This Asgardian's deck HAS no weak cards, Kaiba!

Still waiting for my Thor pack to arrive. It's out for delivery today, so hopefully the post office doesn't take too long on the actual delivery.

1 hour ago, HirumaShigure said:

Super nerding out, can't resist. I just picked up my Thor deck from my FLGS and had to say: "Whosoever holds this deck, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor"!

Best comment of the day.

Hoping to get to my store to pick it up in the next little bit but I haven’t heard from them about it yet. They got allocated pretty hard with Cap and Mrs Marvel (though not with Wrecking Crew which was interesting) so I’m hoping nothing crazy happened with Thor.

4 hours ago, The Team said:

This thread seems to have derailed somewhat.

Juuuuust a bit.

2 hours ago, The Team said:

Best comment of the day.

Hoping to get to my store to pick it up in the next little bit but I haven’t heard from them about it yet. They got allocated pretty hard with Cap and Mrs Marvel (though not with Wrecking Crew which was interesting) so I’m hoping nothing crazy happened with Thor.

My FLGS got their full order, and I'm in the great frozen north. Hopefully that's a good sign for everyone else!

Having now played 10 games I will say that Thor takes a lot more thought than you would think.Thor isn't like Captain Marvel or She Hulk and just go in slugging. Both ladies can also thwart well while Thor needs conditions you have to set up. The first challenge is your hand size. 5 cards for alt-ego and 4 as Thor is the worst (ignoring Iron Man's initial 1) of any hero so far. IMO you need as early as possible Asgard and Hall of Heroes to generate more cards. The "For Asgard" card is very important to search your deck (when in alt-ego). Now you might think to grab Jarnbjorn first but get Asgard (if you don't have it) or Hall of Heroes first. Remember that Thor needs to be fighting minions so he can get to activate his special ability to draw 2 cards . Defender of the Nine Realms comes in very handy in drawing a minion and removing 3 threat for 0 resources. That's the best threat remover Thor has. You do have to manage your number of minions or you can end up being overwhelmed as has been mentioned. Thor has some powerful Allies but they are also very expensive. The cheapest in Valkyrie at 3 with Hercules 6 and only 2 have 2 THW (Sif and Heimdal). Battle Fury is a useful upgrade to ready your hero for the cost of a wound. Invulnerability is tempting but 3 points cost makes it a challenge to play, especially if you are only drawing 4 cards. Basically there is a lot more nuances to playing Thor and requires more thought than many would expect (like myself when I started). Thor is incredibly powerful who can easily deal 15 points in a turn but your ability to thwart tends to require a lot of minions to manage the villain's scheme. Hope this all helps. Thor will be great as part of a team where he can let the others worry about silly mortal schemes but Solo, as I think I have shown, takes a lot more thought. For Asgard!

Dang, I know somebody already pointed out that Hall of Heroes is gonna be a great card and all... but just imagine in a multiplayer game against Ultron?? 😍

5 hours ago, James Ravenwood said:

Having now played 10 games I will say that Thor takes a lot more thought than you would think.Thor isn't like Captain Marvel or She Hulk and just go in slugging. Both ladies can also thwart well while Thor needs conditions you have to set up. The first challenge is your hand size. 5 cards for alt-ego and 4 as Thor is the worst (ignoring Iron Man's initial 1) of any hero so far. IMO you need as early as possible Asgard and Hall of Heroes to generate more cards. The "For Asgard" card is very important to search your deck (when in alt-ego). Now you might think to grab Jarnbjorn first but get Asgard (if you don't have it) or Hall of Heroes first. Remember that Thor needs to be fighting minions so he can get to activate his special ability to draw 2 cards . Defender of the Nine Realms comes in very handy in drawing a minion and removing 3 threat for 0 resources. That's the best threat remover Thor has. You do have to manage your number of minions or you can end up being overwhelmed as has been mentioned. Thor has some powerful Allies but they are also very expensive. The cheapest in Valkyrie at 3 with Hercules 6 and only 2 have 2 THW (Sif and Heimdal). Battle Fury is a useful upgrade to ready your hero for the cost of a wound. Invulnerability is tempting but 3 points cost makes it a challenge to play, especially if you are only drawing 4 cards. Basically there is a lot more nuances to playing Thor and requires more thought than many would expect (like myself when I started). Thor is incredibly powerful who can easily deal 15 points in a turn but your ability to thwart tends to require a lot of minions to manage the villain's scheme. Hope this all helps. Thor will be great as part of a team where he can let the others worry about silly mortal schemes but Solo, as I think I have shown, takes a lot more thought. For Asgard!

