Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
|---|
| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High-Calibre Lawyer | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1.0 |
| Team Up (Hellcat and Ronin) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1.0 |
| How the She-Hulk got her Sidekick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
journeyman2 · 25533
Welcome to Catcalled From the Grave, my Hellcat recursion deck.
With the release of some of the recent packs, I wanted to revisit my most difficult hero from the core set: She-Hulk
Why She-Hulk
I initially was turned off from She-Hulk since it was harder to build with her. Her resource generation card was expensive and competed with other build cards at the time, not to mention her small hand size in hero mode. However, I think she had the most interesting ability out of the core set, encouraging players to flip back and forth often and requiring more strategy than simple +1 resource effects.
When we look at She-Hulk, we immediately see that she is not great at thwart. Her THW stat is 1, Legal Practice is expensive, and her "I Object" requires her to be in Alter-Ego, allowing the villain to scheme. Superhuman Law Division doesn't have the burst necessary to clear scheme, and you often run into situations where you start in hero with 4 cards and need to flip down to use it, ending up with only a 3 card hand. Early on, this meant a lot of decks were running her as Justice. While there was some synergy in the resources, I found that she was spending so much on Thwart events, that she wasn't able to use her hero specific cards as much. I didn't see many synergies with Protection and I think Leadership has been built better by others here (and is just in general great for most heroes). I set my sights on Aggression.
Delving Into Aggression
With the release of the Wasp pack, I took out She-Hulk and looked over her cards again. As stated above, her Thwart is her issue, as is Aggressions, so I started with some of the recent Aggression thwart cards. Initially, I looked at Toe to Toe, "You'll Pay for That!", and Into the Fray. And while "You'll Pay for That!" can alleviate this issue somewhat, that's 2 cards from She-Hulk's 4-card hand just for some thwart. Into the Fray runs into this same issue, with the added requirement of needing a low-health minion in play. This means that She-Hulk Aggression really either needs to blitz the damage, or rely on allies to thwart. Again, I think others have done the former better and it isn't really my playstyle. So now we are looking at Aggression She-Hulk centered on allies instead of events.
Cats Have Nine Lives and Other Combos
The key synergy that holds this deck together, is that She-Hulk doesn't need to use her allies as blockers. She can take the damage, and a lot of it. This means that she can play allies and then buff them up with Boot Camp or keep them around with First Aid.
Looking at the Aggression allies, Brawn stands out as the obvious pick. The others are either too expensive, have low to no thwart (looking at you Hulk), or she can't run (i.e. She-Hulk). Brawn is great because he has a good thwart effect, high hit points, and shares a Gamma trait with She-Hulk. Not to mention he has a resource in a pinch. Since Brawn is essentially 3-for-10 with longevity, I wanted to look at ways to buff him up. Boot Camp makes him 3-for-15 and then First Aid and Honorary Avenger essentially become 1-for-4/6 and 0-for-2/3 respectively.
However, Brawn isn't enough Thwart on his own. Hellcat is the real crux of this deck. With her 2-thwart and recursion effect, she's perfect. Essentially a +1 to hand size always, since other 3 cost cards take 4 cards to play, Hellcat is essentially -1 and then thwarts you for 4. The equivalent of a For Justice!. However, where previously She-Hulk wouldn't be able to recur Hellcat as intended, now we have cheaper build cards that allow her to do just that.
The main combo of this deck is getting out Team-Building Exercise , Avengers Tower, and one of Helicarrier or Quincarrier and recurring Hellcat every turn. Hellcat will often thwart 2 times per turn for free, and with the resource generation in this deck, can often be played 3 times, though usually that's overkill. Most often, she'll be played then recurred on the next turn when her health is low. But the combo of her threat removal and She-Hulk being able to take a hit in a pinch, allow us to spend more time building and thinning our deck.
Team-Building Exercise and Superhuman Law Division complement She-Hulk's constant flipping playstyle. Flip up to use TBE and play Brawn (Gamma trait!) or recur Hellcat. Flip down to "I Object" + Superhuman Law Division and get that sweet 6-card hand that lets you build more without fear of being schemed on or dig for your She-Hulk power cards. The timing of when to grab Hellcat back to your hand and when to leave her out is important. Only grab her back if her health is low and you can immediately play her again; if you can't this usually means staying up in hero form to tank a hit, since she won't be able to clear threat.
