Summary
The updated Meta and the new rank up mechanics allowed me to move to 85 using my original DeathTaskZola deck. The current Meta is heavy on Destroy because of Nimrod which buffed my Death. But at 85, Wave was too telegraphed at turn 3.
Cloned DeathTaskZola to create DeathHulkZola. Realized that the heavy Destroy Meta, even up through Galactus relies on very specific cards being in your hand for success. If you can eliminate those cards. then you can take the cubes, even against Thanos and Galactus hands.
The suggested cards were all ones which sat in earlier versions and were enough to get me to mid-90s, where I eventually slipped back to 89. Once I dropped Zola for Aero and stopped focusing on the endgame alone, the cubes were easier to grab.
Here is the Play
Turns 1, 2, 3:
Regardless of location, burn Cable, Yondu, or Iceman as quickly and, if possible, pull back with Beast and do it all over again. If you can't drop Beast by turn 3, forget him. ~40% these were enough to get people to retreat. Snap on 3 if possible so you have control and can retreat on a response snap if necessary.
Use Carnage to pump a lane with power, in the event you can't bounce them back to your hand. Do NOT use Killmonger OR Shang-Chi unless enough 1s are on the board to give you Death for free.
Turn 4: White Queen gives you insight onto their hand, in case Cable didn't give you their archetype.
Turn 5: Wave and ONLY Wave
Turn 6: She-Hulk will play for 2, Death will usually play for 2 as well since at least two destroys will have happened on one side or the other. BUT the gold standard is Death for 0, She-Hulk for 2, and Aero for 4. Split the lanes and drop your heavy hitters.
If you do not have priority, then I found pushing Aero and Death into the same lane helped.
Pros
- Early bounces frustrate players and inherently combat Thanos stones AND Galactus since you can usually grab their Knull or other high values
- White Queen on turn 4 gives you 6 on a lane that you can later play to Aero and pull 13 while dropping another 12 with Death somewhere else
- Wave on turn 6 typically disrupts any plans for multi-card drops they may have had
Cons
- Weaker against Ongoing decks. Patriots, for example, were my biggest threat. I ran through Thanos decks with this, many times I would play their Thanos turn 6 just to spite them, but Patriots were brutal. Unless you take their Patriot with Yondu or Cable, you will likely lose on sheer coverage.
- You have to pay attention. This deck will NOT play itself. If you miss a Yondu target, it could mean a loss because you didn't grab the archetype.