Captain Marvel: Cosmic Energy

Concept

I was overwhelmed by @jiistme's Hulk leadership deck using Adam Warlock https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/11145/hulk-adam-warlock-united-we-stand-1.0 and made my own version at https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/11373/two-fist-fighters-1.0. The idea there is that feeding Adam lets him thwart powerfully, while feeding Hulk lets him hit powerfully, so the two work together really well in a -heavy deck.

I liked that deck so much that I looked around for another hero I could team up with Adam Warlock, and my eye fell on Captain Marvel. She revels in . If we feed Adam a constant supply of then he can heal immense amounts of damage, so this deck is all about using Adam to heal.

Card choices

This deck is all about allies. It is built around Adam Warlock for the reasons I just explained. If he is healing damage every turn, he will need targets to heal. Spider-Woman provides a way for us to get into alter-ego, with all the benefits that brings, but as that is an enter-play ability for her, we won't want to heal Spider-Woman. Captain Marvel can often heal herself with Rechannel, so I brought in Vision. Vision is another ally who needs a constant supply of to do well, but because he is so expensive he doesn't get as much play as perhaps he might. Ronin essentially functions as an understudy for Vision, so that the deck isn't too dependent on finding just one card, whilst Stinger offers irresistible value as a blocker. We won't want to heal her either.

The events, supports and upgrades help us to manage our allies' hit points. Adam Warlock heals three from a single ally, which is inconvenient when our allies have three hit points each. Reinforced Suit and Team Training just add hits, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes also helps with this by letting us use an ally to ready Captain Marvel without taking consequential damage. Sky Cycle lets us get more value out of Vision and Ronin. With Sky Cycle and Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Vision can thwart for 9 in a single turn, and then Adam Warlock can heal him completely whilst thwarting for 1 more. That will clear most side schemes in solo play.

I will only let Adam or Vision leave play in a real emergency. Make the Call can be used to pull either of them out of the discard pile if we couldn't afford to play them when first seen, but the primary purpose is to recycle Spider-Woman. Each time she enters play and confuses the villain it brings a chance to get into alter ego which means a seven, eight or even nine-card hand with Commander, Alpha Flight Station and Avengers Mansion, as well as 2 THW and a block. That's well worth her cost. Air Supremacy isn't in this deck (primarily) to be abused with four Aerial characters down at once. It is great if that happens, of course, but it is also a reliable workaday card that clears a couple of minions whenever you have Adam Warlock and Cosmic Flight in play.

Alternative cards

This is a 41-card deck which I don't mind personally. Captain Marvel draws and filters so many cards that you will rarely struggle to get through the deck. If you want to get down to 40 then one Sky Cycle or Reinforced Suit could be omitted - you'll rarely see a game run long enough to get both Vision and Ronin fully set up, so the main impact of this is the reduced chance of seeing one when you want to put a suit on Vision or Adam Warlock, or a cycle underneath Vision. Deft Focus always makes its cost back from Photonic Blast but it could be dropped on the grounds of being a 'win more' card, or upgraded to Helicarrier if you prefer.

You could upgrade The Triskelion to Avengers Tower. You will probably recur Spider-Woman and Stinger enough to cover the extra cost. It does mean that you need to make a higher priority of actually playing that Honorary Avenger on Adam, and it isn't , which are the main reasons I preferred The Triskelion.

Playing the deck

My earliest priorities are Adam Warlock and Cosmic Flight. At the start of the game we re likely to be taking many hits on Captain Marvel, so Cosmic Flight can keep her alive as well as enhancing both Crisis Interdiction and Air Supremacy. All the supports and Endurance are also early-game priorities.

I want to play Spider-Woman as often as possible, especially once Alpha Flight Station is down. An extra turn in Alter Ego really helps to build out all the pieces of this deck.

Once Adam Warlock is down, he needs a hit point enhancement as soon as possible. Honorary Avenger, Team Training, and Reinforced Suit all perform this role. With any of these he can heal himself for three, which is critical to getting the best out of him. With any two of them down you start to have some flexibility in how and when you use him.

As always with Captain Marvel, Energy Channel should be in play whenever possible for those turns when you draw Energy Absorption, Energy Absorption, and Energy. They do happen!

This takes a while to do, so it is uncommon for Vision to come out on the first deck pass. He also needs a Reinforced Suit or Team Training so that Adam can heal him at maximum efficiency, and Sky Cycle gets you better value for the you pay to power him up. He is expensive: 5 resources to get into play, 4 more for the suit and the cycle, two to power him up and one more for Adam to heal him. For that investment you get 12 THW or 16 ATK so he isn't highly cost-effective until the third turn (two more to power and heal, but now in exchange for 18 THW or 24 ATK, or a mix of the two. If we use Ronin instead then after 2 turns we have spent 9 for 8 THW/12ATK and after 3 10 for 12 THW/18 ATK. Since this level of output only needs a couple of cards from hand to power Vision and Adam Warlock, you should also be able to chip in with Photonic Blast. I don't think even Ronan the Accuser can stand up to that.

How to lose with this deck

I can lose with pretty much any deck, but to be honest I haven't lost that much with this one. Obviously if you invest a lot of resources into your key allies and then let them leave the bench, that will be a setback. You can also wind up taking more hits on Captain Marvel than she can heal with her own REC and Rechannel, which can slow down the rate you are healing your key allies. Striking the wrong balance between building up your allies and beating back the villain is probably the easiest way to lose with this deck.

Conclusion

Stun and Confuse effects play a big role in my deck building, and this one is no exception. I'm going to have to learn some new approaches now that we are starting to get many villains who are immune to this stuff. This deck beat everything in the game before the MTS box came out though, so I think it works well for its era.