose Synergy

Repurpose has an obvious tech synergy that Iron Man has been looking for, but there's more to it. Because Iron Man can always ready himself with Arc Reactor, using Repurpose will apply the bonus to at least 2 attacks or 2 thwarts (if you draw multiple Repurposes at once and have multiple tech upgrades ready for sacrifice, there is insane damage or thwarting potential). However, he will likely be unable to do both well in the same turn. Still, Iron Man's Mark V Helmet and Powered Gauntlets will aid in dealing with pesky side schemes and weak minions. Although they are reliable, they may not be sufficient when things get out of hand.

Repurpose is best used on Forcefield Generators because it costs 3 and is a Tech upgrade that would only been out for a short while anyway. Unfortunately, Forcefield Generator uses its tokens as a forced response, so it's difficult make the most out of it before Repurposing it. Victor Mancha, Defiance, and Energy Barrier act to spread out the damage so that you have more control about how many tokens are used and when. When a Forcefield Generator is needed for damage reduction or is not in play, Repurposing Mark V Armor is a convenient alternative, because it may not need to be in play constantly due to the amount of damage reduction in this deck. Energy Barrier, although sub-optimal, can also be Repurposed without any significant drawbacks. 1-cost upgrades, like a second Rocket Boot or Electrostatic Armor, are especially useful to Repurpose to ready yourself if you have already Repurposed something big in that turn.

Snowballing

This deck is no exception to Iron Man's normal arc - he starts in a cave, with nothing but scraps (i.e. he has a rough early game), but eventually becomes a powerhouse. Even though his early game is unpredictable, with this many upgrades and resources in the deck, surely he will have a few good cards available to set up... right?

Though the start may be slow and you might need to spend a few turns in alter-ego (it picks up quite quickly because there are so many affordable tech upgrades in the deck, which are worth getting out for hand-size even if their actual function is not useful yet.

In situations where you are on the backfoot, the supports are geared towards fixing your problems with one switch into alter-ego. Angel's Aerie allows you to return to full health without exhausting yourself, and Stark Tower and Tony Stark's ability should allow you to get lost upgrades back out very quickly.

Survivability

Since this deck does not have Hero healing lined up and Iron Man has poor basic defense, damage reduction is quite important so that you can stay in Hero form for as long as possible. A Forcefield Generator offers relatively expensive damage reduction but can be consistently brought back in non-emergencies using Stark Tower. Defiance also helps staying in Hero form early on, when some upgrades still need to come out. The consistent damage reduction and Defiances also allows for situational Taunts, giving you room for very good setup turns in Hero form. If you get Angel's Aerie out then you never have to be worried about taking a heavy hit every now and then, and it could sometimes be worth just taking straight hits for the sake of a Taunt.

Because Iron Man's basic powers are not very good without Repurposing tech, you can freely defend when needed in the villain phase. Assuming that you will start most turns exhausted, True Grit is included to keep things from going out of control when you don't have a Repurpose lined up and the Mark V Helmet isn't cutting it for thwart. In some situations, you may still have a very high THW from a Repurpose earlier in the round, making True Grit a fun and efficient play.

Because it makes sense to defend regularly, Armored Vest and Electrostatic Armor is included. Dauntless is also included because Iron Man can comfortably stay above his starting HP with damage reduction once getting Mark V Armor or Rocket Boots out, resulting in pretty decent chisel damage and minion maintenance. Although potentially useless in the early game when Forcefield Generators are an unnecessary expense, Unflappable can be a reliable source of an additional card per round.

Shortcomings

I am still yet to test this deck. When making this, I was keeping a multiplayer (2 or 3 player) experience in mind, rather than a solo one, where the weaknesses in this deck might hit a bit harder. In theory, it could maybe work with either, but Iron Man struggles in solo play.

Due to lack of room in the deck and a lack of useful Aerial protection cards, this deck does not make much use of Aerial. However, Ingenuity, an invaluable resource generator, could be used as a dedicated generator for the Rocket Boots, ensuring you can land good Supersonic Punches and make the most of Powered Gauntlets and the Mark V Helmet.

This deck really depends on basic thwarts and huge bursts from Repurpose for keeping things under control, since the only thwarting event in here is True Grit. Main schemes that phase easily could be difficult to deal with in solo play, especially while setting up.

Once Iron Man has his upgrades and supports down, he will be tearing through his deck with Repulsor Blasts, causing fairly frequent facedown encounter cards. It may get out of hand with some villains, but if Star-Lord can handle it, so can Iron Man. I was considering leaning into the discarding more and including Digging Deep and Legion but they would potentially be drawn in the mid-game when you're looking for upgrades.

Since there are only single copies of many of the important cards in this deck, Villains like Ultron can really mess with the timings of getting upgrades out. Even so, Powered Gauntlets should make dealing with the minions a breeze.

Because this deck lends to defending often, you are likely to be exhausted when your obligation comes up, resulting in a turn where you do not have any of your upgrades available. This can be quite impactful and really put you on the backfoot if it comes up before a big turn, so it's worth defending less often when you see that the deck is thinning and your obligation might come up.

I do not think this version of War Machine is a particularly cost-effective or useful ally, save for a few very niche situations, so I have put no thought into making him synergise with the rest of the deck.