Local Woman With Family Issues Steals Overpriced Paperweight

I was initially hesitant on Nebula. I was worried that her techniques were going to be too unwieldy and just not fun to use. But then I tried her out, and she's actually pretty fun.

Like always, in this write-up I'm going to discuss the card options, the strategy, and finally some options for customising your own version.

The Cards

Allies - There's quite a few allies in here. Most of them are guardians traited to gain some benefit from Knowhere, helping to subsidise playing them and also give you an extra ally slot. Eros helps with the confusion strategy (just remember he only confuses minions), Groot can help with your defense, and Rocket Raccoon murders minions (including your dear old sister). A lot of people seem cool on Venom, but he's great solo. You can easily keep the threat on the main scheme under control; additionally, his consequential happens after he's finished his activation, so if you use him to thwart the main scheme and clear it, he only takes 1 consequential. And finally, there's Wraith who has a couple main options: you can cancel some nasty boosts cards if the scenario has some nasty ones, or if it doesn't, just attack for 3 and block--ezpz.

Events - This deck wants to capitalise on thwarting with Nebula and keeping enemies confused (especially the villain). Guardians thankfully have some wonderful tools for that, namely: "Think Fast!", which is a cheap, easily-playable confusion event, and Scare Tactic, which is a cheap damaging event only usable against confused enemies.

Additionally, the deck includes Daughters of Thanos, because it's just straight up money. If you play with a Gamora hero or play your own, there's a lot of value here. Just keep in mine that you must have a Gamora Hero or Ally (not Alter-Ego or Minion) to play it. And finally, there's Making an Entrance, which is a decent way to push your thwart power when you need it, heal when you need it, and occasionally, both. Keep in mind that you still get value if you only got 2 extra thwart or just healed 2; don't feel that you must get both to trigger, especially if you really need the extra thwart or healing; just treasure those moments when the stones align and you get exactly 2 THW which results in 2 healing.

Supports - Crew Quarters is here to help you heal up when you swap to Alter-Ego to help you save your actions mostly to THW. Definitely use your REC if you find yourself really low though. Helicarrier is just really great in practically any deck, and Knowhere will give you a little extra acceleration drawing through your deck.

Upgrades - Heroic Intuition helps you focus Nebula on thwarting, and Skilled Investigator rewards you for defeating side schemes (be sure to include extra copies for your fellow heroes in multiplayer). Sonic Rifle is a great complement to "Think Fast!" and Scare Tactic, essentially being double the cost for two uses. it's a little more difficult to play, since it's twice as expensive and takes at least two turns to use, but it provides a lot of flexibility, confusing or doing 3 damage, depending on your needs.

Nebula's Cards - You don't have a choice. You gotta take 'em, but Nebula has some great cards, and there's some decent strategy to cover here.

Gamora - Gamora is wonderful but definitely a double-edged sword (in some cases literally), getting a decent ally for the cost and also triggering any techniques you may have (more on that later), and running away the moment you see any Shadow of the Past and turning on you. Thankfully again, you can knock her around a bit and convince her to see reason, then she can potentially get her own Lethal Weapon. Because it attaches to Gamora, it can go on Hero, Ally, or Minion Gamora. Just be careful that if you draw Old Rivals, her Hero or Ally will attack you as well, not the Minion.

Nebula Events - Keep in mind that Combat Ready is an Alter-Ego only action, but thanks to all the confusion you have, you'll be able to easily use this. Thankfully, both options are very good. The first option shuffles 2 of your techniques back into your deck. If your deck is looking a bit thin, and your discard is full of techniques, definitely use this option. The second discards from your deck until you find a technique, puts it into play for free, and activates its special immediately. There's a lot of value here, but keep in mind that you do not get to trigger your Cybernetic Upgrades ability since it only triggers when you play them from your hand normally. If it did, you'd absolutely never choose the first option though. As a general rule of thumb, I typically choose the first option with a smaller deck and the second option with a larger deck.

The other event is Lethal Intent. With this card, you can trigger all of your upgrades, but that's not necessarily always the best strategy, but more on that later. There are 3 copies of this, so don't feel that you need to hold onto copies for some crazy combo; it'll come around again.

Nebula's Ship - it's a free on anything you need it for. It's not too complicated. Play it always and be happy you aren't putting evasion counters on it.

Nebula's Techniques - Cutthroat Ambition and Weapons Master are your bread-and-butter thwart and damage options. Unyielding Persistence and Wide Stance give a lot of defensive value, protection you from statuses and reducing damage from attacks. Wide Stance additionally helps scout for some awful boosts and encounter cards (the value of this card is severely underrated), and Unyielding Persistence gives Nebula a tough, which is always welcome.

