I love videos like these; please do more of these in the future! You are both excellent at this, and I have a number of thoughts to share. First, my only suggestion might be to count them down in reverse next time, to build up anticipation for the number 1 spot. It's a small and trivial thing, but I enjoy the anticipatory buildup in that format. I will comment on each of your cards, with evaluations based on the following assumptions: 1. The card is to be in an aggro deck for a random hero against a random scenario. 2. I generally evaluate how 'good' a card is by how often I will play it in a scenario. One of the ways I track statistics is by noting how many times I play each card in a game; if a card in my deck is played rarely over the course of a number of games, I consider it 'bad', or at the least, I consider it to be of low utility and swap it out for something else. 3. My evaluations are for pure solo play only (I used to play two and three handed, but I found the time investment to be a bit too costly). 4. My score /10 is how often, given the above assumptions, I would likely add the card to the 25 non-signature cards. Ok, your cards: Psylocke - I would put this in an aggro deck pretty much every time. Two confused, four damage, and a block, for 4 cost, is immensely efficient. Unlike many other top-tier aggro decks, it also has no trait or cost restrictions. 10/10 Power of Aggression - By my definition above, if I have a number of other 2+ cost red cards in the deck, I will play this. That, plus the wild resource can be useful, especially in dealing with certain encounter cards that demand certain resource combinations to remove them. 9/10 Goldballs - You make a convincing argument. I like the scalable damage output. However, since I tend to play unique cards as only one-ofs (such as Boot Camp, Combat Training, Hall of Heroes, etc.), too often with discard decks I have dumped vital cards that I generally require playing on first pass of the deck. 7/10 Hall of Heroes - In pure solo, as Villain astutely pointed out, this rarely does anything more than get you back your initial investment, and many turns later at that. 3/10 Bring It - As some of my other fellow commenters seem to have pointed out, this card is hyper-situational, to the extent that I find this card nearly useless. In red, I rarely ever see more than one minion at a time, as they should be killed generally on sight. Secondly, even if you 'cycle' it, I argue that it would have been better just to have had a playable card to begin with. I think I tested it over about 25 games, during which it netted me >1 card on a single occasion. Multiplayer is an entirely different matter, but in solo, nope. 1/10 Honed Technique - Villain, you make a convincing argument for its efficacy, and I regard it in higher esteem than I did prior to your argument for its use. However, aside from heroes that are able to generate wild/mental resources easily (a la Nova for example), I do not use this card. Doing additional damage, in pure solo, often has diminishing returns, in my experience. It also does not play well with low-cost cards I often play, such as Precision Strike, Mean Swing, etc. 2/10 Attack Training - The observation that this effectively allows for additional activations is what makes this quite good. 6/10 Sunfire - Singlehandedly a key reason I'm so excited for Magneto; immensely useful in many situations. Stripping Ronan of his stupid hammer, among other things, is pure bliss. 8/10 Thor - An outstanding ally, they did the hero justice with this one. I don't like the resource requirements (why does it seem red has a disproportionate number of allies that do), but generally fantastic. That being said, in solo, in well over 100 games with him, I have used his interrupt ability on 2 or 3 occasion, at the most. 7/10 Clobber - A strong card, effectively 1 for 3 damage, with no silly restrictions. Would add into many random red decks. 9/10 Finally, to close my essay (to be fair, I expect none of this to be read, but hey if you're bored on a weekend evening job like I am atm, then here's some reading material for you!), I present what my 5 would be: Wolverine - His ability to also thwart for 1 every turn, for the rest of the game, has saved me many times. Boot Camp - As others have mentioned, it warrants its own archetype. Because I play red allies like Wolverine and Psyclocke almost every time, Boot Camp really accumulates the damage, and quickly. Combat Training - I generally add this to most of my heroes if playing in red. Brawn - The thwarting is what I like here. Combos fantastically well with Boot Camp. Into the Fray - Pricey, but the overkill-into-thwart effect can really help mitigate threat issues, something that can keep a red solo player up at night. Thanks for the great video friends; great way to start the weekend! Cheers.
