Dragul · 14
Rocket Raccoon - Layer Cake
Since I bought GMW I wanted to play Rocket. But his pre-built Deck didn't work for me. First I was disrupted by Drang, later I thought Minions should work out and was stomped into the ground by Ultron. Even Rhino gave me a hard time. So Rocket went back into the box and I tinkered with some other hero's decks. Then I stumbeled about a deck around using Rocket for tinkering around Iron man. And i loved the Idea, but it was not enough to bring me back playing Rocket. A little while later I found inspiration in my first Blaze of Glory Deck and was overwhelmed by the potential Damage it could do. As a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy (the movies) I then decided to re-engage Rocket. I had an Idea of combining these two mechanics, and that is the moment this deck arose. I decided to call it Layer Cake, because there are multiple layers of mechanics packed in the deck.
1st Layer: Preparation
First you will try to survive to get out all your upgrades and things rolling. Try not to do too much damage in that phase, as you must not flip the Villain to stage two. First objective is to have a blocker (ideally Groot), but Star Lord or Goliath is also eligible. Play out your Guns whenever possible. The other Rocket-Upgrades are also high priority.
To get your Card draw machine going, Iron Man is essential and should get a Honorary Guardian asap. Guardians of the Galaxy will then let you draw cards whenever you play an ally or upgrade (very often!). Remember that playing an upgrade on iron man is for free due to his ability (given the Upgrades I use in that deck)! Whenever you need card or have to turn to AE use "Tinkering" to salvage Upgrades from Iron Man or yourself. So this gives you an imense card draw.
2nd Layer: Getting things going
In the second step your personal Upgrades should be set, Groot blocks attacks (perhaps having a 1 Dmg Minion to heal him) an having Rapid Response in the backhand to bring him back, if he is defeated. Try now to get your Iron Man (if he is not allready on the battlefield) and Goliath and pimp them with Upgrades. For maximal effect Goliath should have every Upgrade availible, while Iron Man should have Sky Cycle, Laser Blaster, Inspired. Remember that both allies must have Honorary Guardian for the effect of Guardians of the Galaxy to happen. At the end of this phase try to have two versions of Rocket's Pistol and Particle Cannon in play, both with at least two charges.
3rd Layer: Finishing move!
The last step consists of only one turn, where you unleash insane damage over the villain and perhaps even left-over minions. Play Blaze of Glory to get +2 dmg for every guardian character (so you and your Allies, thanks to Honorary Guardian). Attack with Iron Man, refresh him with the Sky Cycle and attack again. Attack with either Groot or Star Lord for 4 dmg. Attack with Rocket for further 4 dmg. Fire all Guns you have, perhaps play Reload and repeat as often as you can.
Last Layer: The Cherry on the cake
The cherry on my layer cake is Goliath. Using his Ability, he gets a further +4 Attack. So he can hit for 9 dmg, refresh (Sky Cycle) and attack again, so he nets 18 dmg.
Be aware that you should just start the finishing move, when you are quite sure that you can defeat the villains last step, as you will potentially be out of allies after using Blaze of Glory. Furthermore think about consequential damage and be sure your avenger-allies will survive one Attack. And be sure that timing is not easy in this deck (many effects just happen or work best, if any ally and you are Guardians). So this is definitely no beginners deck.
I hope you enjoy the deck, which can under optimal circumstances produce more than 60 damage in one round!
Final thoughts (as I said timing is essential for the really big combos):
One possible move would be (starting in AE) to tinker a tech upgrade from Iron Man (drawing two cards), switch to hero form, play an upgrade to Goliath with Salvage, put the tinkered tech upgrade on the card draw pile, draw one card (the tech upgrade you put on the draw pile, because you played an upgrade to an ally), put the tech upgrade back on iron man (zero cost due to his ability), and finally drawing a card, because you just played an upgrade.
If you prefer playing 40 cards only, I suggest you drop Strength In Numbers and Flora and Fauna.