Joining the Nova Corps

The Nova Corps needs you! We've got hot new tech that will let you handle any emergency. And a great medical plan!

I'm sure no one failed to notice that Energy Barrier would be amazing for our favourite billionaire playboy. This is my iteration of Protection/Iron Man

I've tested this deck in solo mode fairly extensively against Ultron, Green Goblin, and Rhino and careful play will consistently win on expert.

Play tips

Iron Man has no time for Helicarrier or Avengers Mansion. You need a cost curve that allows you to set up fast with forward momentum. Aggressively mulligan any 4 or 3 cost cards initially (Fury with card draw being the only possible exception). In the first few rounds even playing a 3 cost is questionable unless it is Mockingbird or in some hands Pepper Potts. Keep Emergencies in hand to buy extra time for as a Futurist.

With just over half the deck providing Energy resources, Repulsor Blast is reliably dishing out damage. Unless truly desperate, don't fire your Repulsors before you have Stark Tower online. The tower does amazing work including: rechargeable Energy Barriers or creating drip economy by discarding upgrades then reclaiming them. If you are taking heavy fire, note that your Energy Barrier will cover your other upgrades consistently, so play tactically here. And of course, watch your discard order to optimize Pepper.

Black Widow and Nova are the two of the strongest allies in the game right now. You are running 3 Enhanced Awareness to get yourself airborne anyway, so I'll often leave Widow up and running all game. Discarding a key card has kept me in the game long enough to build up the inevitability engine several times. Nova is your mid-to-late game coup de grace. Once you are zinging out damage before and after they hit, there is not much left to stop you.

Your flex spots are Preemptive Strike, 1 or 2 Med Teams. The Power of Protection possibly. It's nice that they can trigger several different cards in a pinch though, and an early drop with Energy Barrier is a huge boost. I've tested Endurance as well, but found it lackluster because it duplicates the function your tech upgrades provide...without being a tech upgrade.

Have fun and would love to hear how it does for you.

Update. I've dropped one Med Team, which you rarely have resources to play early anyway, and one Preemptive Strike, which tempts you to clog your hand as you wait for a high value target. Adding two Tackle allows you to buy additional breathing room when you first don the suit. This is particularly important if you have to switch before an ideal set up because the following round is pretty grim if you are only drawing 2 or 3 cards.