40 Damage in 1 turn

Luke Cage is unhinged in Aggression. Tough status cards give him momentum, minions are his food, and this deck turns both into absurd damage numbers. If you want a hero who walks through the minion swarm, draws half his deck doing it, then ends the game with one punch, this is it.

Setup

Stash Cruisin' for a Bruisin' and Suppressing Fire in Contingency Planning so the pieces are ready the moment you need them. Don't hesitate to drop Build Support early either: it fishes out Hall of Heroes, and Jessica Jones and "Stand with Me!" will help you clear the side schemes.

Flippin' and minion-fishin'

You'll be going back to alter-ego a lot. That's where you milk Hall of Heroes, reload with Burstein Process and pick up the sweet extra card. A typical alter-ego turn starts with 6 cards plus 3 from the Hall.

From there: drop Aggressive Stance, tutor minions with Angela and Looking for Trouble, and let the Stance draw you into "Sweet Christmas!". Then play "Bring It!". You can easily be sitting on 10–12 cards, "Sweet Christmas!" included. Season the minions with Cruisin' for a Bruisin' and Suppressing Fire.

Play every "Stand with Me!" and Harlem's Hero you draw: you should end up around 4–5 toughs from a single trip to alter-ego. No need to go higher than that. They're there to be spent, every other turn.

With pain

With Warrior Skill out and a couple of tutored minions on the table, "Sweet Christmas!" deals 6 damage to 3 enemies. Cruisin' for a Bruisin' adds another 2 on top and sends the overkill straight to the villain. That handles 95% of the minions in the game, fuels Hall of Heroes, and heals your heroes. Ditching an extra 9 damage onto the villain for basically 1 ER is not a rare sight.

Halfway through the deck

Crack Second Chance and get all the juicy events back. With the toughs you've stacked, they cost next to nothing.

The finisher

When the villain is ripe, crack Keep Up the Pressure to tutor Knuckle Sandwich. Play it, spend a tough to bounce it back to hand, play it again: 4 damage, up to six times over. That's 24 damage dumped on the villain to close the game. Set up a minion at 1 HP with a Cruisin' for a Bruisin' attached beforehand and you can push past 24.

How to thwart

Yes, this is an Aggression deck. No, you won't lose to the scheme. Jessica Jones handles the bulk of it, Luke's basic activation covers the rest, Looking for Trouble keeps threat off the board while feeding the engine, and Hellcat is there when something needs to go away right now.

Solo vs. multiplayer

Face the Past, Looking for Trouble and Angela keep the minion economy going when you're playing alone. At higher player counts the encounter deck feeds you plenty, so swap them for Target Spotter.

Harlem's hero, hero for hire. Sweet Christmas.