jimbotherisenclown · 23
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--Changes from 1.0--
- Traded Civic Duty for Enhanced Reflexes. Civic Duty didn't see enough use, and its resource wasn't nearly as useful as even more to fuel big Repulsor Blast strikes or Energy Shield](/card/52018) blocks.
- Traded both Ever Vigilants and Down Time for Indomitable. Not only does it boost again, it also frees up Arc Reactor to grant you two basic powers in the player phase instead of being needed to unexhaust after a defend.
- Removed two Energy Shields. Replaced with Defensive Conditioning and Superpower Training. The extra shields were in here for multiplayer, but this deck is best when it gets to do its own thing instead of expending resources defending another player.
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Tony Stark likes tech. We all know this. So... what if we leaned into that as far as we can go?
Every single tech upgrade we could find goes into this deck. The first goal is to get Iron Man to an 8-hand size as quickly as possible. That means that you want to get out Symbiote Suit and at least six tech upgrades as quickly as possible. This is when you are weakest, but Ingenuity and Futurist are your good friends here. If you mulligan and use Futurist wisely, you can expect to be in fighting shape as early as turn 2. Your biggest priorities are, in order: Arc Reactor, Energy Shield, 1-cost tech upgrades, your side schemes, Symbiote Suit, and Pepper Potts. Superpower Training should be used to get Arc Reactor if you don't have it, or just the most expensive piece of the Iron Man armor you don't have out yet (or that you sacrificed earlier to a Repurpose.
Notice that vast majority of the cards have the icon for use with Repulsor Blast and Energy Shield. You will want to use those cards fairly frequently - I typically average 9 damage with Repulsor Blast, and I've gotten to 13 (the maximum possible with this deck) more than once. Energy Shield is an amazing damage sponge that can allow you to trade a portion of your monstrously large 8 hand size for the ability to skip your defense action.
You'll be using basic powers a lot. This deck is fairly versatile, and Specialized Training allows you to further enhance whatever role you find yourself playing.
Dauntless is fairly easy to meet the conditions for - between the +3 Defense from Symbiote Suit and Armored Vest and the damage reduction from Energy Barrier, Energy Shield, and Forcefield Generator, you should be able to shrug off most attacks. In addition, Symbiote Suit, Endurance, Rocket Boots, and Mark V Armor all give bonus HP in case something does get through, giving you an even bigger buffer at a max HP of 30.
Once you get at least five tech upgrades out (or four tech upgrades and Symbiote Suit), you'll only ever go back to Tony Stark for a rare recovery. Symbiote Suit boosts Tony's REC value to 4, and Arc Reactor ensures that you'll be able to recover and do another basic in the same turn, so you should always be able to just recover for 6-8 two turns in a row and just flip back quickly.
Because of how the deck shrinks so much as you get your upgrades out, feel free to use your Adrenaline Rush, Energy Barrier, Forcefield Generator, Plasma Pistol, and Stun Gun as often as possible - you'll cycle fairly often with this deck, so you'll definitely see them again. For Forcefield Generator specifically, though, it's often best to use up 5 of the 6 counters for defense and then to use Repurpose on the card before you have to discard it - Arc Reactor gives you the ability to do two basics in a turn, and although Iron Man's starting values are fairly meager, the combination of Repurpose, Symbiote Suit, and Specialized Training can allow you to get your THW or ATK to respectable values.
As for minions, your main method for dealing with them is to let them attack you and rely on the combination of Dauntless, Electrostatic Armor, and your Energy Barriers to give you what effectively amounts to Retaliate 5. War Machine, Plasma Pistol, and Powered Gauntlets can help you finish them off or knock off a Tough status while saving the big hits from Repulsor Blast, Supersonic Punch, or an Adrenaline Rush charged basic attack for the villain. Don't waste your Stun Gun on minions unless you also plan to Repurpose it; it's usually better used to lock down the villain's attack so you can get the extra basic on the player phase.
This deck is weakest against extremely quick decks and really scheme heavy decks. While it builds up faster than you would expect (the vast number of upgrades means that Tony doesn't need to be as particular about WHICH tech upgrades he puts out other than Arc Reactor, only that he's getting to six as quickly as possible), decks that come hard and fast like Ronan aren't going to be easy.
You may notice that the deck is a full 50 cards instead of the typical 40. That's deliberate - even with the upgrades that like to cycle back into your deck like Adrenaline Rush, you still have a fairly small deck size once the upgrades are all out, and you'll have a quite large hand size. Going to 50 cards means that the extra encounter cards don't happen quite as often.