10 games?! Man I wish I had some free time to play any hero that much. I still haven't had a chance to even try a couple of the heroes and I haven't even opened my Wrecking Crew pack.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Also 10 games in with Thor now.

I've been able to take all heroes through all aspects in true solo so far, and whilst some combos are easier/better than others, I’ve never hit a wall like this.

I'm 2-8 so far. All with Aggression, all true solo.

2 games vs standard Klaw with the pre-con.

Then I totally rebuilt the deck

3 games vs standard Rhino (including the 2 wins)

5 games vs Expert Rhino

Losing to rhino feels bad. I was really looking forward to Thor, but I’ve never had this bad a start with a new hero.

A lot of those losses I’ve felt like I was set up too. Like Asgard, Helicarrier, Mansion, 2 God of Thunder all in play! And yet still losing!

my win rate against Rhino is overall about 80%.

part of the problem is that Thor wants to stay in hero mode a lot, particularly in solo against Rhino. But defending with a DEF 2 stat is awkward and even more so when Thor needs his basic ATK a lot.

So I found myself smacked down a lot. Outside of costly allies, Chase Them Down and Defender of the Nine Realms he has no thwarting. Side schemes are a huge tempo hit or death sentence. Family Feud is basically game over if you see it.

Another part of the problem is that setting up takes a while, needing to get lots of costly supports in play: Asgard (which you maybe spend more on searching it out), Mansion, Helicarrier, God of Thunder. And since Thor starts out behind other heroes, playing those cards doesn’t really get you ahead like they do for other heroes - maybe that’s why I’m still struggling/losing even with those cards in play.

And while Thor can put out the damage it often has to go on the minions you created, so it’s hard to get ahead against the villains HP.

I totally get that some heroes are better/easier with certain aspects and certain player counts. And Thor will probably be better in solo with a non-Aggression aspect, and awesome in Aggression in multiplayer.

But I’ve never had a new hero leave such a bad taste or feel as narrow in their potential application

I got Thor delivered this morning, and just tried out his pre built deck against Rhino. Worst defeat against that scenario I've ever had. Feels like the pre built deck is poor, considering how solid Cap's pre built deck felt. Expensive cards and a minimal hand size isn't a good combo.

I'll try him again later, but initial impression is that Thor isn't going to be a good fit for solo play.

Maybe Justice or leadership is a better fit? I have not had the time to pay him yet!

I don't think the problem is the hero himself. For starters, Aggression has never been the easiest aspect to play solo with. You need to punch through as fast as possible, especially so with those who have lower Thwart values, but Thor's pre-build deck is clearly not built for that. It has at least 3 dead cards with Get Over Here! that make no sense at all in solo play (their only redeeming value is the Energy resource, but of course you have to switch that to more useful cards in solo). That pre-build deck is meant for team play and, as is, I am convinced it can be pretty fun.

My first solo game, using the pre-built deck, was also against standard Klaw, and that was a mistake. I lost as well. Klaw is Klaw, and without Justice in solo play I think you need too much luck to beat him consistently. I tried again with the same deck against Mutagen Formula and I won, and the deck worked better. It was a lot of fun to fetch Goblin Thralls and draw my two cards and dispose of them later in one go, at times two of them if I have Battle Fury in play. Thor can deal a lot of damage. With Mjolnir he is a consistent 3 base ATK -- this is pretty good.

I then built a Justice deck and faced off against standard Klaw again. I was able to hammer through a very tough spot and then I finally won. During that game I was able to end two consecutive turns on the alter-ego side. Oh, Justice, what would I do without you...

My conclusion is that Thor coming in with Aggression might have given the impression that this deck would essentially play like Hulk's -- smashing things all around, all the time -- but indeed the reality is quite different. It doesn't mean the deck is poor, just that it sits in a very specific spot. In fact, if that deck had just been too strong at killing everyone all the time, we might have thought it too boring.

Because Thor needs Energy for his Lightning Strike, I think that Leadership will fit him very well, similarly to Captain Marvel. I want to try that, but first I've built another Aggression deck, more suitable to solo play (in my view), and I will try later against Ultron.

