This is (hopefully) the first of a series where I dive deep into an aspect. In this game, lots of people have a lot of different opinions but I will do my best to justify my opinions and hopefully someone will gain some insight.

Leadership

Leadership is widely considered the overall strongest aspect in the game. This is because it is extremely versatile as it is good at both attacking and thwarting, it can defend with allies, allies are in general, are high value, and Leadership has a very strong cardpool overall. It can also be built many different ways making it so it can fit a wide variety of heroes.

Decks

Now, Leadership decks can be split into 3 main decks: Standard, Avenger, and Swarm.

Standard Leadership - This was the first Leadership deck and still remains very popular. It is the most balanced of the 3 decks. It uses a mix of allies which come in, have an effect, and then block attacks like Maria Hill and Squirrel Girl and allies that stay on the board longer and have combo potential like Vision. It also uses cheap cards to get more out your allies, like Get Ready, and Team Work, and strong burst cards like Lead from the Front. It's biggest disadvantage however, is that it is very demanding in terms of resources, therefore it is best with heroes with strong resource generation.
Strengths: Versatile, high value cards, high burst potential
Weaknesses: Expensive, allies by themselves do not offer high burst, high burst combos require a high number of allies on board
Best with: Black Panther, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man
Sample Deck: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/1721/a-sample-standard-leadership-deck-2.0

Avengers Leadership - This deck is a lot more combo focused than Standard Leadership. It focuses on playing up to 5 Avenger allies, keeping them on the board and setting up huge burst turns with Strength in Numbers and Avengers Assemble. This deck can provide some of the biggest turns that is possible in this game but combo decks do rely on actually drawing the combo when you need it and because it requires keep a large number of allies on the board, it means you are not using them to defend as much as Standard Leadership does. And this deck is also currently best with heroes with signature allies that are Avengers, but this will change as we get more Avenger allies. This deck is also even more resource dependent than Standard Leadership, so it not only requires resource generation but you also often need to use Signature cards to pay for Leadership cards. This deck is particularly effective when paired with a Protection deck with Med Teams. There is also a variant of this deck that focuses more on Strength in Numbers to draw cards to play specific signature cards and has less of an emphasis on SiN+AA.
Strengths: Super high burst potential, high value cards
Weaknesses: Very expensive, less defensive, requires Avengers allies
Best with: Captain Marvel, She-Hulk
Sample deck: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/1720/a-sample-avengers-leadership-deck-2.0

Swarm Leadership - This deck is the polar opposite of Avengers Leadership. It forgoes almost all combo cards and focuses on playing, cycling, and replaying as many allies as possible. It focuses on cheap allies and allies with on play effects and using cards like Make the call and Rapid Response to play these type of allies multiple times as well as having as many allies to block for you as possible. This is the most defensive of the Leadership decks making it ideal for heroes who want to stay in hero mode but without the combo cards, you lack the ability to doing anything of high impact on any given turn. Compared to the other 2 Leadership decks, these Leadership cards have a more supporting role in the deck, relying on signature cards to do the heavy lifting but it is also not as resource intensive as the other 2 decks.
Strengths: Highly Defensive, high utility with allies with on play effects
Weakness: Low burst potential
Best with: Black Widow, Dr Strange
Sample deck: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/1719/a-sample-swarm-leadership-deck-1.0

While these are the 3 main types of decks, there are also a couple hero specific decks. Captain America has a unique deck that uses cards that buff his stats in conjunction with his her ability.

Cards

I will now talk about each individual card.

Legend:
S - Very strong card that should be used in every Leadership deck.
A - It is not used in every deck but it is a defining card in a specific subtype.
B- A good card used in many decks but is not essential.
C- An overall weaker card but has synergy with specific heroes.
D- An overall weaker card that does not have strong synergies but is still marginally playable.
F- Not worth the paper it was printed on.

Falcon - A - Falcon is a very strong thwarting ally and a great addition to most decks.
Hawkeye - A - Hawkeye is typically worth it in all decks, but his power level is less in scenarios with fewer minions.
Iron Man - C - Decent if also playing Inspired, but Inspired is typically only seen with specific heroes and ideally you would need to play both on same turn.
Maria Hill - S - While not always in in Avengers decks due to not being an Avenger, she is arguably one of the best allies in the game. Strong is solo and even stronger in Multiplayer.
Vision - B - Vision is the go to ally for high impact plays and has a tonne of combo potential but to gain maximum potential he requires a steep investment in resources and combo cards.
Squirrel Girl - A - A cheap ally with a decent on play effect.
Wonder Man - B - A good offensive ally, he is more like a 4 cost ally but paid over multiple turns.

