Going Out in a Blaze of Glory

Going Out in a Blaze of Glory

Star-Lord is known for his willingness to take big swings, but he'll often pay the price for doing so. This deck has the potential to win in a Blaze of Glory with huge final attacks on the villain, but if you take too many risks too early, you'll also go down blazingly fast. Play this deck at your own risk, but should one minimize those risks early, the rewards can be great indeed!

Star-Lord gains additional life and protection from Noble Sacrifice, which helps allow him to play more conservatively until he's ready to gun for the villain.

If you'd like to see a discussion of this deck, see the following video: Coming soon from http://www.youtube.com/@MCDeckDiscussions

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck (in both standard and expert: Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Black Widow; En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse); and Magneto.

Deck Refinements

• Removal(s):
  • All 3 copies of Joining Forces
  • Captain Marvel
  • Both copies of Regroup
• Addition(s):
  • 2 copies of Make the Call
  • Professor X
  • Both copies of Noble Sacrifice

Deck Change Recommendation:

• For villains with a high risk of losing via attacks, add one more copy of Noble Sacrifice and remove one copy of Blaze of Glory. For the villains playtested against, for example, that would be Magneto and En Sabah Nur (who even has a form with Overkill).

NOTABLE ELEMENTS OF PLAY:

• Refrain from Using Star-Lord's hero ability, "What could go wrong," until the final push to defeat the villain:
  

  • It is extremely tempting to use his ability to create an advantage or to deal with "emergency" situations, and sometimes it can't be helped. Always try to think ahead two turns instead of one. It is NOT always an emergency just because you can't clear the board of all minions and side schemes THAT turn. Sometimes it is, but I found I paid the price time and time again when I used Star-Lord's ability too soon, especially against Magneto, who has too many dangerous encounter cards; plus, it accelerates the number of attacks he makes against you and can add an overwhelming number of minions on the board. In addition, it increases the chances that your Star-Lord's nemesis minion and side scheme, Mister Knife and Budding Crime Syndicate, respectively, will end up in play.
    
    

• Look for victory conditions when you get close to the final villain stage:
  

  • Between the high damage allies, Blaze of Glory, and Sliding Shot, this deck can deal anywhere between 22 and 32 points of damage on a final turn. Look for and calculate the damage whenever you have multiple allies that can be played and Blaze of Glory and/or Sliding Shot in hand, especially with one or two copies of the Element Guns in play. Be sure to use those element guns regularly whenever you have control of the board to more quickly be ready for those big final attacks. Note that those Element Guns have piercing -- forgetting this made a number of my battles substantially more difficult!
    
    

• Using Noble Sacrifice is often better than using an ally to defend with, especially if Star-Lord has low hit points, assuming the villain doesn't have piercing.

• Go to alter-ego after using Blaze of Glory: This won't be possible every time, but when it is possible, doing so will prevent Star-Lord and any non-Guardian allies from receiving this card's damage at the end of the turn because Star-Lord is not a Guardian in alter-ego and his hero ability that makes each ally a Guardian is no longer in effect.

• Card Draw: Sources of card draw include ...

  • Knowhere: Every ally is a Guardian when Star-Lord is in hero form
  • Nick Fury: Utilize repeatedly with Make the Call
  • White Tiger: when played from hand
  • Maria Hill

Conclusion:
This is a fun deck, though I have to admit it took my share of playing it to use it well. The temptation to use Star-Lord's "What could go wrong" ability is great, but holding off on using it tends to produce the greatest results. Do you have the patience to do so to set up those awesome final attacks and go out in a Blaze of Glory, or will you crash and burn (which I did at times as well)!

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.