I concur with the issues concerning Thor that people mentioned above: he really needs time to set up; & small hand size + expensive cards aren't helping. On top of that, he can't thwart at all with so few minions in most scenario's. Defender of the nine realms just should not be played, as it can easily take some10 cards before one pops up. It's not worth the +1 booster token adding to the scheme that much faster. His starter deck just plain sucks solo. Then again, solo + aggression is simply not a great combo due to lack of threat removal. It's the LotR LCG tactics problem when it was released, but anno 2020.

He was probably designed with multiplayer in mind; and if not, he's great for the people calling for an extra challenge as they found the game too easy. Go play Thor's standard deck solo. You won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I coupled him to the justice aspect just now and played a few games vs Rhino & Klaw. Went a lot better. Still needed the set up time and so on, but justice can simply give you the time needed. So for anyone who struggles, and wants to play true solo, I can recommend justice.

Going to try him 2H solo next. Think I'll pair Thor/Aggro with She-Hulk/Justice.

8 minutes ago, Noccus said:

I concur with the issues concerning Thor that people mentioned above: he really needs time to set up; & small hand size + expensive cards aren't helping. On top of that, he can't thwart at all with so few minions in most scenario's. Defender of the nine realms just should not be played, as it can easily take some10 cards before one pops up. It's not worth the +1 booster token adding to the scheme that much faster. He just plain sucks solo. Then again solo + aggression is simply not a great combo due to lack of threat removal. It's the LotR LCG tactics problem when it was released anno 2020.

He was probably designed with multiplayer in mind; and if not, he's great for the people calling for an extra challenge as they found the game too easy. Go play Thor's standard deck solo. You won't be disappointed.

Anyway, I coupled him to the justice aspect just now and played a few games vs Rhino & Klaw. Went a lot better. Still needed the set up time and so on, but justice can simply give you the time needed. So for anyone who struggles, and wants to play true solo, I can recommend justice.

Going to try him 2H solo next. Think I'll pair Thor/Aggro with She-Hulk/Justice.

He’s designed to race to the finish, which is especially pronounced in aggression. If you try to maintain the status quo and manage threat that way, it probably won’t work out.

That being said, his initial low hand size is entirely mitigated by Asgard, and his allies provide more thwarting than the core aggression set ever did.

2 minutes ago, Derrault said:

That being said, his initial low hand size is entirely mitigated by Asgard, and his allies provide more thwarting than the core aggression set ever did.

I mostly agree with that, but you have to admit that in a game you don't draw what you need soon enough -- in my first game Asgard was the very last card of my deck, and I was unable to get to alter-ego for a long time, before eventually losing -- you get behind fast. So there still remains a big caveat to "entirely mitigated".

3 minutes ago, Ascarel said:

I mostly agree with that, but you have to admit that in a game you don't draw what you need soon enough -- in my first game Asgard was the very last card of my deck, and I was unable to get to alter-ego for a long time, before eventually losing -- you get behind fast. So there still remains a big caveat to "entirely mitigated".

Why wouldn’t you flip ~ every turn to get the extra card draw?

Presumably they didn't feel like they had the room to let the villain scheme, since the deck's very inconsistent on threat removal.

36 minutes ago, Derrault said:

Why wouldn’t you flip ~ every turn to get the extra card draw?

That's an insight for the second game with the deck, not my first one. :-) I had decided I would not take care of The Defense Network but it backfired as the main scheme shot up way too fast and I was swamped with minions. Letting Klaw scheme just once after that still led him to advance his main scheme to stage 2B, but then the minions advanced that stage too. It is very costly to turn onto alter-ego when facing several minions. So anyway, I had to stay on the hero side to remain in the game. All for naught, because of course I lost on an Advance not long after. 😂

Just tried my Aggression deck against Ultron. All I can say is, OH. MY. LORD. Those 2 extra cards every turn gave me Asgard, Hall of Heroes and the 2x God of Thunder very early in the game. I played the Helmet soon after to soak in extra damage and continue drawing those cards every turn, disposing of the drones each time, filling the Hall of Heroes in the process and dealing damage to Ultron as well, thanks to Relentless Assault and Hammer Throw granting the overkill. Overkilling drone minions proved extremely efficient overall. I needed to heal once for safety. At that point, I had a Hall of Heroes ready to be used, and so after flipping I got the extra three cards to give my ending turn some bonus time, which in fact enabled me to play Lady Sif. Odinson was already exhausted, so I readied him and recovered once before the end of my turn, enabling me to go back to a ready Thor on the following turn. All those extra cards had helped me get rid of annoying Ultron attachments before going in for the kill.