Nelson for the win here…. Goldballs is just too good even more so with attachments. It does make me sad that weapons didn’t make the top 10…. I think weapons are the cards that make me think “aggression”, but Honed technique made it all about events
Both lists are really good! I think I'm leaning Nelson a bit because Goldballs + Psylocke is better than Thor + Sunfire. I'd say Honed Technique is the best card here, but if I was picking 5 cards to make a deck with I'd take Nelson's 5 over VT's.
Boot camp would be in consideration for me. I almost always bring in a multiplayer game, because someone is bound to be a troop commander (often me, but the leadership player or others may enjoy also). Pitchback and Psychic assault I like for some trait-locked aggression cards. Precision strike I find myself using in solo (not often multiplayer), as I often like to stay up more in true solo aggression builds and the healing is nice.
Aggression got a huge boost from the X-Men didn't it? Psylocke and Professor X allowing you to go alter ego in solo where you couldn't before is a game changer. Boot Camp/Storm and Psychic Assault/Phoenix are really unique ways to play the game. The X Men synergies and stronger cards also means that old auto-includes like Wasp don't always make the cut anymore. Just one W after another.
Great lists! I know this is off topic, but this video really highlights how much support the x-men trait has, which i think is arguably too much. so many x-men cards are some of the strongest in the game and they do almost every archetype better than pretty much any other trait. ally swarm is stronger thanks to honorary x-men. ally upgrading is straight up better than the guardians because the training upgrades are stronger and danger room makes it easier to play them. x-men have more AE support than any other trait so they can do better flip decks, and so on. i personally really hope they visit some older teams in addition to new ones because it feels like some are really lagging behind
As much as I liked "Bring It!" at the beginning, I actively dislike it now. Most of the time it's a dead card in my plays, even if I play it in a minion-heavy scenario with heroes/builds that can bring out minions. I pretty much almost always kill every minion every turn, so it's rarely useful, only on rare occassions when I happened to have it in my hand and I got a minion via encounter card AND can also put one or two into play via my own cards. The other 9 choices though? *chef's kiss* I use these all the time. I mean ALL the time. Aggression is my least played aspect, especially in solo, but I don't think if I'd ever build an aggression deck without including at least 3 of these cards. Hall of Heroes is I use the least (besides "Bring It!"), but if it's a minion-heavy scenario or campaign, I always include it.
I'm late to the party! A little torn on this one. IMO, Psylocke is the card that made a consistent aggression deck possible in true solo, and opened up a lot of builds. However in larger player count games, I think Sunfire is one of the best characters in the game, and even worth it in True Solo, even though he loses value. Goldballs and Thor are probably about equal. I put honed technique and attack training above bring it and hall of heroes, though the latter are more "fun" cards probably. Power of aggression beats out clobber, though clobber is always a consideration for me. I'm going to give the edge to Villian here, but it's a close one for me.
As I was watching, I was going to give it to Nelson, but hard disagree on the final pick, Bring It. It is way too situational. VT again for me. Where TF is Boot Camp??
Could not agree more on your point re: Bring It. Rarely have I ever been so disappointed in a card, in pure solo play. So useless so often. Also agree, VT's selection is what I would add to a red deck.
Maybe I have just been lucky with the Bring It Plays! Its not a card that goes in every red deck, but if I am building around it, it just feels so busted! It does work better in multiplayer for sure!
@NelsonAllOverCards I think the biggest problem with Bring It is that it has aged poorly. In the games early life I loved playing minion gathering decks with Bring It and Hall of Heroes. For the first several game cycles the cost of minion Summoning was quite low. It was probably viable all the way through maybe sinister Motives. I think since the start of the X-Men wave I'm the cost has grown to steadily outweigh the benefits. But I rarely deck tech unless in MCSL or Alter-Ego chronicle challenges, and you usually are deck teching, so I think that makes a huge difference. Definetely still a great card when you know what you are using it for.
Great video guys! Keep bringing the drafts! Love them! Especially for a newer player like me to learn these cards.
I love videos like these; please do more of these in the future! You are both excellent at this, and I have a number of thoughts to share. First, my only suggestion might be to count them down in reverse next time, to build up anticipation for the number 1 spot. It's a small and trivial thing, but I enjoy the anticipatory buildup in that format. I will comment on each of your cards, with evaluations based on the following assumptions:
1. The card is to be in an aggro deck for a random hero against a random scenario.
2. I generally evaluate how 'good' a card is by how often I will play it in a scenario. One of the ways I track statistics is by noting how many times I play each card in a game; if a card in my deck is played rarely over the course of a number of games, I consider it 'bad', or at the least, I consider it to be of low utility and swap it out for something else.