The Glue to Hold it Together
Because the other half of the combo are the basic build cards, it makes a lot of sense to go heavy into the basics now that The Power in All of Us is out. With that, She-Hulk can easily play Avengers Mansion, Helicarrier, Quincarrier, Avengers Tower, and Team-Building Exercise. Next, it made a lot of sense to include both Nick Fury ( + 2 THW + card draw) and War Machine ( + 2 THW + good longevity + Avenger). His ranged is also situationally useful, since often Retaliate can be the bane of this deck. Ironheart, while not having Avenger synergy, is included for her easy play with The Power in All of Us, gives more card draw, and is a resource for Superhuman Law Division when you are already at your ally limit. This happens quite a lot! I found it to be quite common to have any combination of Brawn/Hellcat/War Machine/Tigra down, and sometimes all 4 with an Honorary Avenger on Brawn and Avengers Tower out. Tigra is in for her self-preservation and . Spider-Girl is just another great cheap ally, that you can often play for free with Avengers Tower and Team-Building Exercise if you don't have Hellcat yet. The 2 ATK benchmark is also important for Boot Camp to clear 3 hit point minions in one go.
The draw engine of this deck is fierce. Avengers Mansion + 2 Focused Rage nets a lot of cards (though I usually never had both out at the same time, and never could get the second Focused Rage down). You actually find yourself in a position to play the former more often due to The Power in All of Us discount. Nick Fury is Nick Fury, Ironheart is essentially playing a 39-card deck, and Hall of Heroes is yet another synergy for flipping down and getting a 9-card hand. Lastly, is Split Personality which is by far She-Hulk's best card. It's essentially like having two build turns in one if you get it early, which can lead to getting down both TBE and Avengers Tower and starting the Hellcat combo. Late game it's just pure damage. With 13 permanent upgrade/support and 3 or 4 allies down, it's really easy to draw into Nick/Split Personality use it to draw the other and end up drawing half your remaining cards. You'll end up with turns where you play all three copies of One-Two Punch or Hellcat a bunch of times; or two Gamma Slams within 3 turns.
Boot Camp is important for taking out buffed Ultron drones or Klaw guards. Not to mention being able to recur Hellcat for damage in the late game instead of thwart. Though usually, this is not as important as getting the resources going.
Two copies of Chase Them Down are included since it's always useful. Either you sac it for Superhuman Law Division if you're in alter-ego or you can play it when you're in hero. It's like giving She-Hulk +1 to her THW stat while still letting her attack or having 3 copies of Hellcat, and is just another low cost tool in the box. First Aid and Honorary Avenger are for Brawn who will usually stay in play the whole game. He's like the Beat Cop of Aggression. Endurance is the standard combo with Gamma Slam. I never needed a third copy of Chase Them Down or First Aid since with all the drawing, I could always get them if I needed them. Brawn lasts for 5 turns, which is always enough time to draw at least one heal before his last hit point. Another combo not around when the core set dropped is Superhuman Law Division and Quincarrier, since she can always pay the cost with it if necessary.
Exclusions and Other Options
I didn't throw in Mockingbird. Though I think there's a viable deck with her, Spider-Girl, and Press the Advantage since She-Hulk has stun in Superhuman Strength and enough draw to keep stun-locking at least one enemy. Too often, Mockingbird is competing for an ally slot, doesn't have , is 1 resource too expensive for The Power in All of Us and doesn't work with TBE/Avengers Tower. Same with Spider-Man who get's out-thwarted by War Machine over three turns. Valkyrie and Thor don't have enough of the right resources to work, and most of the time I'd rather recur Hellcat for thwart than get extra damage that She-Hulk has in abundance.
The 39th and 40th cards Hall of Heroes and Combat Training can be switched around as needed. I like them because they stay in play to thin the deck. Hall of Heroes seems like overkill, but at worst is a . Many times I want to leave minions to Tigra or leave a non-retaliate option for Brawn though. Maybe one day a perfectly set up Ground Stomp will combo well. Hey, I can dream can't I? While I never played Combat Training over another build card, in theory it's very helpful when you play multiple One-Two Punches in a turn. I think Quicksilver does this strategy better with Adrenaline Rush, though that is also another option here. Wasp is one I would really like to include, since her 3 ATK can be boosted up to 4 with Boot Camp and she would be another target for First Aid, but it is hard to meet her cost. You never want to drop Split Personality for her and Focused Rage or Endurance might be down before you draw her. Quincarrier makes this easier, and there's little risk of her being a dead card since she's , so there is room to test. Possibly adding in +1 Wasp +1 Power of Aggression and hoping to draw them together, though The Power of Aggression has few targets here since Brawn/Boot Camp stay out and late game Spider-Girl won't have an ally spot available. You also don't want resources clogging up your draw while you're digging for the game winning Gamma Slam. Toe to Toe is left out, since She-Hulk is already taking every attack, she doesn't need to provoke more. Early builds messed with Battle Fury as a way to try to inch into Gamma Slam range, but I felt it was never necessary with One-Two Punch. Brute Force is a consideration in Tough-heavy scenarios, but often is too situational and other heroes already do the infinite ready better. Ground Stomp is usually better for clearing Tough anyways. I considered a build with Surprise Attack and Martial Prowess (which helps with Gamma Slam) though I think it doesn't have a synergy here and you're often not playing Gamma Slam too many times before the game ends.
