Winter Soldier: Middle Minion Manager (Con of Heroes 2026)

This is a minion-slaying deck built around taking advantage of Winter Soldier's ability to remove threat when he defeats minions. The plan is to pull as many minions into play as possible, kill them efficiently, and let Winter Soldier's ability keep the schemes under control while we clear the board. Rather than treating minions as problems to deal with, we're actively looking for them because they fuel the entire deck.

Looking for Trouble

There are plenty of ways to bring minions out of the woodwork. Looking for Trouble removes three threat while putting a minion into play, Spoiling for a Fight brings one out and gives Winter Soldier a ready, and Face the Past can pull another minion into the fight. Angela is another excellent inclusion: she costs us nothing to play and brings a minion along with her. What's the downside?

The idea is to keep the minions coming so Winter Soldier always has something to do. Man on the Wall makes this even better, reducing the cost of the next card by one for each minion engaged with us. When we've pulled several minions into play, that can translate into some very significant discounts.

And, of course, once the minions are there, we want to take advantage of them. "Bring It!" can draw us a pile of cards when we're engaged with several minions, helping us keep the attacks coming. The more minions we have to work with, the more efficiently the deck can operate.

Get In, Hit Hard, Repeat

Winter Soldier has plenty of ways to dispatch the minions we've collected. His attack events provide a steady stream of damage, while Combat Training and Aggressive Conditioning increase his basic ATK and help him hit harder. Cybernetic Arm adds another way to boost our damage output, and Martial Prowess helps pay for attack events.

Clobber is particularly efficient. If you sequence your cards correctly, you can play it, get it back into your hand, and then use it as a resource for another card. Relentless Assault gives us efficient minion damage and the potential for overkill, while Melee can split damage between two targets. With Cybernetic Arm boosting the damage, Melee can hit for four damage to each target, making it an excellent way to clear two minions at once.

Spoiling for a Fight also helps us keep Winter Soldier active by providing a ready alongside the minion it brings into play. Between the events, basic attacks, and extra readies, we want to defeat as many minions as possible each round.

Keeping the Engine Running

Winter Soldier's upgrades support the main plan while giving us some flexibility. Silent Infiltration, Winter Armor, Winter Mask, and Winter Rifle round out his kit, while Safe House #30 and Helicarrier provide additional support.

The allies help us make the most of the minion-heavy board. Throg is a great fit because we'll almost always have a minion engaged with us, making it easy for him to gain Tough. Angela is both a cheap ally and another way to bring in a minion, while Two-Gun Kid offers efficient damage to help clear the board. Black Widow rounds out the ally package.

Face the Past does come with a drawback: the minion it brings in has Quickstrike, so we need to be prepared for that immediate attack. Still, the extra minion and the value we can extract from it make the risk worthwhile.

The Rest of the Deck

Arm Block, Metal Punch, and Electrical Discharge give us more options for handling enemies and managing incoming attacks. Keep Up the Pressure provides another way to support the threat-removal plan.

The key to piloting the deck is to keep the minions flowing without letting them overwhelm you. Each one is another opportunity to trigger Winter Soldier's threat removal, draw cards, discount a card through Man on the Wall, or fuel another attack. But the minions still need to be defeated before their attacks and scheme activations become a problem.

Middle Minion Manager turns the villain's minions into a resource. Pull them into play, exploit the discounts and card draw they provide, and then clear them out with Winter Soldier's arsenal of attack events. If everything goes according to plan, the board stays manageable, the main scheme stays under control, and Winter Soldier gets to do what he does best: eliminate targets.