Luke Cage – Everybody Hit Me

This is a multiplayer Protection deck built around one simple idea:

Let Luke Cage take the hits for everybody.

The goal is to build a large supply of Tough status cards, then use them to defend two, three, or even four attacks in the same villain phase.

Luke doesn't just survive those attacks. He turns them into readies, damage, cards, and eventually even more Tough.

Build the Tough Bank

Burstein Process and Toughen Up are the main engine.

Luke naturally loses HP as his Tough cards are discarded, so going to alter-ego and using his basic REC is something we actually want to do.

Once both copies of Toughen Up are in play, one good recovery can replenish multiple Toughs at once.

Add Burstein Process, "Stand with Me!", and the rest of Luke's kit, and it is very possible to build a healthy stockpile of Tough instead of living one Tough at a time.

Don't be afraid to save them.

Once the engine is established, Tough becomes a resource that Luke can spend whenever the team needs him.

Defend. Ready. Defend Again.

The most important card in the deck is probably Fogwell's Gym.

Luke can defend an attack for another player, lose a Tough, then use the Gym to ready himself.

That means he can potentially defend again for the next player.

And again.

The ideal villain phase looks something like:

Defend → lose Tough → ready → defend → ready → defend again.

Desperate Defense gives us another way to ready Luke. With Tough as insurance, achieving a perfect defense becomes much easier.

In a 3–4 player game, Luke can become the table's dedicated bodyguard.

Perfect Defense Still Pays

Just because Luke has Tough doesn't mean we should stop defending.

Quite the opposite.

If Luke actually defends and takes no damage, we can turn that defense into value:

Electrostatic Armor deals damage every time we defend.

Unflappable gives us another card after a perfect defense.

Flow Like Water adds even more chip damage when we play our Defense events.

And Change of Fortune can turn a minion dying during the villain phase into even more cards.

The important part is that Electrostatic Armor does not exhaust.

If Luke defends four attacks in one villain phase, it can deal four damage.

Tough isn't replacing our defense.

Tough is what makes our defense reliable.

Taunt – Please Hit Me Again

Then we reach the player phase.

Taunt is perfect for Luke.

For most heroes, asking the villain for another attack is dangerous.

For Luke, it is often exactly what we want.

We have a pile of Toughs anyway, so:

Taunt → villain attacks → spend a Tough → draw 3 cards.

And if Fogwell's Gym is available, losing that Tough can ready Luke again.

So Taunt can effectively become:

1 resource → take a hit → draw 3 → ready Luke.

That is an incredible deal for a hero who actually wants to be attacked.

Alter-Ego Is Part of the Engine

Eventually all those Toughs cost Luke HP.

That's fine.

At the end of the player phase, flip to Carl Lucas and recover.

That does three things for us:

Heal the HP we spent on Toughs.

Trigger Toughen Up.

Set up Burstein Process.

Then Ready for a Fight solves the obvious problem with ending the turn in alter-ego.

When an enemy would scheme, Luke changes back to hero form and takes the attack instead.

Exactly where we want him.

Practiced Plan gives Ready for a Fight another use when needed, making the alter-ego loop much more reliable.

So the cycle becomes:

Spend Tough → lose HP → recover → rebuild Tough → Ready for a Fight → get attacked → repeat.

Med Team

Med Team gives us a little extra HP management without committing Luke's basic activation to recovery every single time.

It also has an excellent secondary target in Jessica Jones, letting her stay on the table longer when we need help managing threat.

She isn't the focus of the deck.

Luke is the wall.

Jessica just makes sure the city doesn't fall apart while he's busy getting punched in the face.

What Are We Actually Trying to Do?

Don't think of this as a traditional perfect-defense deck.

And don't think of Tough as something that must be preserved forever.

The deck is about turning Luke's Tough cards into a renewable defensive economy.

Build the Tough bank.

Then spend it.

If another player is about to take a nasty attack:

Luke takes it.

If the next player is about to get hit:

Luke takes that one too.

If the villain is finished attacking everybody:

Taunt him and ask for another.

Because apparently four attacks weren't enough.

Mulligan

The cards I most want to see early are:

Fogwell's Gym Burstein Process Toughen Up Power Man

After that, start establishing the Protection upgrades.

There is no need to rush every piece of the perfect-defense engine immediately. First make sure Luke can generate Tough and convert those Toughs into additional defenses.

Once the engine is running, the rest follows naturally.

The Game Plan

Early game: Build the Tough bank and get Fogwell's Gym online.

Mid game: Start defending for everybody. Use Desperate Defense and the Gym to keep Luke standing.

Player phase: Use Taunt to turn spare Tough into three cards.

Low on HP: Flip to Carl Lucas, recover, trigger Toughen Up, use Burstein Process and prepare Ready for a Fight.

Late game: Spend Tough aggressively. Protect the whole table and let Luke's retaliate, Electrostatic Armor, Flow Like Water and hero events gradually turn defense into damage.

The villain has four players to attack.

Unfortunately for them,

they're all Luke Cage.