This was not a deck for all scenarios, but it was made for this one. Everything fell into place. I had time to deck out only once. It was magnificent.

I got 3 games in last night with Thor.

First one was a Standard Rhino with Bomb Scare. It was a win, nothing too spectacular. I got my Defender of the 9 Realms exactly when I needed it. The encounter deck was kind to me.

Game 2 was Standard Klaw with Goblin Gimmicks. Never got setup, Schemed out. Family Feud with 6 threat on it couldn't even get to Klaw stage 2.

Game 3 was Standard Ultron with Goblin Gimmicks. Second to last turn I had 4 Ultron drones out and the +1 atk, +1 hp attachment. I was able to play Hercules for a Power of Aggression. Played Lightning strike and Lady Sif. In the Villain phase I revealed Shadows of the Past and Sandman at Ultron's Stage II attack had me down to 1 hp. I was prepared for another loss, but decided to go all in and see how much damage I could deal to Ultron before losing to threat or damage next turn. Ultron was at 19 health... I played Hammer Throw dealing all 8 damage to Ultron. Played Mjolnir back out. Attacked with my basic attack for 3 and exhausted Mjolnir for +3 attack with Mean Swing. 3 more damage from Hercules and 2 damage from Lady Sif... 19 damage exactly with no wiggle room at all. Totally lucked out, but most memorable win since release of the core.

I think Thor is a sample of a "Hulk-lite" deck, where you eventually just have to go all in, take some risks to out pace the Villain and encounter deck to the finish.

The reason I found myself not wanting to flip to Odinson was because any time I did, I'd flip into a minion and not get the card draw from Thor's hero ability, boy did that burn! Maybe it takes some getting used to, but I found Odinson's ability basically a setup ability... I used it once and never again. Wish Mjolnir could return to hand at will so it'd basically be a resource to use at will.

4 minutes ago, HirumaShigure said:

The reason I found myself not wanting to flip to Odinson was because any time I did, I'd flip into a minion and not get the card draw from Thor's hero ability, boy did that burn!

I do agree that this discourages flipping back to Odinson regularly. Why risking the threat accretion when you can reliably have two extra cards on your hero side?

21 hours ago, TechnoGolem said:

10 games?! Man I wish I had some free time to play any hero that much. I still haven't had a chance to even try a couple of the heroes and I haven't even opened my Wrecking Crew pack.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

My wife is sadly in hospital for a long stay so I have a lot of free time to play MC solo at the moment. Taking Thor out today to play with my group to confirm he is better as a team player. My pleasure. Have played all the characters many times now, mainly solo, and while Iron Man and Captain Marvel are always going to be my favourites I have pretty much understand most of the heroes strengths. The only challenge I have yet to beat is Green Goblin Mutagen on Expert. I have got close a number of times then the bugger double schemes and I loose. EXCEPT for Thor! Like with playing against Ultron the pre-built deck does great against the villains who generate minions. So currently my record on standrard (haven't tried Expert yet after the first three attempts went so badly) is:

no wins against Rhino (14 games),

50 % against Klaw (bring on those Masters of Evil but ) (4 games),

50% against Ultron (4 games),

50% against Green Goblin (4 Games)

100% against Green Goblen Mutagen Serum) (4 games)

Solo has its special challenges as we all know - Rhino can beat you with a double scheme. 7 is such a low number which can easily be done with the expert cards added. Always have max 3 Emergency cards are invaluable in Solo play.

Rules question for Thor. His Lightning Strike event does not say (attack) on it, just Hero Action, but later it calls it an attack. Is this a known typo, should it be an attack? If so, how does it interact with Guard? Are you just not able to play it if you have a guard minion in front of you, since you're attacking the villain?

4 hours ago, AradonTemplar said:

Rules question for Thor. His Lightning Strike event does not say (attack) on it, just Hero Action, but later it calls it an attack. Is this a known typo, should it be an attack? If so, how does it interact with Guard? Are you just not able to play it if you have a guard minion in front of you, since you're attacking the villain?

Ooo good question. I'm going to go with if it does not k'o the Guard minion engaged with you then it doesn't affect the villain but does affect all other minions engaged with you. That's how I played it today anyway.