Month: March 2026

Hey everybody,
It’s another Marvel Monday! After looking at Tigra’s preconstructed aggression deck last week, I’ve had a few games with Wonder Man to see if I can try to get the same sort of understanding of what is going on with his deck. In many ways, it’s a lot more simple in terms of the game plan: most of the fancy stuff with Wonder Man comes in the initial deck-building stage, because of his special rule that he can use event cards that generate an Energy resource from any aspect when building his deck. His precon is ostensibly Justice, as he has some allies and upgrades in that aspect, and his events are skewed more towards yellow. However, he does come with event cards from each of the other aspects in what seems like it might be meant to simply give us some more cards generally.

The lynchpin of his deck is Ionic Physiology, an upgrade card that starts out on the table and allows you to tuck an event card with a printed Energy resource under it to heal 1 damage on Wonder Man. You can have up to 3 cards tucked under Ionic Physiology, and on his hero side, Wonder Man gets +1 ATK for each card tucked there, but when he makes a basic attack, you discard the cards tucked there. Over half of the Wonder Man deck is events, all of which can generate an Energy resource, so there is plenty of fuel for this fire. The only problem that you initially encounter is that you can’t tuck a card there if Wonder Man hasn’t taken damage, as you need to complete the heal side of the ability as well.

Update: as soon as I hit ‘publish’ on this post, Reddit was abuzz with an official ruling that the above is a mistake, and Wonder Man can actually tuck cards when he is at full health! So there we go, he can start building his strength right from the get-go!

To help out with this, we have Energy Siphon, a hero-specific resource card that lets you take up to 3 damage to generate that much Energy resources. He only has one double-resource card (Energy, of course), but he has two upgrades that can generate Energy resources – Jet Belt specifically generates a resource for an event, but you can discard a tucked card to generate an Energy resource for something else. Mr Hollywood generates an Energy resource only to let you overpay for a card’s cost – why? Well, let’s take a look at his hero-specific events, shall we?

Active Altruism removes a single threat from a scheme, but for each Energy resource you overpaid, you can remove 2 additional threat from that scheme, to a maximum of 2 overpaid resources. So it kinda reads pay 2 resources to remove 5 threat, but has the flexibility to remove 3 for 2 resources, or 1 for 0 resources. Fair enough. Ionic Blast is a similar story, though you can overpay up to 3 resources for this one – for 1 resource, he can deal 3 damage to an enemy, but for each additional resource you pay, he deals +2 damage, to a max of 3 additional resources. So he can deal 9 damage for 4 resources, if you want. There are only two copies of this in the deck… Finally, Starstruck deals damage to an enemy equal to Wonder Man’s ATK, and if you overpay you can stun that enemy. Given that Wonder Man’s ATK is already variable, this does feel pretty nice for 1 resource anyway, though I have been in a situation where I’ve used it to deal 2 damage, then tucked it under Ionic Physiology, and played another which has then dealt 3 damage, which was nice. 

It’s interesting, then, that there are 5 allies in the Wonder Man precon, given that his kit is mostly about events. To start with though, we have Firebird, who lets you place a rebirth counter on her if you overpaid for her; when she would be defeated by consequential damage, remove the counter and heal all damage on her instead. She only has 2 hit points, and takes 2 consequential damage from attacks, so it’s nice that she can stick around for another go when you overpay for her, which kinda fits in with the subtheme Wonder Man has going on. I like her in conjunction with Hawkeye though, a Justice version of the ally that also plays around with arrow counters. This version will loose an arrow to deal 2 damage to a minion when another ally makes a basic thwart – as Firebird thwarts for 2 but only takes 1 consequential damage each time, she can thwart 4 times, which is precisely the number of arrow counters Hawkeye comes into play with!

Wonder Man also has Sentry and Scarlet Witch allies, each of which have some negative effects instead: Sentry will either bring out a side scheme or place 6 threat on the main scheme, and Wanda will discard the top card of the encounter deck but, if it’s a treachery, you must resolve the When Revealed ability. I have had some use out of Wanda, but I just don’t like the Sentry ally, even if he does have the potential to deal 15 damage over his lifespan. Finally, we have the Swordsman neutral ally who can defend against an undefended attack without exhausting him, which is somewhat useful.

