I too like to be Home By Dawn

So two of my favourite things about this game are Ms. Marvel and @M3t4lB0x (TLM)'s Black Widow deck https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/5048/i-too-like-to-live-dangerously-2-0-2.0. The idea of that deck is to play almost constantly in Alter Ego form, using the Widow's great hand size and consistency tools like Safe House #29 to control threat. As an almost-exclusively solo player, I find the challenge with Ms. Marvel is that she needs to go into Alter Ego regularly to benefit from her signature cards, but has nothing in that signature set to confuse or otherwise control the villain's scheming. I therefore wanted to build a deck for Ms. Marvel that would use @M3t4lB0x (TLM)'s approach so that I could play her solo, flipping every turn from Hero to Alter Ego or back again.

The problem is that I am not very good at this game. Well, that isn't the only problem. With no Safe House #29, and substituting the enthusiasm of Teen Spirit for the professionalism of Mission Prep, Ms. Marvel is much less consistent than the Widow. You cannot come close to guaranteeing a Counterintelligence every turn, or getting Under Surveillance when you need it, or really any of your tools to keep the villain from scheming effectively. Once you have built a strong board with your Beat Cops and upgrades out you can pretty consistently hit the event cards you need, but it isn't saying much for any deck that once you are winning you can win: the question was how to get to that end-game state reliably without being outpaced by the villain on the way.

The solution has come from Scarlet Witch. Turn the Tide is a fantastic card for Ms. Marvel who really benefits from cheap events, and Multitasking is also incredible because of the way it interacts with Shrink, potentially clearing 4 threat off the main scheme as well as removing most side schemes as soon as they appear. Wiccan is also a really useful cheap ally too (Speed is good, but I think too expensive to use here).

Teen Spirit means that we cannot really guarantee seeing any card other than our hero cards, so the strategy has to be built around those, especially Nakia Bahadir and Aamir Khan. By flipping every turn we can ensure that we trigger both of those every turn. The second key consideration is Ms. Marvel's high Recovery. Most turns in Hero form we can simply take all the damage the villain can throw at us, and recover either as soon as we flip, or at the start of the following turn. This is especially true once Down Time is in play. It should rarely be necessary to block with an ally.

There are plenty of fairly cheap allies in this deck because Teen Spirit can lead to allies being discarded. As I've said, they should rarely be needed for blocking but in the early game we may not be able to clear enough threat to go into Alter Ego safely, especially if Under Surveillance hasn't been played yet. Allies also allow us enough damage channels to deal with more minion-heavy scenarios. Once well set up it isn't unusual to draw two attack events and therefore be able to make three attacks with Ms. Marvel herself, but earlier in the game your hand will be smaller, contain more supports and upgrades, and you may not have Nakia Bahadir or the Biokinetic Polymer Suit in play to power your attacks. So early in the game allies can be essential to maintain tempo. Given that role, cheap allies are best.

By the late game, all three Beat Cops are down and each hand we draw (8 or 9 cards worth) will be full of events so we can close down the game fairly quickly. This deck can't hand out the massive amounts of 1-turn damage you see in some others, but with 2 copies of Big Hands you can do 14, plus whatever allies you may have in play, which will end the game quickly enough.

I'm pleased with this deck because every turn is an interesting challenge as you work out how best to sequence your actions. I also really enjoy the fact that your nemesis truly feels like a nemesis. Thomas Edison brings a lot of extra scheming that can be difficult to cope with, and because he can hide behind other minions he is hard to kill. Harvest is also a real blow when you have so many Personae in play and rely on them so heavily. Every time he comes out it feels like a real setback, and not just a bump in the road. Against villains who also start slowly, such as Kang (The Conqueror) the deck is maybe a little too strong, but against Klaw or Ultron you are guaranteed a tough fight, which is just as it should be.

You'll notice that at 47 cards this is a fat deck. I see that as acceptable because with Teen Spirit the deck is going to be inconsistent anyway, and the extra cards mean we cycle our deck a little less rapidly than we would otherwise. Given that this isn't a fast deck, delaying that additional encounter card is well worthwhile. You may also want to look at Multitasking. In my view the interaction with Shrink makes it a hard card to beat here, but by using Lay Down the Law you can clear more threat off the main scheme more reliably without Shrink (in fact Shrink is scarcely necessary if you go this way). Changing form isn't really an issue with Lay Down the Law because we generally only need to clear a lot of threat on the turns we start in Alter Ego. What is sometimes an issue is having to choose between clearing the main scheme and a side scheme. If you have Red Skull you may want to look at Clear the Area, but I haven't so I can't really comment on that.

In the end, there's no way to pretend this deck is as strong as the deck that inspired it, but developing it has brought me a lot of pleasure. If any of you choose to try it I hope it will please you too.