Spectrum - She's green, but she's always ready!

Tried a game with this deck against Thanos and struggled to make use of Leading Blow. Thoughts on making use of this card or replacing it against encounter decks with lots of boost icons?

@josseroo Thank you for playing the deck! Yeah, for villians like Thanos or Ronan with lots of boost icons, you may get very limited use out of Leading Blow. I think replacing it with Indomitable and 2 of Expert Defense, Counter-Punch or Never Back Down would work.

Were you able to win? If you had trouble keeping your hit points up, maybe useExpert Defense would work. If it was for lack of damage, then maybe Counter-Punch. If you saw opportunities to stun, then Never Back Down.

If you do add Expert Defense or Never Back Down in place of Leading Blow, the deck might be at the point where you'd take no damage a high enough % of the time to make Unflappable useful.

My first experiments with Spectrum were with a green deck, using Ever Vigilant. I found that I very often got stuck in the wrong energy form because although you have plenty of cards that let you change, only 4 of them let you change into the form you want (and one of those is quite expensive). I found the same issue with Ready to Rumble - the 'after you change form' timing window depends on having the right cards in hand to pull off.

Glad you found a way to do this deck better than I did!

@InigoMontoya I did not win. Because Thanos hits so hard, relying on hero defense doesn't seem reliable enough, even with enhanced stats and defensive events. That being said, I didn't find any of my resource generating upgrades in the early game.

@josseroo That sucks. Solo Protection is such a tough play.

I might switch out the 3 Leading Blow for The Night Nurse, Preservation and Energy Barrier.

Those would help you get some hit points back without sacrificing a lot of card value.

@adsarfBy the form you want, do you mean Pulsar? I would say I'm more inclined to use whatever form is there. If you're in Gamma, and can ready, do that 6 damage total, If you're in, Photon, and can ready, remove 6 threat if you can. Take what the cards give you.

Switch forms as often as you can to heal/thwart/damage. I didn't really intend this deck to never flip to alter ego, but more one that minimizes flipping to AE, and can keep threat down if you do. :)

except for leading blow, this is very close to what i've been trying out of green with spectrum. she's such a great versatile hero though, and i love her in green. for me, i tend to avoid Pulsar as much and instead rely on defense events, energy barrier, and tough from Perseverance. i pretty much only play Pulsar Shield if i also have another event in hand to let me change forms so i can actually use that ready i got out of it

Nice deck! After trying her leadership pre-con once, I immediately went green because her 3 DEF and ability to profit from using cards that I hadn’t used much until now (namely Ever Vigilant and Perseverance). I found myself slotting in Expert Defense x3 for those times that I had to go for that big THW or ATK. I play mostly two-handed and seem to always have a Protection hero as one of the two. With the current card pool, I really enjoy the versatility of the Protection aspect over the other aspects. As much as I’ve been enjoying Spectrum, I still prefer the simplicity of an event-based Spider-Man deck centered on Nerves of Steel and Unflappable. As an aside, I built a Justice deck for Spectrum and she just THW’d too hard…there was just nothing left to THW anymore.

@dr00 Thanks for commenting and check out this deck! Your write-ups are always top-notch!

I think I may edit this deck to take out Leading Blow, and add in Expert Defense and an Energy Barrier. With the idea of trying to stay on Gamma and Photon for the most part, and using Armored Vest, Allies, and the defense events to stay alive.

@Daringhour7 Thanks for checking out the deck!

I really like Protection. I do gravitate towards the high defense, Unflappable, Nova, Dauntless make the villain punch himself in the face decks. But with this I was trying to see if Spectrum could just start crushing things right out of the gate. Without the set-up those decks need.

I also wanted to side step the Side Step/Subdue damage avoidance decks. I like decks that allow me to use my hero power more than once.

You're so right. Protection is now so versatile. There are so many ways to play it.

Too bad Blue Marvel doesn’t have text that said “Exhaust Blue Marvel, change energy forms.” But then Spectrum would be Dr. Strange-level strong. At least she is aerial from the start without any upgrade needed, that’s a really big boon.

I think Deft Focus is an auto-include for her (11 superpower targets in her kit). I also put Down Time in any of her builds to stay in hero longer.

I like the ideas in this deck, but the inclusion of True Grit intrigues me.

How are you using it? If you are in Pulsar form it is just a 1 THW card, and when you are in Photon... it does not seem worth to exhaust your hero to defend for 1 DEF... I am missing something? Are they really better than Hard to Ignore ?

@wehehe Thanks for checking it out.

I use it in conjunction with Photon, Armored Vest, and either Desperate Defense or Never Back Down. In those scenarios, you'd defend for 4, thwart for 3, and either be readied again or stunned the villain (if you take no damage).

Without the +2 to defense, it's still a 2 defense with Armored Vest, and 3 thwart.

Got it, that's what I supposed but just want to be sure. A little too dependent on other cards for my playstile, I think I'd would go with Hard to Ignore, in a more straightforward way.

I really love how Ever Vigilant works with Spectrum, probably is with the current card pool, the hero which can get a better use of it. I'll have to give this deck a try !

@wehehe Hard to Ignore is even tougher to pull off with this deck. If you're not in Pulsar form, it's gonna be tough to take no damage from an attack. Even if you pull i off, it's just 1 thwart. Unless you're putting in 3 Hard to Ignore cards, but that goes against this deck's concept of little to no set up.

With True Grit, you're getting a guaranteed 1 thwart in whatever form you're in, and 3 in Photon. All you have to do is defend.

Just built this deck and it's an absolute blast!

One thing I wanted to note is in your Alternate cards section you mention Defensive Stance but I think you mean Defensive Training. I can see both being useful, but the latter will allow you to bring back the Protection Events you mention.

Lovely work as always!

@zebramatt Thanks! I changed the write-up. :)

Hey man, love this deck! I just built it but I switched out the three Leading Blow for two What Doesn't Kill Me from the new Sinister Motives and The Night Nurse. It’s really working out!

@Raftman Yeah, What Doesn't Kill Me is a great card for her in Protection. It's a great add to this deck!

I'm trying this deck out again with Symbiote Suit for the 4 ATK or THW. With What Doesnt Kill Me, Ever Vigilant and Ready to Rumble she can ready an extra 9 times per deck cycle so thats a significant number of +1 buffs from the Symbiote.

Also using Multiple Men and Iron Fist to give a few more blocks. Thats 4 blocks and 2 Stuns to go with 3 Toughs from Perseverance per deck cycle too.

Symbiote Suit sure is an interesting card... can't wait to see the Go All Out decks that come out next week that attack for 12+

@teamcanadahockey2002 Those are all great ideas for this deck. I think I'd put Jocasta in to be able to switch to Pulsar if needed. This deck needs updating!