Welcome to the Supernova Explosion deck.

This deck is not your usual protection deck, mainly due to the characteristics of the superhero. But that make it FUN!

Basically, the function of this deck is to control the game through repetitive defenses (Groot + Shake it Off + Med Team + Hangar Bay) and problem control (Black Widow covering Schemes + Karma covering troublesome minions), while you are mostly chilling in Alter-Ego form. Then comes the explosion.

The goal is to buy time, primarily in Alter-Ego form, setting up techniques and drawing cards thanks to our passive ability. Once we are ready with 4 or 5 techniques under our belt, we will switch forms and take care of the problems ourselves. And repeat the cycle. When switching to Hero form, it is advisable for us to soak the enemy's attack (since we will likely return to our Alter-Ego form in upcoming turns and recover health).

This is the new me, a chillin' machine.

Something to highlight is that during this "preparation time" we have, there are some cards that will help us to make progress in the game while we're chilling in Alter-Ego form:

Drax: a Guardian who can deal 12 points of damage to the villain while we prepare to act. For each Med Team token we invest in him, it translates to an additional 6 points of damage. A full Med Team card invested in Drax results in a total of 30 points of damage!

In the 4 turns it takes us to prepare for the explosion, Drax deals 12 points of damage.

Starhawk: a Guardian that combos with Knowhere. 1 THW + 2 ATK + 1 card every turn for two resources.

In the 4 turns it takes us to prepare for the explosion, Starhawk deals a total of 4 THW + 6 points of damage and draws 4 cards in total (if we have Knowhere in play).

Black Widow: an underestimated character who gains greater importance in this tempo deck. She eliminates the most troublesome Encounter Cards when they appear, making our preparation time calmer and without nasty surprises. Don't you ever chump block with the Widow.

Rocket Raccoon: Responsible for eliminating annoying minions so that the threat doesn't increase while we prepare.

Groot: another Guardian Star. He takes care of protecting our teammate when we are in Alter-Ego form or defending ourselves when we don't. This combination, along with Subdue and Shake it Off, works wonders. And even more so when we have Med Team to heal him even more. He's almost immortal.

Professor X: Confuse the villain and decrease the Threat a little.

Karma: another underestimated character, but works wonderfully in this "buying time" deck. It steals an enemy minion (which depending on the Modular Set you use, can be more or less beneficial), reducing the total number of Schemes produced by the enemy and increasing our THW or ATK at the same time. Basically, it's like eliminating a minion and putting two bodies on your board for 4 resources. If you see that there are no minions worth stealing, use it as a resource for your Jump Flip. See "Possible Changes" down below

The rest is self-explanatory. After the chill setup, comes the Explosion.

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Let's talk about numbers:

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The cycling speed of Nebula's deck is unheard of: Being in Alter-Ego form, our hand limit is 6 cards. We have a total of 8 techniques in the deck. An average of one technique every 5 cards.

Therefore, on average, each turn we should activate our Cybernetic Upgrades ability, drawing two additional cards from the 6. So, on average, we should cycle 8 cards from our deck per turn. If we mulligan two cards at the beginning of the game, we would only need 4 turns to completely cycle our deck. This way, we would refresh the precious techniques and allies to keep the engine running.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL...

Once we have certain key pieces in play (Knowhere + Helicarrier + Avengers Mansion + Nebula's Ship) in the first deck cycle, our cycling speed increases even more. Considering that we have 5 GUARDIAN allies in a 40-card deck (without counting that the deck is thinner due to the number of Supports in play that stop cycling), we should, on average, have a guardian ally every 8 cards. That's precisely the number of cards we see each turn thanks to your Alter-Ego ability! If we add a card like Avengers Mansion (possible replacement for Karma for those who don't like it), we could cycle our deck in less than 4 turns.

IMPORTANT: Before finishing cycling the deck, switch to your Hero form and activate all your techniques and send them to the graveyard before it is too late.

1st a.f.c. turn (after first cycle): While in Alter-Ego form, we draw a card with Avengers Mansion (if you decided to put it on your deck), play a technique, draw two cards, play a Guardian ally (or combo with Starhawk) to draw another card. It's likely that we have another technique in hand, which we play to prepare ourselves for the explosion in two turns.

2nd a.f.c. turn: Repeat the process.

3rd a.f.c. turn: Repeat the process. By now, we should have approximately 4-6 techniques in play with a couple of allies. We change to Hero form, take a basic action that we seem necessary (mainly THW, as Drax will take care of damage to the villain, and Rocket Racoon will handle minion damage), and then play your Lethal Intent activating the most techniques you can.

4th a.f.c. turn: We explode again. We activate all our techniques and take another basic action (if we didn't defend against the enemy's attack). Then we change back to Alter-Ego form and start the cycle again.

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Possible Changes:

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Karma for a Avengers Mansion for our draw engine.

I dare to say that even those 3 Jump Flip are not entirely necessary for the functioning of the deck or Nebula's survival. Feel free to change them to adapt your playstyle. Maybe one Nick Fury, and two Deflection to accelerate the cycling and giving a resource to Black Widow. Or even two Assess the Situation for that matter, and prepare for the big explosion getting one more technique, or that nasty sneaky Lethal Intent before all your techniques goes away. Or to assure you get one Technique and one Guardian ally next turn.

EDIT: Seeing next protection card TAUNT from Angel Pack, I can say that Taunt will replace these 3 Jump flips. Why? We don't have any problem taking one big hit from the Villain because we have cards like Subdue, Shake it Off and Wide Stance. With any of these we can safely play two Taunts in a turn without dying because we will have a few allies to defend us when the villain attack us on his phase (mainly Groot). Damage is not a problem to Nebula in this deck. What will we gain? 3 more cards on the crucial part of our plan. When we are in Hero form is our last chance to get more techniques onto the table, and get one more Lethal Intent, or resources to pay for it. If we already exploted, Taunt let us prepare faster for our next explosion.