Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I've always been attracted to control decks that aimed to frustrate my opponent's plans, and when this deck is working, it is extremely frustrating to play against. Hence, I love it. Here's the list:

Characters - 27 

[0 - 1]
1x Life Model Decoy, More Human Than Human
[2 - 7]
4x Yelena Belova <> Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. - HYDRA
3x Clint Barton <> Hawkeye, Ultimates
[3 - 6]
4x Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
2x Blade, Independent Contractor
[4 - 5]
4x Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
1x Lady Deathstrike, Opportunistic Killer
[5 - 4]
4x Green Goblin, Director of the Thunderbolts
[6 - 2]
2x Melissa Gold <> Songbird, Caged Angel
[7 - 2]
1x Iron Man, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
1x Carol Danvers <> Ms. Marvel, Mighty Avenger 

Plot Twists - 27 

[2 - 4]
4x Speedball Is Dead
[3 - 16]
4x Mobilize
4x Call in a Favor
4x Code White
4x Against All Odds
[4 - 7]
4x Savage Beatdown
3x Pathetic Attempt 

Locations - 3 

[3 - 3]
3x Stark Armory 

Equipment - 4 

[0 - 4]
3x Extremis Upgrade
1x Hulkbuster Armor

This curve deck is built to win on 6 when on evens, and on 7 when on odds. Given a choice, I would take odds, because I prefer to be defending on 4. It's also harder to win on 6, since you generally want to attack with Radioactive Man only on 3 and your last init. Once you have a few counters on him, it is worth more to lock your opponent out of playing plot twists than it is to attack for 8. 

Life Model Decoy rarely gets played, but he can be a game winner in certain match-ups. I wouldn't recommend playing him before turn 5, and even then only if it's an off-init and your opponent just dropped a guy with an incredibly useful effect. For example, suppose it is turn 5 and your opponent just recruited Black Manta. You bring in Life Model Decoy to copy him. Now you have the same broken effect to leverage that he does: pay 3 to get back the best card in your KO pile. Code White? A Savage? The Extremis you lost last turn? He's a very situational play, obviously, but for me he is just too good, and too fun, to leave out.

The preferred two drop is Black Widow. You want her sitting in the hidden area, just waiting for an opportunity to KO their biggest character after he stuns. Hawkeye has a similar effect, but can be used only when he's in your hand. Ideally, you would use his effect once, exhausting Black Widow for the cost, and later use Black Widow's own effect. If you recruit Hawkeye, you will be hoping to draw into another one later.

There are two key characters in this deck, starting with the main 3 drop, Radioactive Man. Your mulligan condition is him, or a way to get him. He can get really, really big, and once he has a few counters on him, it becomes extremely hard for your opponent to execute his game plan. Savage Beatdown isn't much good on turn 6 if it costs 7 resource points to play it. The alternate 3 drop, Blade, should almost never be played if you can play Radioactive Man. He's better than nothing, and against all hidden decks he is very good, but you should rarely play him given the choice. Maybe against a deck like my Muramasa Blade deck, which is going to KO Radioactive Man anyway, but other than something like that, no. The absolute optimal play on 3 is Radioactive Man, with a Speedball is Dead before he gets stunned. If you can pull that off, he will have three counters at the start of your next recruit, and you'll be off to the races.

The other key character is Iron Man. The dream play for turn 4 is to have an Iron Man in front with an Extremis Armor, Radioactive Man with three counters in the back, and a Code White in your hand or your row. Your opponent will not want to fly over Tony into Radioactive Man, because Iron Man's effect will cause him to recover and gain a counter. If he attacks Iron Man first, he has to go through him twice before he can get to Radioactive Man, and often he can't use any plot twists to do it. Code White is a dream crusher here. Suppose they take out Iron Man, then go after Radioactive Man. Once the attack is legal, play Code White to recover Iron Man. That will insure that Radioactive Man will recover and gain an extra counter, and you get to keep both characters. If you manage to stun their biggest guy and KO him with Yelana or Clint that same turn, even better. This deck generally wins once Radioactive Man has a few counters if you have board advantage. Oh, the alternate 4 drop should never be played on 4. She is in the deck because she has Substitute, and surprisingly often, your 4 drop Iron Man makes it to turn 7 intact. Before I added Lady Deathstrike to the deck, I always had to choose between playing my alternate 7 drop or KO'ing my 4 to uniqueness. Now I can have it both ways.

Turn 5 is Green Goblin. He is good, but not great, and will usually add a counter to Radioactive Man on 6. Forming for turn 5 is always a tough choice. On the one hand, you want him next to Radioactive Man, so he can add a counter to him on 6. On the other hand, it's good to have him next to Iron Man, especially if you are attacking, so that you can attack with him first and recover him automatically. In most cases, I usually form with Radioactive Man in the back with Iron Man in front of him and Goblin to his side, but I can imagine situations where it is better to move Goblin up front, especially if Radioactive Man already has plenty of counters. 