Mulligan Strategy
-Mulligan hard for build cards. There are 12 cards that you want at least two of and optimally three of in your opening hand (one resource + 2 build). 5 resource cards + Mansion/Tower/Heli/Quin/TBE/Focused Rage
-Next priority are Nick Fury and Split Personality since they can draw your build cards. Split Personality early can easily lead to a fully built She-Hulk.
-Lastly, Superhuman Law Division and Hellcat just to get some THW going while you try to build
Allies are not as important to get out as with other heroes, since She-Hulk can safely flip up and take damage if your opening hand and mulligan go unusually poor. The most important ally is of course Hellcat, whose multiple turns of threat removal can buy you time to build the support needed to recur her for free.
It's not uncommon to spend the first few turns in alter-ego while you search for the right cards. Either it's safe since you have fuel for SLD or an ally, or you can flip up to take an attack and prevent threat. With this playstyle, She-Hulk has plenty of time to build, and builds faster than she's previously been able to.
Testing
I tested this in true solo against
Rhino Expert + Heroic Klaw Expert Ultron Expert
The first Rhino game, I had a turn 1 Avengers Mansion that got Caught Off Guard, and thought this was it for the idea. However, the low curve, and She-Hulk's ability to take a punch to avoid threat, allowed her and Hellcat to bounce back and land on their feet quickly.
Klaw ended up never being an issue, an early game Brawn + Hellcat cleaned the side schemes. She-Hulk could flip for the Weapons Runners and attack for the Guards and some combination of both for Masters of Evil (One-Two Punch key as well for getting rid of Tiger Shark). As stated above, Boot Camp boosting Brawn to 2 and Tigra to 3 were the perfect numbers for minion clearing so She-Hulk could go for the villain.
In the Ultron game, things got dicey when I left 5 threat on the second stage while flipping down, and Ultron pulled a 3 boost card to send us to Countdown to Oblivion. Then Concussive Blast wiped out Brawn and put the rest of my allies into near death range. Fortunately, She-Hulk was fully built and loaded with damage. Flipped up for 2, Gamma Slam for 13, attack for 3, War Machine for a boosted 3 (Boot Camp), Tigra for 3, then recur Hellcat for the finisher.
Hopefully, will test in an expert campaign soon and in multiplayer.
Go Out There and Land on Your Feet
Lastly, one little nice thing is how much She-Hulk gets to do. With the allies keeping the board clear, there comes a point where you are only playing Gamma/One-Two/Split Personality or Hellcat. She even has time to exhaust and clear pesky attachments in dire situations (particularly Retaliate attachments). When She-Hulk came out, it always felt like she had these expensive cards and no way to play them without letting threat get out of control. Now with the cheap build cards and strong neutrals from Ant-Man and Wasp, she is able to maximize her flippy playstyle to the fullest. You get the best of both worlds with this build, the huge damage turns and the board control.
Even if it is a bit overkill, nothing beats getting Hellcat out 3 times in a turn after drawing 9 cards and using your generators!
I hope I covered everything and that this is enjoyable for you. Leave me feedback or suggestions for the 39/40 spots! Thank you!
