Just a Cat Playing with Her Food

Just a Cat Playing with Her Food

This deck explores a Control and Card Advantage strategy for Tigra within the Protection aspect. The build is centered around reliably triggering Tigra's hero ability—drawing a card for each minion in play at the start of your turn—primarily facilitated by her own Hunted upgrades and the event Pinned Down. By strategically managing the presence of minions, Tigra maintains a high rate of card flow, allowing her to cycle quickly into key Upgrades and Events, while retaining the flexibility to use her powerful Alter-Ego thwarting ability via Hunted and Precinct HQ. Meanwhile, her plentiful, effective allies easily keep the schemes in check, protect Tigra, and compound the damage on 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

• "Demo" video(s) that shows off some turns with the deck: Coming soon ...
• Tigra Protection Demo Play Vs. Expert Klaw (with House Rule)

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck and/or game play strategies (undefeated in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Ebony Maw; Thanos; and Magneto.

• Notable Results:
  • Defeated Expert Ebony Maw without going through my entire deck once even though I was drawing cards every round from having minions out in play at the beginning of each turn. The last 2 cards in my deck were Iron Fist and Nick Fury (the latter from my original build of the deck).
  • Versus Expert Thanos, Hope Summers was played twice in the game, grabbing and letting Tigra play Tooth and Claw each time. Thanos had an overwhelming board state for a while, and I thought I was going to lose, but the consistent card draw eventually allowed Tigra to build out her kit, deal with every obstacle, and turn the tide (even after losing half of our deck when the 1st main scheme was completed by Thanos).
  • Versus, Magneto, Tigra had solid control of Magneto in both games. Against Expert Magneto, she dealt 35 points of damage on her final turn due to playing all 3 copies of Tooth and Claw, the 3rd copy grabbed from the deck due to playing Hope Summers.

    ---

    NOTABLE ELEMENTS:
    

Main idea(s) behind the build:

• Keeping minions in play to gain card draw at the beginning of each turn with Tigra's hero ability, which Pinned Down facilitates.
• Maintaining the ability to play Tigra's own cards when it's her turn (and not using up resources during the villain turn, which is why Defense-traited cards were not added to the deck)
• Allowing Tigra to use her Alter-Ego ability safely to grab a copy of Hunted and use Precinct HQ to remove substatial thwart. Ready for a Fight is particularly ideal since Tigra will be able to begin her turn in hero form and trigger her hero ability despite having gone to alter-ego.

  ---

Deck Refinements: Note that against Thanos I removed Professor X since Thanos has Stalwart and can't be confused and added Black Widow.

Removal(s):

• Jocasta: When I reduced my rough draft to this build, I had forgotten I no longer had defense events.
• Brother Voodoo: I ended up with fewer events than I thought I would have.
• Both copies of Earth's Mightiest Heroes: I didn't realize at first that the Sharp Claws don't give a permanent +1 ATK bonus.
• Both copies of Indomitable.
• One copy of Stun Gun
• Energy Shield: While this was effective when played on an ally, I cycled through the allies frequently enough not to need it.
• Black Widow: I never used her ability because I needed room for other allies.
• Nick Fury: Extremely valuable, but I felt like I could get away with removing him from this deck. Extra allies were added to make sure plenty of thwarting is available, and I try to find opportunities not to include Fury when I can.

Addition(s)

• One more copy of Pinned Down (for a total of 3)
• Iron Fist: To make up for the missing Stun Gun, while providing another physical resource to play Ready for a Fight.
• Deadpool: He's a rare 3-cost ally that has both 2 ATK and 2 THW, which can be utilized by Iron Lad; he also has a wild resource to help pay for Ready for a Fight.
• Mockingbird: Fits with the "stun" theme of the deck, while also providing a physical resource to help pay for Ready for a Fight.
• Hope Summers: It's a rare opportunity in a deck to be able to play a 4-cost ally who can grab a 4-cost event (Tooth and Claw) from the deck and still potentially play it that turn.

  ---

Allies not yet mentioned:

• Gambit: Adds additional control during the villain turn, while having the potential for high attacking and thwarting, which can be extended by Iron Lad.
• Patriot: It's "tough" to think of a hero more appropriate for this ally than Tigra.
• Yellow Jacket: With 16 possible upgrades, Yellow Jacket rarely misses pulling one out of the deck after entering play.

Events and Supports:

• Face the Past: The Hood is an ideal nemesis minion target for Face the Past. He's easy to eliminate if needed, but he's also a great target for Pinned Down, allowing Tigra to trigger her hero ability at the beginning of each turn.
• Hidden Base: Getting a tough when going to alter-ego just before triggering Ready for a Fight on the villain's turn is ideal.
• The Night Nurse: A classic card that allows Tigra to continue attacking every turn despite acquiring a Stun or Confuse.

Upgrades Not Yet Mentioned:

• Deft Focus: Makes it easy to play Cat-Like Reflexes, Feline Senses, and especially Tooth and Claw. There've been numerous times when Tooth and Claw's cost has been reduced to 1 already, letting Deft Focus reduce that to zero.
• Stun Gun: Adds just the little bit of security to ensure an ally is Stunned, while also allowing the option of stunning the villain.

Conclusion:

Through rigorous testing against a variety of difficult villains, including Klaw, Ebony Maw, Thanos, and Magneto, this Protection strategy has proven resilient and highly effective, remaining undefeated in both Standard and Expert modes. The build's success hinges on consistent card draw, which allows Tigra to rapidly assemble her full kit and consistently draw into game-changing cards like Tooth and Claw and key Allies like Hope Summers. This deck demonstrates how Protection can be used not just for damage mitigation, but as a robust engine for control that ultimately enables overwhelming offensive burst.

(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.