The Scarlet S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Scarlet Shield

This deck answers the question "What if Nick Fury had gotten to Wanda and Pietro, and they became agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?" with "She'd become The Scarlet Shield rather than Scarlet Witch!"

Wanda's Alter-Ego ability, Agatha Harkness, and the "pseudo-draw" Mystic cards (Spiritual Meditation and The Sorcerer Supreme) help you get your S.H.I.E.L.D. Supports and Allies set up FAST, and Global Logistics does an absolute TON of work in this deck!

See how it plays against a minion-heavy villain!

Halloween Special: Night of the Goblin Thralls

Deck Synergies

Global Logistics should almost always be the first card played on a turn if it's in hand because it does a tremendous amount of work for you:

• It triggers a Sky-Destroyer "ping"
• It sets up favorable Hex Bolt & Molecular Decay turns and eliminates their randomness, which helps plan out the turn
• It helps set up a favorable villain phase
• You could search through the top 4 of your own deck to set it up for the next draw as well (but I've never done that).

The deck has some expensive Support cards (Sky-Destroyer and Helicarrier) which are hugely important, but you have two ways to get them in for "free":

• Build Support: It's tempting to go for Sky-Destroyer first but Helicarrier is far more valuable because it discounts a card every turn (and possibly more than one...)
• Chaos Magic, which is also very useful for playing your expensive allies for "free":
  • Agent 13
  • Nick Fury
  • War Machine
  • Quicksilver (unfortunately not S.H.I.E.L.D.)

You will pretty quickly get to a point with Government Liaison and Helicarrier in play, discounting all of your S.H.I.E.L.D. cards by two, which frees up resources for Hex Bolt and Molecular Decay.

Agent 13's Response lets you ready Helicarrier (or any S.H.I.E.L.D. Support) to get its resource discount again.

Piloting the deck

This deck doesn't really take very long to build up! Between Chaos Magic, Build Support and all of your "card draw" (Agatha Harkness, Spiritual Meditation, and her Superpowered Siblings Action), you can find and play the pieces you need pretty quickly.

On your first deck pass prioritize building rather than blasting. Keep your board clean with Sky-Destroyer and hero or ally thwarting / attacking. Don't hold on to Molecular Decay or Hex Bolt to the detriment of building up, but use them to manage the board if needed.

Try to only use Hex Bolt when you can play Global Logistics beforehand, and as early in the turn as possible. Never Thwart or Attack before playing Hex Bolt because there's nothing worse than drawing three 1-boost cards while there's no threat anywhere, or a couple 3-boost cards against a Stalwart villain (although there is some Crest mitigation available).

While I'm talking about Hex Bolt, there are few things more satisfying in this game than using it to turn those two Advances into 4 damage!

Even when not using Global Logistics to set up Molecular Decay or Hex Bolt, it's a powerful tool for setting up the Villain phase:

• "Okay he'll attack for 2 plus 0 because I'll stack Advance as his boost card, I'll discard Shadow of the Past and let this minion come in as the encounter card because I can ping it away with Sky-Destroyer when I play Quake for free next turn." OR
• "Well all of these suck but I don't want to discard all of them because the Encounter Deck is getting thin. I'll take the +2 boost on the attack, and it won't be terrible if it takes two turns to thwart this side scheme off. But I'm totally discarding my obligation."

Never use The Sorcerer Supreme as a resource because it's trading 1 resource now for 1 resource every hero turn for the rest of the game, and always play your Spiritual Meditations to help draw into the cards you need. It nets you 0 cards, but it's trading cards you don't need for ones you potentially do, like a double or Chaos Magic to get another build-up piece in.

Even while you're building if you find yourself in a good position and have the resources, go ahead and fire off a Hex Bolt or Molecular Decay to remind the villain that you're still here!

Agent Coulson, Spycraft, and Magic Shield

Agent Coulson's Response will grab you Spycraft, but I typically use it as a resource unless I haven't seen Caught Off Guard yet. Not to use Spycraft's effect, but to have an upgrade to discard so I don't have to discard a more valuable support or upgrade! Shadow of the Past isn't too terrible for Wanda, so if I hit it I hit it, BUT I'm always going to discard it if I find it with Global Logistics!

The same goes for Magic Shield. You can put a couple on the board and let them sit to "soak" a Caught of Guard or some damage, but only do so if you have the resource to spare.

Mulligans

As stated above, the first deck pass is for building, so don't be afraid to mulligan almost any Scarlet Witch card away in favor of that except for Chaos Magic, Agatha Harkness, a Magic Shield for early damage mitigation (if needed), or Scarlet Witch's Crest.

Wanda's Superpowered Siblings Action gives her a 2-card mulligan any time she's in alter-ego which further helps dig for building blocks (and nets you a card if Quicksilver is in play), and Agatha Harkness gives her a draw-filter for further digging.

The struggle is real

This deck struggles against villains who hit you with too much too fast to be able to build and survive at the same time, but it builds out pretty quickly. Magic Shield comes in handy in those games, but you have to stabilize quickly.

The Scarlet Shield

Agent Coulson: He's down director!

Nick Fury: Then let's make sure he stays down! [looks towards Wanda]

Wanda: [With glowing red eyes she nods to Fury, then levitates into the sky]

Nick Fury: [Through a communications device] Get clear gentlemen, The Scarlet Shield is inbound!