| 16 comments |
|---|
Feb 24, 2021 |
Feb 24, 2021Cool deck! I was going to suggest EMH but got beaten to it! Glad to see some love for She-Hulk lately, she's been overlooked for a long time after the game released. I was also looking for a way to use Boot Camp OTHER than just playing it along Team Training in a Spider-Woman deck... Your deck might actually be right what I was looking for. Thanks! |
Feb 24, 2021
She-Hulk and Thor have gotten a lot better recently. She-Hulk in particular I like since so many heroes have to decide between playing an ally and not dying, or advancing their win-con. With the permanent allies and high health, She-Hulk can just always be building or dishing it out. I’m so intimidated to deckbuild for Spider-Woman, but I like what you’ve done with her. Will definitely try to use your decks soon. |
Feb 24, 2021Heck of a deck |
Feb 24, 2021
|
Feb 24, 2021Amazing write-up! Thank you. I love the idea of being able to have such a tidy threat-handling solution in Aggression. |
Feb 24, 2021I'm glad you enjoy it |
Feb 26, 2021RoRS Expert Campaign No Upgrades, No 0-Cost Allies Update: Crossbones + Absorbing Man: Tried to ramp against them and it wasn't necessary whatsoever. True to form, I probably could have won the game a turn or two earlier. Classic me. So busy playing Hellcat 5 times that I'm not seeing I definitely have 14-16 damage on the board. All 4 Experimental Weapons out and 4 delay counters. Taskmaster: Depending on how lucky you are with boost damage from his ability, can be a challenge since She-Hulk caps out on damage earlier, resulting in tanking less hits. Photographic Reflexes is the worst card, since most of She-Hulk's damage is high and it doesn't go away from flip damage or Ground Stomp (not attacks). Very hard to flip up, eat 2-3 boost (there are four 3-boost cards in his deck), attack and get reflected for 3, then take an attack same turn. Best possible outcome is to waste a Brawn attack on it. Tried to rush him since the first two villains put me at ease (it's been awhile since I played the campaign!), and was definitely the wrong move. Lost game 1, won game 2. Zola: Rooooough. Not having Hellcat for Thwart when he starts with two side schemes (6 threat) and is a 2 SCH villain is very tough. Nice that she comes to your hand after Hydra Prison goes away though. Lost 5 times. Tried a bunch of different things, blitzing Hydra Prison (and then not having the economy to play Hellcat), blitzing a build (and then losing on scheme on turn 2!), a mixture of both (and getting slapped with 4+ villains, including Titania and Personal Challenge. Really hard to prioritize between the extra encounter card from Test Subjects that could easily be a minion, the Ultimate Bio-Servant, and going for Hellcat. Counterintuitively, I think Hydra Prison is lowest on the totem and it's important to try and beat both of the other cards, which is what happened in the only game I won. Recorded game 6 to share, since there are some good plays (and mistakes too). In hindsight, I also realized I was making some things tougher on myself with rules errors. 1) Test Counters are reset when the main scheme advances. I was keeping them on and ending up with Zola's entire deck of minions in front of me at once (literally that happened). 2) Test Counters placed by an encounter card don't cause a minion to come out immediately (not until after step 1 of the next villain phase) 3) Zola's Mutate doesn't get an attachment if he's brought out by the main scheme Zola is a good schemer, which is a huge challenge sans Hellcat. It's easy to start to feel safe if all three 3-boost cards are discarded....but three copies of Berserk Mutate can act as three more 3-boost cards (and rarely 4-boost cards). 3x Mind Ray are Advance essentially, and 2x Technological Enhancements have Incite 1. Not to mention the constant stream of minion scheming in Ultimate Bio-Servant and Zola's Mutate. Having test counters bring out a minion who schemes right away is bad, so there's an important decision to be made here if there are three test counters about to pop on the next turn. There are three Berserk Mutates who will hit you for 4 damage right away if you flip up trying to avoid scheme, but who scheme for 0 if you stay down. There are six minions who scheme for 1 right away. Sometimes it's possible to card count and flip up if all the Berserk Mutates are discarded, since 1-2 damage is typically better than 1 threat. Tough. But you probably already knew that about Zola. Definitely a challenge for a deck built around a signature ally! I'll post the play-by-play of the win later. |
