DOTW #10: Captain Marvel / Leadership

Deck of the Week is a miniseries from KennedyHawk on the MCM team. We are back at our core-set rebuilds this week with Captain Marvel / Leadership

Decklist: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/13323/captain-marvel-gives-1.0

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Decked Halls 2020: Captain Marvel Aggression

This holiday season KennedyHawk returns to his Decked Halls series and brings each hero a gift with a new deck built using his least used aspect for each hero. For the next 13 days this miniseries will provide a short deck overview of a deck Kennedy is enjoying this winter season. Whatever holiday you celebrate we hope it brings you joy and look forward to an amazing 2021. Cheers!

Audio decklist review, cost curve, and strategy talk

Captain Marvel MarvelCDB Decklist: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/5761/captain-marvel-all-lightning-bolts-decked-halls-2020-1.0

Gameplay:

Heroic Intuition: Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers (Hero Kit Inspection)

(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by…. Amerikano… you can find him on many of the Marvel Champions discords… he’s joining the MCM team writing a new article series and more… Heroic Intuition is Amerikano’s first article series here where he’ll be overviewing each heroes kit… now get to the good stuff, ’nuff said! -Kennedy)

I want to do a series of short articles featuring each released hero’s kit. I understand that a deck consists of 40-50 cards and only 15 of those cards (plus the identity card) make up the hero’s kit. I also understand that each hero can feel extremely different depending on the other 25–35 cards you add into your deck (especially from aspect cards). But, I think it will be fun to dive into each of the hero’s cards. I’ll give you the reasons why I like certain cards and don’t like others.


First up: Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers

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Carol Danvers’ ability to choose a player to draw a card is one of the best in the game, IMO. Her hand size is 6. This means that in a solo game, when starting the player phase in Alter-Ego form, your hand size is essentially 7. But, the best part about this is that in multi-player games, you have the ability to boost other players that can do significant damage to the Villain but that struggle with hand size (read: She-Hulk, early game Iron Man, and now Thor).

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On the flip side, Captain Marvel’s ability spend an Energy resource and heal 1 damage to allow her to draw a card may keep you in Hero form longer than you may otherwise choose. This is an extremely powerful ability – as it should be – that allows you to cycle through your deck. The major downside is that if you don’t have any damage to heal (i.e., early in the game), you won’t be able to draw that card.

Cards I Love:

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Energy Channel – There are fewer things more exciting than delivering a fully charged Energy Channel directly to the face of whichever unlucky Villain you’re facing.

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Energy Absorption – This card ties in nicely with Energy Channel to fill up quickly on Energy resources.

Cards I Like:

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Spider-Woman – Her downside is that she only has 2 health. But if you’re playing her, it’s likely because you want to confuse the Villain and to gain a cheap(ish) blocker. (Editor’s Note – See the Avengers Annual #10 from 1981 for the beginning of Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel’s friendship – Kennedy)

Cosmic Flight – Being able to prevent any amount of damage is always nice. It also gains you the Aerial trait. If Aerial had more of a benefit (with aspect cards, for example), this would be in the “Love” category.

Cards I Dislike:

Energy Absorption – Resource cards in a hero’s kit sort of feel cheap to me. There are 2 copies in her kit, so it can sort of feel like we’re missing out on 2 other potential cards. Also, it does emphasize a high Energy resource build (or maybe because of EA, you decide to put other types of cards in her deck).

Captain Marvel’s Helmet – While it’s nice to get +1 Defense, her base Defense stat is only 1, so it doesn’t really feel all that worth it. I get that’s why they added in the Aerial bonus of another Defense, but I typically use Cosmic Flight to prevent 3 damage (especially if you are staying in Hero form for a large part of the game).

Well, there you have it. That’s my take on Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers’ kit. Let me know in the comments below what you think about my choices and if I’m completely off my rocker.

Thanks for reading!

-Amerikano