3-4 Player Burst Thwart - Unthreatened Team is a Happy Team

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Living High on the Hog (3-4 player thwarting machine) 5 3 3 3.0

hootorama · 230

This is a 3/4 player themed deck with only 3 event cards in the entire deck that can deal targeted damage (not counting the proc off of Even the Odds clearing side schemes). Make sure your group knows you'll be carrying team's threat removal, so that they can handle any minions that may come your way.

  • You will want to hard mulligan for Shrink if possible, keeping an event at the start to deal with any threat on the board that is part of Setup if needed.

This deck is built to abuse Shrink.

Shrink increases the amount of threat a THWART event removes by 2. This effect increases each instance of threat removed by 2. So in the case of Multitasking, Removing 2 and 2 threat would be increased to 4 and 4 threat. Three Steps Ahead (if paid for with 3 different resources) would normally remove 2, 2, and 2 threat (6 total). Shrink makes that 4, 4, and 4 threat (12 total). If you pay for Three Steps Ahead with Passion for Justice and trigger Operative Skill, that increases to 6, 6, and 6 threat (18 total from a single card!). Keep in mind that you cannot overpay for cards, so any extra resources paid for Three Steps Ahead are wasted, and do not trigger additional threat removal past the required 3. Wild resources do count for other resource types when paying for Three Steps Ahead.

Ms. Marvel's second greatest card after Shrink is actually her Hero card! Morphogenetics is very powerful and allows you to Exhaust Ms. Marvel to return the last ATTACK, THWART, or DEFENSE event back into your hand to play it again (or even tuck it under Bruno Carrelli after flipping down to Alter-Ego to keep it handy for the next turn!). This can be used to remove ridiculous amounts of threat and essentially clear the board of threat every turn and keep it cleared for the rest of the game, letting your team flip down to Alter-Ego as needed without worry.

With smart use of Overwatch, you can clear most of the board of threat in one turn. It pairs well with Even the Odds if you're lacking a THWART event that can hit the Main Scheme. I run only 1 copy of Crisis Averted as a backup in case of a Crisis Icon. If it's not needed, I just tuck it under Bruno Carrelli for times when I do actually need it - either to do a big THWART on the Main Scheme, or if I need a Mental Resource to trigger the effect of Multitasking or Three Steps Ahead.

Between Biokinetic Polymer Suit and Sense of Justice, you should have plenty of resources to play most of your events, and they also count as two different resources for Three Steps Ahead! Digging Deep works well with her Alter-Ego action Teen Spirit, potentially giving you two (or even three) cards in your hand. Just try and pay attention to what Ms. Marvel cards you have in your Discard pile, as her ability can go through your deck pretty rapidly, or even whiff and cause you to deck out and deal yourself an Encounter Card. Though, this can be used strategically if you know you have a big card draw coming up and want to refresh your deck to get those good cards back into your hand (or tucked under Bruno Carrelli).

The four allies in this deck are strong for this playstyle. Wasp helps deal with Crisis and Patrol, and can then take a hit for you on the following Villain Phase if needed. Vivian can blank Crisis or Patrol if needed, or even prevent a Side Scheme's When Defeated from triggering after you clear it. Speed is just fantastic for additional burst thwarting when needed.

Please let me know how this deck works for you! I've played close to a hundred games with this deck and it's never failed me or my team! Well...except that one time, but we won't talk about that.

POST CON OF HEROES EDIT I would sub out the 1 copy of Genius for 1 copy of The Power of Justice.

15 comments

Mar 24, 2025 boomguy · 5282

I’ve seen this becoming action and it absolutely annihilates any threat turn after turn, regardless of player count. Awesome!

Mar 24, 2025 hootorama · 230

@boomguy Much better than my Psylocke aggro deck, right? Thanks, boomguy!!

Mar 25, 2025 UrinalSharts · 285

Thabks for sharing it, and also explaining how it works. Super stoked to try it out!

Mar 25, 2025 LordMalik · 1

Pretty sure you can spend wild resources for three steps ahead.

The card does not specify it's the 'printed' resources used, and FFG 1.6 states:

A wild resource () is one of the four types of resources.

• Wild resources can be spent to pay the resource cost of cards and abilities. When a player generates a wild resource (), they may specify which resource type (energy, mental, physical, or wild) it is being used as.