Strategy

First, a Comment on Combat Protocols - One of the main things for Nebula is how different she plays to other heroes. While there are some similarities, no other hero plays exactly like her. Thanks to her hero ability, Combat Protocols, at the beginning of your turn, you must trigger all of her techniques in play. This may seem simple, just resolving them one at a time, but there is actually a little nuance to this. As explained earlier, Nebula's primary damage and thwarting techniques are Cutthroat Ambition and Weapons Master. If you happen to have both out, definitely trigger Weapons Master first so it gets the passive benefit from Cutthroat Ambition (Overkill and Piercing). Definitely trigger either of them before Evasive Maneuvering so you can bypass Guard, Patrol, or Crisis; the Stun or Confuse won't matter until later in the round anyway. For the most part, it doesn't tend to matter after that, but triggering Wide Stance will give you a better idea of what the villain is going to do that turn to decide how you may way to resolve Evasive Maneuvering, and just be careful with attacking any Retaliate enemies, but if you resolve Unyielding Persistence last, you won't lose right away to some ping damage. If the retaliate on the only enemy in play might defeat you though, that may be the right strategy, so try to keep that in mind.

The main strategy for this deck has been explained above, but it's quite simple: confuse the villain, win. There are a few bits and bobs here and there, but that's the basic strategy. Keep the villain confused with "Think Fast!", Sonic Rifle, and confuse minions with Eros. Use the confusion to swap when you need to so you can get free* techniques with Nebula's Alter-Ego ability. Punch confused enemies with Scare Tactic and Sonic Rifle. There's a lot of great allies who can help with damage and block for you. Nebula should spend as much time as possible using her basic action to thwart.

• Her ability is only helpful if you have techniques in hand

All of Nebula's techniques have a passive effect that you will get for effectively one turn, no matter how often you flip to Alter-Ego. You also get one strong special effect at the beginning of your turn only if you are in hero forum, so spending time in Alter-Ego is just delaying the effectiveness of them. So why is this deck trying to confuse the villain and swap a lot? Because of Cybernetic Upgrades, which effectively gives you two free upgrades per swap (terms and conditions apply: you need one in your hand after you swap and draw another before the next turn, but the value is great). So definitely don't swap just to keep her techniques out longer since you're really just pushing back any value you had from them, but if you have one in your hand that you won't get any immediate value from, go ahead and swap to play it, draw up, and hope you get another next turn and play that one 'for free' too.

Lethal Intent is a great card in terms of value and fun factor, but be careful with trying to go too big. Sometimes it's not valuable to trigger your techniques more than once, like Unyielding Persistence or Wide Stance. Just keep in mind that playing it with exactly one upgrade allows you trigger its special one time, and that's perfect value, since it's exact same cost as the technique you played. It's perfect for Cutthroat Ambition and Weapons Master in nearly all situations because 1 resource and a card for 4 damage or 3 thwart is good value on its own. For each extra trigger you get, you're just getting more efficient, so definitely take advantage if the situation calls for it, but don't break yourself or bend over backwards just to get the most value. You're already getting value, and a cost X is really helpful as a way to dump resources in your hand, so if you have some else important to play first, go ahead and do that and just play the rest of your hand. Also remember that thanks to called actions, if you are playing multiplayer and are not the first player, you can call an action to play it before your turn then trigger them all again at the start of your turn (Thanks @Schemndrix for that tip!)

Customising For Your Own Tastes

This deck is quite fun, but it's not everyone's cup of yaro root tea. Still not convinced about Venom? Take him out! Here are some decent options for you:

Allies - Cosmo and Wiccan work really well with the scrying you get from Wide Stance (thanks for the tip, @Astrodar!). Additionally, staples such as Ironheart and Spider-Man still have value here, especially if you find you aren't getting enough from Knowhere. And if you are playing Knowhere, Drax is another solid option for putting pressure on the villain, and Quasar is good for multiplayer. In higher player counts, Jessica Jones and Spider-Man are great options as always despite not working with Knowhere.

Other Thwart Options - Being Thanos' daughter has its disadvantages. Since Thanos has Stalwart, the confuse strategy simply doesn't work there, so you should cut all the Justice events (even Making an Entrance) and Sonic Rifles (Keep Heroic Intuition) and instead bring the normal thwarting staples like For Justice!, Clear the Area, and Multitasking. Crisis Averted is nice as well and complements her built-in options for bypassing Crisis. Absolutely don't forget to bring a Sense of Justice though. Since you lost a lot of your damage options, including some Turn the Tide will make up the difference. One Way or Another also helps put this strategy together.

My suggested changes for stalwart villains:

-3 "Think Fast!", -3 Making an Entrance, -3 Scare Tactic, -2 Sonic Rifle // +3 Clear the Area, +3 For Justice!, +1 One Way or Another, +3 Turn the Tide, +1 Sense of Justice

The strategy changes a bit; definitely keep threat down as much as possible, and try to defeat side schemes to keep your cards coming from Skilled Investigator and uber cheap damage from Turn the Tide. Grab any elusive side schemes with One Way or Another.

For multiplayer, drop Venom and Clear the Area for more Skilled Investigator, at least one copy of Crisis Averted, and try to include Cosmo, Jessica Jones, Quasar, Spider-Man, and/or Wiccan.

Final Thoughts

Nebula really surprised me with how fun and consistent she actually was. She is especially fun to play with another player as Gamora with easy Daughters of Thanos access and no losing your signature ally to Shadow. Justice is not the only method of playing her, so be on the lookout for more options, but Justice is actually really smooth. She has a lot of versatility and many options available. Before to comment how you are getting on with her.