(Over)Killer Bee - Wasp Aggression

With the release of GMW, Wasp gained a huge boost with both Follow Through and Hand Cannon.

A Thousand Stings

Small but Mighty itself is essentially +1 overkill the hero ability. So it goes without saying that Wasp combos great with cards that create overkill scenarios. The first combo is using Pinpoint Strike boosted by Follow Through. With all three Follow Through out and Small but Mighty, every Pinpoint Strike becomes 3-for-12 damage. The second combo here is to buff Wasp's basic attack using Combat Training, Skilled Strike, and Rapid Growth or Wasp's Helmet, and use Hand Cannon to add overkill boosted by Follow Through. With this, Giant Wasp reaches 12 overkill ATK and Tiny Wasp reaches 11. Going through a 2-3 health minion is essentially a Pinpoint Strike with every basic attack. With proper set-up, you can even trigger both of these combos in the same turn for insane amounts of overkill.

Steel Thorax

Naturally, Moment of Triumph combos well with all of this overkill, healing Wasp for full pretty much with every use. Pym Particles is useful in either scenario, either healing for 2 when you swing in Giant form (helping keep Wasp healthy in a pinch) or drawing a card off Pinpoint Strike. Hall of Heroes is here to keep her drawing to fuel her expensive cards.

Because Wasp can take such a beating (even defending for 3 in a real bind), she doesn't need many allies. Brawn is mostly here for his high health and resource. He's useful to inch a minion towards major overkill range and to get some THW happening. Notably, he's a sponge for indirect damage. Against Drang, Wasp was exhausted from having to defend and had 9 damage with the Badoon Ship about to activate and kill her next villain phase. With one card left in her deck, I flipped down added Brawn back in and used Hall of Heroes to draw into him. Played him, used his ability, then he soaked the indirect damage and took an attack for Wasp's partner Ant-Man. Bug is here over other Aggression allies because he's getting healed from Wasp always making attacks. No Tigra or Valkyrie because of their anti-synergy with both overkill and Hall of Heroes and Spider-Girl doesn't make the cut since most minions are dead before they have a chance to activate .

Building the Nest

Martial Prowess is here to make Pinpoint Strike easier to play, while also working with Wasp Sting, Surprise Attack, and Melee. This gives Wasp a nice toolbox for any strength minion. Surprise Attack is nice, just to have a cheap attack option. 1-for-4 (or 1-for-5 with Small but Mighty overkill) is nothing to scoff at, especially when you can play it for free with Martial Prowess. Melee is a flex spot, useful to defeat one minion and tee up another for overkill, triggering Small but Mighty twice. One was enough since Wasp can recur it. If you're not worried about clearing the board and you'd rather leave a minion for the following turn instead of taking out two at once, you can replace it for a third Hand Cannon or one of the options detailed below. Helicarrier is needed because Wasp doesn't have good economy (I gave Quincarrier to Ant-Man, but these could be swapped for each other). The Power of Aggression is here specifically because Wasp needs to get set up quickly and is always useful late game when you've put Brawn back in the deck.

Bio-Synthetic Wings can be useful if you had to go up early with no minions to target while you're still building. It's niche use is for retaliate and indirect damage, but likely won't end up mattering if you still have Moment of Triumph's left. Lastly, Red Room Training, Wasp's weirdest card. Piercing and retaliate are very situationally useful, but most of the time, this is a for Surprise Attack before you get out Martial Prowess. In solo, Ant-Man is 4-for-9 THW.

Considerations

Swarm Tactics was useful in testing to ready Wasp to THW or Heal if you were exhausted or forced to defend, but was situational enough that I took it out. Chase Them Down and Into the Fray were considered, but this Wasp really needs support and shouldn't be your team's source of THW except for the occasional Giant Help or basic THW to split between schemes. The lack of does hurt Into the Fray, as Pinpoint Strike, Melee, and Wasp Sting are always at hand with Nadia's ability, and I found myself choosing either the cheaper Wasp Sting or advancing the win-con with Pinpoint Strike given the opportunity. Certain scenarios just really favor Melee's inclusion (Drang, Mutagen Formula) although Into the Fray does have its uses and there are situations where you could theoretically go 3-for-6 and take 5 off the main, I just found that those situations never happened for me. Likewise, Relentless Assault is worse than Pinpoint Strike or Hand Cannon for getting overkill, and Wasp already has Wasp Sting. If you go solo, where there are fewer minions coming out, replacing Melee, Martial Prowess, and Surprise Attack with Chase Them Down and Hand Cannon make sense to me. 2 threat from Chase Them Down is a bigger deal in solo. Ironheart is another obvious choice, but I had her in Ant-Man's deck since he was running the basic suite.

Mulligan and First Turn

Like many of the "weaker" Marvel Champions heroes, Wasp actually likes staying in alter-ego for the first few turns while she builds her board. This was my thought process when pairing her with Justice Ant-Man, who can clear the threat accumulating while she's down. Not syncing up in hero from the start, contributed to my decision to cut Swarm Tactics. You want to mulligan hard for Follow Through which will help her roll up and tank with Moment of Triumph. Martial Prowess and Helicarrier are necessary to help with Pinpoint Strike. Feel free to ditch and just keep shuffling them in, especially Genius. Hand Cannon is necessary to get one of her overkill combos online. Don't be afraid to roll up early though if things go wrong, unlike heroes like Iron Man, Wasp has the hand size and tanking ability to get up quick if need be.

Team Swarming

This Wasp needs a lot of set up, so I naturally paired her with Justice Ant-Man who can control the threat. He can even play Skilled Investigator on her or Heroic Intuition to give her some extra THW. In Giant form, with Wasp's Helmet and Heroic Intuition, she is essentially playing a Multitasking every turn (although 99% of the time she is attacking!). What's nice is that this Wasp doesn't necessarily need a Protection or Leadership player, since she can tank so much damage and heal it right off with Moment of Triumph. The classic Justice + Aggression pairing is perfect.

Finis

Despite everyone saying "Wasp doesn't like to flip as much as Ant-Man," her 5-card hands in either hero form actually means that she doesn't have to worry as much about flipping. This build compensates for the weaknesses of her Tiny form: combos are active in either form, Small but Mighty replaces her extra ATK in Giant, there are ample sources of healing so her 3 DEF matters less, and her teammates can cover threat.

I've found this Wasp very fun to play and hope you do too!

A Fun Play

Here are some plays from my standard Drang game (won on the first try!)

Giant Wasp (2 ATK) attacked Badoon Warlord (4 health minion) with the following buffs:

Rapid Growth +2

Skilled Strike +2

Follow Through +3

Combat Training +1

Hand Cannon +2

Defeating a minion and dealing 8 damage to Drang.

Drang replied in turn with 11 damage (3 ATK, 3 boost, x2 Size Increase for +4, and Drang's Spear for +1), luckily soaked up by a minion. Size Increase been added in from an early Shadow of the Past from Ant-Man unfortunately...

Encounter cards included Yellowjacket (4 health) who was pulled by Yellowjacket's Plan (discarding half the deck since both Size Increase's were out) and then a Badoon Grunt (2 Health).

Melee defeated the grunt and got Yellowjacket down to 1 health, perfect for overkill range. Paid for with Strength and Pym Particles to draw 1 (after switching to Tiny). Pinpoint Strike was drawn and played with Martial Prowess and both teammates' Helicarriers. 8 damage w/overkill + 3 from Follow Through ended up with 10 damage on Drang!! (Plus two pings of Small but Mighty!) A basic attack with Skilled Strike and a Hand Cannon charge finished him off. That is 25 damage on the villain in just two turns! 35 total damage including minions. Love it!!