Let’s look at the events though. Everywhere All At Once costs X and lets you remove 2 threat from among X schemes in play (3 threat if you overpaid for this card). I’ve used it a few times now, paying 3 to remove 3 threat from the main scheme and a side scheme, which always seems really nice. I’ve replaced Battlefield Benevolence, which lets you heal the villain in exchange for confusing him, with three copies of Yaw and Roll, which lets you remove 3 threat from a scheme after you thwart. Given that I like to use Wonder Man as a thwarting hero until I can build up to the big attack, this has worked extremely well for me – he has the Heroic Conditioning upgrade in the deck which gives +1 THW and +3 hit points, which is always a priority to play if I can get it. 

In terms of the off-aspect events, Bombs Away is an aggression card that is reprinted from the Angel precon, and lets you deal 3 damage to the villain and each minion engaged with a player. Stronger Together is a protection event that reduces incoming damage on a character that shares a trait with your hero by your DEF – so for Wonder Man, you can reduce it by 2. I’ve heard some interesting ideas for this in a Ghost Spider deck, as she loves an Interrupt. Finally, Unified Strike is a 0 cost leadership event that lets you exhaust your hero to add your power to an ally’s power, and they don’t take consequential damage for that basic power use. So a fully-powered Wonder Man can add +4 ATK to Sentry’s 3 ATK and allow him to deal a lot more damage over the course of the game, but I’ve never yet seen that. Of the three, I prefer Unified Strike as the other two have always pretty much been used as resource cards to pay for things.

Inspired by something I saw online, I’ve also returned to the core set staple of Haymaker and had initially put one copy into the deck, replacing the Jarvis support card. However, I’m now thinking I’ll trade out Scarlet Witch and Sentry for two more copies, as Haymaker is a 2-cost neutral event with a printed Energy resource, so works really well into the gameplan, too.

On the whole, then, I think that Wonder Man is good hero – I don’t really think he’s great, although the flexibility of his deck building obviously means you can make him what you want him to be. I think I still prefer him in Justice because of his 2 Thwart to begin with, which is obviously increased with Heroic Conditioning. The fact that his attack can get as high as 4 on a basic attack, to me, means an aggression build can be somewhat lost on him – and aggression cards tend to look for Physical resource types, anyway, so while it doesn’t work against him, it still feels like it would be pulling him in a different direction.

Hey everybody,
Welcome to another Marvel Monday! I may be trying to make that a thing in 2026. Anyway, today I wanted to ramble for a bit about Tigra, a new-to-me hero that came out in the Civil War expansion for Marvel Champions. Tigra was an ally way back in the core set, of course, but now she’s here in full hero mode. She is very much all about attacking minions, which is something that we’ve seen before of course, but the way she does it (through attachments and the like) is really interesting, so I don’t mind the fact that we’ve seen this style of play before. I want to take a look at her pre-constructed deck here today though, as I find it helpful to go through these things before I play them, in order to gain a better understanding of what they’re trying to do.

To start with, in alter-ego form she is able to search her deck and discard pile for a copy of Hunted, a 0-cost upgrade that you attach to a minion that you need to search up in order to play it, but then you get to stun said minion. The upside here is that when the minion is defeated, you can ready Tigra, but also, in hero form she makes any minions with Hunted attached lose Guard. This can be handy when you have some of the earlier scenarios with Legions of Hydra, where there are those annoying Hydra Soldiers with 4 health and Guard, or Klaw’s Armoured Guards who are only slightly less annoying with 3 health.

Tigra also has in-built card draw for each minion engaged with her, so it’s useful to have Hunted on a minion as that minion will be stunned by the attachment, so you don’t need to deal with them that turn. Her signature ally Moon Knight also functions in a similar way, as he draws a minion out from the deck but he stuns and confuses that minion. Tooth and Claw is her attack event, for 4 resources that is reduced for each minion engaged with you, Tigra can deal 4 damage to an enemy, then do it again; so she can play two copies of Hunted onto two Hydra Soldiers, they’re stunned, then next turn she gets to draw 2 cards for having two minions engaged with her, and play Tooth and Claw for 2 resources, eliminating both of them.

