Hitting the Gym

You've seen Ms. Marvel as a mall-rat https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/10009/let-s-go-to-the-mall-today-1.0 with dr00 but have you seen Kamala Khan the gym rat? I wanted to like a Ms. Marvel deck and I also wanted to feel The Power of Protection and it turns out this mash-up is really fun. So while I thought using new cards like Fighting Fit and First Hit with Kamala might feel like this...

they didn't. This is the MCM deck of the week deck for 7/10/2021!

You can catch the audiocast here: https://mcm-podcast.com/2021/07/11/dotw-2-ms-marvel-protection/

or watch some Gameplay videos here: Coming soon

or read the write-up right here!

Ms. Marvel - long have I avoided playing this kit. Not because I dislike Kamala. I think she's an amazing character with lots of fun themes and attitude to boot but her kit never really jammed with me. It didn't help she came our around the same time as Captain America who I adore and play constantly, I wanted to find a way to play a reliable Ms. Marvel deck for solo and multiplayer and with the new 1.4 defense ruling Ms. Marvel has a lot to offer.

Overview

This deck revolves around keeping Ms. Marvel fighting fit. You are going to want to hover somewhere from 8 to 13 hit points and use the (then) extremely efficient event Fighting Fit to be your damage source. With a 1 DEF statline this may seem impractical but almost every card in this deck helps Kamala get there. You want to use your resources wisely to reach this peak damage output in what turns out to be a very aggressive protection deck.

The Wombo Combo

There are a few combo pieces you'll want in play to optimize Fighting Fit. First, you need Embiggen!. This allows this event to be 2 cost for 7 damage, this far out damage most attack events in the game. On top of that Ms. Marvel can bounce it back to hand so that one card can deal 12 damage in a round, or be saved to deal another 7 next round! You'll want to have your Biokinetic Polymer Suit suit in hand as well. An optimized turn might include. Playing Fighting Fit twice (using Power of Protection) for 12 and then a First Hit to swing for 14 at the villain all without drawing any additional cards!

Mitigation Plans

As mentioned you want to keep your HP high to ensure your Fighting Fit is actually worthwhile. There are many forms of mitigation in this deck. We have recurring allies to block for Kamala (Clea and Starhawk) we also have allies that can stun the villain (Iron Fist and Mockingbird). These allies aren't great at thwarting but hopefully combined with Sneak By they can maintain some threat balance.

On top of allies we have lots of protection cards to help out. First Perseverance this is the card I'm least convinced on. It's nice to have that tough status on Kamala. It allows you to heal up and stay that way for Fighting Fit but can often be drawn at the wrong time. You could consider a Hard Knocks but I wanted to keep my cost curve a bit lower. Ultimately, this card serves it's purpose and is cheap so it's been kept. Momentum Shift is a game changer with Kamala. You can heal for 2 (setting up Fighting Fit) and deal 2 (or 4 with Embiggen). This lets you clear guard minions and enable your triggering conditions! It also means in the villain phase you don't HAVE to exhaust and bounce Wiggle Room to stay healthy - because you can heal up and smash!

First Hit is a really interesting card. It can be used as a 1 for 2 damage attack (4 with Embiggen) or it can be used as mitigation. Wait? A mitigation attack? How does that work. Let's say a Hydra Bomber is attacking you. You can play first hit to eliminate the attacker BEFORE it damages you! Pretty neat. But there's more. Maybe Thomas Edison is the one attacking you, well you can Embiggen! to boost that first hit to 4 and clear the minion to avoid damage. Wait there's more. Do these minions even lift? Let's say Madame Hydra is swinging at you. And you don't want her to stick any damage. You can play First Hit boost it to 4 damage with Embiggen! bounce it and play it again to kill her all before she swings!

Endurance is the final card to help out with Fighting Fit by boosting your max HP to 13 you are able to sustain some damage to leave room for Momentum Shift all while keeping your Fighting Fit boost enabled. We run 3 copies because often one is spent early as a resource but we want to get one out on the first pass.

What to Aamir?

With Aamir you want to set up your combos. Placing a The Power of Protection, Momentum Shift and Fighting Fit sets up an end of deck turn for healing and 9-14 damage which can be game ending for the villain. Depending on health and status you may want to put different allies on the bottom and never forget. You'll have a card in your deck that allows you to shuffle those Aamir'd cards. Clea!

What to Bruno?

A lot of your deck is a bit situational. Maybe you draw into Momentum Shift when at full health? Stash it under Bruno. Maybe you draw Fighting Fit but you are down on health. Save it for a sunnier day. Same goes for other situational mitigation like Perseverance and Wiggle Room.

What's flapping?

Unflappable may seem like an odd choice. Remember as of RRG 1.4 Wiggle Room now counts as a defense action. So if you play Wiggle Room and avoid all damage you can now draw 2 cards instead of 1. Even if you exhaust to bounce the card and play it again you could draw 3 cards which is great for setting up big turns.

Hot Swaps

Some swaps to consider.

-3 Perseverance

+3 Hard Knocks

You get the same effect but with additional attacks! Also helps clear minions.

-1 Endurance

+1 First Hit

I'd probably recommend this one as 3 Endurance is overkill and first hit has some in so handy.

-3 Perseverance -2 Endurance

+3 Hard to Ignore +2 Side Step

This is a large change. You are going to trigger Unflappable quite a bit more but you'll hopefully set up large thwart removals with Hard to Ignore

I hope like me you consider trying out Kamala Khan in an all new green tint. She can be super fun in protection which is what she came packaged with just make sure to do some extra stretches and keep yourself Fighting Fit!