Rocket Raccoon - Murderboat Diplomacy

"Murdered You!"

I've been playing this game as a (mostly) casual player since its inception. I've always been a huge fan, but there are some heroes that I just never really touched or cared to try out. Rocket Raccoon was one of those heroes. Until recently.

-=Trigger Warning=-

You should know that there are stronger Gunboat deck possibilities with other heroes...but I saw a cool interaction using it with this Sweet Rabbit and wanted to give it a shot.

His Murdered You! hero ability is triggered with Overkill damage and Gunboat Diplomacy can spread damage around to multiple targets. The ideal situation has you gunning 3 different targets for 6 damage, letting you potentially murder them to draw 3 cards, supposing they were on their last hit point. This takes a bit more setup than normal, but is very rewarding to pull off.

The White Chalk Outline

The general idea is to build out your X-Allies and equip them with Mission Training along with Children of the Atom to smooth things out. In Multiplayer, if a teammate has Call for Backup, feel free to add Pete Wisdom into the mix to squeeze a little more efficiency out. Focus on deploying whichever allies you can and feel free to equip your weapons if you've got at least 2 allies already and don't need a blocker.

Stage the Bodies

Using those signature weapons you grabbed, you'll be able to damage minions until they are on death's door. This is quite a bit easier in multiplayer if your teammates accomplices are aware of your plans. You are not beholden to finish them off with Gunboat Diplomacy either, because you have access to Stealth Strike and your various weapons. That said, you want to try and time the kill to make use of the extra cards.

Also, don't forget to Interrogate the victim before they pass. But, be warned that the process could be messy. If you don't get it right the first time, it's okay. You'll have another chance to commit the act again.

Criminal Profile

We've got some other neat interactions or useful cards you can take advantage of here...

1. Wolfsbane + Salvage that lets you put a tech card on top of your deck and then THW with her to add that card to your hand.

2. Gunboat Diplomacy + Schadenfreude lets potentially heal up to full if there are enough targets out. Not as potent as using it with Dive Bomb, but it's something to help take the edge off.

3. Thruster Boots + I've Got a Plan is built-in THW potential that is often ignored in some Rocket builds. In Justice you can rest easy and lean into your best stat to keep threat under control.

4. Reload works well if you have several guns out to help stage the minions to their last hit point. It's not always needed and is limited to the number of counters you have on your current weapons, but it isn't always a dead end.

Overall I had a blast testing and playing this deck. I initially left out the cheap X-allies because I wasn't going to use them to gun down minions, but my Rocket inexperience showed and I quickly learned that this hero needs blockers to protect him more than almost any other that I've played. Even with regular flipping, having Beak and Cypher in the mix made this deck a lot smoother. I also learned a lot about card priorities over several games, both solo and multiplayer. You want to get Online as soon as possible, but Battery Packs and weapons like Rocket's Pistol can also be important to play because they are cheap and you take less of a tempo hit while still making progress toward building your board.

Let me know what you think and if you try this out! I should probably try a Gunboat deck with a Mutant hero to experience it's fullest potential, but I'm happy to have experienced this one. If anything, it's made me appreciate Rocket and made me want to try him out with other aspects and newer cards.

Peace.