Groot Joins SHIELD

As soon as I saw Groot was able to remove 10 threat from a scheme with a single event, I knew I wanted him to be the Guardians' Justice character we used for my group's Galaxy's Most Wanted campaign. The team is Groot, Rocket, Adam Warlock, and Drax. The player that chose Groot doesn't do any deckbuilding so they asked me to make something for them. When I asked whether they wanted it to be board state dependent or more event focused, they said they didn't care, so I did both, but this is the one they chose to try out first. But that's enough preamble, lets get on to the deck.

Deck Briefing

This is a fairly standard SHIELD deck that want to get out lots of copies of Surveillance Team with Monica Chang and use Homeland Intervention to chunk threat down when it's in your hand. We have One Way or Another and Skilled Investigator to get you a few more cards pretty easily. Government Liaison and Helicarrier are there to keep your costs down. Beat Cop is decent, easy passive threat reduction. Where I think this deck differs and shines is with it's upgrades. We have three copies of Chance Encounter and Overwatch. Overwatch is pretty incredible with high player count Groot. A lot of your side schemes are gonna have 7+ threat on them and the main scheme can get pretty high before ticking over. This can fully utilize Groot's ability to remove 10 threat from two different schemes with just one use of "I am Groot". Chance Encounter will let you get out your allies more often so you don't to worry as much about using them as blockers. I included Flora and Fauna solely because another player is running Rocket, if you're running this without a Rocket, you should obviously remove it.

First Turns

I'll always advocate for an aggressive mulligan. If I don't have atleast one kit card in my hand, I'll throw it all away unless something in that hand tells me it can help me get going. With this I'll say starting out with a Fruition or Fertile Ground will jumpstart your growth counters and those shouldn't be neglected. If I get a Surveillance Team in the first draw, it's immediately going in the trash, we don't pay for Surveillance while we have Monica Chang around. And on that note, Monica Chang is one of the cards I would hold onto through a mulligan. Build Support I might also hold onto since that can search for some much needed kit. This deck doesn't have any confusion in it, so you'll have to work to remove threat instead of preventing it, but that shouldn't dissuade you from either staying Alter Ego for the first round if there isn't much you can do or swapping from Hero to Alter Ego every turn. Once you are established, you can deal with it.

Mid Game

First off; keep protecting your Growth Counters by throwing allies or other players in front of attacks against you or by flipping every turn to be in Alter Ego. You need a lot of counters to maximize the effectiveness of Overwatch. Getting out Deft Focus will help pay for your events, but also your Groot Upgrades. I won't say we're going to use them much, but I wouldn't shy away from getting them out in order to thin your deck for cycling and having fodder to throw away if a treachery card says to discard an upgrade. Most of this decks threat removal is done by turning your whole board sideways and your goal in the mid game is to get all your Surveillance Team cards on the field by throwing down Monica Chang and getting rid of her as fast as possible. Turn her sideways once to remove a threat then throw her in front of the first attack to come your way. It's quite possible you can get her back the next turn with Chance Encounter. Put out your Player Side Schemes during this section as they get into your hand and pop them when it's most opportune. They are great targets for Overwatch if there's nothing more pressing on the field because of their high threat values at high player counts.

Closing Things Out

As the game draws to it's conclusion, it's possible you're removing 5 threat per turn just with your supports. Between allies, events, and your limited basic thwart, threat shouldn't be a worry at all. Hopefully your team has the damage you need to end the game, but between the nukes that Lay the Trap and "I. AM. GROOT!" can be, you're aren't a complete slouch. Just keep up the passive threat removal, drop Monica Chang whenever she's in your hand to re-up your Surveillance Team counters, and have a drink because unless the villain does something crazy, you should be on easy street.