With a Friend Like Jessica...

Or, as Derek Zoolander put it:

"Do you understand that the world does not revolve around you and your do whatever it takes, ruin as many people's lives, so long as you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory [PI], no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied along the way, just so long so you can make a name for yourself as an investigatory [PI], no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way?"

I've always wanted to make cards like Go Down Swinging work in a deck, because I've always been a big fan of the "sacrifice allies for impact" gameplay. Not chump blocking so much as thoughtful expenditure. I think, finally, I've got a chance to make it happen and make it work well thanks to Jessica Jones.

The goal is to get allies in play, use them, then squeeze the last bit of juice out of them you can by hurling them at problems. We especially like allies like X-23 who can use themselves up on their own or Nick Fury and Professor X who weren't going to stick around anyway, but the rest of our roster of "friends" can give us a big bump before we send them off to slaughter. I mean, heroics.

"You Got This!", Go Down Swinging, and Noble Sacrifice give us lots of options for how we can squeeze the most out of our allies. I tried Save the Day, but this is Jessica Jones. In higher player counts it could probably work better, but she really doesn't need any help thwarting.

Of course, Calling in Favors is the oil that keeps this engine running. You know it, you love it, it's just a silly card that keeps on giving. Med Lab doesn't actually work with our primary game plan, but you're usually going to end up with more allies than ways to expends them, so you'd be surprised how many times you can catch a useful ally (Maria Hill, for instance) and keep them coming back for more. Plus, it's super easy to take advantage of with JJ's free flips. Ready to Rumble is mainly here to help us deal with Stuns and Confuses, so just get it in play and save it for a rainy day.

You're going to be using up your Alias Investigations counters almost as fast as you can get them, so don't expect this deck to one-shot the second stage of a boss. Instead, you're getting consistent, high-impact value throughout the fight, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied and dying along the way.