Cable - Living Threat

"You're lucky I need you alive. For now." ~ Cable

Player Count/Type : 3-4p / Johnny
Power Level: Med
Complexity: Med
Key Cards: Live Dangerously, Mitigated Threat

"This multiplayer deck boosts your entire team's hand size while packing solid endgame finishing power"~D.M.Tip

Soldier X

Like any good soldier, you'll need to think on your feet with this deck. From the start, you'll be faced with a series of choices. Godspeed.

• Mulligan hard for Mitigated Threat, but keep an eye out for DEF boosting upgrades and Graymalkin.
• If you have Mitigated Threat, setup with Live Dangerously. If not, you can still do so, but it's risky. Amplify is a lot tougher to deal with in multiplayer and Crisis could cause issues early in some scenarios. Alternatively, you can grab Build Support or, if you have a Mind Scan, Technovirus Purge.
• The first few turns, keep an eye out for Askani'son and any DEF upgrades to build out your board state. Until you do, In Harm's Way and The Best Offense... aren't going to be as useful.

The Mitigated Living Threat

Keeping Mitigated Threat on Live Dangerously is the core concept of this deck.

• Each turn you and your teammates will be faced with a choice to each pay one resource or lose the mitigation.
• There is no sense is only one or two players paying this cost, so you must talk among the group to decide if you are all going to pay it, or not.
• With the additional hand size, this usually isn't an issue. Keep in mind, the cost can be paid from a resource generator that is already in play.
• The cool interaction here is that when you draw another Mitigated Threat, you can afford to let it fall off, saving the resources for your teammates and then just playing the new copy. The timing works perfectly for this, because you'll already have your hand before the end of the round.
• Alternatively, you may decide to just forgo the mitigation anyway and deal with the bad stuff. This choice is easier once everyone is established and can be made to vault you into the final push against the villain.

Mission Briefing

Here is some additional intel on included cards:

• Askani'son is incredible with The Best Offense..., giving you one more use of your boosted stats before it falls away. If your timing lines up just right, you can clear a side scheme with it and ready back up with your hero response.
• The Night Nurse is there to save you from Stuns/Confuses and get more value out of The Best Offense... and readies.
• Just like with any 'solo' archetype, In Harm's Way is clutch for making mid to late game tempo plays. It's a great addition to Mind Scan to help clear those side schemes and ready up with your hero response.
• Stand Alone is a decent source of readies that let you defend for another player and then stand up when the villain attacks you, leaving you ready for the next player phase.
• I won't go into detail for each Player Side Scheme, but I've leaned more into ones that help the team out, versus those that are easy to clear at 3 & 4 player counts. Feel free to substitute some of these to your liking.
• Army of One is clutch for those The Best Offense... turns and let you time your hero ready easier.

Alternate & Early Builds

I initially tested the core concept with Repurpose and a suite of tech upgrades. I've also considered Call for Backup to bring in Pinpoint to recur Mitigated Threat. But after fielding these versions, they just seemed far inferior. I wasn't able to help out with as many threats early on, and the payoffs didn't feel worth it. Though, I think there is still room for testing a version that uses Pinpoint to ease the resource burden for your team while also boosting support with increased defenses for the table. This could also work well with the upcoming Helpful Bystander from Iron Fist.

After several weeks of testing, I settled on this version and found it wildly fun and engaging. It's yet another 'solo' style deck, but it provides a cool niche of support that significantly boosts a multiplayer team.

Have you tried this concept with Cable or another hero? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Until then, best of luck, soldier!

Peace!