I have spent so many days figuring out this build is exhausting to build a Shadow King deck. I will start by explaining the deck: this is a Control list that runs enough techs to destroy the most played cards in Snap atm, it plays from behind the entire game to then strike back on turn 6. It counters M.O.D.O.K decks , Dino Decks, almost every deck in the meta right now.
Why did a decided to put this 12 cards?
- Nova + Killmonger: At first I had Killmonger + Hood to avoid the Shadow King effect onto my own cards, but this is typically a turn 6 combo so I finally decided against it, this combo allows you not only to counter a lot of cards, Iceman and Sunspot for example, but it allows you to get the Power this deck will sometimes require to beat the 8 power cards like M.O.D.O.K, Morbius, etc. Of course I added Hood as a suggestion instead of Nova to avoid the Shadow King effect, but I dont run Carnage or Viper (I will explain at the end) so Nova made more sense in the end.
- Sentinel: In my opinion, one of the best 2 drops in the game for Control, it allows you to play something when you need to save up those 4 drops for later turns, it is just a good card.
- Maximus: As you have noticed this deck doesn't run bishop which is usually an auto-include in every control list, so to add patch that lack of Power I added Maximus for those sweet 3 energy 7 power stats. Also Dracula is been played A LOT so he will counter it.
- Zabu + Shang-Chi + Enchantress: This 3 cards allows you to counter basically every strategy, just stay behind and you will win most games with them.
- Crossbones: At first I had White Queen in this spot to get a proactive turn 4 (or 3) play that adds power, information and an extra card, the thing is that the current meta is Discard so you know which cards they tend to run on the 5 or 6 cost range, or decks with Doom or Magneto. So I decided to go for Crossbones to sacrifice the ability of White Queen, which in my opinion is a strong contender for this spot, and get the extra 2 power this deck will definitely need in some games.
- Magik: It gives you location Control, extra information, an extra draw and extra energy. I considered Sera to do crazy stuff + Zabu on turn 6, but I have decided against it in the end.
- Captain Marvel: Solid unit to win hard to reach locations, most of my decks run her or Vision thanks to the amount that have been added to the game. I would consider Vision if you want to have the extra point for a little bit less consistency.
- Invisible Woman + Shadow King: The funniest thing ever happened to me when I was building this deck, I was scrolling through the 2 cost cards adding most of them as suggestions when I got one of the best ideas ever. A way to counter Dracula. As I said before, dracula is been played a lot atm, and there is little counter to his ability, until I noticed the combo. Shadow King makes sense in the meta with this combo, if you Invis Woman him on turn 6 or 7 you will reveal him after Dracula and set his Power to 0, Shadow King is also amazing to counter negative locations on your side, he is good vs Sunspot + Armor, etc. Invis woman allows you to shang or enchantress also when you had prio going into the last turn, it allows you to maximus on 3 without the down side, it is weirdly a good idea haha.
Card suggestions:
Aside from the cards I mentioned before I wanted to mention Armor and Lizard. The first card is a great tech card vs destroy and hard to reach locations, but it can work against you sometimes would need to play the deck to see if it fits. Lizard was on the deck originally over Sentinel, he cant get Shadow King and have good stats, but Sentinel might be better in this deck.
Why I didn't consider X card:
- Carnage + Bishop + Angela + Jessica Jones: I wanted to avoid as much as possible the negative effect of shadow King in my own side of the board so I didn't include them at the end. At first I had Bishop as the ONLY card that could get affected, but I felt that it could get clunky.
- Mysterio: Without Angela or Bishop he isn't worth it in my opinion, even with Nova in the deck.
- Scarlet Witch: With Magik is enough, her RNG can affect you more than the opponent.
- Viper: If I played only Hood as her target it would have been clunky, you need Sentry or Ebony Maw to make her make sense.
- Scorpion: Shadow King hehe.
- Cosmo: It affects you more than your opponent.
- Polaris: I did consider her a little bit as the other 3 drop over Maximus cause she counters Invis Woman, Armor and sometimes 1 drops, but I feel like she can be clunky sometimes.
Final Thoughts
I think I made a build that represents myself in the way of playing the game, trying to add Shadow King as a tech card, but also building the deck around him. That way this deck can work with or without him. I hope you win a lot of games with it bootman. GL in ladder.