Battle Mage

This deck seems like a blast to play! I haven't had the chance to try out Adam Warlock yet, but after seeing this build, I'm definitely going to use your deck for my first game. Thanks for all the awesome content and deck ideas you share with everyone!

@MaNemJeff Thank you! Let me know how it goes, and if you stream it I'll make sure to tune in!

Great write up. He's an amazing hero with such potential. I love that you kept upgrades and supports to a minimum, which helps keep lots of aspect cards in the deck for his ability.

There's a sweet combo with Adam that would fit this deck perfectly: adding Symbiote Suit boosts you hp by 10, which makes you tank hits and keep those awesome, and expensive, allies. Soul World heals ALL of your HP, and Cosmic Ward helps deal with the extra encounter card. It makes the deck 41 cards, but worth it!

@Goatzilla I considered doing that. The combo you mention is really cool and I like it a lot. The reason I decided against it was because he already has so many upgrades he needs to play on the first deck pass that adding in another one that's 4 cost is a lot to ask in high pressure scenarios. I think Symbiote Suit is incredibly strong, but if I'm playing it on the first deck pass then I'm slowing down my setup of my Adam Warlock upgrades, and then I'm not ready to deal with the extra encounter cards. I think it makes sense playing it on the second deck pass once he is set up and ready to cancel the extra encounter card with Cosmic Ward. And going to 41 cards I don't think will hurt the deck. I normally feel that on the second deck pass I don't need any extra strength to beat scenarios, so you can kind of just choose what way you want to defeat the villain lol. The combo of taking a big hit and healing back almost 20 hp sounds like a really fun way of getting that done! If you try it out let me know how it goes! :)

@Daring Lime I actually have been playing Adam a lot, idk why but I liked him after trying to make a voltron Iron Man deck (I lost to rhino) when I realized that he was not just the cheap character you use when you want to include 2 cards of different aspects that combo really well in solo, when I saw the deck I was a bit sad that you didn't use Magic Attack and Zone of Silence but I think you did include the best choices for Summoning Spell and that's where Adam shines since he can just include every ally that you think it's op with no penalty (since most allies are unique they are not affected by his deckbuilding restriction) I sometimes have problems with setup but he can just reset his deck so fast that I get them again, I personally do not like Cosmic Ward because it is forced, the only upsides are that it works in AE and that it doesn't require you to pay in the villain phase so you start your turn with a full hand, but Protective Ward is much more flexible in my opinion, I once lost a game because Cosmic ward canceled a tough but I got and advance right next to it (expert Ronan)

I was sad too when I cut those cards from the original version. Magic Attack and Zone of Silence both cause you to discard a significant portion of your deck and get you much closer to an encounter card. I'm already discarding a lot of cards with Karmic Blast and Cosmic Awareness so I decided not to include them. I didn't find myself lacking for damage or thwart when I did that. I do love those cards though, and sometimes I'll play the deck with them in it because it's fun and on theme, but I don't think it is stronger to have them over another ally, Under Surveillance, or Full Body Charge for instance. Like you mentioned, it's just so strong getting those allies with summoning spell, and you can loop it with Quantum Magic. I think the difference between Protective Ward and Cosmic Ward is really interesting. That situation you brought up is so unfortunate lol. That encounter card Ronan has is perfect for messing up summoning spell. Protective Ward you can hold in your hand which can be nice to save for what you want. Holding on to it can be rough though if you're losing out on multiple resources, and that it can't work in AE like you mentioned. I prefer Cosmic Ward, but I Protective Ward has it's own strengths. I think it is really well designed that two cards that have essentially the same effect can play so different, and have situations where one is better than the other. Thank you for saying I grabbed the best allies :) I really like the ones I added. Thor was a late edition that gets me out of a lot of tough spots!

@Daring Lime it is a bit unfortunate when you get Pip the Troll instead of one of the big allies, but we all know the oldest trick in the box is Nick Fury with make the call and summoning spell is even more powerful than that, Rockslide was an ally I was worried about, but he is practically a Magnetic Bubble that I get for 3 er if I happen to draw him with the spell, and the other allies are just good in many different situations with the statuses

This looks great! I’m a big fan of Adam but haven’t played him in a little while. Hope to try this soon!

Played this one yesterday and it worked like a charm. Faced off against Unus and got lucky on one part when I let myself get down to 1 HP from a double villain attack turn, but Soul World negated that. This definitely one of the most efficient feeling Adam Warlock decks I’ve played.

Do you have any thoughts about making room for "Welcome Aboard"? I’m not sure if it’s worth it as it really just saves you 1 resource. But I feel like there might be room for it vs taking Vision or Power of Leadership. It does provide a little more versatility in how you spend it because to me it feels like another double wild resource even if it’s not exactly equivalent.

