Steel Rope-A-Dope Con of Heroes 2026

Con of Heroes Deck Posting Season is here!! Kicking 2026 off with an OTK combo deck that isn't otherwise useless. Lean back against the ropes, let the villain hit you as hard as they can until they knocked themselves out.

Synopsis

The deck can pull off a defensive OTK combo. Taunt will force the villain to attack, Anticipated Attack will generate a Tough status card to protect from the attack, and Cuts Both Ways will give us increasing retaliate damage. Force the villain to attack until they are knocked out through retaliate.

The combo uses 6 effective resources. Taunt and 1 card to pay for it, Anticipated Attack and 2 Defensive Energy to pay for it, and Cuts Both Ways. The combo draws 6 cards. Defensive Energy draws 2 cards when spent, Iron Will draws 1 card when the villain's attack discards a Tough, and Taunt draws 3 cards. You're spending 6 and drawing 6, so the loop is self sustaining.

The deck isn't just an OTK deck though. You can play this deck as a regular Colossus deck as it is actually a Turbo draw deck. But, it does have the OTK option, so you can stall out any scenario until you can go for the OTK. Or, you can play normally and beat the game the Ol' Colossus way . This deck works solo or multiplayer. Have tested this against Mutagen Formula on expert solo where I got hit with Shadows of the Past early on. Was able to setup and execute the combo. Ended the game with retaliate 9 on Colossus. (Quick video of the end of the game).

Combo Setup

Thinning the deck is important in any combo deck, so ideally you want to play all of your allies, supports, and upgrades. After playing everything, you are left with 20 cards in the deck. Grant Ward may be removed from the game as a way to thin down to 20 remaining cards. There will be a defense event attached to Jocasta as a way to reduce the remaining events.

However, this deck pulls the combo off even with imperfect conditions. The key cards to get down are Avengers Mansion, Moira MacTaggert, Unflappable, Defense Specialist, Piotr's Studio, and — most importantly, Iron Will. These are the draw cards that fuel deck, and thin the deck down to 34 cards

Allies are also key. Rogue and Shadowcat provide thwart and damage to manage the game. Jocasta is also a good ally for managing the game since she has 2 THW. Jocasta stashes a defense event to help thin the deck as well. ideally she will stash Anticipated Attack. Allies thin the deck down to 29 cards, because I am assuming Grant Ward is removed from the game.

Once we are down to 29 cards we can pull off the combo but there will be an aspect of luck as to what cards we draw. The more upgrades and supports you get down, the easier the combo is to perform. Just don't be stingy with your supports and upgrades as you need them to not be useless. Helping the table comes first.

Combo Execution

The deck is primarily a Turbo Draw deck. You have 6 supports or upgrades that generate card draw. Taunt, Defensive Energy and Bulletproof Protector generate card draw.

Starting the Loop. Beginning in Alter-Ego, Colossus has 6 hand size. Avengers Mansion, Piotr's Studio, Moira MacTaggert will draw 3 cards. In Hero form, we will have 2 Toughs (one retained from the previous turn and one gained on the flip to Hero). Play a Taunt, basic defend with Colossus, draw 2 cards from Unflappable and Defense Specialist, then draw 3 cards from Taunt. This is where the sequence will change depending on the villain's attack.

If the attack dealt damage through Colossus 3 DEF, then you can draw another card from Iron Will. At this point you've drawn 15 cards, and spent Taunt and the resource cost for Taunt. Play a Bulletproof Protector to discard a Tough, which draws a card from Iron Will, then choose to regain 2 Toughs. We want to maintain the Tough to tank the Taunt attacks. Use Bulletproof Protector whenever you need to replenish Toughs. Play another Taunt and take the damage on a Tough. Draw 4 cards, 3 from Taunt and 1 from Iron Will.

If the attack did not deal damage through Colossus 3 DEF, then you don't draw an additional card yet, but are still at 14 cards drawn and only 2 spent. Play another Taunt and take the damage on a Tough. Draw 4 cards.

At this point, regardless of which of the to paths you take, you've drawn through at least 18 cards. You will likely have another Taunt, Bulletproof Protector or Face the Past which will draw the final 2 cards in the deck and reshuffle. You will also have 2 Defensive Energy in hand and Cuts Both Ways.

Continuing the Loop. You want to set aside every card except Bulletproof Protector, Taunt, Anticipated Attack, Defensive Energy, and Cuts Both Ways. Play Taunt, play Anticipated Attack, pay for it with Defensive Energy to draw 2 cards and gain a tough, play Cuts Both Ways. Draw 6 cards. Keep Bulletproof Protector on the side to regain Toughs as needed and generate some card draw in case the loop gets messed up.

A Not So Useless OTK Deck

OTK decks tend to be slow to set up, thus they are selfish at the table and do little to help the board state as they have one goal — win in one turn. This deck does not do that. You can play this deck regularly and end a scenario, especially in solo, before even getting to the OTK. So it's a versatile turbo draw deck that can also OTK.

Game Design Racoon has a great Colossus Taunt draw deck, Stay Perfectly Steel. Check that out for a nice write up on the intricacies of Taunt with Colossus.

This deck is different in that we want to keep our allies out. Med Team is a great card to heal Rogue and Shadowcat. Jocasta can go down as we want to play her to pull a defense event from the discard pile. The allies provide great thwart management and damage output. Med Team cycles in and out quickly due to our card draw.

Hidden Base and The Pericles are great sources of additional Toughs. Pericles also grants some additional status control. Can lean into more status control with Steel Fist. Pericles and Hidden base cycle quickly due to the card draw. The amount of card draw generates plenty of resources to afford the Pericles, even though we do not have any double resources in the deck.

Anticipated Attack, Cuts Both Ways and Not Today! are options to defend for others at the table.