Captain America - Leadership Ally Spam

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Captain America - Ally Spam 2 1 0 1.0
Captain America - Leadership Ally Spam 0 0 0 1.0
Captain America - Leadership Ally Spam 0 0 0 1.0

RolandWright · 2458

This deck has been designed to capitalize on Steve Rogers' "Living Legend" ability, Captain America's "I Can Do This All Day" and his Avenger trait line - while also fully utilizing the power boost that Leadership received in the latest packs [as of Set 1, Pack 2].

Captain America as a hero is very simple in design and economically friendly with resources. His double Super-Soldier Serum cards play a huge role in any aspect he plays. While Super-Soldier Serum synergizes specifically with Heroic Strike, Concussive Blow, Relentless Assault, and Tackle - the general concept of a simple free-resource each round can be applied in any strategy, which in this case is Leadership and it's more cost-heavy nature.

We have a number of resource generating, discounting, and summon cards to utilize further:

Resource G/D/S

  • Avengers Mansion is pretty self-explanatory. It's a pretty good card if you manage to get it out early game; however, this would be one of the first cards I'd consider removing from the deck if needed. Simply because this deck has plenty of other G/D/S cards that make up for the loss of Avengers Mansion.
  • Avengers Tower is the The Triskelion meets Helicarrier. This is a discounter card that also can increase our ally count by 1. The tribal requirement to increase the ally count is pretty inconsistent. There are too many powerful non-avenger allies to reliable hold hope that this effect will be active when needed (Honorary Avenger is not worth running for this effect alone.) The main use of this card is for another Helicarrier-like effect. Combined with Steve Rogers' "Living Legend" ability, and you can play most allies for free.
  • Helicarrier is a strong discounter card. In some ways, this is a 3-cost Avengers Mansion. With the benefit of not speeding up your deck-out process. The 3-cost is a good selling point, and generally you'll make up that cost easily.
  • Quinjet is a decent summon card that allows us to play Vision, Falcon, or Hawkeye for free. There are some notable downsides to this card; the ally being played must be from your hand. Meaning Make the Call cannot be used in conjunction with Quinjet. Quinjet plays the card itself, meaning resource discounters or generators cannot be used in conjunction with Quinjet. Because of Quinjet's cost; it's most effective when playing an ally that costs 3 resources or more. And lastly, Quinjet's limited to Allies in your hand with the Avenger type (Honorary Avenger is unusable). This means that you can't use Cap's Agent 13 nor other cards such as Maria Hill or Nick Fury. It's a shame that these negatives really hold this card back - but I still think it's worth running. Consider dropping to 1-in-deck if needed.
  • The last generator, Strength In Numbers, is underwhelming when placed under the microscope. It's a card that you really need to play with a few times in order to appreciate the value it brings to your team. Effectively, you're trading the opportunity potential of an ally's stat (THW or ATK) for a card draw (or one resource) and to prevent 1 point of consequential damage to that ally. For some characters, like Hawkeye or Squirrel Girl - it's totally worth it. Trading 1 THW or ATK for 1 resource is a pretty solid trade-off. The bigger use for this card comes from the turns in which your allies are on 1 health, and it's not worth using them to ATK or THW - or on the turns when there is no valid targets to ATK or THW. There's a golden turn with this deck that uses Avengers Assemble! in conjunction with this card. The general idea, is that you use Strength In Numbers to draw a bunch of resources, and then use Avengers Assemble to ready them all and use them with increased stats. This is most effective when your allies are all at 1 HP or you're using a character like Wonder Man who has substantial penalties for attacking. Don't forget to utilize Captain America's "I Can Do This All Day" ability, after playing Avengers Assemble or Lead from the Front.

With all these resource-related cards, the mid-to-late game is fairly easy to play. You're able to get nearly all of your allies out for free (or near free) and continually body-block blows from the villain using your horde of disposable allies.

Thanks to cards like Avengers Assemble! and Lead from the Front - you're able to pull off big damage turns when needed. I chose not to run more than one copy of these cards because I don't want them clogging up the deck early game. Typically, by your first deck recycle, your deck should be about 7 to 10 cards smaller. And if you're lucky, you'll draw these combo-defining cards towards the end of your second deck, when your field is fully formed and ready to go.

