Hello everybody! Who needs those fancy new X-Men heroes when you've got Ironheart already?? She's still my favorite hero in the game, and she has an aaaaamazing identity-specific ally: Brawn!

"New card...what do you think?"

Enter Sidekick. I've been exploring ideas with this card, and starting from the top with my favorite hero of all time, I think we're onto something. Sidekick gives Brawn 5 HP and he becomes your S I D E K I C K. Now on it's own, this isn't that big a deal. But wait, there's more!

"That's very cool, Brawn. But that's nothing."

When you get Brawn into play, you can use his Response to generate a resource to play Sidekick on him when you have the upgrade in hand. Of course, you've got to get there, but I haven't found that too be that difficult, and Ironheart is happy to just play her kit and wait.

But, you don't have to wait that long. I've got a few ways to get Brawn out earlier than just hoping you draw him. Call for Backup of course is the ideal. You get him for free, and if you cleared the side scheme with Fly Over, even better! A sneaky, but sacrificial way, is using New and Improved. If you're only V1, I wouldn't recommend this strategy, but on V2, I've been able to use it to snag Brawn, and choose either the Tough or ready as the second option. This is especially not a bad call if you are in a spot to flip down. You can hold Brawn for the next turn.

"But wait, you ain't seen nothing yet."

Once you get Brawn into play, you aren't just limited to Sidekick. He's got 3 HP, so you can bide time if you're not seeing Sidekick. While exhausted, he can pay for Reinforced Suit, Inspired, or Clarity of Purpose by himself, too. The ideal state is to have Inspired, Suit, and Sidekick on him, then he's 3/4/7 and a resource generator!

Then you can start your brawnstorming session for real, Side-by-Side with Ironheart. I had 3 copies of it initially, but that felt like overkill. It's great as a +1/+1 to get Brawn up to 4/5/7, or as I did in one game, 5/6/7 lol. When Ironheart is on V3, with Assess the Situation, you're going to draw through real fast, so I have definitely played both Side-by-Sides in one turn before. You've also got First Aid and Innovation to help keep the hurt off Brawn until he's really stacked.

"Impressive. Very nice."

Outside of the Brawn/Sidekick combo, the rest of the deck is to help you in your Ironheart shenanigans, and also, have a little theme goodness. Iron Man can come into play and you can give him Reinforce Suit, Inspired, and Clarity for free. I've used him as another resource battery, and if you already have Brawn out, you can get him with Call for Backup, whichever comes first. War Machine is purely for theme, you can replace him with Vivian if you like, depending on what the scenario might throw your way.

Whenever playing Ironheart, I never leave home without Moon Girl because of the crazy card draw. So many mental resources, it's easy to always hit 3 cards for her, especially when you can use Brawn's resource, Clarity, and Ingenuity and spend 0 cards from hand!

I've been playing this against the AoA box, and have had good success. I love playing Ironheart so much, and this feels like another game-within-a-game to add. It also focuses on my preferred Leadership playstyle: don't chump block, build up your good allies and take out the villain as a team.

That's why I don't have things like Make the Call in the deck, which is heresy for a Leadership deck, right?? Not really. Thanks to your leveling up, Tony Stark A.I., Champions Mobile Bunker, Moon Girl, Stroke of Genius, and more, you'll draw through the deck fast enough that you never need to play anyone out of the discard pile. Ironheart can always use her strong DEF stat anyway to avoid chump blocking.