Feb 26, 2021"Zola is a good schemer, which is a huge challenge sans Hellcat." Sans Hellcat? |
Feb 26, 2021Just teasing you! ;) |
Feb 26, 2021Expert Zola w/4 Experimental Weapons No Upgrades no 0-Cost Allies A 9-turn victory, 5-turn loss, and 8-turn victory wrapped up into one game After 6 tries, we did it. This is hands down the worst match-up for this deck, so I can now confidently recommend it. I made plenty of errors, and a better player than I won’t struggle as much as I did. I’m sharing this warts and all (and boy are there warts), because I think it’s instructive for this deck in arguably its hardest match-up. I hope you enjoy and can forgive me. So, I made some errors which you’ll see. I didn’t decide to record until the end of turn 2, and replicated the first two turns from memory. First, I missed an extra damage from the minion in turn 1. This would have caused a loss on turn 5 to quickstrike, but since I chose that minion I wouldn’t have chosen the one with quickstrike if I had properly recorded from the start. I also didn’t remove the test counters on the main scheme when it advanced on turn 3 and got a minion a whole turn earlier on turn 5 instead of turn 6, causing me to get a whole extra minion this game on turn 8 and w/guard no less. Second, I think I missed that the minion on turn 2 should have schemed and advanced the main. It’s messy because I also didn’t have an encounter card written down so I drew the top card and it was Caught Off Guard. Zola's Mutate shouldn’t have gotten an attachment from being brought out by the main scheme anyways, so I think the extra encounter card balances out. 1 SCH probably not as bad as losing SLD imo. All in all, I think the mistakes for and against me balanced out and this is still an instructive game for this deck. Keep in mind that I’ve recorded She-Hulk’s health with the 1 damage she should have had, but the whole game I was playing thinking she had 1 less damage. Turn 1 Setup: Zola (14/14), Hydra Prison (4), Test Subjects (2), Ultimate Bio-Servant (4/4 Tough), The Island of Dr. Zola ()/6) Hand: Tigra, Superhuman Law Division, First Aid, Endurance, Chase Them Down, Genius -> did not mulligan Player Phase: Play Tigra + SLD Flip to remove tough off minion, Tigra atk for 2, She-Hulk atk for 3 to defeat Play Chase Them Down to clear Test Subjects (best possible opening in this scenario I think; in other games I could get to 3-4 ramp cards by turn 2, but taking 4 encounter cards and a minion from Test Subjects in the process would bury me) Test Subjects brings out Ultimate Bio-Servant Villain Phase: 1 threat + 1 test counter on main Zola attacks for 4, Bio-Servant attacks for 1 (recording mistake 1) Encounter: Technological Enhancements places 1 threat on main, adds 2nd test counter Board: She-Hulk (5/15), Tigra (⅓), Superhuman Law Division, Zola (14/14), The Island of Dr. Zola (2/6, ⅔), Ultimate Bio-Servant (4/4 Tough), Hydra Prison (4/4) Turn 2 Hand: Honorary Avenger, Chase Them Down, Quincarrier, Brawn Player Phase: Play Brawn, Brawn removes tough from minion and one threat from main (resisted the urge to build, ended up being a great choice as Brawn does work this game) She-Hulk atk for 3, Tigra clears minion Flip down Villain Phase: I Object to 1 threat, 1 test counter on Zola's Mutate put in play with Neurological Implants (+2/+2/+2) (recording error 2) Zola scheme for 4 (Zola’s Mutate should have also schemed, error 3) Encounter: Caught Off Guard destroys SLD (drew this card because I couldn’t remember what the encounter card was this turn when I went back to record; possible the Neurological Implants was the encounter and I didn’t make error 2 above) Board: She-Hulk (5/15), Tigra (⅓), Brawn (⅕) Zola (14/14), Zola's Mutate (7/7) + Neurological Implants, The Island of Dr. Zola (⅚, 0/3), Hydra Prison (4/4) Turn 3 Hand: The Power in All of Us, Avengers Tower, Split Personality, Legal Practice, Superhuman Strength, Spider-Girl Player Phase: Play Avengers Tower w/TPIAOU (plenty of other options here, but I choose whatever let’s me play Split Personality 100% of the time) Flip deal 2, atk for 3, Brawn atk for 1 + 1 off main, Tigra defeats minion Split Personality -> flip down and draw Ground Stomp, Legal Practice, War Machine, Helicarrier, Focused Rage, Wasp Play Helicarrier, discard 1 for Legal Practice and remove 1 from main (half-hopeful at this point with two allies out and two build cards down...if I could just break Hellcat out somehow). Could make an argument for Focused Rage here, I went for flexibility of use in alter-ego just cause that's where I was at the time vs flexibility of draw>resource; probably a mistake. Villain Phase: I Object to 1 threat, 1 