4 Tech Upgrade
This is probably the most important card in the entire deck. Here is what it can do. Exhaust a character you control to:
- Search your deck for your 4-drop
- Search your deck for a leader to discard to Avengers Assemble! (also Signal Flare if teamed-up)
- Search your deck for your 8-drop
- Search your deck for an equipment, draw a card
- Discard two cards, remove target stunned character from the game
- Target attacker gets +3 ATK this attack
- If Stretch is in play, discard a card to search for a location
- Get a Medallion around the neck of Hank Pym
- Start a Salvage/Research Base card drawing loop with Molecules
- Exhaust another character if you control Ben Grimm to stun a 1-drop (likely Dove or Alfred Pennyworth)
And you could just keep going. The only deck that I’ve ever seen Tech Upgrade be better in was my Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights, Gotham Knights deck that played Batmobile, Batarang, and Utility Belt. The characters that will typically get exhausted for Tech Upgrade are your low drops or any character that is getting attacked. Sacrificing an on-initiative attacker in order to search for a piece of equipment is seldom suggested.
4 Avengers Assemble!/Signal Flare
While Signal Flare is preferred because it’s much easier to fulfill its requirements, Avengers Assemble adds a few things to the deck that the original did not have. You now have a way to get Hank Pym on turn 3 that isn’t just crossing your fingers and praying to Thor.
4 Salvage
Salvage was not used well enough in the original decklist. The only thing that you expected to Salvage was Power Medallion after using it and Cars/Stats from characters who had bitten the dust. This isn’t a solid enough reason to play Salvage. If you are going to run it, it’s worth going slightly “Molecule Happy.” Salvage now gives you an insane combo that was not in the original deck. Chopping Blocking from your hand has never been so affordable. Thor may prefer a hammer, but he is much more effective with a guillotine. It’s not uncommon to be able to Chop two major drops during the course of a game. This action will do wonders for this deck, and all the while, it’s planning on trying to preserve the drops it has on the board with Hank Pym. Do not be afraid to discard an important equipment to Pogo Plane on turn 2 to go get the Research Base and then Salvage back that equipment that you discarded.
Those plot twists are terrific. The only other plot twists that are worth considering are Chaos Magic and Null Time Zone. Walk through Walls may be another possibility, as you can then equip a Medallion on the character so that it can keep walking through walls for turns to come. In a deck that’s already jam-packed with cute combos and natural synergies, we’ll try not to stretch the list too thin. If you find yourself losing to Titans very often (I have had Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal stun my Stretch more times than I can count), then you may want to consider one of those cards. If you are worried about Curve Sentinels, there are a few options I will talk about later.
Locations: 7 Total
The Base is very important to this deck. There are so many equipment cards and so many one-of cards that you can’t possibly search for every one of them. The next best thing is to draw a bunch of cards and then search for the important ones you haven’t drawn yet. This is the theory behind the characters/locations/equipment in this deck. The Base is just that—the base for this deck to function. You will often find your hand slowly starting to fill up as you cycle through your deck, and you will draw lots of one-ofs. Your game plan will then mutate based on those drawn, and your reliance on search cards will decrease. While there are characters in this deck that are better than others at the same drop, the most important thing is hitting your curve. The characters at each drop are similar enough that you can win with any of the ones you draw. You aren’t playing any Phantasms in here—everyone packs a punch.
1 Avalon Space Station
Avalon allows for a lot of things in a deck like this. You can discard a big drop early to a search card or one of many discard effects and have confidence that you haven’t lost the ability to play that character later. This is especially true when you are forced to discard Ever Lovin’ to Signal Flare early. Don’t worry about it—by that time, the chances of you being able to play that same Thing is pretty likely. The 4-drop Thor also puts cards from the top of your deck into your KO’d pile, and in a deck so full of recursion, this nearly amounts to drawing a card. Even the Space Station itself can be Salvaged back to hand if it gets lost for any reason.