Avengers Assemble! - A* - This is an odd card to rate. This is a very powerful card if you build around it and is a defining card in Avengers Leadership but is otherwise on the weak side in other decks.
Get Ready - B - A good card for burst but is generally only good with specific allies.
Inspiring Presence - C - A combination of first aid and Get Ready but ultimately worse than both. Decent with specific allies however.
Lead from the Front - B - One of the best sources of burst damage/thwarting but can be difficult to play.
Make the Call - S - This is a cornerstone Leadership card and is a key part of all Leadership decks.
Morale Boost - C - Generally, this card is not worth it but it is decent on heroes with ready effects.
Strength in Numbers - A* - Same as Avengers Assemble, it is a defining card in Avengers Leadership but is otherwise on the weak side.
Teamwork - B - Decent for extending the life of your allies, particularly good for Avengers Leadership.

The Power of Leadership - S - Since all allies (and therefore Make the call) cost 2+, this card will never not be an auto-include.

The Triskelion - B - Not very exciting but necessary in Avengers decks and decent in most standard decks also.
Quinjet - D - It costs 2 cards to play, therefore it only achieves value 3 turns later. Slow and there are better ways to generate resources.

Inspired - C - A decent card but eclipsed by the fact that there are just so many good cards in leadership and this is only really great on specific allies.
Rapid Response - A - Very strong with allies with on play effects as well as expensive, 4+ allies.

Heroes

Black Panther - Black Panther has very strong resource generation and a cheap signature kit, which allows him to use the Leadership aspect to its fullest potential.
Black Widow - Rapid Response is a very strong card and she has the ability to abuse it to great effect. She can play it often and has great synergy with Synth-Suit. A Swarm Leadership deck is a great choice for her.
Captain America - With his alter-ego ability and 2 Super Soldier Serums, Leadership is very strong with him.
Captain Marvel - With strong resource generation and an Avenger ally she is amazing with Avengers Leadership, but she strong with Standard Leadership also.
Dr Strange - Swarm Leadership works great with Dr Strange because it helps him stay in Hero mode, has synergy with Seven Rings, Get Ready+Wong, and allows his Innovation Deck to do the heavy lifting.
Iron Man - Iron Man can work with a Swarm Leadership deck as it helps him be useful while in Alter-ego, as well as help him stay in Hero mode later, but Protection does the same thing and has more synergy.
Ms Marvel - While she does have fairly strong resource generation, the fact that leadership has no events that work with her ability make this a weaker choice with her.
She-Hulk - While her Resource generation isn't great, An Avengers Leadership deck can give her the card draw she needs and allows her to get around the weak cards in her kit.
Spider-Man - Both his alter-ego and Hero ability increase his resource generation and Black Cat works really well with Inspired and Get Ready.
Thor - Thor Leadership can work, his hand size hurts him at the start but his resource generation is very strong later with Asgard, 2x God of Thunders, and his ability. He also has synergy with Vision, Not his strongest deck but it works.


Overall, Leadership has a very strong card pool and its versatility, both in game and in the deck building stage, means Leadership is the best aspect for a lot of heroes and will likely remain that way for some time.

Very nice discussion. This is exactly the sort of conversation I love to connect with. I look forward to your next article.

I do strongly disagree with the low rating on the Quinjet, being able to invest resources into future turns, and also gain interest on the investment, is very powerful.

Well done.

Although I do think any article series should preface with the expected type of play. Solo, multiplayer, and two-handed are vastly different formats. Maria Hill is extremely strong the more players you add. Im not as found of Vision and I tend to use Wonder Man less often and usually for Thwarting or Team Work Attack. Ill point out that Honorary Avenger (neutral) card in many situations is functionally the same as Team Work.

Also if you are looking to play cards that effect multiple Allies then Quinjet is good because it is slow. It allows your allies to hit the deck on the same turn. The game also has an interesting left-over resource mechanic that makes paying for a 1-cost now and getting value later, better than paying for a two-cost card like Enhanced Reflexes now and getting the value later. This is best expressed by a hanging Helicarrier.

29 minutes ago, IceHot42 said:

Well done.

Although I do think any article series should preface with the expected type of play. Solo, multiplayer, and two-handed are vastly different formats. Maria Hill is extremely strong the more players you add. Im not as found of Vision and I tend to use Wonder Man less often and usually for Thwarting or Team Work Attack. Ill point out that Honorary Avenger (neutral) card in many situations is functionally the same as Team Work.

Thanks,

It is meant to cover both solo and multiplayer for the most part. I think most of what I say is fairly universal across all player counts. But I can add lines where it does differ.

I edited to add Inspiring Presence and I did decide to make Falcon A and Vision B.

Thank you! Very good guide for leadership!

I received a request to add sample decks, so I added them to the deck section.