test counter on Zola schemes for 4, scheme advances (the Tigra+Brawn combo was keeping the minions away so felt safe letting this happen) The Mad Doctor starts at 1 threat (Did not remove test counter, error 4) Choose Ultimate Bio-Servant from discard for The Mad Doctor reveal effect (in hindsight, Berserk Mutate would have been a much better choice) UBS schemes 1 (this is why) Encounter: Advance Zola Schemes 3 Board: She-Hulk (5/15), Tigra (⅓), Brawn (⅖), Helicarrier, Avengers Tower Zola (14/14), The Mad Doctor (⅝, ⅓), Ultimate Bio-Servant (4/4 Tough), Hydra Prison (4/4) Turn 4 Hand: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Power in All of Us, Gamma Slam, Nick Fury, One-Two Punch, Boot Camp Player Phase: Brawn atk remove tough and 1 off main, She-Hulk flip for 2, Tigra defeats minion Play Nick Fury and draw Focused Rage, Strength, Earth's Mightiest Heroes Nick THW 2 off main Play Focused Rage, take 1 damage and draw One-Two Punch She-Hulk atk for 9, take retaliate 3 (basic atk + x2 One-Two Punch) Villain Phase: 1 threat + 1 test counter Zola atk for 5 into Nick Encounter: Berserk Mutate quickstrike for 2 Board: She-Hulk (11/15), Tigra (⅓), Brawn (⅗), Helicarrier, Avengers Tower, Focused Rage Zola (5/14), The Mad Doctor (⅜, ⅔), Hydra Prison(4/4), Berserk Mutate (3/3) Turn 5 Hand: One-Two Punch, Team-Building Exercise, Avengers Mansion, Ground Stomp Player Phase: Brawn atk 1 + 1 off main, Tigra defeats minion Focused Rage take 1 and draw Superhuman Strength Play Superhuman Strength, attack for 5 sending Zola to stage 3; take retaliate 1 and Zola is stunned (was trying not to build, but rather rush...could have played a mansion and been safe instead) Choose Berserk Mutate from stage 3 reveal effect, take quickstrike of 2 (this is where I would have lost, but would have chosen a different minion with proper recording or even just played mansion/TBE instead) Play One-Two Punch to defeat minion Deck out here and take encounter card Villain Phase: 1 threat + 1 test counter (3) Ultimate Bio-Servant comes out from test counters (this shouldn’t have happened yet since the test counters should only have been at 2) Zola tries to attack, but loses stun instead Bio-Servant deals 1 to Tigra (I thought I was at 14 health and had to defend with Tigra) Encounter: Concussion Blasters (+1 atk retaliate 1 on villain); Technological Enhancements incite 1 + 1 test counter Board: She-Hulk (15/15), Tigra (⅔), Brawn (⅘), Helicarrier, Avengers Tower, Focused Rage Zola (16/16) + Concussion Blasters, The Mad Doctor (4/8, ⅓), Hydra Prison (4/4), Ultimate Bio-Servant (4/4 Tough) Turn 6 Hand: First Aid, Split Personality, Spider-Girl, Energy Player Phase: Play Spider-Girl (tower+heli), stun and confuse UBS Brawn atk to remove tough and 1 off main, is defeated, Spider-Girl atk 2 Play Split Personality -> flip down and draw Superhuman Law Division, Chase Them Down, Strength, The Power in All of Us, Wasp, Team-Building Exercise Recover 5 Play TBE, SLD Discard Chase Them Down to SLD to remove 2 from Hydra Prison Flip deal 2 to Zola Focused Rage take 1 and draw and play Ground Stomp Villain Phase: 1 threat + 1 test counter -> this is where the extra minion should have come out, probably would have skipped Focused Rage this turn or would have gone First Aid instead of Spider-Girl Zola attack for 4, UBS loses stun (kinda played fast and loose with this one...pretty risky, not sure what I was thinking or if there’s something I’m missing here) Encounter: Pain Inhibitors attached to servant (+2 hp, retaliate 1) Board: She-Hulk (15/15), Tigra (⅔), Spider-Girl (½), Helicarrier, Avengers Tower, Focused Rage, Team-Building Exercise, Superhuman Law Division Zola (13/16) + Concussion Blasters, The Mad Doctor (4/8, ⅔), Hydra Prison (2/4), Ultimate Bio-Servant (3/6) + Pain Inhibitors Turn 7 Hand: One-Two Punch, Focused Rage, Endurance, Superhuman Strength Player Phase: Play Endurance (15/18 but of course I thought I was at 14/18) Focused Rage take 1 and draw Superhuman Strength Flip down, use SLD to remove 2 from Hydra Prison -> Hellcat to hand Play Hellcat and THW 2 from main (now we’re cooking) Recover 5 Villain Phase: I Object + 1 test counter (3) Berserk Mutate comes out (if I had been counting test counters correctly, this wouldn’t have happened yet) Zola schemes for 5 UBS loses confuse Encounter: Defensive Programming attaches to Mutate (+2 hp and guard) Board: She-Hulk (10/18), Tigra (⅔), Spider-Girl (½), Hellcat (⅓), Helicarrier, Avengers Tower, Focused Rage, Team-Building Exercise, Superhuman Law Division, Endurance Zola (13/16) + Concussion Blasters, The Mad Doctor (7/8, 0/3), Ultimate Bio-Servant (3/6) + Pain