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 14 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. Today’s deck is all about Defending the 9 (well maybe just other 3) realms! Thor will use powerful Protection cards to ready and defend multiple times per round. This is ideally a multiplayer deck where you handle all the damage from the villain while the other players seek the glory that you allow them.
Welcome to Power of… a MCM Production. In each issue Episode of Power Of we will focus on one hero and a fun way to play them with each of the four aspects contained in Marvel Champions. Each episode an MCM host is joined with a guest from the community to focus on one of their favorite heroes. For this second official “Power of” Episode we have Banana Crapshoot from The Side Scheme Podcast. Mr. Banana brings decks for his favorite hero: Thor and you can find a ton of great podcast and article content in the links below. For now… let’s uncover the Power of: Thor – God of Thunder!
Today’s article is going to be a brief primer on a Thor/Protection deck, we will cover the remaining aspects (Aggression and Justice) in the coming weeks. Frigga is Thor’s mother and the origins of the word Friday. In the movies and comics we often see Frigga in a role where she protects her children but in this deck Thor will be using protection cards for his protection. This deck is going to focus on Thor protecting allies while counting on his signature cards to take out his foes. As always our card images are provided courtesy of the amazing Hall of Heroes website. Be sure to check them out and consider supporting their endeavors! This deck is going to focus on Protection cards that will provide Thor with many Energy resources while protecting him from damage. The deck-list is located at the bottom of the article so read on!
Secret Origin
The objective with this deck is to get some pieces in place so Thor as the protection player doesn’t even need to defend! This is done though a few cards from Ms. Marvel’s deck, mainly Energy Barrier and Nova. Thor is the defender of the nine realms with a stout 2 defense. We are hoping to not need to use his defense stat and instead use his potent attack while protection cards and a hefty 14 starting hit points will keep him alive. Thor has one signature card that helps with this goal. His trusty – but totally awesome looking helmet! Staying in hero form means Thor will trigger his Have At Thee ability as much as he can.
Let’s take a look at some of the protection cards included in this deck. For damage mitigation we have cards like Energy Barrier (see above), Nova, and Preemptive Strike.I know this card took a hit in multiplayer from the latest RRG update but it still is a great card for mitigating damage slowly and chipping away at the villain. Also all 7 of these cards (Nova is uniquer) have the energy resource symbol which is vital to the success of Thor!
We also have some cards to heal Thor which provide this energy resources, Med Team which can heal Thor for 6 over 3 turns. With damage mitigation from Energy Barrier this should help Thor sustain hero mode for a long time. All these energy resources are good for fueling Thor’s Lightning Strike which is key for removing several minions that may pile up while Thor focuses on taking down the villain. The deck ends up coming in with 20 energy resources so that’s a pretty good amount to fuel this event.
I hope this brief write-up inspired you to try playing Thor with a little support form Protection. Using these cards should allow Thor to stay in hero more for longer and trigger his Have at Thee ability more often!
First, give Thor time to set-up. You are going to need to get a few damage mitigations down to get rolling so this deck may struggle a bit in solo.
Use your mulligan wisely, be sure to search deep for something to help with your low handsize (God of Thunder, and Asgard are perfect turn 1 plays!)
Don’t be afraid to flip back to Thor and use Mjolnir early as a resource, you’ll be able to bring it back and it helps with your early game economy (a must for Thor players!)
Thwarting is going to be tough – use your allies wisely to keep the threat managed. Your main threat management tool is staying in hero form!
Mulligan Thoughts:
Mulligan hard for hand support – Consider a hard mulligan for Asgard, or 2x God of Thunder. Your deck doesn’t need speed. It needs slow and steady ramp.
Always pitch Mjolnir – In your initial hand, you’d rather see more combo pieces and return it to hand as a resource!
Don’t be tempted by Attack events early on – Don’t let the allure of Hammer Strike get you early on, pitch these cards for economy builders as it’s essential for keeping your damage mitigation up and running
Multiplayer Tips:
This combo works well in solo but really shines in multiplayer. There you’ll be able to mitigate damage on your turn and defend for another player. Consider packing an armored vest for this instance and allow the rest of the team to deal some steady damage.
Thanks for sticking with me – next Thor entry we’ll swing for the fences with a hammer’s blazing – aggression deck!
Today’s article is going to be a brief primer on a Thor/Leadership deck, for the next 3 Thursdays I’ll be testing Thor out with each aspect in the game so be sure to check on back or follow us on podbean, facebook, or twitter to be alerted when the latest article drops! I promise next week I’ll move on from Leadership and try another aspect. This deck is going to focus on Thor adventuring with 3 allies, the warriors 3 and will focus on a new Leadership card, Teamwork! As always our card images are provided courtesy of the amazing Hall of Heroes website. Be sure to check them out and consider supporting their endeavors! Without any more introductions, let’s look at Teamwork.