Avalon also allows you to play the Curve Sentinel middle-game power-up war. Similar to how devastating a Nimrod power-up can be, a couple of Stretch power-ups or a couple of Wyatt’s combined with a busted Molecules can ruin an opponent’s day. A note for players not used to playing a location like this: If you can, flip Avalon during the recovery phase to protect it from Ka-boom! There’s no reason to get your location blown up if you can avoid it. If you are in a tournament, make sure to verbally assert that you are in the recovery phase when you do this. I have seen this misplayed several times with the result being another turn on your opponent’s terms.
1 Pier 4
While Stretch doesn’t work well with Pier 4, since he is forced to move equipment onto unequipped Fantastic Four characters, the Pier is still very powerful in its own right. A Thor with a hammer in each hand is a scary thought for your opponent, and that alone warrants this one-of that you will play pretty often due to the redundancy of Pogo Plane searches in the mid-game.
1 Metropolis
Team-ups in this deck aren’t a necessity, as shown by the original decklist. While it may have included 4 Millennium, the character diversity alone showed his resolve to get a team-up really going. The biggest advantage for Metropolis is team attacks later in the game. Since this deck plans to keep its characters around for later turns, team attacking will become important to take down the biggies like Bastion and Magneto, Master of Magnetism. Due to the lack of aggressive plot twists like Savage Beatdown, safe team attacks will be a major bonus in the late game against another curve strategy, allowing you to roll over your opponent with your larger characters attacking down the curve. That being said, now you have the ability to search for your team-up, something that the original deck did not have. Despite there being four in the original deck, this version will probably team-up as often, just at a later turn on average.
Thoughts on Locations
Not too bad. The other locations I would consider include Yancy Street, Psychoville, Coast City, and Baxter Building.
Equipment: A Robust 19
4 Unstable Molecules
These are played mainly for their interaction with the Base and Salvage, but are not to be played willy-nilly. The Molecules’s effect is powerful. It creates many situations where your opponent has to be content with only stunning one character you control. However, unlike the defensive bonus given from Lost City (the first one) or Acrobatic Dodge, you can’t surprise someone with your Molecules, so you won’t make many attacks fail with it. It’s often best at putting your character’s DEF high enough that your opponent tries to compensate with an attack pump for just nearly enough. At that point, you often just need a Wingfoot or two to make him or her either blow another Beatdown or fail the attack entirely. Molecules also doubles as a mini-From the Shadows.
4 The Pogo Plane
Remember, it’s unique and it can only be equipped to a Fantastic Four character. You will often find stages in the mid-game where you are just cycling through Planes and getting all of your extra Research Bases out of your deck by discarding previously searched-out Research Bases. The order of importance on what you search for with the Plane varies depending on the situation. The most important is almost always the Base, but it could be Avalon in a pinch. After Base, Metropolis is the next most important, then Avalon for tricks, and then Pier 4, which may be considered by some a “win-more” card. For those not familiar, a “win-more” card is something that is beneficial, but typically it won’t win you the game, only increase the margin of victory, helping out an already good situation. I just want two hammers on my Thor. Is that too much to ask? And don’t forget, the Plane also gives all of your characters flight and gives the person piloting reinforcement. In the very late game, your opponent’s most likely breakthrough target should hold it.
2 Medallion of Power
This deck started with four, but I don’t think the gimmick is so strong that you want to draw multiples. One will do just fine. You can search it out in the optimal situations and draw it occasionally without help other than the Research Base. With all of the copies of Salvage doing the heavy lifting, two Medallions should really be enough. You might want to double-equip Hank with both of them while he is in the hidden area. Remember, when equipped with the Medallion, Hank (or even Rick) can jump out for a reinforcement and then jump back over to the hidden area. Also, No Man Escapes the Manhunters doesn’t do much against the Medallion, since you can just move right back over there before the attack is legal. The only worrisome attack you will get is from Luke Cage, Street Enforcer or Rot Lop Fan, and in the case of Luke, you can often just put Rick Jones in front of Hank as a good speed bump against the street-smart brother who lacks flight.
4 Mjolnir
This deck started out based around Medallion of Power, and I shifted its focus to Mjolnir. It’s an incredibly versatile card. It doubles as a character but will still help you better your board position later in the game and draw cards. It will also save you endurance when Thor goes a-knocking, only to be recovered swiftly by Hank Pym’s Healing Touch.
