Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop protection (ultra resource deck) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Bishop protection (ULTRA resource deck) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2.0 |
| Resource Heavy Bishop | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 |
| Bishop protection (ultra resource deck) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 |
| Energy sink bishop with multiple man | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Basic Bishop - not so basic after all... | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| Catch this!!! | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| The God-King In Yellow of Cost-Efficiency | 7 | 5 | 0 | 1.0 |
| The God-King of Cost-Efficiency (The Correct Way to Bishop) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
| 'tis but a scratch! | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1.0 |
Levati · 481
Summary
Bishop is better the more resource cards you have in your deck, since you get more Bishop's Rifle damage and more healing the more you have, but the more resource cards you have, the greater the risk of getting a hand with only resources, which would be terrible. He has a few tools in his kit to dump resources, with Malcolm, Randall and Super-Charged, but those are very cost-inefficient. What the deck needs is more reliable ways to dump resources. Enter Lockjaw, Starhawk and Nightcrawler.
Once you get those three allies out, most turns, you can play all three of them, depending on how hard the boss slaps, and how many players are in the game. The deck is better the more players you have. Since they enter your hand or the discard pile after the step where you draw your hand, you don't run the risk of them getting shuffled in to the deck, except in niche interaction cases. On their own, they're pretty cost inefficient, but due to the fact that they allow you to max out on resource cards on the deck, the deck as a whole get better by running those three allies and 25 resources, than it would be with fewer resources and other generically good cards.
In a single turn, Bishop can take a slap to the face, defend for an ally, heal back to full health, tank an attack with Lockjaw, tank one with Nightcrawler (which cancels the damage entirely, so even works on nasty overkill things like Fanaticism), shoot something for around 7 damage and thwart 5-ish. That is, if you need that many tanked hits. If not, you can play some events. All in all, the sheer amount of work Bishop puts out per turn with almost no setup is staggering, making him a god-tier hero when played right.
How to play
Hard mulligan for your Rifle, Uniform, Lockjaw, Starhawk and Nightcrawler. If your Rifle or Uniform gets discarded by Energy Absorption, flip into Alter-Ego to get it back using Temporally Displaced. Get slapped in the face every turn, shoot every turn, heal every turn and burn your resources on events and allies. Get your Super-Charged out and dump extra extra resources into them if need be, but don't fire them off until it's time to end the game unless it's an emergency. Tank for your entire team, dish out lots of damage and thwarting, and be a god.
Justice Variant
Here you can find a Justice version of the deck that is more adapted to lower player counts. Both are absolutely viable and insanely strong in all player counts, but that one is better if you don't need to tank as many villain hits per round.
The maths
I talk a lot about cost-efficiency above, and I thought I should explain more in-depth, for those interested.
When comparing how good cards are, at least cards that do pretty standard things like damage, thwarting, healing, readying yourself and status cards, we look at how cost efficient that card is, that is how much you're getting out of it for what cost; how much bang for your buck. This we measure in [gains]/[cost]. Looking over the game's cards, we can determine the following standard "pricing" for common effects, for Good cards, that is, mostly identity-specific cards, many allies and some niche events: 2 damage costs 1 effective cost, or 0,5 cost per damage. 3 thwart for 2 effective cost, or 0,6666... cost per thwart. 3 healing for 2 effective cost, or 0,6666... cost per point of healing. 2 cost per canceled villain activation (tough, status, confuse, last hit point on allies to tank a hit) 2 cost to ready yourself
The effective cost of a card is the printed cost + 1, since a card is a resource itself. From here on out, I will refer to effective cost as just "cost".
Let's use Concussive Blast as an example. Its cost is 4 (3 printed + itself) and its output is 6 damage, which is worth 3 cost, and readying you, which is worth 2. All in all, you get 5 resources' worth of output for a cost of 4, making this a really good card, above the standard for Good cards.
Lockjaw, by contrast, offers only 2 thwart, worth 1,333... and soaking a hit, worth 2, at the cost of 4 (not 5, because we play him from the discard pile). That's an efficiency of 3,3333.../4 = 0,8333..., which is below average. That is why most good decks don't play him.
But in this deck, a resource card is so valuable in its own right, that anything that lets us spend those resources every turn is cherry on top. See, in this deck, due to Energy Absorption and Bishop's Rifle, a resource card, without even counting what you spend it on, is worth 0,666... for the point of healing + 0,5 for the damage from the rifle + 0,5 card drawn (the probability that a resource card you draw was drawn by Energy Absorption and is thus above your normal hand size. This probability depends on the damage you tank every turn, but in our testing, about half your resource cards came from Energy Absorption.) = 1,666..., which is REALLY good. That's before you even spend it.
But to get full value of them, we needs ways to spend those resources. Malcolm, Randall and Super-Charged help with that, but they're pretty small or limited resource sinks. Lockjaw, Starhawk and Nightcrawler, on the other hand, allow you to spend up to 10 resources per turn. This is why we need them, to fully unlock the promise of the resource cards.
So, in total, the value you get from the 4 resource cards (not counting that some might be double resources) spent on Lockjaw is: 2 card draw worth 2 (because half the resources, on average, were only drawn - by Energy Absorption - because they were resource cards) 2 thwart worth 1,333... 1 tanked hit worth 2 4 healing, worth 2,666... 4 damage, worth 2 Sum = 10, out of 4 cards. That's an efficiency of 2,5 which is absolutely insane. For context, some of the most effective cards in the game are Professor X at 1,5, Exorcism at 1,555... and Iron Fist at 1,8.
