SMALL BUT RIGHTEOUS: The Bug Brigade

TLDR: This deck weaponizes "weak" 1-cost allies. Ant-Man and Wasp come into play at no/1 cost, with Innate Inspiration and Righteous Purpose instantly turns them into absurd powerhouses (4 THW/4 ATK and 3 THW/5 ATK). Spider-Woman's Leadership/Aggression split fuels the loop, recurring them with Make the Call — while Iron Lad, As One!, and Coordinated Attack channel their stats into powerful attacks and thwarts.

Righteous Purpose + Innate Inspiration provides incredible ways of playing and exploiting the power of 1-cost allies (Ant Man, Wasp, and Angela). With Innate Inspiration coming into play at the start of the game, Ant Man and Wasp can be played for 1 and have 1HP. This is especially important for Wasp, where you have to spend energy resources to give her health otherwise. The beauty of this is when played for 1 they automatically gain the bonus associated with Righteous Purpose (+2 ATK / +2 THW) only you have it in play. 1-cost 4 THW/4 ATK (and can still chump) Ant-Man and 1-cost 3 THW/5 ATK (and can still chump block) Wasp are amazing. To increase the probability of this bonus unlocking fast we have 2 copies of Righteous Purpose. If only there was a hero that could play and recur both Ant-Man and Wasp...

TELL ME THE SECRET SAUCE

Enter Spider-Woman. Spider Woman's dual Leadership + Aggression aspects provides the way to milk them for their maximal value: allowing you to play Ant-Man and Wasp (and recur with Make the Call), fueling incredible damage (and thwart) through their super-charged basic powers. But it's not just about getting Ant-Man and Wasp into play, it's about keeping them in play. Spider-Woman has many tricks up her sleeve to do this:

1. Enter Iron Lad (the third member of our ally trinity). Both Ant-Man and Wasp are Avenger allies, allowing Iron Lad to exhaust them and channel their incredible ATK and THW powers. Innate Inspiration allows him to do this more times, and Righteous Purpose do an extra powerful attack/thwart on his own last health. He really shines in this deck.

2. As One! is like Iron Lad, in that you can exhaust a Guardian and an Avenger ally to deal their combined ATK (and get overkill). Getting Angela or Yondu out to get a Guardian in play is necessary for this combo, but Angela is another "cost 1" (just the card) ally. Make the Call can help you play these if you're not able to immediately. Attach an Energy Spear to Angela/Yondu and you'll be dealing +2. You'll also want to lower their health so they too get the Righteous Purpose +2 bonus. Yondu, classic Voltron, has the added benefit of not taking consequential when he does his basic, so that Righteous Purpose +2 bonus is particularly sweet for him.

3. Air Cover + Coordinated Attack is another Spider-woman only combo that furthers this strategy. Air Cover you can drop into play, and when any minion comes into play, you can tutor a tactic upgrade from deck or discard pile and put it into your hand. Air Cover unlocks a simple calculus:
   A. Have an As One! You can use on it? Keep it as a resource. As One! can already nail the minion and deal overkill.
   B. Have Iron Lad in play? Attach Marked, nail the minion with Iron Lad, and do overkill.
   C. Have neither, but Ant Man or the Wasp are in play? Attach Coordinated Attack, and attack them with Ant Man/Wasp and no consequential damage is dealt.

NOTE: Sometimes the extra resource is the right call depending on your hand contents.

OKAY, YOU CAN ATTACK. BUT WHAT ABOUT THWART?

We have many options in our bag of tricks:

1. Ant-Man and Wasp naturally have a powerfully thwart when paid for 1, so they can be sacrificed as needed. This is even better with make the call in your hand as you can put them immediately back into play ready.

2. Iron Lad's power can absorb Ant Man/Wasp's THW power to do great thwarts.

3. Professor X and Pheromones drop the confuse helping on a needed alter-ego flip. Professor X also is handy with his 3 THW.

4. When Spider-Woman isn't defending (which she'll be doing a lot to be honest), she will consistently have a +2 basic power bonus from playing aspect cards, giving her a 3 THW.

5. Inconspicious can split out scheme removal.

6. Into the Fray is in here to take out a minion with a hefty hit when needed, and have the excess damage clear threat on the main scheme.

WHAT ABOUT THE DEFENSE?

1. Spider-Woman will have a decent (3) DEF most of the game. I exhaust her for defense most of the time with this deck.

2. Pheromones Stun and Confuse helps with defense and recovery on flip.

3. Professor X loves to chump block.

4. Ant-Man and Wasp can chump great too, especially if you have a Make the Call to bring them back into play.

5. Contaminant Immunity heals and gives you tough.

6. Make the Call helps get low cost chumps like Ant-Man, Wasp, and Angela into play.

7. She-Hulk coming in with 5-health gives her strong means of taking a bit, and increasing damage with her anger for each point of damage. As an Avenger, and at 1 health, she can have a base attack of 7 with righteous purpose and 8 with boot camp as well. This makes her also great with Iron Lad and As One! Having her absorb some damage is a great way of speeding up her value. If not, use the 2 consequential damage when thwarting to speed up her ATK value.