While these are rare, I don’t think many people should have difficulty getting a hold of them for cheap. There are a ton just sitting around in our shop, and you may be in the same situation. You will sometimes want to wait until turn 5 to drop the hammer on Odinson when you can have the Base active. It depends mostly on the initiative and the likelihood that the hammer would matter on a particular turn.
2 Fantasticar
I’ve dropped the number of Cars due to personal preference. They are fine for some people, but I’m willing to live without them and don’t consider them necessary. Because of the team-up situation and the fact that you often want to have your three in the hidden area equipped only with Medallions and have room for Stretch to do some rearranging, Cars are not for me.
1 Chopping Block
Yep, willpower just doesn’t matter. This card is incredible with Salvage. I doubt you’ll equip the Block very much, but it’ll happen sometimes. This should be used most often on your initiative for taking out problem characters like Terra, Sentinel Mark V, or Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
1 Framistat
While the original played three of these, I don’t like them enough to justify that. I’m willing to continue to include it for the synergy with Ben Grimm, but otherwise, I would be playing a single copy of Advanced Hardware or Twin Firearms in its place. Framistat has another hidden downfall. It’s not good against Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal like some of the equipment similar to it.
1 Light Armor
This is the equipment that allows you to fight against surprise defenses. Combined with Salvage, you can push through the points when you need to. It doesn’t hold you down to a decision like equipping may do. If you are faced with an important failing attack and you have a Tech Upgrade at your disposal, sometimes you are going to wish that Tech Upgrade gave +3 ATK, and with Light Armor in your deck, it can.
The Equipment
I like these, but frankly, there are too many. If you are expecting a lot of Curve Sentinels, you can even consider adding a Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four and Kevlar Body Armor. You can’t have a third of your deck with gray borders, as it will destroy the natural flow of a Vs. draw. Some have to be cut out, so that leads us to . . .
The Cuts
(We currently need to make ten cuts. What would yours be?)
Now that I have spent a while talking about how all of these cards rock and that they will win you games, I’m going to wince and make painful faces as I pull off a few Band-Aids.
-1 The Pogo Plane: We need fewer gray cards.
-1 Unstable Molecules: Less gray.
-1 Fantasticar: This has shifted from a ’Car deck into a more controlling deck. This one will be based on the player’s taste. Some of you may want to go back up to four, and if that’s your thing, by all means do it, but that’s just not the way I roll.
-2 Thor, God of Thunder: Something’s got to go, and five 8-drops is obviously too much. Two should be fine.
-1 Monica Rambeau ◊ Captain Marvel: It’s Stretch or bust. Sorry, Rambeau, your name is cool, but I just can’t have you messing up my curve.
-1 Hercules: Your alternate 6-drop is just about a good enough consolation if you miss Thing on this drop. I am dropping the number of Avengers Assembles slightly because I have dropped the number of leaders, so it makes sense that he hits the road. Sorry, Herc, but there is only one god, and he’s swinging two hammers.
-1 Rick Jones: You don’t need to draw that many of him. One by turn 5 would be nice.
-1 Avengers Assemble!: You saw it here first. Two leaders in the deck and three Avengers Assemble! Because of the flexibility of Mjolnir, I think this can work. Eight search cards may also be just a tad too redundant. I mean, who would play eight character search effects in the same deck?
-1 Wyatt Wingfoot: Sorry, fella, I know your picture makes you look like Clark Kent while you are actually a Keewazi Adventurer, but I can handle not drawing you every game. You’re a great surprise, and you’re great at flying the Pogo Plane, but sometimes I can wait until turn 5 to really start going Pogo Plane happy.
