Boots on the Ground

The Science of Destruction

I never really played much Captain Marvel when the core set released. I found her playstyle pretty basic and boring as a starter hero. With Angel out, I wanted to try and really utilize an Aerial build for her and quickly realized that it wasn't fun and didn't work with the low level of tribal support. So why try to get in the air at all? Instead we can win the war with Boots on the Ground, fighting as Carol Danvers.

This S.H.I.E.L.D. justice deck is focused on trying to stay in Alter-Ego as Carol Danvers for the majority of the game, flipping only when necessary to take advantage of powerful attacks limited to Hero form. This allows us to fully utilize the Commander ability and the extra card draw from Alpha Flight Station to set up strong Hero turns with Energy Channel.

While there's plenty of S.H.I.E.L.D. Alter-Egos that can run a justice deck like this, none have cards like Energy Channel that allow you to stay in Alter-Ego and spend resources to build up extremely strong attacks.

(Thanks to IcyHaze, whose Shooty Plane Lady Saves the Day provided a framework for me to tinker around with and gave me inspiration for this deck!)

Catching Flak

This is the part of my writeups where I typically go into a deep dive about the character's strengths and weaknesses and the part where you tune out and decide that you don't want to read a short essay about a hero. I'll spare you this time.

Here's some bullet points summing up my experience playing Captain Marvel:

• Commander is great! What a powerful ability
• Rechannel is fine to get a more useful card in hand, though not as good as Commander
• Alpha Flight Station is a nice way to pitch a card and get one back. It's a weaker Rechannel in Hero form but shines in Alter-Ego
• Photonic Blast is a solid attack as long as you get the card draw. Otherwise I'm not playing it
• Crisis Interdiction feels terrible to play, even if you have Aerial
• Cosmic Flight is overcosted and a strange way to get a trait that seems central to one of her events. Why would I ever want to discard this?
• Captain Marvel's Helmet is also high cost for very little and I rarely want to defend (except to keep Aerial, but do I care?)
• Energy Channel is a lot of fun to pull off. It's too bad you can only have 1 in play at a time
• Energy Absorption is great for Energy Channel and Photonic Blast as well as higher cost allies
• Spider-Woman is good for a confuse, but do I have the thwart power to risk a flip?

So Aerial is pretty useless, thwart is not good, attacks are solid, and many of the best cards or abilities aren't locked to Hero form. Plus you can build up powerful attacks with Energy Channel in Alter-Ego.

Anything Captain Marvel can do, Carol Danvers can do better. So that's what's going to happen.

Rallying the Troops

Only a few cards are central to the strategy and worth a mulligan.

• Alpha Flight Station is going to let you discard one of those annoying Hero action cards and draw 2 more, so you need it out as soon as you can
• Agent 13 allows you to use Alpha Flight Station twice, so she's pretty important to get out and keep out
• Build Support allows you to get Alpha Flight Station out. Are you noticing a trend here?
• Spider-Woman and Dazzler get a confuse on the villain

Once you've got Alpha Flight Station and Agent 13 out, you get to engage in a very powerful loop allowing you to quickly populate the board with cheap S.H.I.E.L.D. cards to make the most out of Alter-Ego.

Following Orders

With the exception of Spider-Woman and Dazzler, every one of the allies in this deck are S.H.I.E.L.D. cards (yes, even Hope Summers while in Alter-Ego). Plus, while in Alter-Ego, so is Carol Danvers!

You've also got a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D. supports including a copy of Field Agent, a Helicarrier, a Sky-Destroyer and some Surveillance Teams in addition to the signature support in Alpha Flight Station.

That's a total of 13 targets. No matter which way you set up, you'll always be able to take advantage of Global Logistics and Homeland Intervention to see what's coming and remove some threat and you won't be sacrificing much to do so. Because Carol herself is a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., neither of these cards are dead on turn 1.

