Monica Chang: Employee of the Month

Deck is all cash money. Fully paid. Keep the Chang.

I love a good Monica Chang deck and her paired with Maria is a match made in heaven. Can’t wait to give this one a run. I might include a couple copies of Homeland Intervention, just to give me more threat removal between my drawing APB, but that might be overkill since getting all those supports out is going to thin the deck enough so you should be drawing into it pretty often.

@VJakson Chang is all you need...

@SortofBoard yeah i had it originally but honestly it wasn't necessary. the Surveillance Teams help a lot too, and the Command Team/Field Agent combos really well with Agent 13 and Nick Fury to thwart multiple times as you siphon off counters. i think Global Logistics might be better value so you can stack your deck, the encounter, etc., but i hope it works well for you! it's a really strong card and it felt super weird cutting it lmao

Homeland Intervention fits well into my version, since I didn't have the Command Team/ Fiend Agent combo you were rockin. I got Douglass for the board wide thwarting and HI for burst clearing

@HeroicSkeleton yeah, i tested it out too and really liked it and mostly cut it due to making room.

Hi, very nice deck. I was just wondering how you come by this () and if that's a special ruling I'm missing somewhere. Thank you. You must choose 3 non-Jusice S.H.I.E.L.D. supports for this deck and include all legal copies (1 if it's unique or one-per-deck, 3 otherwise), or simply have none. I'd like to go down to 2 copies of Command Team if I could. The 41 card meta is still strong though.

hi @Ejoeyjoey. it's based on the text of the card which says you may include the maximum number of copies of three shield supports that don't match your aspect. no where does it say up to, so it's all or nothing

Oh, I misread the card then. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you.

@Ejoeyjoey no worries at all!

She’s the best! The BEEEEEST!

@Man-is-Obsolete A-ROU-OOUUUND, NO ONE EVER GONNA KEEP HER DOWN

Does Monica get that primo parking spot at HQ?

@tjjj the primoest

Maria's ability says she can move all purpose counters. Am I misunderstanding? How can she move surveillance counters and mission counters, etc?

@Piratecalvin all of them are denoted by the green all-purpose counters, and she moves all of them. she doesn't check to see if it's a surveillance counter or an ammo counter or what have you. they're all the same to her.

@dr00 thanks for the reply! That makes more sense, regarding the name of the counters being "all purpose counters", regardless of where they are. They just become mission counters or whatever depending on the card.

And this deck is really powerful! I took it up against black widow, and the fact that she can deal damage with the helicarriers without an attack event almost breaks her, since you can just beat her down with the Iliad over time and never run out. Especially when you are activating it twice per turn. Very fun, great job!

@Piratecalvin happy to help. glad you're enjoying it! yes, the The Iliad is very very fun haha

Now that we have access to the Raft would you change anything from this build or do you see it was a waste of deck space?

@steampunkhoodlum honestly Raft sounds amazing, and i appreciate any excuse to include a S.H.I.E.L.D. support i can put counters on that doesn't normally use counters

This deck has the multiplayer tag but it is very much optimised for single player. With 3 player side schemes, 2 One Way or Another, and no justice thwart events you are going to get buried under threat in a multiplayer game. Threat scales with the number of players. ie in a 4 player game the player side schemes will come in with 12 threat on them. That is going to take multiple turns to take care of. Additionally, One Way or Another is awesome in single player games, marginal in 2 player games, and aweful in 3 and 4 player games.

Conversely, this is an excellent deck in single player. Justice historically has somewhat struggled in single player games as many justice events remove more thwart than are present on side schemes. This deck provides a way for a player to add more thwart to the board for a benefit.

@calderc23 There are some fundamental flaws with your analysis. Most importantly, while threat generally scales with player count, effects scale only occasionally. Acceleration icons may as well be blank in multiplayer. Hazard icons instead of doubling encounter cards in single player increase encounter cards by only 25% in 4 player. And you choose your side scheme with OWOA. Finally, many side schemes have flat scheme values. Simply put, OWOA is even better in multiplayer than single player.

This deck I can safely say will more than ably handle threat removal at a 4P table.