3. My evaluations are for pure solo play only (I used to play two and three handed, but I found the time investment to be a bit too costly).
4. My score /10 is how often, given the above assumptions, I would likely add the card to the 25 non-signature cards.
Ok, your cards:
Psylocke - I would put this in an aggro deck pretty much every time. Two confused, four damage, and a block, for 4 cost, is immensely efficient. Unlike many other top-tier aggro decks, it also has no trait or cost restrictions. 10/10
Power of Aggression - By my definition above, if I have a number of other 2+ cost red cards in the deck, I will play this. That, plus the wild resource can be useful, especially in dealing with certain encounter cards that demand certain resource combinations to remove them. 9/10
Goldballs - You make a convincing argument. I like the scalable damage output. However, since I tend to play unique cards as only one-ofs (such as Boot Camp, Combat Training, Hall of Heroes, etc.), too often with discard decks I have dumped vital cards that I generally require playing on first pass of the deck. 7/10
Hall of Heroes - In pure solo, as Villain astutely pointed out, this rarely does anything more than get you back your initial investment, and many turns later at that. 3/10
Bring It - As some of my other fellow commenters seem to have pointed out, this card is hyper-situational, to the extent that I find this card nearly useless. In red, I rarely ever see more than one minion at a time, as they should be killed generally on sight. Secondly, even if you 'cycle' it, I argue that it would have been better just to have had a playable card to begin with. I think I tested it over about 25 games, during which it netted me >1 card on a single occasion. Multiplayer is an entirely different matter, but in solo, nope. 1/10
Honed Technique - Villain, you make a convincing argument for its efficacy, and I regard it in higher esteem than I did prior to your argument for its use. However, aside from heroes that are able to generate wild/mental resources easily (a la Nova for example), I do not use this card. Doing additional damage, in pure solo, often has diminishing returns, in my experience. It also does not play well with low-cost cards I often play, such as Precision Strike, Mean Swing, etc. 2/10
Attack Training - The observation that this effectively allows for additional activations is what makes this quite good. 6/10
Sunfire - Singlehandedly a key reason I'm so excited for Magneto; immensely useful in many situations. Stripping Ronan of his stupid hammer, among other things, is pure bliss. 8/10
Thor - An outstanding ally, they did the hero justice with this one. I don't like the resource requirements (why does it seem red has a disproportionate number of allies that do), but generally fantastic. That being said, in solo, in well over 100 games with him, I have used his interrupt ability on 2 or 3 occasion, at the most. 7/10
Clobber - A strong card, effectively 1 for 3 damage, with no silly restrictions. Would add into many random red decks. 9/10
Finally, to close my essay (to be fair, I expect none of this to be read, but hey if you're bored on a weekend evening job like I am atm, then here's some reading material for you!), I present what my 5 would be:
Wolverine - His ability to also thwart for 1 every turn, for the rest of the game, has saved me many times.
Boot Camp - As others have mentioned, it warrants its own archetype. Because I play red allies like Wolverine and Psyclocke almost every time, Boot Camp really accumulates the damage, and quickly.
Combat Training - I generally add this to most of my heroes if playing in red.
Brawn - The thwarting is what I like here. Combos fantastically well with Boot Camp.
Into the Fray - Pricey, but the overkill-into-thwart effect can really help mitigate threat issues, something that can keep a red solo player up at night.
Thanks for the great video friends; great way to start the weekend! Cheers.
Cant wait to see this for the other aspects!
Nelson for the win here…. Goldballs is just too good even more so with attachments.
It does make me sad that weapons didn’t make the top 10…. I think weapons are the cards that make me think “aggression”, but Honed technique made it all about events
Thanks both for the video!
Both lists are really good! I think I'm leaning Nelson a bit because Goldballs + Psylocke is better than Thor + Sunfire. I'd say Honed Technique is the best card here, but if I was picking 5 cards to make a deck with I'd take Nelson's 5 over VT's.
