Hangar Bae

Luke Cage is actually a great signature ally. He just takes a while to pay off. Turn 1, play him down, turn 2 block, turn 3 exhaust for tough, turn 4 block, turn 5 block/attack/thwart with last hit point. Blocking 3 times for a 3 cost ally is pretty efficient, it just takes so long to get there. Really, he's just begging to be built around.

First, we want to speed up the process. This is easy. Hangar Bay lets him ready after he blocks, letting him use his ability the following turn to regain tough. With this, he can defend every turn. Add in some healing from Unbreakable Bond, Med Team, or Render Medical Aid, and he gives you a free block for the rest of the game.

Say goodbye to chump blocking XXX

Say hello to HUNK blocking <3<3<3

Honestly, that's it. Problem solved. Dude is solid. Dependable. Strong...

Wait what was I talking about? Oh right, this is a deck, and there's other cards to go over!

Let's start with those 2 other allies:

Clea

Alright, so if you are one of those anti-chump blocking types, you probably loved that first part with Luke. Well here's the part where I lose you again because it is my pleasure to introduce the most exploitable chump block combo in the game: Clea and Calling in Favors! Whoooo!

Its simple. Play Clea, atk/thw for 1, have her step in front of the villain, shuffle her back into the deck, then flip down and call her back into action. (I don't get why she still answers my calls, it's crazy.) Since she costs 2, Calling in Favors makes her free each time. It's wild. Yes, it costs 2 evidence counters, but since those are equivalent to roughly 1 damage each, 1 damage/ thwart from her plus a block more then makes up for it.

Hulk

Right. Here's the thing. I'm actually kind of burying the lead here because Hulk is the real star of the show.

Before going any further, you need to understand something that should be simple, but is not.

What is "you"?

Hulk says: "After the villain attacks you, place 1 rage counter here."

Normally, in almost every other case, you does not count your allies or supports. It is only you the player. But when defending, you become the target of that attack even if its your ally that you through in front of the villain. Its the same reason that boost effects or overkill will go to whoever blocked with the ally, even when the initial target was someone else.

Do you see where I'm going with this? All that hunk blocking and chump blocking will give Hulk his counters! And there's no limit to his strength. In multiplayer, you'll pump him up to 10+ ATK in no time!

All those healing cards that I mentioned earlier for Luke apply just as much to Hulk. If you have a Med Team out to keep him healthy, you don't have to wait till there's an obscene number of rage counters to start swinging. 3 or 4 counters and he can already clear out pesky elite minions.

One card that synergizes incredibly well with Hulk is Joys of Life. Early on, Hulk will just be sitting around doing nothing while you build counters. So that's a perfect time to use this card to exhaust Hulk and ready Jessica. Then, once he's built up, you can do the opposite. Exhaust your identity and ready Hulk. It's actually just perfect, and useful at any point in the game.

Do it Yourself

You don't have to rely on allies. Jess can defend for herself too. With her Leather Jacket, she goes up to 3 DEF and gives you an extra counter for defending. Once this is down, basic defense is a good option. With all the tough cards and healing in the deck, you can usually just take the attacks coming your way undefended, and use your basic defense and allies to block for other players. This way, you can maximize the number of rage counters you get.

Investigative Work

Yep. You're lookin' at 6 player side schemes in a protection deck with no added thwart cards. And we have no issue clearing them. Jones is kinda just good like that, what can I say? 3 base THW, 7 ready cards, and 3 copies of a ZERO cost 4 thwart event....yeah it's not a problem. Honestly, as the justice player, just give her your Heroic Intuition. Jess will make better use of it then you lol

Outside of just her natural burst thwart ability, you also want to run some side schemes to trigger Alias Investigations. Both for adding counters, and for that end game trigger. So I think you want a few in pretty much all her decks.

First up, her signature scheme, Piecing It All Together, is pretty good. You usually have to invest the equivalent of a couple of cards from hand to clear it, so the net draw isn't always great. But even if it breaks even, you can think of it as banking resources for later. Throw it down and forget about it, since it doesn't count against your player side scheme limit. Any time someone has an extra activation without a better use, they can send it. Whoever clears it gets the cards, so its flexible in multiplayer.

Build Support and Superpower Training both have multiple important targets, which I'll go over in the priorities section. Defend Our City is good for this deck, but in multiplayer, your teammates might not even be running a team up card. So check with them first, you could always swap this for something like another Joys of Life or Med Team.

Incognito Mode

Jessica's alter ego ability gives her 1 additional flip to hero form. Usually, this means that you'll start the turn in hero form, flip to alter ego, then Incognito your way back to end the turn in hero again. This is great in a deck like this where we want to defend...or have our allies defend, as much as possible. Now we can do all that, AND get all our AE goodies too.

This deck is full of cards that take advantage of her Incognito Mode. Perseverance and Hidden Base give us tough for flipping. Joys of Life and Ready to Rumble ready our identity. Dr. Sinclair and Crew Quarters for healing. The Doc also gives us status cleanse, super useful!

Calling in Favors and 4K Digital Camcorder both need you to be in alter ego, but that's never really an issue.

Priorities

All three allies are important here. Ideally you want Hulk early. Since Clea and Luke Cage serve the same role, so play whichever makes more sense for your situation. For upgrades and supports, I would prioritize Calling in Favors, Leather Jacket, and 4K Digital Camcorder if you don't have a good minion slayer at your table. I included 2 copies of Hangar Bay so you could afford to pass up on the first copy if you have to.

Swaps

If you don't care for the Clea combo, feel free to swap her for whatever you like. There's the new She-Hulk, which is a great option. Patriot also gets toughs whenever a minion comes out, which is pretty consistent in multiplayer. If you are looking for something else to swap out, I think you could cut down on Perseverance. With how much defense and healing is packed in here, 3 copies isn't necessary. But they are to pay Dr. Sinclair, so keep that in mind.

This was the first build I thought up when Jones was originally announced, and it does not disappoint! Played it a half dozen times so far, notably beat expert Bullseye, expert Taskmaster, and expert Mutagen Formula. This was my most anticipated hero in a while and I'm loving her kit. Looking forward to getting some more plays with this, and then trying her out in other aspects. Cheers!