Also, I think it's weird to say it's not a multiplayer deck. How many times have you played it? dr00 decks are pretty well known for being thoroughly tested (and memed) before being posted to mcdb. If he says it's a MP or solo deck, I'd wager it's a pretty safe bet.

I don’t want it to feel like I’m ganging up on them, but with a thin enough deck and plenty of card draw All-Points Bulletin can manage threat in many multiplayer situations almost on its own. Your Surveillance Team can hold off the normal trickle of round to round threat. You should be calling out allies to help burst threat down with Chance Encounter.

Give it a shot, as long as you are staying focused, it shouldn’t be too hard to manage the board state. Hope you have fun playing it.

@Schmendrix How many multiplayer games have you played? I have to ask because your analysis seems to be so heavily influenced from a single player perspective. While you correctly note that threat scales with players you fail to notice that you are 4 times more likely to be suffering from an effect because you are drawing 4 times as many encounter cards. Your hazard example illustrates this perfectly. While a single hazard counter is only about 1/4 as damaging in a 4 player game, because you cycle through the deck 4 times faster in a 4 player game you are going to have 4 times as many. Thus, the "clock" in both player counts is about the same.

[quote]You choose your side scheme with OWOA. Finally, many side schemes have flat scheme values. Simply put, OWOA is even better in multiplayer than single player.[quote]

I am struggling with finding a polite way to discuss this. So I apologize in advance if this is too much.

1. You choose your side scheme from those still available in the deck not any side scheme. You can't select ones that are in the discard pile. You are gambling there is a weak side scheme remaining in the deck. If there aren't any you have still spent the card but you get nothing.

2. "Many side schemes have flat scheme values" is an exaggeration. Sure they exist but they are rare. Additionally, every instance that I can think of also comes with a when defeated or when revealed effect that does scales with the number of players. (Things like each player must mill the deck for a Sentinel minion or give everyone an additional encounter card. etc) The designers of the game aren't stupid. There is generally a reason if a side scheme's threat doesn't scale with the number of players.

3. One Way or Another Click the link. Read the comments. Several people have already commented on how this card is awful in 4 player games. This isn't a new observation.

4. I am sorry but you lose all credibility when you claim One Way or Another is better in multiplayer than single player. The benefit you get doesn't change and then penalty for doing it in 95% of cases is worse. I have seen games where the entire board state was worse than skipping their entire turn because they played One Way or Another.

@calderc23 Oh, you're a troll. My bad! Don't feed trolls, kids.

@tjjj [quote] dr00 decks are pretty well known for being thoroughly tested (and memed) before being posted to mcdb. If he says it's a MP or solo deck, I'd wager it's a pretty safe bet.[/quote]

I am not trying to claim that droo isn't a great player or isn't incredibly smart. I am just saying he(?), like everyone else puts 95% of their effort into the building of the cards and writing out the presentation. Then posts it to their board and just automatically ticks all of the checkboxes on the submit screen for single player, multiplayer, and Theme. I know I have done that.

[quote] Also, I think it's weird to say it's not a multiplayer deck. How many times have you played it?[/quote]

Ok. I will admit I only played it once in multiplayer and if you want to use that as an argument against me that is fair. However, I don't think it is weird to notice that there are an lot of things in this deck that make it look like it was specifically tuned to single player.

1. Only 1 copy of Skilled Investigator
2. 2 copies of One Way or Another which is MUCH better in single player than multiplayer.
3. Justice player with no thwart events in their deck and very little ability at all to remove thwart until the end game has been reached. (The only things that can remove more than 1 thwart a turn in the early game by themselves are Nick, Agent 13, Iliad, and Maria herself which you generally don't want to do because you want to tap to grab those awesome 6 cost supports.
4. Maria really likes being in alter-ego in the early game so she can tutor her excellent cards.

@Schmendrix Sure, that counts, I will count that as a win. Afterall, you have completely abandoning any attempt to discuss this intelligently and resorted purely name calling. I know that only happens on the internet after a poster has admitted they have no intelligent arguments left and must resort to name calling because they don't know what else to do. After all, it couldn't be that you are wrong? Right, that just isn't possible even if from your lines of reasoning and arguments it is fairly clear you have rarely if ever played in a 4 player game. (OWOTA is BETTER in multiplayer!!!! Laugh, Just say no to drugs kids.)

