Stretch · 499
This solo deck is for using Nick as designed with theme and fun decision space. In general, you'll stay in Stealth Form and build up your basic thwarting. Once you don't need thwarting events to control the board (two basic thwarts alone are handling), assault for large spikes of damage and get back down. You don't have enough allies or defense for toe-to-toe fighting.
Mulligan for Fury's Flying Car or Build Support to get it, Fury's Watch or Leo Fitz to get it, Intelligence Analysis, Under Surveillance or Counterintelligence, and one Sonic Rifle.
Grant and Quake have synergy with how Nick works. Quake just stays out to help with minions and emergency blocks. Avengers Mansion, Helicarrier, and Grant's treachery are easy to pay for with Fury's Watch. A priority is getting Fury's Flying Car out in the first deck pass, which is why Build Support is in the deck. Having 5-thwart with Heroic Intuition, Surveillance Specialist, and Soaring Acrobatics would allow you to thwart for 9 every round (Soaring exhausts).
Initially focus on events to keep the threat as low as possible and try to get out one support or upgrade every round. It is alright to have a couple minions out that don't scheme for much; let Quake shake them down. You'll switch to Assault Form when you have the right attack cards and lots of threat on the suit. Then flip back to Stealth form using a Nick Fury event card or flip down. The Sonic Rifle can be used while in Stealth Form, so they and the Foiled! cards are used to keep the scheme from spiking up high.
Intelligence Analysis is the main target for Practiced Plan and cancels repeat villain thwarts. There are only six tech targets (5 repeating) for Jemma Simmons, but they're all strong cards so likely to be used a lot. Leo Fitz is good for finding Fury's Watch early or a Sonic Rifle later, but you shouldn't be flipping down much, so he's not very useful once you have the watch down.
This is a control deck with a lot of Supports and Upgrades to build, so I went a little over 40 cards so that you don't take as many encounter cards in long games. I've played this enough to feel there's a balance of build and events, but I'll change events based on the villain deck and cut all the supports if the tempo starts higher. That's what I'd do if you want to drop down to 40 cards. Avenger's Mansion is nice, but the added supports aren't critical.
Impede is great early game when you need to control threat. Making an Entrance for healing has synergy, because the whole engine is to use a basic thwart once or twice every round. If there are many side schemes in the encounter deck, I'd go with Multitasking instead of Impede. Nick's thwarts are small, so Overwatch isn't as helpful. Clear the Area is one of the best Justice cards in the game, but Foiled! prevents and Impede handles early threat-spikes better. Clear the Area would be great once you're developed, but by then you don't need it.
Against Stalwart villains I'd just ditch the Sonic Rifles, Leo and Jemma, and add a thwart event. For multiplayer or Stalwart villains, I prefer a Honed Aggression deck with only Dive Bombs as added events. The problem in solo with Nick is the low main threat thresholds really need the added Justice thwart events. You can use allies to confuse, but they won't be SHIELD which isn't thematic. That's why Professor X and Dazzler aren't in this deck. Normal allies won't prevent threat from getting on the main, so you'll lose more often from spiked threats. Besides, swarm decks are usually boring. The fun in this deck is deciding when you should assault and when you need to play it safe.