Rogue - Shadow Adaptation

“Ah can be quiet as a church mouse, sugah. You’re just used to me makin’ an entrance.” ~Rogue

Player Count/Type : 2-4p / Timmy/Johnny
Power Level: High
Complexity: Medium
Key Cards: Move in Shadow, Superpower Adaptation

"This combo deck can clear all threat on the board once its pieces are in place." ~D.M. Tip

Stealthy Rogue

The moment I saw Move in Shadow, I knew it was a card that would be fun to build around. How far could you take it? How many cards could you play in a turn to get the most value out of it? Well, as it turns out, Rogue can get the best possible value out of this card by combining it with Superpower Adaptation. You just need a little bit of setup to get things moving, stealthily.

Moving Stealthily

For this combo to work, we need the following:

1. Gambit in play.
2. One Superpower Adaptation in hand.
3. A second copy of Superpower Adaptation in the discard.
4. Move in Shadow in hand with enough resources to play it.
5. Threat to remove.

All we have to do is Touch Gambit, play Move in Shadow, and then use one Superpower Adaptation to grab the other Superpower Adaptation. This triggers the Move in Shadow response and removes one threat from a scheme. Now, you can repeat by using one Superpower Adaptation to grab the other over and over again. Each time you play it, you remove one threat. Keep in mind that both Superpower Adaptations can start in hand, so long as you use one as a resource to play Move in Shadow or another card before continuing the combo.

Shadows and Side Schemes

The combo is pretty simple to activate, so what about the rest of the deck? We need to fill it out with some acceleration, card draw, some side schemes, and a little bit of utility to get the most out of our threat removal.

• While I initially tested this deck with Blindspot, he just wasn't needed for the main part of the combo. He works really well with Rogue and has some awesome traits that seem to synergize, but we like the freedom to keep Touched on Remy. Instead, I've opted to bring in Ironheart and Manifold to double down on what this deck naturally wants to do by drawing cards often to get its setup pieces in place or to draw into Move in Shadow, and also to grab side schemes to clear.

• Sentry works great in this deck. You actually want a side scheme early with Chance Encounter to find Gambit, so his 'down side' is actually useful. But, more importantly, after you are already set up, the downside doesn't matter when you can just clear the entire board of threat. You get an efficient ally that can add damage where it's needed and be discarded in the place of Gambit in a pinch.

• Card draw includes 3x Assess the Situation and 2x One Way or Another. These will help us get to Gambit early on and ensure we get our second copy of Superpower Adaptation. The down side of One Way or Another is also negligible here because we can easily remove all threat on the board. Skilled Investigator also rounds out our card draw and is guaranteed to trigger every time we use Move in Shadow so long as there is a Side Scheme in play.

• Speaking of Side Schemes, we're packing 5x of them. If you have specific needs at your table, you can swap some of these out, but I believe this is a good baseline. Generation X can seek out a Superpower Adaptation if you get caught without one of your two copies needed for the combo. Going Undercover is great early on with Chance Encounter to find Gambit. Lay the Trap is solid damage for a single Move in Shadow play, and Specialized Training is just as easily cleared and can benefit the entire team. After some testing I've also added Build Support for more team utility.

• Stealth Training is a solid utility card that fits perfectly into this deck. With Move in Shadow removing one threat at a time, you can easily trigger this.

• Rogue loves her events, so we've got Helicarrier, The X-Jet, Deft Focus, and X-Gene to help her play them more easily.

Touch and Go Stealth

A few notes on piloting this deck:

1. Mulligan hard for Gambit. If you can't get him, look for Chance Encounter and either a side scheme or a way to pull one out, such as with One Way or Another or Sentry.
2. Getting one copy of Superpower Adaptation into the discard is necessary, but make sure to hold on to the second copy you come across. If you are facing encounter cards or scenarios that cause you to discard cards from your deck, you'll have to be conservative about this and hold on to one until you find the second.
3. Don't sleep on Rogue's events. She's packing 3x copies of Goin' Rogue, so use this in between Move in Shadow turns if you have big threats come up, or just push for damage with Southern Cross.
4. Once set up, you won't be clearing the board of threat every turn, but you'll get to do it 3x times per deck cycle. Use your card draw to make this go quicker. You can also flip often to get more cards in alter-ego, knowing that you'll be able to clear all of the threat soon.
5. Since this deck is built around multiplayer, ask a Leadership player at your table to pack Call for Backup. This will increase the chance to grab Gambit.
6. When doing the Move in Shadow loop, you'll end up with one Superpower Adaptation in hand. Be sure to keep this going into your next turn for the next time you pull Move in Shadow.
7. With all this Touching of Gambit, you're bound to face your obligation, Deadly Touch, at some point. While this will likely defeat him, you can bring him back with Chance Encounter. With this in mind, be sure to Touch other targets when you don't have a Move in Shadow to play to keep him alive.
8. This deck thrives at higher player counts, so I highly recommend 3 and 4-player games, though it can function at lesser player counts, it doesn't have a great tempo like some other Justice decks.
9. Shoutout to Theberg123, who also realized the core of this combo and published a deck a few days ago. Go check out their deck here: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/63898/go-infinite-turn-1-1.0
10. I still want to test this a bit more and refine it in 4-player games, but I thought it was important to share it so that other fellow Rogue enjoyers can try it out. It might need more card draw (Nick Fury, 1x more One Way or Another, or Avengers Mansion. I suspect we'll get some more Justice cards by the end of the Defender wave that can improve this type of deck.

Overall, this deck has been an absolute blast to field. I'm always looking for reasons to bring Rogue to the table and this didn't disappoint. It feels like the Justice version of Honed Technique/Dive Bomb, except it doesn't help you progress the win state, so much as it stops your team from losing. It is still a lot of fun and feels quite effective. I'm going to continue to test and tweak it to get just the right balance. Let me know what you would change or if you've tried Move in Shadow on Rogue or another hero. Until next time...

Peace!