DEFinitely Offensive

Why choose between attacking, thwarting and defending when DEF can do all three?

DEFinitely Offensive is built around turning Colossus into an immovable wall—and then hitting the villain with that wall. The deck builds a permanently high DEF, uses The Best Offense… to substitute that DEF for ATK and THW, and then exploits it through basic activations, defensive responses and repeated readies.

Building the wall

Innate Reflexes begins in your opening hand, immediately increasing Colossus’s DEF. The remaining pieces are Armored Vest, Defensive Conditioning and the Defense Specialist brought into play by defeating Specialized Training.

Once everything is installed, Colossus has a permanent 6 DEF:

• 2 base DEF.
• +1 from Innate Reflexes.
• +1 from Armored Vest.
• +1 from Defensive Conditioning.
• +1 from Defense Specialist.

Defensive Conditioning also supplies 3 additional hit points, while Defense Specialist draws a card after Colossus performs a basic defense.

Superpower Training should normally find Iron Will first. If Iron Will is already available, use it to put Titanium Muscles or Organic Steel directly into play instead. Piotr’s Studio provides another way to find the identity cards needed to complete the setup.

The alter-ego engine

Despite the enormous DEF, the deck does not want to remain permanently in hero form. Piotr’s larger hand size, Piotr’s Studio and Moira MacTaggert make regular form changes extremely valuable.

Whenever possible, finish the player phase in alter-ego with either Armor Up in hand or Ready for a Fight already installed. You draw up to the larger alter-ego hand size, then change back during the villain phase before the villain can scheme.

Changing to hero form activates Steel Skin and generates a Tough status card. Moira MacTaggert then draws another card. Ready for a Fight is particularly useful because it can be prepared in advance, providing a reliable third route back into hero form alongside the two copies of Armor Up.

Hidden Base can generate a Tough when changing into alter-ego. When Colossus subsequently returns to hero form, Steel Skin can generate his second Tough.

Weaponising DEF

Each copy of The Best Offense… provides another +1 DEF and allows Colossus to use DEF in place of ATK and THW. With the permanent setup completed:

• One copy produces 7 DEF.
• Two copies produce 8 DEF.
• All three copies produce 9 DEF.

That value can be used for basic attacks and thwarts, but it also powers Counter-Punch and True Grit.

After defending, Counter-Punch deals damage to the attacking enemy equal to Colossus’s DEF, while True Grit removes the same amount of threat from any scheme. One attack can therefore become a defense, a large counterattack and a substantial thwart—all using the same stat.

Because The Best Offense… is Temporary, it remains in play until the end of the round. It can therefore be played during the player phase, carried through an alter-ego change, and still be active when Armor Up or Ready for a Fight returns Colossus to hero form during the villain phase.

Taunt, defend and retaliate

Taunt is one of the deck’s principal draw engines and provides a controlled way to trigger all the defensive abilities during the player phase.

A strong turn can look like this:

1. Play The Best Offense….
2. Play Taunt, causing the villain to attack and drawing three cards afterward.
3. Use “I Can Do This All Day” to defend without exhausting.
4. Play Counter-Punch and/or True Grit, using the boosted DEF for both effects.
5. Make a basic attack or thwart using DEF.
6. Play Limitless Stamina to ready and use that enormous basic power again.

Alternatively, Colossus can exhaust to perform a normal basic defense and draw through Defense Specialist, then use Limitless Stamina to ready. “I Can Do This All Day” preserves the basic activation, while the normal basic-defense route provides the additional card draw.

Tough is still a resource

The high DEF means many attacks will deal no damage at all, allowing Colossus to preserve his Tough cards rather than consuming them defensively. Those Tough cards can then be spent deliberately through his identity-specific events.

Steel Fist converts a Tough into stun and confuse. Bulletproof Protector can turn one Tough into two or use it to ready Colossus, while Iron Will draws a card whenever that Tough is discarded. Organic Steel can immediately replace it.

Polaris, Hidden Base, Organic Steel, Bulletproof Protector and regular form changes provide several ways to replenish the supply.

One important interaction to remember is that The Best Offense… ignores modifiers to ATK and THW. The +6 ATK from Made of Rage therefore does not increase an attack while The Best Offense… is active. Save Made of Rage for rounds without The Best Offense…, when it can deliver its full damage and overkill.

Cards and resources

The deck has several overlapping sources of card draw:

• Taunt draws three cards.
• Iron Will draws whenever a Tough is discarded.
• Moira MacTaggert draws after the change from alter-ego to hero.
• Defense Specialist draws after a basic defense.
• Nick Fury can draw three cards while also providing an ally activation and a temporary defender.

Titanium Muscles, Helicarrier and The X-Jet provide the resources needed to turn that larger hand into multiple plays.

The objective is not simply to survive attacks. Build the wall, invite the villain to hit it, and convert every point of DEF into damage, threat removal, card draw and additional activations.

The best defense is definitely offensive.