Priorities

  • Super-Soldier Serum is a must. Not only is it a generator, but it also powers cards like Heroic Strike which are very strong.
  • Fearless Determination should be played in nearly every round that you've drawn it. It's a free +1 THW for the round and it cycles itself out for a new card. The only time you wouldn't play this card is if you for sure know you won't be in Hero form for the entire round and you don't want to speed up your deck cycling.
  • Maria Hill in nearly all Leadership decks, Maria Hill is a big deal and is super-high priority when going first in the round. In the event that you are playing solo - she is still exceptionally powerful due to her 2 THW stat. Maria Hill is often a prime target for Make the Call but do keep in mind that she's not an Avengers type.
  • Captain America's Shield and Captain America's Helmet should be played as soon as possible. Both cards are fairly cheap to equip, and provide significantly power benefits. Cap's Shield in particular allows him to be quite tanky (+1 def, and Shield Block). With Cap's Helmet allowing a higher degree of pushing your luck towards mid-to-late game.
  • Heroic Strike is a very powerful Attack event. 6 DMG + Stun for 3 resources is significant, however; due to the nature of a Leadership deck having a lot of bodyblockers to use - it's not high priority. Do your best to use this card if you can fit it in, need the damage, lack allies to block for you, lack Shield Block, or need to protect another player.
  • Quinjet is best played early-to-mid game. It's fairly cheap to get on the board, so I would prioritize it over most cards. However, due keep in mind that if the primary targets for Quinjet (Hawkeye, Falcon, and Vision) are already in play or discarded, then Quinjet is safe to pass on playing.

Accomplishments

Expert Villain Solo Strategies (with their recommended encounter sets)

  • vs. Mutagen Formula: Nothing special here. Keep the Villain board as clear as possible. Don't be afraid to use Heroic Strike on cards like Monster or Goblin Soldier. Nick Fury is also something to keep an eye open for. General tip; when causing Green Goblin to go to stage three, be wary of the number of Advance and Overconfidence cards in the discard pile. Annoyingly, the boss can generate over 11 threat off of the 4 encounter cards your about to suffer through. If possible; get the boss to Stage 3 before Mutagen Cloud is in play; as a safety net.
  • vs. Risky Business: Nothing special here either. Heroic Strike is great at dealing damage and keeping Green Goblin under control. If you want to flip Norman Osborn over; it's best to do so when Shield Block is in hand. Or use Allies to flip Norman over while you're in Alter-Ego form; you can Recover and use Steve's Apartment to heal back up, and then use "I Can Do This All Day" to still THW or ATK.
  • vs. Ultron: Let 1 HP drones run into your Captain America's Shield retaliate damage. Use Make the Call and Squirrel Girl to keep the field clean.
  • vs. Klaw: Stay in Hero form as much as possible. Advance is your biggest threat and demands that the main scheme is kept at 0. Heroic Strike spam is great versus the Masters of Evil or Klaw himself.
  • vs. Rhino: Have allies body block for you. If unable to, then defend when attacked. Keep main scheme at 0 or 1 threat until Advance hits the discard pile. This fight is mostly just "Tank and Spank" play. Heroic Strike is very powerful here.

Side-Notes

  • Wonder Man is a weirdly useful card. Primarily use him to soak damage (indirect or otherwise), exhaust for Strength In Numbers, or go for big swings when needed or combined with Avengers Assemble! and Lead from the Front. He can be treated as a 2-Cost, Thwart 3 when needed.
  • Removable cards: Avengers Mansion is decent in multiplayer, but is not a good card for this deck in solo play. One of the first cards I would take out for a better alternative (like the upcoming Teamwork card). Avengers Tower can also be removed for solo play; for either Teamwork, for another copy of Lead from the Front or for even a Mockingbird.
  • Captain America's Shield Setup Strategy: If your opening hand contains Cap's Shield, mulligan it out. Steve's setup ability triggers after the mulligan, meaning you can add it back to your hand. Typically, you should end up starting the game with 7 cards in hand. There is a worse-case scenario in which you mulligan some cards and then draw into Cap's Shield as part of the mulligan. While very rare, this would mean you start the game with only 6 cards.

Outdated - As of May, 2020

  • I consider this deck to largely be outdated. Some new leadership and neutral cards have released that replace some of the slots in this deck. The Black-Widow pack will also shake things up with Rapid Response. I will do a new Cap Leadership deck once the COVID pandemic ends and we get our hands on those new cards.
2 comments

Jan 10, 2020 FreqKing · 25

Very nice write up.

Jan 22, 2020 alanliv · 1

great write up. Tried this deck last night against Ultron. Was great fun. Shield Toss won it in the end when situation looked grim. Getting 2 Super-Soldier Serum out by turn 2 was huge :-)