Psylocke is so, so good, aside from the obvious steady/stalwart foes.
Boot camp would be in consideration for me. I almost always bring in a multiplayer game, because someone is bound to be a troop commander (often me, but the leadership player or others may enjoy also).
Pitchback and Psychic assault I like for some trait-locked aggression cards.
Precision strike I find myself using in solo (not often multiplayer), as I often like to stay up more in true solo aggression builds and the healing is nice.
Aggression got a huge boost from the X-Men didn't it? Psylocke and Professor X allowing you to go alter ego in solo where you couldn't before is a game changer. Boot Camp/Storm and Psychic Assault/Phoenix are really unique ways to play the game. The X Men synergies and stronger cards also means that old auto-includes like Wasp don't always make the cut anymore. Just one W after another.
Great lists! I know this is off topic, but this video really highlights how much support the x-men trait has, which i think is arguably too much. so many x-men cards are some of the strongest in the game and they do almost every archetype better than pretty much any other trait. ally swarm is stronger thanks to honorary x-men. ally upgrading is straight up better than the guardians because the training upgrades are stronger and danger room makes it easier to play them. x-men have more AE support than any other trait so they can do better flip decks, and so on. i personally really hope they visit some older teams in addition to new ones because it feels like some are really lagging behind
I love these videos seeing this just made my day. Thank you both for all you do for us!
I love dual weilding Godslayer + Jarnbjorn
That does feel epic!
Great video!! Truly love this format & series! Thank you!
Villain for the win!
As much as I liked "Bring It!" at the beginning, I actively dislike it now. Most of the time it's a dead card in my plays, even if I play it in a minion-heavy scenario with heroes/builds that can bring out minions. I pretty much almost always kill every minion every turn, so it's rarely useful, only on rare occassions when I happened to have it in my hand and I got a minion via encounter card AND can also put one or two into play via my own cards.
The other 9 choices though? *chef's kiss* I use these all the time. I mean ALL the time. Aggression is my least played aspect, especially in solo, but I don't think if I'd ever build an aggression deck without including at least 3 of these cards. Hall of Heroes is I use the least (besides "Bring It!"), but if it's a minion-heavy scenario or campaign, I always include it.
As I've noted elsewhere, I too do not play it anymore. In pure solo play, I have nearly never found it useful.
While it's not a particularly exciting card, I honestly find myself still including Skilled Strike in so many of my aggression decks.
I'm late to the party!
A little torn on this one. IMO, Psylocke is the card that made a consistent aggression deck possible in true solo, and opened up a lot of builds.
However in larger player count games, I think Sunfire is one of the best characters in the game, and even worth it in True Solo, even though he loses value.
Goldballs and Thor are probably about equal.
I put honed technique and attack training above bring it and hall of heroes, though the latter are more "fun" cards probably.
Power of aggression beats out clobber, though clobber is always a consideration for me.
I'm going to give the edge to Villian here, but it's a close one for me.
Valkyrie + Hall of Heroes + Bring It!... Whew! She can out-draw Dr Strange.
As I was watching, I was going to give it to Nelson, but hard disagree on the final pick, Bring It. It is way too situational.
VT again for me.
Where TF is Boot Camp??
Could not agree more on your point re: Bring It. Rarely have I ever been so disappointed in a card, in pure solo play. So useless so often. Also agree, VT's selection is what I would add to a red deck.
Maybe I have just been lucky with the Bring It Plays! Its not a card that goes in every red deck, but if I am building around it, it just feels so busted! It does work better in multiplayer for sure!
@NelsonAllOverCards I think the biggest problem with Bring It is that it has aged poorly. In the games early life I loved playing minion gathering decks with Bring It and Hall of Heroes. For the first several game cycles the cost of minion Summoning was quite low. It was probably viable all the way through maybe sinister Motives. I think since the start of the X-Men wave I'm the cost has grown to steadily outweigh the benefits.
But I rarely deck tech unless in MCSL or Alter-Ego chronicle challenges, and you usually are deck teching, so I think that makes a huge difference. Definetely still a great card when you know what you are using it for.
Drop kick is still a top 10 card. I put it above both clobber and bring it.