Spying on the Galaxy (Star-Lord/Justice)

Star-Lord loves turning everyone into Guardians, but you know who covers his weakness best? The SPIES! They bring a certain amount of preparation for the unpredictable that Star Lord really benefits from.

A Gray Base

As many are starting to discover, there's a lot to like in Star Lord gray decks: Helicarrier/Avengers Mansion are targets for his 3 cost discount, Knowhere is a must play, and there's tons of great basic allies including all the new guardians. And basic even has two great spies - Mockingbird and Nick Fury. So I can't deny the power of the gray deck, and this just adds some justice flare to that.

Enter Spycraft

Spycraft is the bread and butter here and what makes this build stand out. The idea is of course to help change some nasty encounter cards as they come up. Since it's a preparation it's super flexible to sit around until we feel we most need it.

You're still going to draw another card, so the key is avoiding things that really hurt you right now (Scheme flippers, poorly timed attacks, shadows of the past, some of the crazy cards that also have surge). Side schemes are the best thing you can draw by far as you are equipped to handle them.

Of course, Star Lord isn't a spy. So we have to make a priority to keep Agent Coulson or Mockingbird out. Nick Fury also works in a flash. With the 3, you shouldn't have too much of an issue. While I like to keep one out as long as I can, I'm ok using them to block if it's really needed. The deck cycles a good bit, you'll see them again.

Allies

One thing I looked for with allies was good thwarting, because they can get a lot of value with Leader of the Guardians. But I still want good attacking and survivability. Star-Lord can thwart for a lot with Leader of the Guardians as well. So I kept a bit of a mix.

I also tried to only use what I thought were the best Justice allies and stick to Basic outside of that for The Power in All of Us synergy.

Groot is incredible for survivability. Rocket Raccoon/Spider-Man two of your more flexible options with good attack potential. Nova Prime is a potent attacker. Daredevil/Wiccan are two great thwarters with attack kickers. Agent Coulson is a great target for the spycraft pickup. From there you're going to have chump blockers and card cyclers. Remember to try to time Cosmo with Star Lords alter ego when possible can you can guarantee no consequential damage, but I'll still block with him when needed.

Strategy

To survive: you're looking at options like Jet Boots, Bad Boy, Booster Boots, Endurance and blocking with your many allies. I wouldn't call any single of the survival upgrades completely crucial since you have a few of them, but definitely don't ignore all of them. Booster Boots might be my favorite for its cost actually, in addition to its ability it's secretly a great card cycler which gets you shuffling your deck and getting more encounter cards and more Sliding Shot after the shuffle.

Damage: Your Element Gun cards are great for keeping the tempo. Sliding Shot is your big gun to really bring the villain down, especially if you can combo with Daring Escape or a player deck shuffle (this really makes card cycling worth it). Look to help from your allies. Keep the card drawing up.

Key upgrades/supportsStar-Lords's Helmet and Knowhere are your most key upgrades. Getting an Avengers Mansion or Helicarrier out is important as well. Skilled Investigator is so nice for a 0 cost and really takes advantage of the thwarting potential of this build (and the increased # of side schemes due to increased # encounters) - I'd go so far to call it the best resource/card draw generator for Star-Lord in all non-basic aspects. Leader of the Guardians is incredible to take thwarting to the next level. I would keep most of the above and mulligan from there.

Card Swaps

I'm still experimenting a bit with the Espionage idea. I had Heroic Intuition in before, but I just found it wasn't needed and never played it. The idea with Espionage is to thin the deck a little and keep up the card cycling, because card cycling has proven really strong with Star Lord to get his key upgrades, but also to shuffle often and get more encounter cards and more Sliding Shots. If the idea pans out, I might actually look at dropping Daredevil and/or Wiccan for more espionage - while they are great they are the toughest allies to play due to cost/color.

So far I've had a blast with the deck! I lost to Expert Nebula but I hadn't fully tweaked things and that was a really tough matchup. I then took down Expert Klaw + Doomsday Chair. A lot of the fun for me comes from the grey cards and how well they work for Star Lord with his discount, ally benefits, and need for card cycling. But Spycraft, Agent Coulson, Skilled Investigator have all been really useful cards that help you push your luck more safely.