Inhibitors Berserk Mutate (5/5) + Defensive Programming Turn 8 Hand: War Machine, First Aid, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Boot Camp, Quincarrier, Ground Stomp (as you can calculate, I had the damage in hand to defeat Zola this turn if I hadn’t given myself the extra guard minion last turn: flip 2, Tigra 3, She-Hulk 3, EMH to ready She-Hulk 3, Spider-Girl 3) Player Phase: Play Boot Camp Flip deal 2 to Zola (should have hit the Berserk here, was just thinking about how her flip avoids retaliate) Focused Rage take 1 and draw Honorary Avenger Tigra atk and defeat UBS Spider-Girl atk for 3 and is defeated, She-Hulk atk to defeat Berserk (should have used flip on Berserk and Spider-Girl on Zola) Hellcat THW for 2 off main Hellcat to hand, Play Hellcat and THW 2 off main Play Ground Stomp for 1 damage -> nothing better left to do This turn had so many interesting permutations as to how it could play out, and it was honestly hard to calculate the order for all of the little pings of damage and all the different ways you can pay for various things. Usually this is a good sign that things are going well! The most important thing is to get guard off. I had it in my mind to only use the flip on Zola from then on to avoid the retaliate 2, which led to me missing a suboptimal play. I do like that Boot Camp was a great play here since it really showcases how unique the deck is. Also, just shows off my playstyle where I build, miss easy damage, and make it harder on myself. Option 1 Boot Camp + Ground Stomp (Boot Camp adds 2 damage this turn, Ground Stomp does 1 and no retaliate); had I played optimally -> flip 2 on Berserk, Tigra defeat Berserk, She-Hulk defeat UBS, Spider-Girl 3 to Zola, Ground Stomp (9/16). Nothing changes if Ground Stomp is played first, though it does lead to a lot of overcalculation and variations. I needed to hit UBS in one go since it also had retaliate, first thing to come to mind was Boot Camp for two 3 atk allies instead of using EMH for the 3. Option 2 War Machine + EMH + Honorary Avenger (War Machine deals 2 this turn with ranged, EMH on Spider-Girl is essentially the 1-damage Ground Stomp); optimal play flip for 2 on Zola, She-Hulk 3 on Berserk, Tigra defeat Berserk, EMH Spider-Girl She-Hulk defeat UBS, War Machine 2 on Zola (9/16); same outcome. Tower let’s us have all 4 allies. Honorary Avenger would probably just go on Tigra or Spider-Girl, but it doesn't matter as next turn the game ends. However, I missed that Spider-Girl would have an additional attack next turn and War Machine would add another 2 w/ranged, vs just the +2 Boot Camp provides next turn. I was so focused on playing around retaliate, THW the main, and defeating minions, I either forgot War Machine’s ranged, did the math too quick (boot camp + ground stomp is 3 to War Machine 2), am just not used to making these skillful plays with EMH, or some combination. Would have been a more comfortable win, but less flashy than what happened. Ultimately, it’s the same amount of damage this turn either way and the game ended next turn, so it’s just stylistic choice here. Option 3 Ground Stomp + Quincarrier (didn’t pick this because too late for value on Quincarrier, but also this ends up at 1 less damage on Zola, which I did anyways...) Villain Phase: 1 threat + 1 test counter Zola attack for 5, block with Tigra (some more bad math here made me think I was in danger, thought that 15+3 was 17, there was one last 3-boost in the encounter deck and decided to play it safe, poor Tigra) Encounter: Ultimate Bio-Servant Board: She-Hulk (11/18), Hellcat (⅓), Helicarrier, Avengers Tower, Focused Rage, Team-Building Exercise, Superhuman Law Division, Endurance, Boot Camp Zola (10/16) + Concussion Blasters, The Mad Doctor (4/8, ⅓), Ultimate Bio-Servant (4/4 Tough) Turn 9 Hand: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, x2 One-Two Punch, Nick Fury Focused Rage take 1 and draw Legal Practice Play Nick Fury, deal 4 to Zola (awesome option to get around retaliate!) Nick atk Zola for 3 and is defeated Hellcat atk for 2 and is defeated (could have also EMH/One-Two Punch here, or return to hand and play and attack to not die, or possibly a bunch of other things) She-Hulk atk and defeat Zola Stats: Damage on Zola II She-Hulk 14 from four atk (x2 One-Two Punch, Superhuman Strength) Damage on Zola III She-Hulk 7 from two flips and one atk, 1 Ground Stomp, 6 Nick Fury, 1 Hellcat, 2 Boot Camp Threat cleared 5 Brawn, 6 Hellcat, 4 SLD, 2 Chase Them Down, 3 I Object Takeaways: -Two Split Personality in six turns is phenomenal. -Brawn + Tigra were great at clearing the minion of the round. Seriously, full