Gamora - Guarding the Galaxy (A Protection Deck) v2.0

Deck Edits:

Added - 1x Down Time, 1x Endurance, 1x Clea, 1x Groot, 1x Energy, 1x Strength, 1x Genius, 3x Expert Defense

Dropped - 1x True Grit, 1x Counter-Punch, 3x Hard to Keep Down, 3x Hard to Ignore, 2x Nerves of Steel

Hey everyone, I'm back with another protection deck, this time featuring Gamora.

Protection is my favorite aspect and the first thing I do with every hero is ask, "How could I shape this hero in protection?"

Gamora is unique in the fact that she can splash into other aspects to help cover the gaps that protection usually has, but not only that, but I feel that protection is actually very well suited for her due to her hero form ability.

Counter-Punch and True Grit work phenomenally in her deck as her Finesse and Precision powers actually trigger in the villain phase as well as the hero phase. By playing protection, we get to utilize the powers far more often than other aspects.

Since both cards want her to be defending, it makes sense to run the core defense package in Never Back Down, Armored Vest, Unflappable, and Nerves of Steel. Supplemented by Booster Boots and Hard to Ignore. Typically, the defense package includes Desperate Defense, but given she has Crosscounter we're free to drop those here.

Her splash cards are going to be Relentless Assault and Clear the Area. Relentless Assault is a nice cheap way to remove a minion, something protection normally lacks in, and Clear the Area pairs well with her high thwart potential, draws into another card, and has a cheap cost to efficiently utilize Decisive Blow.

One last card from protection to help round out her attacks is Momentum Shift to help ensure she has enough attacks to trigger Forward Momentum in the spots where a minion is not on board and heal any chip and/or indirect damage she may be taking.

And that should wrap things up for now. I hope you've enjoyed this somewhat unconventional take on Gamora and look forward to any comments and suggestions. Any changes made during testing and/or new cards being added to the game will be shown in the 'Inspiration for' column with the new build number.

Edit 1 - Facing Expert Drang, I struggled getting value out of Hard to Ignore, Never Back Down, and Nerves of Steel. Gamora was often times just one point shy of preventing all damage when using Never Back Down, even with Booster Boots, and triggering Hard to Ignore and Unflappable. To counter this, I dropped Nerves of Steel, Never Back Down, and Hard to Ignore and opted for Expert Defense, Groot, Clea, Down Time and Endurance. This helped in two ways, it lowered the overall cost of the deck and gave her more cards that would fully prevent all damage while Groot can absorb a minion attack every round to prevent Gamora from having to go back down to alter ego too early.

Speaking of cost, Energy, Strength, and Genius all came in while dropping one each of True Grit and Counter-Punch. While these are two excellent cards to use in the defensive phase, they were often flooding my hand and causing a lot of awkward turns. By cutting one each, there are still six cards that will trigger in the villain phase which is still enabling triggers 300% more often than other aspects. Adding the double resources makes it much easier to pay for Decisive Blow, Forward Momentum, Momentum Shift, Clea, Groot, Relentless Assault, and Gamora's Sword.

With these changes, I was able to keep much tighter control over the game and beat him on the first try while I struggled with the previous version going 1-7.