» When a card that generates a wild resource has its resources doubled, each of its wild resources can be declared a different type.

You can't overpay Three Steps Ahead, but you CAN pay 3 wild for 3 stances of treat removal.

Mar 25, 2025 hootorama · 230

@LordMalikYou're 100% correct. Which actually makes it easier to play, and gives the potential for Three Steps Ahead to remove 7, 7, and 7 threat with 2x Passion For Justice.

Mar 27, 2025 TheMaskedHero · 323

This helped do a quick sweep of Batroc in multiplayer!

Mar 30, 2025 Jamesdarcy · 89

....No one else bring this to the con. Can't wait to take it out with such crazy numbers

Mar 30, 2025 SDx · 304

Such a great deck! I'm glad you published this deck to showcase people how you can really scale up Three Steps Ahead!

FYI for Overwatch / Three Steps Ahead combo. You can only trigger Overwatch on one of the iterations (e.g. If Three Step Ahead removes 6 threat x 3 times, you can only remove 6 threat via Overwatch)

Mar 31, 2025 HeroicSkeleton · 2725

Kamala is one of the best thwarters in the game, period.

I would consider adding some player side schemes, Superpower Training maybe? And 2 more Skilled Investigators!

Apr 01, 2025 hootorama · 230

@SDx Great clarification on the Overwatch / TSA combo! It's how I play it but I didn't think to clarify that in the description.

@HeroicSkeleton I usually add PSS's after seeing the team/player makeup. Sometimes other players will bring Superpower Training in their decks, so I'll add some of the other Justice PSS if needed. Sometimes I'll only run just Superpower Training if it's a side-scheme heavy encounter like Red Skull (and remove my copies of One Way or Another since you can't use it in that encounter.

Superpower Training is definitely the PSS to go to make sure you get Shrink as soon as possible.

May 05, 2025 Semper Ludens · 8

I saw this deck in action at Con of Heroes and it was amazing to witness. Ms Marvel kept the threat in check in a game against Venom Goblin and even removed over 30 threat among the three main schemes in a single turn.

May 05, 2025 Jacinto · 129

I suppose I was a little ahead of my time. I ran fairly different allies and had a few more resources: marvelcdb.com

May 06, 2025 hootorama · 230

@Semper Ludens That was a crazy (and crazy long) game! I had a lot of fun playing it with you, even though we finished well past what any sane person would stay up in the middle of an already loooong Con.

@Jacinto I built this deck a while back, but never published. Had some locals that wanted the decklist and figured I'd go the extra mile with a write-up! I really like The Power of Justice in the deck since it pays for both Even The Odds and most of Three Steps Ahead. I'm going to do some testing and modify accordingly if it works out better than Digging Deep or Genius. Wild resources are definitely the way to go in this deck, considering the various resource requirements of Multitasking, ETO, and TSA. I'm thinking Digging Deep stays since it synergizes with her AE discard action. You aren't using that action unless you need cards, and getting a lucky Digging Deep discard would help pay for that card.

Not sure what else I would cut for a second copy of The Power of Justice. Maybe one copy of One Way or Another? Or just run with 41 cards... hmm.

May 18, 2025 CANAS1AN · 1

how do you protect the hero's HP or basic activation to use Morphogenetics?

May 18, 2025 hootorama · 230

@CANAS1AN Wiggle Room can be tucked under Bruno Carrelli for use when you know you'll end your turn in Hero form and the Villain has a lot of ATK. You can play your hand that turn, and then your last action can be to add Wiggle Room to your hand from Bruno so that it's in your hand when you need to draw back up to your hand size.

She also has 5 REC, so taking big hits from the Villain isn't horrible due to being able to keep herself healed.

Morphogenetics can also be used during the Villain phase after you play Wiggle Room to add it back to your hand, you'll just have to Exhaust Ms. Marvel. You still get to draw a card from the card's ability when you use it to reduce the damage you take. You'll then have it to defend against another attack if you have a hard-hitting minion in front of you, or you can even use it to defend for another player and reduce the damage taken by 3, and then draw a card. You'll just have to gauge whether your current hand needs you to recur a Thwart card or not, if that makes sense.