Introduction
I've been getting progressively less active in the past month or so. Mostly because of the decreased rate of new opened cards and the fact that most of the archetypes in late Pool 3 have already been described by other players. So unless I have an at least slightly unique take on an archetype, I usually keep to myself. I mean, do we really need another generic Death Wave guide on the site?
So today, I'll be doing something different with my time and instead of a decklist, here's a list of cards which will provide you the best value in early Pool 3 if you get them from the token shop, including some honorable mentions. Or at least in my opinion.
I'll be focusing on cards which provide an immediate boost to an already existing archetype, while also finding place in later or several deck archetypes, and ones that spawn their own archetype which is immediately viable with no further support from Pool 3.
Card list
In no particular order (besides the energy cost):
- Mystique is card which basically doubles your Ongoing payoff. You can immediately put her into a Dino deck to get a second or even third copy of Devil Dinosaur. Iron Man, Kazar or Blue Marvel are also great targets. She also finds place in Patriot, Cerebro, Seratonin or even Ronan decks down the line. Great overall utility.
- Patriot creates his own archetype which is strong from the get go and grows in power as you progress into Pool 3. He was also my first Pool 3 card that I've opened so I'll always be a little biased towards him.
- Juggernaut, personally, I feel like the guy's underrated as it takes a bit of skill to utilize him properly. He's the type of surprise card which steals games. Pairs incredibly well with Storm, so you can throw him into the Control style deck from Pool 2. Can also win you the game by punting away the opponent's finisher from a priority location.
- Wong, strong effect which can be immediately put into use in a classic On Reveal deck and there's a plethora of decks in later Pool 3 which want to capitalize on his effect.
- Absorbing Man is the On Reveal counterpart of Mystique and can serve a similar purpose as Wong by utilizing the same effect in a different lane. He is versatile and may need more support depending on how you wish to utilize him.
- Sera, if you're ready for a Miracle, she can give you one by dropping several discounted cards on the final turn for a powerful tempo swing. She also finds place in several other archetypes, a popular one's Sera Control.
- Aero, another powerful card, very prominent in the current meta. The dumbed down version of the strategy behind her is to just be ahead on two lanes and pull the opponent's stuff away on the final turn. Can fit into several deck archetypes, mostly run in Death Wave.
- Doctor Doom will allow you to challenge all three locations on the final turn if necessary or slide into a location closed by Storm. Fits well in a deck with her, other archetypes include On Reveal into Wong (or Ramp On Reveal where you play him early and can also Odin) or Patriot.
- She-Hulk, recently dropped into Pool 3. Generally, any card with built in cost reduction will be powerful. Slides into a Devil Dino deck right away, later on Death Wave among other things.
- Magneto is another great option, it just takes a little skill and understanding to recognize when to play him. Can find a home in a lot of decks which are looking for an alternative finisher.
- Destroyer provides you with another strong early Pool 3 archetype by adding him into Spectrum Destroyer where the whole point is to stack a lane and lock it down with Armor/Professor X to protect it from Destroyer on the final turn. It's a bit boring and predictable for experienced players, but very dependable. Also finds home in other archetypes in later Pool 3.
- Death is the final card which opens up a new path for Destruction decks fresh out of Pool 2. Also run in Death Wave, Hela Discard, Galactus decks and so on.
Honorable mentions:
- Cerebro also creates its own archetype, the most viable being Cerebro 2 (the power of all cards in the deck is 2 except for Blue Marvel who bumps everything up to 3 power later). Cerebro decks are very fragile though, they can be easily messed up by locations such as Monster Island, Xandar or Muir Island which change the power on the board. An experienced player can also just drop an Enchantress on Blue Marvel - all of a sudden he becomes the highest power card on the board and eats up the Cerebro buff. Other than that, it's a pretty fun and unique archetype. Adding Mystique to the deck also increases the power output.
- Dracula for the discard (and not necessarily just discard decks) lovers takes the Pool 2 Discard deck to a whole new level. It's just that discard decks are very draw dependent and there's also some additional randomness involved. Still a viable and fun deck archetype.
- Mr. Negative, if you want a different playstyle. One thing to note is that Negative decks with just Mr. Negative are not all that great and require additional Pool 3 cards to become competitive. But a fun option nonetheless.
Final thoughts
So those are my 2 cents for fresh early Pool 3 token shop picks, I'm really looking forward to how this list will age. And of course, if you really want to play that Hazmat/Luke Cage deck asap instead, it's really up to you.
Have fun!