Letterdenma · 315
As I read the write-up, I was very excited to try out Castlefrank47's Symbiotic Slingshot deck - until I got to the very end where everyone's dreams were dashed by the realisation that Slingshot's slingshot doesn't trigger Sky-Destroyer. The core premise of maximising Slingshot every turn with Command Teams and Leadership Skill still seemed sound, but I was feeling a lot less invested in bringing the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. circus along.
So I decided to cram in a couple of other gimmicks instead.
The deck now has two reserved ally 'lanes' - the one where you sling Slingshot every turn using Symbiotic Bond or Clarity of Purpose, and the one where Yondu steadily plinks the villain to death while you load him up with just as many ranged weapons as Venom. The final ally slot is for the Expendables, AKA everyone else, whose job is to chump, get eaten, or be quickly worked to death with Command Team activations.
(I deliberately didn't bring the Triskelion or Knowhere to force myself to play this way, but maybe that's being too cute?)
On the economy front, I concluded that the deck needed a tempo/sugar rush rather than slow carbs, so I opted for four copies of The Power of Leadership. Two of them can't be used to pay for Command Team, but they do work for Gamora. Clarity of Purpose and Helicarrier are in there to make sure we can always hit Venom's event kickers.
Other card notes:
- Seven allies is 0.25 allies too few - eight is 0.75 allies too many. Going up to 41 cards throws all the math out of whack. I have determined this with Science ("Science" is what I call my gut).
- Grant Ward is another 'cute' pick - he gives us something to spend our villain-phase free resource on, and he's a match made in heaven for Noble Sacrifice. Plus I won't say no to zero-cost to flatten the curve a little.
- In a deck where I never expect to attempt to heal allies, Endurance is strictly better than a singleton First Aid, and generically better than the third copy of Noble Sacrifice. Honestly, First Aid is probably ultimately better than copies #1 and #2 of Noble Sacrifice, but it's a lot less Fun(TM).
- I don't own Righteous Purpose, but it's an easy inclusion if you do and want to lean further into the Yondu voltron side of things. In my play experience I also went down to 1HP with Venom more often than I'd like to admit!
Fun Level: Very high - there's lots of interactions, and risky plays, and you get to simultaneously feel like you're breaking the game and are at the edge of death.
Power Level: I eventually beat Ronan (on Standard) on my third try, and I'm not a particularly good player so take that as you will. The first two losses were where I learned to skip the Yondu setup and just punch Ronan in the face with Venom and the re-readying Slingshot. That doesn't mean that Yondu's a bad inclusion - in theory he becomes more important in longer fights as source of sustained damage. Against Kang, maybe? Also, Grant Ward is a serious liability in matchups where you might get three treacheries in a single villain phase.
Multiplayer: I don't have a regular group to test this with, but there's nothing actively multiplayer-hostile in the deck; and Welcome Aboard, Helicarrier and Maria Hill all benefit teammates.