@YourFriendlyNeighbor Ya getting Pip off summoning spell isn't the best. When I played Ronan though I was happy to see Pip. The tough status card against that match up specifically was better than a lot of the other allies would have been. In basically every other scenario though, I'd much rather see one of the other allies. I like the comparison you made between Magnetic Bubble and Rockslide. They are very similar! Rockslide has been a lot of fun for me. I like how beefy he is, and having 3 ATK is great for dealing with minions, and final pushes.

@JWalton77 Let me know how it goes once you try it!

@SortofBoard That's nice to hear that your game went well and you liked the deck! "Welcome Aboard" I think would be a fine addition. The only downside is that you can't use Power of Leadership for Summoning Spell if that's the one you choose to swap, but it let's you play more allies from your hand, and will work for the allies in other aspects as well. I think swapping Vision, Falcon, or Power of Leadership for it could be work out. Another suggestion that someone made to me on youtube was really good. You could try swapping out Power of Leadership for Welcome Aboard, and also swap Vision for Rapid Response. Rapid Response works really well in this deck because Agent Coulson can search it. I'm going to create a section at the bottom of this deck of community suggestions so that people can swap around some cards.

@Daring Lime I always like some good defense so he is never wasted, on the topic of changing some cards around, I actually like the welcome aboard idea because I almost never play the allies, Falcon brings some unique value and one time I got him with the spell, and was able to remove 3 threat, and plan for the villain phase, but so far vision has not been useful, and this deck needs all the resources it can get so using one for the ability each turn is not great, with welcome aboard you just have even more options to play the allies for cheap, because I find myself using them more for battle mage than as allies

@YourFriendlyNeighbor That's interesting to hear your experience with that. Vision felt useful for me. I use the staff to pay for his resource, and I like the ability to attack for 4 or thwart for 3 depending on what I need. He basically clears a whole side scheme or can take out a minion. I never felt short on resources really when I was playing. But even though I like vision, I do think switching him for "Welcome Aboard" would be a great idea and smooth out the process of playing allies from hand a bit more.

@Daring Lime I tried the Coulson rapid response combo and it was the most incredible experience of my life, this is nerfed be overkill but overall the final touch the deck needed for me, I lost a bunch of games due to the relatively low health Adam has, but with that combo, I ended up having more resources to focus on my table, I playde some games against Thanos for theme and for the first time I actually won, I also added Spycraft to get some of that control from Protective Ward but without using resources in the villain phase and that with Cosmic Ward did the trick

@YourFriendlyNeighbor That's awesome! I'm glad that combo worked for you and that you won some games. That's super cool that you got your first win against Thanos! Spycraft does work quite well. Depending on the scenario I think it's worth swapping for Counterintelligence.

@Daring Lime I never played Counterintelligence, it is a great card, but only having one copy, already having Under Surveillance, and not really giving a huge benefit since I flip like 1 or 2 times max in long games, it was unreasonable, Spycraft costs 1 less, can save you from both threat and damage, in harder scenarios like Ronan it can completely counter Fanaticism, or even discard Universal Weapon (not the most efficient use, but nice to keep Ronan stunned), it does kind of the same but is useful for advances or assaults alike, Counterintelligence is not trait locked and can be used in alter-ego, but I normally prefer having 2 or 3 copies, having a cost of 2 I often use it as a resource to pay for other things like my main events, the summoning spell, or setup cards, cost 1 only competes with Cosmic Ward and they compliment each other so it's easier to play, and with coulson staying the whole game with you it's very easy to play

I see where you're coming from about preferring Spycraft over Counterintelligence. I view it a bit different though. Partly because I don't enjoy swapping encounter cards. It just isn't fun to me paying resources to get a different random bad card. In the example you gave of using it on Universal Weapon and Fanaticism that makes a lot of sense though, and Spycraft provides safety against those rough cards. I still don't have fun doing it though. The other thing is that I usually use the Power of cards to determine what I actually play in a turn. And when I have the Power of Justice, it is the same price as Spycraft essentially, in the sense that in both cases it's one discard. Using Spycraft to cancel advance is game saving, and that's good, but I would rather use Counterintelligence in that situation. Advance can end a game, but if you swap it with Spycraft you just get a different random encounter card that could also be game ending. For instance, if you get anything that surges, that is bad, and there are other cards that can cause the villain to activate so it doesn't even guarantee that you won't lose to the villain scheme. Worst case scenario you get a card like Fanaticism after switching the Advance.

Taking all that into account, I feel that Counterintelligence provides me a lot of safety to go to alter-ego and use soul world. It works on the villain's normal scheme, or an advance. Spycraft only works on the advance, so in my opinion, Counterintelligence is better for that.

You mentioned you don't think it's necessary though, which is true if you are winning really easy, but at that point it doesn't matter that much anyways lol. try to get Under Surveillance onto the main scheme as soon as I can, but I'm not always able to do that, so Counterintelligence does a good job as both a backup for Under Surveillance, and it gives me more leeway to go to alter-ego. I do also sometimes use Counterintelligence to just go to alter-ego and avoid getting attacked by the villain and minions if I have to to save hp.

