I won Infinity Conquest with this deck after 2 tries on 31/Oct/2023 (first one failed 2nd match, second time all the way until the end). It's based on a previous deck I had called just Dark-Thing, a deck that helped me to climb a lot in rank mode before, and the biggest change being adding Lad, as I didn't have it back when the other was build, and instead of the now nerfed Angela now we have Rogue as a tech.
The intentions of the deck are clear:
- Our biggest way to create power is Darkhawk with help of Korg and Rock Slide
- Man-Thing tries to spoil the lane our rival has played the most at first (so 1-3 costs) and ocassional Bounce decks, apart from ocassional rocks we sent if played.
- Shadow King and Shang-Chi to destroy what our rival has created at the end. Even if they're the only card you can play on that turn, don't be like that, keep them until the end (Shadow King could be the only exception if they already played a Luke you can't Rogue, but only then!).
- Iron Lad is better for last when you didn't have luck drawing other cards, as he very easily serves the purpose of probably play the needed card with a boost in Power as he has the best base power, so whatever another card in deck does, he does it better. There's usually no bad outcome, 6-power Jeff, a 6-power Darkhawk, a 6-power Captain Marvel, a 6-power Rogue, a 6-power Shadow King... Just consider what cards are still not drawn and take your chance if there's nothing better to play.
- We have also support cards, Zabu helps a lot playing most of the cards of this already cheap deck that has no higher cost cards than 4, but mostly serves as bait for rival's Rogue or Enchantress, so Darkhawk would be free of them later. Luke to avoid harming us with our own Man-Thing if necessary or lowering with Shadow King if we had some buff generated by location (as our only power modifier is ongoing, Darkhawk, and we can't turn it off with Shadow King ourselves), yet avoid playing 1-3 in Man-Thing lane and Shadow King on buffed cards anyway, as Cage in this deck is also a bit of bait like Zabu, we don't completely need him if we play our cards right, but they use to go after him. Then we have Rogue to get rid of possible rival's Luke or getting important abilities of our rival, Jeff and Captain Marvel help us playing places without easy access and play a bit around the occasional Alioth.
Always play Zabu as soon as possible (for both bait purposes and take advantage of lower cost as soon as possible), never play Shadow King, Shang-Chi until the very end (last turn or the one before that if you think you won't be able to do it last). Rogue could be played soon if necessary, but better to play like Shadow King or Shang-chi at one of the last two turns. Luke could be played very soon (after Zabu if possible) except if you think your rival's strategy is lowering your power, then let him for later.