Circe Assault Squad

Circe Assault Squad

I wanted to put together a Maria Hill deck that didn't include the The Bellerophon and emphasized The Circe. Leadership seemed ideal for this, especially with Command Team in the same aspect.

While there are plenty of allies in the deck, the goal isn't necessarily to play a lot of allies. The number of allies (and very strong allies at that) are meant to be insurance that two excellent allies get into play relatively early and then remain in play until one gets two "optimum" allies into play, namely Nick Fury (Maria Hill's ally) and then either Giant-Man (or Agent 13). Other allies will tend to rotate through the lineup and are able to be sacrificed as defenders or by consequential damage.

If you'd like to see a discussion of this deck, see the following video: Maria Hill | Circe Assault Squad | Leadership Deck Discussion

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck and/or game play strategies (in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Black Widow; Kang (The Conqueror); and Magneto.

Deck Refinements: N/A

NOTABLE ELEMENTS OF PLAY:

S.H.I.E.L.D. Support Roles: Since we are building around the use of The Circe, I will emphasize the other supports below instead.

• The Pericles: There are two primary jobs for the The Pericles, namely ...
  • To allow Maria Hill to go to alter-ego and retrieve the desired S.H.I.E.L.D. Support for the situation.
  • To protect Maria Hill in hero form to allow Nick Fury and Giant-Man (or Agent 13 if The Iliad is in play) to remain in play indefinitely.
• Field Agent and Med Team: To allow the two key allies above to remain in play indefinitely, while also healing Maria Hill as needed (and to provide counters for Maria Hill's ability in order to keep the 6-cost supports in play.
• Command Team: To maximize the effectiveness of the allies, especially in the late game. Agent 13 tends to be highly effective in helping finish off the villain in the final push, especially when used with The Iliad.

Allies with Special Notes:

• Pixie: Pixie is meant to be played from hand to retrieve one of the valuable X-Men allies, who can then be put into play by The Circe.
• Cyclops: Cyclops's ability does not work with the The Iliad since its damage is not an attack.
• Beast tends to be a great "setup" ally who can grab a Special Funding resource card that can be utilized for the next round on one of the 6-cost supports. In the late game, Special funding can typically be used on a cheaper support.
• Ghost-Spider cannot be played from hand, so must either be put into play by The Circe or Make the Call.

One-Off Cards: .

• Make the Call: This is mostly here to retrieve Nick Fury should he ever be removed from play. It wasn't played in many games but came in handy to pull in a target ally here and there.
• Super Spies: A fantastic card in a deck when the plan is to keep the Nick Fury ally in play all game.
• Clarity of Purpose: Just to assist in getting out those expensive S.H.I.E.L.D. supports.

Conclusion:
This is a very strong deck even without the advantage of having The Bellerophon. Being able to onboard expensive, powerful allies without having to pay for them feels especially good when one can then play two or more other cards to control and eventually dominate the board state.

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.