Turn 6 is Melissa Gold. She is about on par with the Goblin. If you still have your 3-5 drops, as is often the case, it's probably best to place her alongside Iron Man, and in front of Goblin. If they go after her first, Iron Man will recover her automatically. If they go after Iron Man or Goblin, she gets bigger before they can attack her. Your opponent can drive himself crazy trying to decide who to attack and when, playing against this deck, especially with the threat of a well-timed Code White lingering.

On 7 you generally want to play the other Iron Man, preferably with a Hulkbuster and an Extremis Armor, one of which he can find for himself. With the Hulkbuster on, he's got a massive 23 ATK when he goes after the opposing 7. Brickwall that. Carol Danvers isn't nearly as good, but if the alternative is to KO your perfectly good 4 drop, then playing her won't seem so bad. (I've faced fewer decisions like this since I added Deathstrike to the deck.) If you have board advantage at this point, and you are attacking, she is plenty good enough to finish the game.

The one location in the deck is crazy good if you can get it by turn 3 or 4. Flipping a Stark Armory on 3 is the bees knees, because it means that at the start of combat on 4, your Iron Man is going to be a 9/9. Keep in mind that this card has two completely separate powers. The first one, which puts counters on Iron Man, is an activated power. At the start of combat, give the Armory its counter, then activate to move it to Iron Man. The second effect is non-activated: move counters from Iron Man back to the Armory. Generally you would do that on the turn where he is not going to be recovered, or on the turn where you sub him out for Deathstrike.

The plot twists are all good, and serve a variety of purposes, but the MVP is unquestionably Code White. I can't stress enough how demoralizing it is to your opponent, when he thinks he's got you on the ropes, for you to flip a Code White that will allow you to recover your entire board. Against All Odds simply adds to their woes, especially if they are locked out of their own attack pumps by Radioactive Man. Brickwalling made easy. If you don't care about Silver vs. Golden, replace the Against All Odds with Cover Fire. All the characters except Blade and Deathstrike have range, so it's generally a +4 or +6 DEF effect, with no loss of ATK.

Speedball is Dead is almost strictly for making Radioactive Man bigger, although I suppose you could use it on Goblin or Songbird if they have got someone pumped up to 20+ ATK and you can't reinforce. Mobilize and Call in a Favor are the tutors. Be very careful with Call in a Favor. Once Radioactive Man gets big, your opponent can have a hard time hitting his drops, because his own tutors get shut down. Using Call can bail him out. Try to use it on off-inits, after your opponent has already recruited, to minimize the benefit to your opponent.

Savage Beatdown is the only attack pump, and the cost of 4 generally isn't an issue, since this deck doesn't attack much before 5. You could substitute Big Leagues if you wanted to be able to pump on 3, I guess. The only other plot twist is Pathetic Attempt. It's here mainly to prevent Radioactive Man, or possibly Iron Man, from being KO'ed or exhausted by an opponent's effect.

The last two cards in the deck are equipment cards for use on the two Iron Man characters. In general, you want to save Hulkbuster for your 7 drop, but if you lost your 3 drop early and are struggling, you can put it on your 4 drop Iron Man and try to generate some board advantage. Swing down with your Goblin into their 4 drop, then up with Tony into the opposing 5 drop with your +5 ATK. Even if Goblin stuns, he will recover because of Tony's effect. The more important card is Extremis Upgrade. The synergy between Radioactive Man, Iron Man, Extremis Upgrade, and Code White in this deck is simply terrific. If you have those four cards on turn 4, your opponent is in a world of trouble, because very few decks have the fire power to break through that wall, especially if you had a Speedball on 3 and they can't use their pumps.

If you are good at math, you may have noticed that this deck plays 61 cards. Back in the day, I used to read lots of diatribes on Realms about the evil of going over 60 cards. I never worried about that too much. In all the years I played the game, I never once felt I had lost a match I would have won if I had cut a card, and I lost just as many matches due to missed drops with my 60 card decks as with the ones that played 61. Nevertheless, if you're a stickler for 60, I guess you would want to cut the Life Model Decoy, whose use is very situational, or perhaps a copy of Against All Odds.

I currently have about 60 Vs. decks built (thanks to the miracles of ink jet printers and proxies), and this one is easily in the top 5 in terms of how often it gets played. Unlike some decks, which always seem to play the same way every time, this one is a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. The characters are usually the same, at least from 3 on, but so much changes depending on whether you get an Armory or not, or an Extremis, or a Code White. It's fun to play, and challenging, but also rewarding. Hard to ask for much more from a deck of trading cards.