(Hint, take a look a my 2nd post. I have multiple lines in my post about trying to find a polite way of saying this\apologising if it comes off too strong. So, yea, I do find your accusations of being a troll as showing how little depth you have. )

@calderc23 so, I've gotten to watch this deck in 4-player three times, and all three times, it did its job wonderfully. I'm not sure what the difference is in my playgroup from yours, but even with only 1 skilled investigator, it's a great multiplayer deck. I do think at 41 cards, you could add 2 more skilled investigators if it makes you uncomfortable, but that feels like a player preference to me more than a necessity to check the "multiplayer" box.

Here's what I experienced so you can compare and contrast. The opening hand was usually exhausting Maria for the Illead, playing OWoA for a non-scaling side-scheme (or icon/effect approved by the table), playing the Illiad. On turn two, attach Chance Encounter to side scheme, finish it out and get Monica Chang or Agent 13 to play. If it's Monica, you now have 8 threat removal by turn two in addition to anything else (4 from Illiad, 1 from Monica, 1 from Surveillance Team, and 2 from Maria). At that point, the deck takes care of itself and threat is no longer a real issue.

Obviously, there's some give/take to that plan depending on the needs of the table and the results from the mulligan, but in the early-early game, the table is in to help everyone get set up anyway. And an online Maria opens up soo much space for the rest of the table.

To your immediate points:

• Only 1 copy of Skilled Investigator We didn't care, but if you do, add two in. It's always fun to have people mold a deck to their playstyle.
• 2 copies of One Way or Another which is MUCH better in single player than multiplayer. Better in solo doesn't mean bad in multiplayer. Since the designers are doing less and less scaling side-schemes (Pride of the Red Room, Runaway Nuclear Reaction, Coup de Foudre, Batroc's Brigade, Disavowed, and that's just this box), it's less and less of a worse card in multiplayer, but it's still a good card, especially with the purpose behind it here.
• Justice player with no thwart events in their deck and very little ability at all to remove thwart until the end game has been reached. Once again, not my experience with this deck, but also with Homeland Intervention, there are lots of justice decks without Thwart cards.
• Maria really likes being in alter-ego in the early game so she can tutor her excellent cards. In my experience, she can usually remove 8 threat from turn 2 on (which is more than enough in 4p), trending up at the game progresses. But also, if she's made space for other players to do their roles well, there's usually extra space to help out with threat mitigation if needed. It's similar to an aggression player who keeps minions cleared, it gives space for other heroes to do damage to the villain.

I hope my experience helps you see how this deck works for multiplayer and solo. If you still struggle with it in 4-player, then it's probably just a difference in playstyle.

Here's my final thought on your initial comment: This deck has the multiplayer tag but it is very much optimised for single player. People can tag both without it being "optimized" for both, but the deck can still be worthwhile at many player counts. In my estimation and experience, this deck works great at 4-player, it deserves the tag even if you were to find this deck to be easier for you to pilot in solo.

@andyr

Well put. I agree with your evaluations here. I’ve seen this deck played multiple times in 4 player games and have piloted myself.

As someone who plays 3-4 player multiple times a week, I think you are right on with saying that decks can be good in both single player and multiplayer with and without making specific changes with sideboards for player count.

One way or another is a card I definitely have seen derided at high player counts and very unfairly so. In my experience it’s a card that can be fantastic at any player count especially when there are a plethora of good targets.

It is a card that requires a certain level of experience and knowledge and playstyle to really sing at high player counts. Knowing what side schemes to get what is in the deck and what it means for the team is half of the joy (and power) of the card.

All in all, like many others I know Dr00 to be very experienced player at all player counts and know him to have played many, many high player count games. If he says a deck works well in Multiplayer I know it to be true.

That being said. It’s perfectly expected that not every deck is for everyone. And if a deck that works for multiplayer for some isn’t jiving for multiplayer for others, that’s totally ok. I find talking to the deckbuilding and asking them how they play it is a good start if I want to learn someone’s deck. Sometimes, I can make changes that fit me and my playstyle. But, sometimes I know a deck just isn’t my style and move on.