Feline Senses is her thwart event, and lets her remove 3 threat from a scheme; if it’s the last threat on that scheme, she can then stun a minion. So it’s useful to keep a minion hanging around with Hunted on it if you can play this card next turn, as you’ll have at least one minion engaged with you for two turns. Indeed, with multiples of these event cards in her deck, she can pull out minions and then just keep toying with them in order to gain other benefits, stunning them to prevent them from attacking her in the villain phase. 

The Precinct HQ support is interesting as it lets her remove 1 threat from a scheme while in alter-ego mode, and remove 1 additional threat for each minion engaged with her. It’s interesting because we don’t always see effects like this – Gambit is the only other hero I can think of who can thwart in alter-ego mode. It fits with Tigra’s character as being a cop, of course, though I like the fact that keeping minions engaged with you still matters even if you flip down.

She also has three hero-specific upgrades. Cat-Like Reflexes is a shield that prevents 3 damage being dealt to her, and she may confuse a minion engaged with her. Sharp Claws exhausts to give her +1 ATK and either overkill or piercing. Finally, Cat’s Head Amulet is a resource generator, giving Tigra a physical resource for each minion engaged (to a max of 3, which is similar to her built-in card draw). Going back to the example of two Hydra Soldiers engaged with her, then, she can potentially exhaust the Amulet to pay for the now-2 cost Tooth and Claw event! 

Tigra comes with an aggression deck that also leans into the minion-slayer thing. She has three copies of Bring It, reprinted from the Drax hero pack, which lets you draw a card for each minion engaged with you, and three copies of Coup de Grâce, which lets you simply defeat a non-elite minion with an upgrade attached, and ignore the “when defeated” abilities on that minion. This functions alongside the upgrade Suppressing Fire, which you attach to a minion and, when you defeat it, you can heal 2 damage from your hero. Suppressing Fire is a tactic upgrade, which you can search for with the Air Cover support card. It comes into play with 2 fuel counters on, and when a minion enters play you remove a fuel counter to search your deck and discard pile for a tactic upgrade and add it to your hand. So the play here is to Air Cover to search for Suppressing Fire, then play Coup de Grace to simply defeat the minion and heal 2 damage – all for the cost of 3 resources in total!

However, she’s not all about the minions, as she does also come with Savage Strike, which gives her +6 to her basic attack, so she can deal 8 damage (with piercing) for one huge swing. She also comes with Aggressive Conditioning for +3 hit points and +1 attack, though, so there’s the potential to swing for 9 damage. If we further add in Sharp Claws she’s getting 10 damage through, potentially with Overkill, which would allow her to keep going after minions and spill some of the additional damage onto the villain.

In addition to the three resource cards and a copy of Audacity, reprinted from the Thanos box, she has three allies in the deck. Yellow Jacket is a neutral ally that lets you search for an upgrade and add it to your hand when he enters play, so you have an additional way to get Suppressing Fire into play. Yellow Jacket is interesting, though, in that he takes 2 consequential damage from attacking or thwarting, but only has 3 hit points, so you’re only getting two turns out of him doing something. Spider Girl is back after her initial printing back in Rise of Red Skull, and Two-Gun Kid is an interesting ally in that his basic attack can be resolved against 2 enemies instead of one. This did lead to a lot of discussion when he was first previewed, but it’s thematic at least!

All in all, I think this is one of the most fun-sounding decks that we’ve seen in quite a while now. I mean, the designers always seem to do so well with character designs, even if some are clearly better than others. I do like the fact that the deck leans into minion-slaying, but in such a different way – Tigra isn’t necessarily trying to defeat minions, but can keep them engaged for a turn or two for benefits such as card draw and resource generation, toying with them like a cat before she moves in for the kill. I can see me adding in some cards like Chase them Down in the fullness of time, but it’s really impressive to see how well her deck works together, both in terms of the hero specific cards but also the aspect cards.

I’m planning to have a game with Tigra and Wonder Man going up against Klaw soon, so will be reporting back on how well that goes once I’ve (hopefully!) smashed him into oblivion!