Thus, any deck that you can draw and play once, that then lets you spend resources every turn without having to draw and play that card again (which rules out events, allies, etc), will make the deck extremely efficient. That is why this "maximum resources + Lockjaw](/card/05018), Starhawk and Nightcrawler" build is absolutely god-tier, the only one I know next to "Bring it!" Vision.
| 26 comments |
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Mar 31, 2024 |
Mar 31, 2024Those were on my list of considerations, but not high enough to make the cut. Machine Man is less efficient than the allies included (0,666... if you use him to thwart 3 times, pumping him to the max every time) and still has to eat a slot in your draw every time he cycles back around. The three allies I chose never do, because they are in play when you ready and draw and only enter the discard pile / hand and get replayed after that, so once you get them out, they never need to be cycled through the deck again. Plan B does stay out indefinitely but only eats 1 resource per turn and is less efficient than the allies above. It is most comparable to Starhawk, who doesn't tank any hits, but doesn't beat him in raw numbers. Might be an option if one wanted to do another aspect though. |
Apr 13, 2024I usually play with a team of 4 players total. Would you drop anything for Get Behind Me! or just add it in to the 40 cards? We all tend to also use the Symbiote Suit as well if that matters. Honestly though, I love this deck and even though it's a simple design, it's amazingly fun to play. |
Apr 13, 2024I'm happy you like it, |
May 02, 2024really good idea to use the resources in this way! never seen taht before. another good card is WHITE FOX. you discard many cards, so she comes into game. maybe change her with NIGHTCRAWLER. I played AVENGERS MANSION also. Using the SYMBIOTE SUIT is a good idea, I will try that. |
May 03, 2024
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May 09, 2024I just played this at Con of Heroes and really enjoyed it. Thanks for posting. |
May 09, 2024Nice deck, I've tried it and it solvently crushed Mutagen Formula and Magneto, both in expert mode. I found it that some resources do not provide added value (Defensive Energy, Civic Duty and even The power of Mind, don't have any targets to be anything else than "A resource card providing 1 resource). Also is fun as hell to play. What would you swap in in the place of any of them (Not all, as the deck clearly is working well with 20+ resources, I'm thinking in replacing, for example, the 3 civic duty). I was thinking in 2/3 copies of Protective Training, to increase the life-time of Randall and Malcolm, or some secondary plans, maybe Superpower Training, to help you fetch faster your rifle and suit, or just your Super-Charged in the late game when you just want to deal the final blow. Both are options that one played, stay out of the deck, so they don't have a huge impact in the probability of drawing resources. What do you think ? |
May 10, 2024
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May 21, 2024Cool analysis. One thing you don't mention but is implicit is that this is a multiplayer deck. Playing a taunt Bishop build solo I find Nightcrawler is not so useful as you mostly only get attacked once and you want to face tank that one. Lockjaw is finally a star ⭐ after 4 years of disappointment! |
May 21, 2024
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Jul 16, 2024I come from the future! FFG has printed even more good resource cards where I am from, so this deck is even better! My playgroup has a lot of free time because Google's Sentinel AI took over, we like to play this deck together with Mr Fantastic, Daredevil and Black Bolt on Heroic 3 wirh Standard XVI. |
Aug 06, 2024Love the deck! I'm running threw Red Skull with two new players so chose those deck to play along side them, cause I thought first glance the deck wouldn't need much thought. I was so wrong! I've only made 1 change and that was to take out starhawk and added multiple man, but that was just to get more chump blocks onto the field to help out. Great Deck!!!!!!! |
Aug 19, 2024Love it. Amazingly efficient. Only loss I got up to now was on turn 1 while playing On the run with Vertigo as a villain. Couldn't kill the minion on turn 1, so she schemed, I drew Advance, end of game :/ Inspired me to make a basic card only variant that I played quite a few times too and isn't bad. Will be my staple Bishop deck. |
Aug 22, 2024
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Aug 22, 2024
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Aug 22, 2024
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Aug 22, 2024
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Sep 10, 2024This is the first deck I tried Bishop with. It has spoiled me for other decks. Honestly, I thought this deck was ridiculous when I was choosing a deck to try on. Your deck has 25 resource cards! I was laughing as I was building it. “I’m not psychic! I can’t fly! But by the time we had knocked down Mysterio to his second level, I was laughing with joy. This deck is a go-cart filled with rocket fuel. I look forward to trying out your other decks. Well played. |
Sep 10, 2024
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Sep 10, 2024
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Sep 10, 2024So this has become my default deck for conventions. It's my "one more game" deck. I can just turn my brain off and enjoy the game because it's so familiar. I will say I personally include a copy of endurance because I've found the 3 HP can help from time to time Thanks for putting it out there. |
Sep 10, 2024
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Sep 10, 2024
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Nov 15, 2024I had to swap in some more allies since I don't own the Angel pack yet for the Power of Flight, but man, this deck rocks! It helped me get past Apocalypse in two-handed solo with Magick. Being able to zap the Prelate minions for 5-7 a turn helped so much, and the synergy with Lockjaw is so great! |
Nov 15, 2024This deck is amazing! erased expert Ronan from reality! it's so funny to draw 9 resource card and heal yourself to full when other heroes just died |
Wow! I thpught my deck was heavy with 11 resources! Do you think the deck could benefit from a Plan B or Machine Man?