Angel - Legendary Stealth Wing

“...Heroes get remembered, but legends never die...” ~The Babe

Player Count/Type : 1-4p / Spike / Timmy
Power Level: High
Complexity: Medium
Key Cards: Stealth Training, Agile Flight

"This multiplayer deck flies high to efficiently remove threat." ~D.M. Tip

History, Legend, and Adaptation

It's been several years since I fielded an earlier version of this deck at Con of Heroes, when, what I thought was as a pretty decent Justice hero turned into an absolute legend. In a single turn, I removed 39 threat against Dark Beast, clearing a path to victory over the next few turns. Now, to be fair, I had a few extra cards from our Captain Marvel Leadership player, but it was still an impressive feat.

This event cemented Angel as a legendary Justice hero in my book. He is now one of the heroes I bring out against the most serious threats in multiplayer.

With enough time passing, I figured it was time to revisit my old friend. The main reasons for this are the release of Everywhere All at Once and Stealth Training, which pairs perfectly with Agile Flight.

The Winged Legend

What makes Angel so good? He is the epitome of a utility character that can handle not only his main role in many decks, but also keep tempo to deal with threats that normally fall under other aspects. Most notably in the Justice aspect, while he is removing threat with Aerial events, he can also deal damage with Archangel's Angel of Death. But he can also defend others in a pinch with Aerial Agility and recur it through Avian Anatomy too.

While he doesn't replace other aspects entirely, he's able to maintain a solid tempo that helps the team along, and he does it naturally so long as you are playing Aerial events. It's very efficient and feels really good.

Take to the Skies

Angel absolutely loves Aerial events, so we've got 17 of them. Expensive ones get more benefit by playing them as Archangel, so we'll want to aim to play the cheaper ones as Angel to trigger Angel of Life and get some card draw.

Ideally, you want to be switching between Angel and Archangel each turn, but sometimes you'll need to heal, so flipping down is fine.

However, when you draw into Metamorphosis, you can flip from one hero form, down to Alter-Ego, and then back up to the other hero form, all while fitting in a Recovery action and triggering Regrowth and Worthington Industries.

If you only have enough resources to play a big event, like Agile Flight or Everywhere All at Once with lots of targets, you'll usually want the damage from playing it as Archangel. This is especially true if the extra card you would have gotten from Angel would go to waste.

Not including Angel of Death or Metamorphosis retaliate, we have 6 aerial events that can deal damage, which I believe is really solid for Justice. If your team needs to ramp up damage for any reason, you can easily focus on it to do your part.

Otherwise, we're here to remove threat and keep it low. Clear side schemes whenever possible and utilize Overwatch with either Agile Flight or Natural Flight for some efficient removal. Remember that you don't have to split the threat removed from Agile Flight. It's also important to remember that Natural Flight can pierce right through Crisis to remove threat from the main scheme if necessary, making the main scheme a decent target for Overwatch when no Side Schemes are out.

In addition to this, remember that Avian Anatomy can return an Aerial event it was spent for back to your hand. This allows you to do some serious threat removal by doubling up on Natural Flight or other events. It provides a ton of options, which is always good.

Up, Upgrade, and Away

The newest include here is Stealth Training. We already want to play Agile Flight as often as possible, and it pairs so well with this card that it's a must include. Not only can we now remove big chunks of threat while dealing solid damage, but we can also provide some pretty consistent utility to pair with our Adaptive Plumage.

Disguise isn't a new upgrade, but I didn't have this in the previous version of this deck. It might seem like an odd include, but hear me out. If you play enough Angel, the sequencing of form switching can be challenging to do exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it. Disguise helps us smooth this out a bit.

For example, there might be turns where you start as Archangel but then need to flip to Alter-Ego. But, if you need some additional threat removal, Archangel has 0 THW, and you are typically forced to use your basic attack on something. Not a always terrible, but usually the more threat you can remove as the Justice player, the better. Disguise improves this situation.

The same is also true in the reverse situation when starting in Alter-Ego. Disguise lets you remove a little threat with your activation, assuming you don't need to Recover, before flipping up to Archangel. It's just nice to have.

WIngmen

The Aerial allies in the deck are the least important to focus on, but they are still pretty efficient and easy to play through The Power of Flight and Team-Building Exercise. Cannonball is probably my favorite because he can stick around forever.

I'm really excited for Angel to hit the table again to face off against new villains and encounters. I love the idea of a stealthy hero swooping in and out of the action to save innocents and remove threats.

The concept of this deck reminds me of a time where I was training across the street of an Air Force base at night. The base was most notably a home to very loud surveillance aircraft that you could hear for miles and it was common for them to come screeching in to land during the day, or even at dusk. However, on this particular night, I was completely awed when this massive silent aircraft swooped overhead about a hundred feet above to land at the airbase. It was barely visible against the night sky but I could just make out its silhouette, that of the B-2 Spirit. It's a moment I'll always remember.

That's how I'm approaching this version of Angel. The Legendary Stealth Wing of a hero, flying around, thwarting, and taking out some bad guys along the way. I hope you enjoy the deck and give him a chance in Justice if you haven't already.

Peace!