This was a longer response than I was anticipating. So in summary, I have more fun playing Counterintelligence, and I think they fill different roles. Counterintelligence is better at going to alter-ego, which I like to do, and Spycraft is good for cancelling game ending encounter cards like Advanced Glider and Fanaticism. To me, they just fill different roles, and I completely support swapping them depending on the villain and the players preference.

It's really tricky, maybe in easier scenarios Counterintelligence is better because you don't want to cancel most cards, and in extreme cases where you get a really bad effect plus a surge, Spycraft is better because you completely canceled that effect and you were getting a second encounter anyway, so it is a positive trade, but both match up in the middle for me in A tier scenarios, is just that I usually don't want to flip at all with Adam, he has no reason other than healing, and to get the most out of The Sorcerer Supreme I defend with a bunch of allies, so canceling an attack, or, for example, an spell from Ebony Maw (which has surge anyway) can be more useful, I was thinking of adding Basic Spell to get at least 1 option of hero form healing for the same reasons, but I'd have to take out one basic card, 4 aspect cards, or just go over 40 (which doesn't really matter since Adam decks out so fast that he is one of the few heroes I consider can make a 50 card deck work, even better if in end game since you get less encounters)

@YourFriendlyNeighbor I really enjoy 50 card Adam Warlock decks on the second deck pass. If he wasn't as reliant on Mystic Senses as he is, I probably would play a 50 card deck for him. It would make Magic Attack and Zone of Silence better as well. It would fix the annoying thing with Shield Spell spell that sometimes happens where you don't have enough cards on top of the deck to use it.

@Daring Lime interesting, I think this problem can be solved in two ways, you could include super Superpower Training to get a "3rd" copy of Mystic senses, and with 3 targets Quantum Magic can help you get at least one in the table, I normally can't get both out on the first deck pass, but I think that would mitigate the problem, and is still useful for the Karmic Staff and Warlock's Cape, I think one multiplayer combo you will like is Cable, since he can straight up start the game with superpower training, he can give you Mystic senses turn one, and that also allows him to get his Plasma Rifle, this also gives you a second target for battle mage leadership that is actually worth it (since Cable can ready)

I recorded a game I played trying out your deck. It worked wonderfully. It was one of the quicker games I've played and a lot of fun.

youtu.be

@YourFriendlyNeighbor Ya Cable is so good at accelerating setup heroes. Superpower Training is an interesting addition. In all the plays I did though, I got both mystic senses out on the first deck pass. I think there was only 1 play where I missed any upgrades at all on the first deck pass (except for the cape. I don't view the cape as necessary).

@SortofBoard Thanks for playing the deck! I'll link it into the deck write up and make a community post on my channel :)

@Daring Lime I guess is just to make it faster for a 50 card deck, bc rn it's an unspoken rule that every efficient deck must have only 40 cards, but I think Adam can make a 45 or 50 card deck work wonderfully, I wish the cape gave you the aerial trait too, now I can't stop thinking how adam in the game is just walking around, that would let him use all the aerial events too, but just a ready is like 1 extra thwart or damage...

@YourFriendlyNeighbor I wish the cape gave aerial too. He definitely flies in the comics lol. I think in general smaller deck sizes are better, but in specific situations I will go above 40 and I think it's actually better. I think you're right that Adam is a good candidate to go against grain with a >40 card deck.

Thanks for the thorough analysis in your write-up. Love me some Adam Warlock (hero and ally)

@josseroo no problem :)

I love Adam Warlock, especially with 2 of my favorite allies (Psylocke and Iron Fist). Your deck looks really fun.

It seems that Spiritual Meditation is a no brainer to include with the only downside being that it's not exactly that sweet 40 cards (granted, adding it effectively makes your deck 39 cards). What do you think?

@Dansome If you add Spiritual Meditation to the deck I don't think that's wrong. It allows you to procure your hand, and in the best cases find Mystic Senses or a double.

I wouldn't say there's no downside though. Specifically with Adam, you want to count the number of aspect cards in your hand when you discard, so I wanted to make sure I had good odds at getting the extra thwart and damage out of Karmic Blast and Cosmic Awareness. Adding in Spiritual Meditation only makes that slightly worse. But also adding in only 1 copy of Spiritual Meditation only makes it slightly better. The way I see it is if I add it in, if it's in my hand then I could have drawn something else. So when I draw 2 then discard 1, I'm only really getting to see 1 extra card than I otherwise would have if I didn't have it my deck (which is consistent with how you described it as well)

It comes down to what you value more. Slightly better identity specific events, or getting to procure your hand by effectively using draw 1 discard 1 once per deck pass. I chose to have the better events, but really the benefits of either are so small in my opinion that it's really just preference.