Righteous Shield (V3.0 - Final)

Righteous Shield

This is Version 3, and is the final time I'll post it. It might see some additional tweaking before MC/DC next month, but I'm pretty sure this is the version I'll take to the con.

You can see my previous versions here:

• Version 1
• Version 2

The deck uses Righteous Purpose to pump up your allies, and Energy Shield to keep them in the game at 1HP.

Finesse will pay the for Energy Shield. For anyone reading this who doesn't know why that's so, it's because the wording is such that Finesse "generate[s] a for an aspect card" NOT "generate a to pay for an aspect card".

If one isn't available though (not in play or already exhausted) the deck has plenty of icons for use with Energy Shield.

Put an Energy Shield on any ally, but keeping Captain Marvel alive is good anyway because you'll get extra card draw from her, and Ronin gets +1/+1 just by attaching Energy Shield to him.

Iron Lad is a spicy one, because if he's attacking for 3 (1 + 2 from Righteous Purpose) and exhausts another ally (who's also at +2 ATK) to add to his ATK, he's attacking for 6 or 7 and he's the only one who you need to prevent the consequential damage on. If he has a Sky Cycle you can ready him and do it again. If that other ally also has a Sky Cycle you can use them with the Lad again!

Avengers Tower increases your ally limit and lets you play your allies at a reduced cost. Since this increases your limit and Stinger doesn't count towards your limit, you could have all five of the allies in the deck on the table at once (but only three of them can have an Energy Shield).

Get them down to 1HP and let the cook, then prevent their last Consequential Damage with Energy Shield!

Most useful targets for Energy Shield:

• Captain Marvel
• Ronin
• Iron Lad

Player Side Schemes

Build Support is here for Righteous Purpose, but if that's already in play the following is my prioritiy list:

• Quincarrier because it's another generator that can give you the you need for Energy Shield.
• Avengers Tower

The priority pull for Call for Backup is Captain Marvel, but if she's in play my priority order is:

• Ronin
• Iron Lad

Evaluate Threat can find any ally, Quincarrier, or Avengers Tower!

Preemptive Strike and Subdue

This deck doesn't want to chump-block with allies, so Preemptive Strike and Subdue are here to lower some of the incoming damage, and since I don't have to be the one being attacked, I can use those for other players at the table in multiplayer games.

Sky Cycle

This deck used Get Ready for a while, but Sky Cycle is much better here for two reasons:

• All of your allies have the AVENGER trait, so you can attach it to any of them and get multiple readies over the course of the game without spending a card later just to ready.
• It has an resource which you can use with Energy Shield in a pinch, whereas Get Ready has a resource.

Unsurprisingly, the three most useful targets for Sky Cycle are the same as Energy Shield:

• Captain Marvel
• Ronin
• Iron Lad

Playtesting

I've tested this deck in solo and multiplayer across all versions, with the following results:

Solo Record: 39-4

• 5-0 Standard Rhino
• 5-0 Expert Rhino
• 5-0 Standard Klaw
• 6-1 Expert Klaw
• 3-0 Standard Taskmaster
• 3-0 Expert Taskmaster
• 3-0 Standard Black Widow
• 3-2 Expert Black Widow
• 4-0 Standard Batroc
• 2-1 Expert Batroc

Multiplayer Record: 6-1

• I don't remember all of the games I played with this in multiplayer, but here's what I do remember:
  • Standard Black Widow
  • Expert Black Widow
  • Standard Ebony Maw
  • Expert Ebony Maw (loss)
  • Standard Project Wideawake

NOTE: That's a lot of games, but MOST of them were played on DragnCards which is MUCH faster than playing with physical cards. If you play this deck there though, Righteous Purpose won't load because the Luke Cage hero pack hasn't been added there yet. To get around that I spawned Guardians of the Galaxy as a proxy because it's the same aspect, cost, resource, and card type, and just treated it as if it was Righteous Purpose.

Final Thoughts

With just a little build up your allies will be attacking or thwarting with big (or at least bigger than normal) numbers, so they can mow down minions and side schemes alike, making Mission Leader good in solo games and great in multiplayer games.

The deck is built to use, protect, and ready my allies, but I do have a little bit of table protection for multiplayer games with Preemptive Strike and Subdue.

This deck can fill the role of "Attacker" or "Thwarter" very well, and while it can defend for others in multiplayer occasionally it's definitely NOT a "Defend the Table" deck.