Selfish Hawkeye

Well, I need one win. One W. What are you gonna do to get me that?

Selfish Hawkeye!

That's right. Selfish Hawkeye. Break it down.

Skate the puck. Don't pass it.

Head man's still gonna be there when you catch up.

Hawkeye's Bow is actually not the most important card to get out right away; the +1 ATK is nice, but it's otherwise not useful until you have enough economy set up to consistently play an Arrow event every round, and early game your economy needs to pay for more economy.

Priorities are things that draw more cards, like Avengers Mansion, and things that generate resources or make cards cheaper, like Helicarrier. Lots of options here, just get as many as you can out in the first couple of rounds, possibly even staying in Alter Ego if you can afford it.

The goal is to get an engine up, whatever it takes to do so, that gives you enough permanent (or at least semi-permanent) resources to:

• Pay a resource on the villain phase to prevent all damage from an incoming attack, and return Mockingbird to your hand.
• When it's your turn again, play Mockingbird again without paying with cards.

The most efficient way is:

• Quincarrier pays for return to hand
• Avengers Tower makes next Avenger cost 1 less (Mockingbird is an Avenger)
• Helicarrier makes next card cost 1 less (Mockingbird is a card)
• Government Liaison plays a S.H.I.E.L.D. card from hand, reducing its cost by 1 (Mockingbird is a S.H.I.E.L.D. card).
• Sky-Destroyer pokes something for 2 damage.

Clarity of Purpose or Enhanced Physique can fill in for anything you don't have yet.

Once we're properly set up, Mockingbird just keeps coming, for a minimum of 2 ATK/THW per turn from her, and 2 damage from Sky-Destroyer, and you still have a full hand (for all the good that does Hawkeye himself).

Take it coast-to-coast.

Shots from poor angles are still shots.

With the above setup, we can finally do something with a hand.

Unfortunately, Hawkeye's deck outside of Mockingbird is a little... inefficient. With 2x Expert Marksman, you can play one Arrow event for "free" each round, and during the rounds you spend getting set up, you might even have Hawkeye's Quiver loaded with a decent selection of trick arrows. However, it's still generally not worth firing more than one arrow per turn, because once Expert Marksman cards are exhausted, you have to actually pay for the arrows with other cards, and you exhaust Hawkeye himself to ready Hawkeye's Bow, when Hawkeye's own basic ATK is already at least 3 -- basically you're paying 3 Effective Resources for a single extra stun or confuse.

So, that's out. What we'll do instead is probably shoot one Arrow, then either basic attack and flip to alter ego, or flip to alter ego and basic recover, depending on what else has been happening. Don't forget to refill the quiver whenever possible.

But the remainder of the deck, then, can't be dependent on anything Hawkeye himself does, like buffing or readying or whatever. Hawkeye gets one event and one basic action. It's fine; it's still a reliable 6 or so damage each round, and a status effect or counter of your choice.

(This is a little easier to handle if I imagine Hawkeye's basic attack as just shooting some normal arrows, and all the fiddling with the Bow and the Arrow Events as representing a more limited supply of Trick Arrows. But it's tempting to imagine Clint just punching people in the face and somehow dealing more damage with that than he would if he used his weapon.)

What's our mantra?

They don't ask how, they ask how many!

So, we've established that the early (and even mid!) game is just about throwing down all the permanents and getting set up to do (worst case) 10 damage with a status effect, and ignore villain attacks. Honestly, this is decently consistent already; it's not flashy, but if you survive to this point and can keep it up, you'll probably win. Even Sabretooth can't out-heal or out-damage that.

But you still have a whole pesky hand that you haven't even used, so what to do with it?

Mostly -- throw allies at the wall.

Call for Aid, by design, can only find Mockingbird. She's that important. But if she's not in your discard and you have Make the Call in hand, you should probably just spend it.

The non-Avenger allies here are all just general high-value allies, staples in a lot of Leadership decks, with the possible exception of Lockjaw -- but part of the deal with Lockjaw is that, if you really need to, you can spend some extra cards on him before Adam Warlock discards a "random" card, and you therefore control the effects. (And Lockjaw isn't bad exactly, either.)

What did I tell you about stick tape?

You DON'T! NEED! IT!

At a certain point, you might actually have a surplus of resources. Feel free, then, to start actually letting other people use Avengers Mansion, Avengers Tower, and Helicarrier. It's weird, I know, but it's better to let these cards get used than just keep them readied on principle. In particular, Quinjet can eventually replay Mockingbird for free sometimes, which will let you squeeze a little extra out of your other "economy" cards if you need to.

Tenacity. You can't teach that.

On harder scenarios (and for "true solo" play), this deck almost certainly needs some additional tuning to make things run smoothly.