Introduction

Hello! Thank you for choosing Stark Industries for your deck needs! Here at Stark Industries we build Marvel Champions decks for Iron Man (shocker right?). Like Mr. Stark's many suits, no two Iron Man decks are the same. Iron Man offers one of the most unique and powerful sets of identity-specific cards in the game. This allows for nearly endless customization outside of his identity-specific cards as Iron Man automatically comes with the essentials. Let's dive into this deck's role, how it works, and why it's awesome. ;)

Like Many of Mr. Stark's Suits, this Deck is Built for a Specific Purpose

Due to the versatility of the Iron Man hero and his ability to scale, there are many permissible Iron Man decks out there containing just about every aspect. For this reason, it is important to discuss the role this deck seeks to fulfill. At Stark Industries we have made peace with the fact that the fellow Marvel Champions (MC) players we normally play with do not like Justice. (This is not a blanket statement for all players, but in our play group Justice is by far the least loved aspect). This means threat can at times become quite a problem.

So, to the Repulsor Blast enthusiasts reading this saying: "ahhhhhhhh why are there so many non- cards?! My Repulsor Blasts are gonna feel like merely a tickle to the villain! ahhhhhhhhhhh", I say, "chillax friend, go find our other build "Full Power"".

Because Iron Man naturally comes with large damage output, pairing him with Justice is the best way to make him an amazing all-rounder. When playing with our normal play group, this is exactly what is needed. A hero that can decimate threat but also pull their weight by dishing out huge amounts of damage at the end. We imagine that other players may find themselves in similar situations and will find this build useful. In summary, this deck thrives in multiplayer when there is at least one other hero that can handle minions and help keep the villain busy while Iron Man gets built. However, it shines in both standard and expert solo play.

Deck Inner-Workings

The goal of this deck is to primarily control threat, leaving the other heroes to do their thing without having to worry about losing to the ticking time-bomb that is the main scheme. Early on For Justice! will be king. Unless you start the game with Rocket Boots, Yaw and Roll will not be useful. Between basic thwarts and For Justice!, along with a bit of help from other heroes, Iron Man can keep early game threat in check. Use an Under Surveillance to provide more wiggle room as you build, especially in solo mode. In the early game as you set up utilize Invisibility Gear. Not only is it a resource, it is a Tech upgrade (increasing Iron Man's hand-size), and it can stop weak Iron Man with only 9 HP from taking damage by forcing the villain to scheme (after which Iron Man laughs and then promptly removes that threat with a For Justice!).

Getting Ingenuity, Pepper Potts, one Rocket Boots, and Arc Reactor are mission critical. This really opens up Iron Man. Ingenuity with its resource means essentially permanent aerial, turning on both Yaw and Roll and Supersonic Punch. Arc Reactor basically doubles our basic thwart capabilities, which are enhanced by Heroic Intuition. When the "Iron Man build" is nearly complete, he will likely be able to move away from For Justice! and utilize solely Yaw and Roll and basic thwarting. This usually corresponds with the mid-game. This opens up resources for more allies and the heavy-hitters which will be needed for the end-game (haha see what we did there?).

The end-game is where Iron Man shines brightest. For most of the game other players may scoff at you. In the early game you need babysitting, in the mid-game you are focused on removing threat - a job that goes unrecognized and under-appreciated. The end-game is when we blow their socks off.

Why Iron Man Can Do it All

Iron Man is one of the few heroes that relies so heavily on upgrades and supports. This originally was a bit of a curse as early on in Marvel Champions there was next to no upgrade/support protection. Without his gear, Iron Man is quite weak and a perfect string of encounter cards right out of the gate can snuff him out before things even get started. However the turns have tabled recently. The introduction of Invisibility Gear and Front Organization provide excellent upgrade protection for Iron Man. Invisibility Gear is not a forced interrupt, meaning you never have to trigger it. Therefore is can always be available to eat up the next pesky Caught Off Guard, leaving all our essential equipment intact for just 1-cost. The same can be said for Front Organization but for a whopping 0-cost, insane (like whose idea was that? idk but we are here for it).

The reduced threat of cards like Caught Off Guard leaves Iron Man in a unique position. It is these very upgrades and supports that where once a burden that allows Iron Man to scale like no other hero, and now at historically low risk.

Because upgrades and supports remain in play, their whole value is often never realized (especially if you don't play Iron Man or a similar hero). Those upgrades and supports have recurring abilities that are dependable, do not take up space in hand, typically do not require additional resources and on the contrary often offer additional resources to what the hand can offer. And therein lies the magic.

Iron Man can afford to deal damage AND remove threat. He can do it all. That is what many other players do not understand (and frankly what we seek to highlight with this deck). The reason this deck was made was because our play group needed a hero who could thwart because theirs couldn't (what a bunch of noobs lol). So typically players are not used to considering there could be a deck out there that can do damage and remove threat, and do both efficiently.

Once about 75% built Iron Man has enough on-board abilities in the form of upgrades and supports to equal a normal hero's capabilities from hand. And then on top of that Iron Man has his own hand (which by the way can go to 7, boo-ya Master of the Mystic Arts). So typically, you will find that Iron Man's upgrades and supports can provide the abilities and resources to remove threat in addition to his basic thwart, while the hand provides the resources and events to deal immense damage as you have perma-aerial. No need to worry about when that much-needed event will show up next from your deck or how you are gonna pay for everything mostly from hand. Nah, with Iron Man half your deck is on the board doing all the things a normal hero can do while your deck will be down to 30ish cards once built and you'll be recycling Repulsor Blasts like its going out of style.

So other players can scoff all they want, just wait until they watch you remove 14 threat, deal 40 damage, and then eliminate a minion as a finishing touch all within one turn (yes, we've seen it happen multiple times, it never gets old).

Other players may doubt, but if questioned you can say: "I know exactly what I'm doing". And then proceed to knock their socks off.

~ Stark Industries