Secret Origin
The objective with this deck is to get allies out with statlines of 2-3 and use Teamwork to add their stats to Thor. Thor has a base 2 attack (3 with Mjolnir) and a base 1 thwart. This is his major weakness if threat gets away from him or if side schemes become abundant Thor struggles to contribute to this problem! To get the best use out of this we will look for characters that have stats of at least 2 thwart. Those characters tend to be expensive (other than Maria Hill) and with Thor’s limited hand size this can be a struggle. We really rely on Thor to hold down the fort while we get things set-up. Remember when we use Teamwork the ally does not take consequential damage so we can plan on having a pretty hefty ally wall and can even use those allies to stabilize the game so long as we leave them at one life! Let’s look at our three favorite Warrior options…
First, Maria Hill. Maria comes with a 2 THW 1 ATK stat line and is pretty cheap on cost. She’s great to help with Thor’s limited hand size. I always try to target her with Teamwork when I can for thwarting but since several allies are in your deck don’t be afraid to let her die and bring her back on a future deck pass. Her enters play ability is crucial to keeping up your tempo.
Next, let’s look at Thor’s signature ally, Lady Sif. She comes with another amazing 2 thwart stat and 2 attack as well. Remember to use Thor before playing her, so you may swing for 3, ready Thor then team work for 3 leaving yourself 3 uses for Lady Sif. Another great ally, again, with an enters play ability. Note neither Lady Sif or Maria Hill are Avengers so they won’t be pumped further with an Avengers Assemble!
Finally we come to my favorite Teamwork ally. Ironically a character that’s not super big on teamwork in the comics! Wonder Man! While he does not have 2 thwart he boosts an amazing 3 attack at very low cost (only 2 resources)! His typical downside is circumvented with Teamwork, usually to attack with Wonder Man you are spending a card from hand, with Teamwork Wonder Man basically becomes an amazing support that pumps Thor’s attack by 3. Even better we can inspire Wonder Man and get him to 4 attack for quite the boost. Now if we really live the dream on a future turn we may use Avengers Assemble to Ready Wonder Man after he’s attacked for 4, then use team work to pump Thor for 5! How would I describe that feeling? Wonderful?
You may be wondering, how am I going to pay for all this stuff! Well just like the Captain America deck from our last deck tech, we are going to use Strength in Numbers. Since our objective is to bring three allies into play and then use them to pump Thor’s stats when we aren’t using Teamwork we need to find a use for them other than sitting around ready for no reason. This is where we use Strength in Numbers to really cycle our deck and get the combo up and running. Thor has plenty of other cards to help mitigate this hand size (Asgard, God of Thunder x2, Avenger’s Mansion) but this card is crucial to the deck.
I hope this brief write-up inspired you to try assembling Thor with a merry band of adventurers. Whether you end up with the three above or a different pairing the mighty son of Odin is sure to appreciate their stat buffs. Try this deck out and let us know how it goes. You can comment on the article here, on facebook, or yell at me about my bad decisions on the MCM Podcast discord! Check back next week for a Thor Protection deck!
First and foremost, use your allies as thwarting support to set up your combo, just like the Pump it Up cap deck.
Use your first deck pass to build your board state. Don’t be afraid to use Teamwork with a 1 THW ally to keep yourself afloat while you play cards like God of Thunder and Asgard
Take is easy with the Defender of the Nine Realms, only use this if you have a plan to kill the minion that turn (this goes for any Thor deck!)
Make good use of Squirrel Girl and Hawkeye to set up big kill counts with Lightning Strike!
Mulligan Thoughts:
Mulligan hard for hand support – Consider a hard mulligan for Asgard, or 2x God of Thunder. Your deck doesn’t revolve around Mjolnir so you can even pitch it as a resource and bring it back later. Opening up with double God of Thunder sets you up for success. With these strong allies you should be afforded time to flip back to alter-ego and retrieve the hammer!
Always pitch Mjolnir – In your initial hand, you’d rather see more combo pieces and return it to hand as a resource!
Don’t be tempted by Attack and thwart events – Don’t let the allure of Hammer Strike get you early on, pitch these cards to look for cheap allies and resource boosts (those allies become resource boosts through Strength in Numbers)
Multiplayer Tips:
This combo works well in solo but really shines in multiplayer. If you can con your aggression friends for a Enraged on Wonder Man you can get him to 6 attack without events. Add Lead From the Front or Avenger’s Assemble and things get even bigger. Don’t be afraid to ask for cards once you are set up you’ll be able to pay them back by clearing the board every turn!
Join hosts (KennedyHawk, Crimson, and Lester) as they go over the cards recently spoiled for the Thor hero pack. We discuss our excitement for the potential, maybe, hopefully, early release December 20th (Captain America, Ms. Marvel, and Green Goblin in the US), Thor Pack spoilers, and our favorite cards recently added to the spoilers from Cap and Ms Marvel’s packs! Who do you think is truly the Mightiest Avenger of All?
Show Notes:
0:00 Intro and News 36:00 Aggression Cards 50:00 Cap and Ms Marvel New Spoilers Top 3’s 1:13:00 Speculation on the Silhouettes
Thanks for listening and be sure to join us on discord for more content and feedback! https://discord.gg/aVCJkAb