We are left with 22 characters (26 if you count Mjolnir), 7 locations (they all survived the cuts), 15 plot twists, and 16 equipment. Here is the final list:
P-Y-M-P
by Jason Hager
3 Rick Jones
3 Wyatt Wingfoot, Keewazi Adventurer
4 Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket
1 Thing, Ben Grimm
1 Thor, Odinson
4 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch
1 Iron Man, Invincible
1 Hulk, New Fantastic Four
1 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing
2 Thor, God of Thunder
1 Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd
22 Characters
4 Salvage
4 Tech Upgrade
3 Avengers Assemble!
4 Signal Flare
15 Plot Twists
4 Antarctic Research Base
1 Metropolis
1 Avalon Space Station
1 Pier 4
7 Locations
3 Unstable Molecules
3 The Pogo Plane
4 Mjolnir
2 Medallion of Power
1 Fantasticar
1 Framistat
1 Light Armor
1 Chopping Block
16 Equipment
Overall Feelings
This deck is doing a lot now. While Tech Upgrade is a lot better in this deck, there is a lot of stress on the four copies you are allowed to play. Those decisions need to be made quickly and deliberately in tournament play. It’s no longer straightforward, and some very difficult card searching problems have been added. While some players may shy away from those very difficult build phases, I am the type of player who wants to meet them head on and make the wrong decisions in testing until I figure it out. I want a 10-minute turn 4 build phase where I’m constantly doing things, and I want every card in my deck at my disposal on every turn. It’s just the way I like to play.
I will leave you with a few tidbits about how I would expect the matchups to go and pitfalls you may run into.
Curve Sentinels
Hank and his Medallion of glowing goodness are going to be terrific in this matchup. You need to be careful when recovering your 4- and 5-drop, because they are very prone to getting Finishing Moved. Try to Chop the opposing turn 4 play and make sure to over-commit with team attacks on your initiative when the opponent has Bastion. Light Armor will be good for you there, allowing every Salvage flipped to equate to a Reconstruction Program. Thor should save you some endurance early on, because you should expect this match to go to turn 8. It doesn’t look too bad for the home team in this matchup.
MKKO
This matchup will not go to turn 8. Play defensively and be assured that your later drops will just crush your opponent. But you have to get to the later drops, which is the hard part. You need to have Rick Jones to protect Hank Pym in the hidden area, and you need to bust several Molecules on the same character only to be able to safely recover it and force an attack into it again. Be very aware of all of the ways your deck can grant reinforcement. This matchup is winnable.
Avengers Reservist
Take that Hawkeye, Clinton Bartin—no 2-drops. Watch out for Hawkeye hitting two 1-drops. Your reinforcement abilities are combat-stamped, so don’t rely on them to save you. Be very aware of all of the Nasty Surprise effects the reservist decks have. Having Molecules on characters during your initiative is good against them. This may be the type of game where Mr. Pym gets to cross the table and tussle with the opposing 4-drop. Be warned that Wonder Man is great against Odinson, but overall, this one is winnable.
Teen Titans
This is the problem with the equipment FF decks: they have a very hard time dealing with the out-of-combat stuns of Roy and Terra. You need to chopping block their important characters in the mid-game—either Terra, Red Star, or Garth ◊ Tempest. Get those off the board and make your opponent replay them. Don’t let him or her enter turns where he or she can safely recruit Roy Harper and boost Hawk/Dove. Those turns will crush you. Be on the lookout for Titans Tower when you attack down the curve. This matchup doesn’t look too good.
Kang City
Kangs don’t fly, so you can make great walls on the board that they have to travel into multiple times. You can use Ben Grim to out-of-combat stun Kang, Rama Tut if the opponent is expecting to use him as a heroic sacrifice. This will not be an easy match. The one Fantasticar should help out all of the team attacks that are going to be necessary here. This deck also plays a 7-drop that will strip equipment right off your characters, so be careful.
New School
No one plays this deck, so you can ignore it.
And that’s all the time I have today to talk about decks. If you want me to Deck Clinic something that you’ve been toying around with, I would be happy to. Just shoot me an email explaining what your deck is trying to do, much like I’ve explained what this deck is trying to do in this article (except your description should be much shorter than this article ended up being). Also, if you have any interesting ideas for this decklist that I didn’t think of, shoot me an email and let me know. I will try to update with any knowledge sent to me in future articles so that everyone can know how to make Hank Pym the best he can be.
Thanks for reading this far—now go rest your eyes.
Jason Hager
Send new decklists and suggestions to Hager47@marshall.edu.