[Outdated] School of Hard Knocks

Professor Thor is here as the head of the Hard Knocks Academy, ready to teach the bad guys the error of their ways. This deck is 50% Protection, 50% Aggression in disguise - it can take a lot of punishment and dish it right back out.

Rather than focus on the traditional Protection mechanic of taking no damage and triggering cards, this deck accepts it's not going to stop every point of damage. Instead, it hits hard constantly putting out damage every turn, chipping down the villain while flattening their goons.

How To Play:

Defend every turn. Every. Single. Turn. Unless you have Tough. But even then, defending a minion or for another player is still great!

Counter-Punch - The star of the show however is Counter-Punch. With Mjolnir you will be hitting for 3 damage every time with a 0-cost card. It's like Turn the Tide for Justice, but punchier.

Ever Vigilant - So, you've defended and punched them in the face. Now what? Punch them again. Ready up with Ever Vigilant on your turn, thwarting for 2 with it and then attacking with 3 for Thor for consistent and reliable damage alongside much-needed thwart.

Hard Knocks + Defender of the Nine Realms - Hard Knocks is the card that inspired the deck and it goes so well with Nine Realms. Thor loves fighting minions. Bring 'em in, knock 'em down, and bask in the glory of that tasty Tough status you just earned.

Electrostatic Armor + Energy Barrier - These combine to help you chip away at your enemies. While I considered Dauntless, this deck is not consistently at high hp.

Small to medium damage, repeatedly, every turn. While not invincible you will rarely need to flip down. Blade can be leveraged for extra damage and/or a cheap block. Don't forget to use your other allies to help thwart - the deck's one weakness. Otherwise Thor plays mostly like regular Thor with big Hammer Throws and a slight preference toward Energy cards to power up the odd Lightning Strike. Get Asgard as soon as possible to escape your tiny hand-size into 5-card utopia.

Priority cards to play in order:

1. For Asgard! - If you don't have Asgard in hand.
2. Asgard
3. Armored Vest
4. 2x God of Thunder
5. Quincarrier

While Quincarrier is something of a luxury for Thor, if you can get all this in play you're in for a good time. Try to mulligan for one of them if you can and the start of the game, and if you have one in hand, just focus on playing that. Since you start with a small hand you may end up only being able to play one and be forced to discard the other. We don't want that if we can help it.

Alternative cards to consider: This version is the exact build I used to beat Expert Thanos in 2-player alongside Justice Ms. Marvel. Against villains with less stun/confuse, drop The Night Nurse for another Ever Vigilant or Preemptive Strike. If you find you're not using Lightning Strike much? Swap out the Preemptive Strikes for Side Steps. You can potentially drop Nerves of Steel too due to the low amount of defense events, I just find it helps smooth his turns over if you can afford to sneak it into play.

Happy teaching!