WHAT ABOUT CARD DRAW AND RESOURCE GENERATION?

1. Finesse is the obvious answer on resource generation, given most cards are aspect cards in this deck. But we have other tricks up our sleeve...

2. Jessica Drew's Apartment helps you search for the most valuable aspect cards (Make the Call, As One!, Ant Man, Wasp, Righteous Purpose, Avenge Me, etc.) and draw them.

3. "Avenge Me!" can be great on a chump block or consequential damage usage with a soon to expire ally, or immediately with Ant-Man or Wasp.

4. Captain Marvel loves Innate Inspiration, giving you one more card draw when she uses a basic power.

5. Confuse from Professor X and Pheromones expands hand size on alter-ego flip with avoiding villain scheme.

6. Air Cover can provide a useful extra card/resource when a minion comes out.

EDGE CASES

Stunned/Confused.

• Since you will be defending a lot, stunned/confused is less impactful. They can disrupt As One!/Inconspicuous. I have found a Self-Propelled Glide can be quite useful to clear Stunned/Confused through applying a basic power to remove the status condition once readied.

Tough.

• Energy Spear pierces.
• Yondu can ping it off.
• Self-Propelled Glide can ping it off through use of a basic.

Steady/Stalwart.

• Definitely tougher for making the most of Pheromones and Professor X. You'll need to lean harder into the other defensive and thwarting measures. While not in this deck, Cosmo can provide a great alternative for Steady/Stalwart. Get him to 1 health and keep him in play so he has a base 3 THW. Flip to alter-ego. Use your alter-ego ability to see the top card of your own deck. Name the card type you already know. Cosmo has a guaranteed 3 THW with no consequential damage, helping cover your flip. You can do this on 2 consecutive turns for maximum utility.

ICING ON THE CAKE

• Spider-Woman's Finesse helps pay for all of these aspect cards.
• Boot Camp gives a +1 ATK to our many allies, and Iron Lad and As One! absorb that bonus.
• Triskelion helps you keep the full roster of allies you'd want out.
• A lot of the cards in this deck are cheap, allowing Spider-woman to get the most of her special power, giving her a fairly consistent 3 THW / 3 ATK / 3 DEF usage.
• As One! is an Alliance card, so other players can pay for its resource cost and character exhaustion requirements.
• Captain Marvel, your signature ally, is an Avenger and so can help with As One and Iron Lad. However, I found you'll want the card draw from her actually using her basic.
• She Hulk benefits greatly from Innate Inspiration and Righteous Purpose.

BUT I WANT THIS DECK TO BE 40 CARDS DAMNIT. I DON'T CARE IF IT IS BETTER WITH 44.

Fine. Cull 2x Into the Fray or 1 and She-Hulk. Remove Triskelion and Coordinated Attack.

OTHER EXPERIMENTS/CARDS

I tried some builds with these other cards before settling on this:

• Coordinated Strike. You could power up Spider-Woman's attack and exhaust Ant Man/Wasp. Since Spider-woman's ability is an interrupt, Coordinated Strike could even get a +1 bonus from playing it. I found that I had to exhaust too much for other reasons, primarily to defend, so I preferred cards that did not require I exhaust my hero.
• Stinger. Solid inclusion as you doesn't count towards ally limit and can chump block. Adds to the whole Bug family theme too. Substitute with another card here so you can keep deck size down.
• Mass Attack. I want this card to work. I really do. I've found the setup is just too slow and difficult to maintain. Adding an Honorary Avengers and applying it to Yondu helped, but it just wasn't hitting consistently enough.
• Call for Aid (yes, with White Fox and Digging Deep, etc.). This was to help get Ant Man and Wasp even sooner, and recur. I found that getting stuck with Digging Deeps in my hand during a normal turn, and burning through Make the Call, Iron Lad, As One!, etc. didn't justify getting Ant Man and Wasp out more.

Still weighing out:

• Med Lab. Not bad when you don't have a Make the Call handy/left in your deck. The alter ego flip is a cost, but you can get them in play for free. However, they come in play exhausted. I liked it much more than Leadership Training, where Make the Call would be shuffled back into your deck.
• Ready for Action. I like that Finesse can pay for it. Tough is versatile for villain damage prevention, and for attack/thwart for Ant-Man and Wasp. Biggest challenge here is the need to add more Aggression cards to compensate. It dilutes the deck, and there's not a lot I'd want to cull from the leadership cards to put it in. Potentially, you could drop Coordinated Attack and Triskelion.
• Suit Up. Since we want to play Ant Man and Wasp for 0, it is a high premium to require being in alter ego and grabbing an upgrade that can be attached to them. Yes, that can be avenge me, and have it trigger immediately but make the call seemed better. That said, I may be underappreciating this combo (with avenge me, suit up effectively keeps the cost at just 1 resource and can mulligan card you don't find useful effectively). On top of this, Angela plus energy spear is and excellent use of suit up. Tutoring Iron Lad is also great. Challenge as always is in what leadership card to cut to make room.