value out of Brawn and Tigra surviving 8/9 rounds was exactly what this deck is talking about. You can see how as soon as Hellcat was in the mix, scheme was never an issue. -You get to rely on She-Hulk’s cards. Focused Rage in hero, SLD in alter-ego, One-Two Punch + Superhuman Strength single-handedly (or double-handedly) taking out Zola II. Every single one of her cards was played once, except Gamma Slam (I was hoping for it on turns 6-9! Was about to deck out again so definitely would have had it on turn 10). Sad to not see it since I thought for sure, that’s what would win. Ended up seeing Split Personality twice (not complaining), but a turn 6 Gamma Slam would have been nice to end on. -Chase Them Down ends up being a really important card without Hellcat around and Boot Camp did some work late game to get rid of a guard minion! In just two turns it did 4 damage spread around between 4 attacks on 3 different enemies. Makes sense it came from the Wasp pack. -Had 6-10 cards on the table at any given time, really thinning the deck and making the last few turns so smooth with so many options to win -I'm definitely missing EMH plays, and probably missing Wasp plays too. I just hate playing her for 1-2 so probably blind to situations where that's the best option -Is really fun! Did I make any other mistakes? Poor plays? Perhaps a good play or two? One of you will probably pilot this better than me! |
Feb 28, 2021
I do like She Hulk. I had got the Hellcat threat machine going before but she is so expensive to replay every turn with Quincarrier feeding SLD along side it. Using TBE and Avenger's Tower is a really good solution as it gives 2 of the 3 resources and makes those cards, which are both a bit ropey due to a lack of targets, very consistent. I'll have to try them out. When I played aggression with her ages ago I found If I could not clear eg Breakin and Takin very fast I got overrun so I expect she is still vulnerable to draws where she cannot clear side schemes fast. |
Mar 01, 2021
In other decks, Avengers Tower and TBE aren't usable every turn usually, but with Hellcat they always have a use! The Power In All of Us just makes them even better. She can be weak at THW, which is why you need to mulligan hard, or flip up and stay in hero. You can see in the provided game, even without Hellcat, Brawn/Chase Them Down/SLD put in work! Breakin' and Takin' I didn't find too difficult. An extra card in Rhino doesn't matter to her too much since things like Brawn ping off tough really well and She-Hulk can take charges. The Armored Suit can be annoying if you draw Gamma Slam while it's out, but Superhuman Strength is a good source of 5 damage and stun. The minions are all within She-Hulk atk range (or atk + flip) or are great targets for Boot Camp boosted Tigra. Even Rhino Heroic 1 was beatable! Counterintuitively, you can THW with She-Hulk early to reach an odd-number of THW since damage on the villain isn't super important early game. What's nice is that this deck has some wiggle room with cards that aren't "must runs" so there is plenty of space to upgrade it in the future. Waiting for that 2 THW cheap neutral/aggression ally or some other synergy. Exciting to think about what might make this even better in the future! I still haven't tested in multiplayer, where side schemes will have more than 2-4 threat and 2+ gets added to the main per turn, outpacing Hellcat. But, this does a good job at thwart for aggression and since she doesn't need heal, typically this could pair well with justice or leadership which will pick up the thwart slack while She-Hulk gamma slams the villain. The trickiest thing for me is the timing of when to build, sometimes I get out 3-4 build cards but have an otherwise empty board and get overrun. The allies are so important. Hellcat has to be played all the time, even without the combo pieces out. |
Apr 30, 2021I've just published a deck inspired by this one at marvelcdb.com I'd certainly never have developed it without the Hellcat recursion I learned from this deck, so thanks |
May 08, 2021Very amazing! The fact that we could focus on one card like Hellcat to build a full deck proves that this game is well desgined to a certain degree. |
May 25, 2021I made another Hellcat recursion deck at marvelcdb.com Really enjoyed this concept of yours! |
Testing -1 Hall of Heroes and -1 Combat Training for +2 Earth's Mightiest Heroes per a suggestion from the Team Covenant discord. EMH can act as a free One-Two Punch if ally THW isn't needed or can let Hellcat THW for 6 in a turn. Since it's energy, maybe there is enough to squeeze in the Wasp ally, possibly over Ironheart.