Agent 13 in particular is incredibly useful due to her synergy with Alpha Flight Station, allowing you to use her response to ready the card and therefore trigger it twice in a turn. Use her while still in Alter-Ego and you'll be able to discard 2 cards and get 4 back. Field Agent helps to keep her alive, though unfortunately its ability is limited to a Hero response. We've got a copy of First Aid to help her heal because you'll want to use her in Alter-Ego for the superior card draw.

On the Front Lines

There are only a small minority of cards that require Hero form to trigger in this deck.

• Photonic Blast and Crisis Interdiction both require Hero form to play, but you'll pretty much never play Crisis Interdiction. It's a nice resource to spend on Energy Channel
• Cosmic Flight can be played in Alter-Ego form but can only be triggered to discard in Hero form
• Energy Channel requires you to be in Hero form to deal the damage but you can both play the card and spend the resources in Alter-Ego
• Field Agent requires you to be in Hero form to use its ability but is playable from Alter-Ego form

Every other card is playable from Alter-Ego and can trigger in Alter-Ego, which allows for a lot of freedom to progress the scenario. With only 6 dead cards if we stay in Alter-Ego, you are always going to be able to spend those resources and be efficient with your hand.

In the Trenches

There are many battles you must win to end a war victorious, requiring tactical battle decisions to be made. Here's some of my favorites.

• We can Lay the Trap in any good justice deck. But attaching Followed and Chance Encounter allow for 5 (per player) damage to the villain, 4 extra damage to the villain, and grabbing Spider-Woman or Dazzler for a nice confuse, all while staying in Alter-Ego. You can re-use these cards with Build Support and any other side scheme in play
• Use Homeland Intervention to calculate what's coming. Give yourself a surge effect for your first encounter card followed by something easy to deal with so you can trigger Espionage for even more card draw
• Bank a stun on the villain with Mockingbird so when you do eventually flip to Hero, you deal with an enemy unable to do anything substantial to you
• With card draw so high, you will cycle Spider-Woman and Dazzler enough to confuse the villain reliably
• Play Spycraft and Espionage easily with Agent 13 staying on the board for as long as possible and bypassing the Spy requirement. If that doesn't work, you've for 4 other Spy allies to help out
• Play Hope Summers and grab Energy Channel with her enter play ability. Because it's a superpower card that's 0 cost, you can always play this (unless you already have one out)
• With the card draw already so high, use Nick Fury to deal 4 damage to particularly annoying minions. Time this play with your flip to Hero form to make the most out of his chump blocking
• Utilize Monica Chang to get out Surveillance Teams fast to have more targets for your S.H.I.E.L.D. events
• Trigger your Sky-Destroyer off of your 0 cost S.H.I.E.L.D. events to chip away at minions or tough status cards
• Use all of your allies to keep threat low and minions defeated. Save up all of your Energy Channels for the villain if able

Fallen Soldiers

These cards just didn't make it in despite strong potential.

• Beat Cop only being able to deal damage to minions ended up losing its spot to Surveillance Teams
• Dum Dum Dugan worked well with everything but I never played him. You could probably swap with Quake if you wanted
• Jack Flag goes along with the theme but isn't S.H.I.E.L.D. and unfortunately wasn't as valuable as I had hoped. If he was 3 cost, he might have made it in
• Sidearm is nice to attach to Agent 13 but I'd rather just use her to thwart
• Sonic Rifle is a nice confuse banked on the board but only being a Hero response makes it not that viable
• Superpower Training helps me get 2 cards I dislike playing and 1 I like. Captain Marvel's Helmet and Cosmic Flight aren't that useful to put into play and grabbing the 0 cost Energy Channel with such strong card draw isn't worth it if I can already recur it with Hope Summers

Spoils of War

^ You after trying this deck

This deck has served me well in solo and multiplayer. Steady and Stalwart require an adjustment to strategy but not by much. You just have to rely on chump blocking with allies more, keeping threat extremely low and being in Hero form more often for a bit of a slower win.

Either way, I'm finding it a fun and unique way to play Captain Marvel and hope you do too. Thanks for reading!