Minimal Buy-in Dominance (AoS+)

This is a deck in a series I'm putting together using only cards from Agents of Shield onward (AoS+). Even though so much of Marvel Champions is inaccessible to new players, it's still a game for everyone!

So, Echo. She's one of the most versatile and powerful heroes on the block, and, with the release of Luke Cage's pack, she received a combo so powerful that it makes most of the rest of her deck inconsequential. Not only is it crazy strong, it's guaranteed on the first turn!

It's so strong, in fact, that I decided to see what we could put together if we only bought the Core Set, the Fear No Evil box, and the Luke Cage hero pack, a fairly reasonable amount of content for new players to purchase within their first month or two in the game.

Here's how Turn 1 works:

1. Draw 6 cards. Mulligan Innate Reflexes. It literally doesn't matter what the rest are, but you can mulligan Daredevil and See No Evil, Hear No Evil safely.
2. Flip to hero form and find a Dynamic Duo if you don't already have it. If you do, find a different event which you’ll spend as a resource.
3. Pay for Dynamic Duo (and tuck it) to find Daredevil and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. If either are in your hand, spend them to pay for Dynamic Duo.
4. Play Daredevil.
5. Attack or thwart with Daredevil.
6. Play See No Evil, Hear No Evil (and maybe tuck it).
7. Attack or thwart with Echo.

That's 2+3+3+2 damage/thwarting in whatever combination you want. 10 points of output. On turn one. That you can apply however makes the most sense. If you think you're going to need to chump block with Daredevil then don't tuck the See No Evil, Hear No Evil, that way they're both in your discard to be tutored once again by Dynamic Duo. Use Muscle Memory and Photographic Reflexes to do this for the rest of the game.

Since our hero activations are good but not likely needed for attacking or thwarting, we're going to build into defense instead. Armored Vest and Innate Reflexes (when we get it on the second deck pass) will get us to 4 DEF. Not great, but not too bad.

Leaking damage doesn't matter too much because we're going to get Improvisation on the board ASAP to make See No Evil, Hear No Evil give us 1 healing and 1 more damage. As if it needed help. Superpower Training helps us get Improvisation into play quickly and relatively cheaply. The Rez supports our healing, and with a little forethought we can get a Tough out of Toughen Up. Black Belt not only gives us 1 more health to make proccing Toughen Up easier, but it also lets us use Stick to improve (or reduce, I guess) our Recovery stat.

Powerful Punch and Get Their Attention are both fine cards with okay output, but they're also both double-traited, meaning Improvisation gets even more value out of them. We might not be able to maximize them with just these packs, but they're almost never unplayable bricks in our hands, either.

The rest of our allies, supports, and upgrades are the best of what we have available out of this card pool. Honestly, if Protection isn't your cup of tea, just swap in anything that looks fun from any other aspect. Aggression and Justice are both fine options that come with plenty of attack/thwart cards. We lose those in Leadership, but get stronger allies and card draw in return. The Dynamic Duo rotation will do most of the heavy lifting no matter what we play.

At the end of the day, we've got a safe, reliable, high-output hero that can handle just about anything the game can throw at her, an excellent option for new players who want to try more difficult content.