You thought Banner was the last card of the year? Think again
Rocket and Groot arrive precisely on the last Tuesday of 2024. Also, they’ll be the very first duo card, meaning that their card will be the very first to feature more than one character in a single card.
I believe that by now everyone should know who they are, right? The very last Flora Colossus and a raccoon that was given intelligence and trust issues by science. A match made in heaven, and one of the most iconic duos since peanut butter and jelly.
Okay, first of all, for brevity’s sake, I’ll call them RRG from now on.
So, RRG is a 3/3 card with two distinct abilities, a strange coincidence for a card featuring two characters. They can move once during the game, just like Nightcrawler does, and they also steal 1 Power from every card that your opponent plays into their location. Who do you think is responsible for each effect?
Generalist Geniuses
I will put my good name on the line here and say that this card will be a must-have. From time to time, a generalist shows up and is so strong and versatile that it can be slotted into many different decks; the most recent example of this is Hydra Bob, which is a card that has no blatant synergies and no crazy combos to pull off, but every competitive deck that has a slot for a 1-Drop features him just because he is just that strong
Also, remember the reign of terror that Nocturne had on the game? She used to be the generalist 3-cost card; even if your deck didn’t benefit from her effects, she would fit in just because she was strong. Eventually, Nocturne was nerfed and the meta moved on. Right now, Red Guardian kinda took over her spot as being the generalist. I predict that RRG will compete with Red Guardian to be the new Nocturne. Depending on the meta, any deck that has an open slot and needs a card on that energy range, will have a hard time choosing between RRG and Red Guardian.
I do believe that this duo will be strong even in decks that don’t try to use any synergy with them. Stealing even a single unit of power will get them into the old Nocturne power range while still being able to steal more and more. The full potential for an absolutely insane game would be playing RRG on a highly contested location like Muir Island or The Raft, stealing 4 power from your opponent’s cards in there, then moving the card and stealing 4 more power again. According to my napkin math, that would be a solid swing of 19 power in your favor for just 3 energy. Although I wouldn’t count on it happening often.
Not everything is roses for our duo. I must warn you that drawing them on turn 6 without priority will be a sad experience; you won’t be able to use any of their effects if that happens. Perhaps that’s the balance of this card. Also, Shadow King double taps RRG by restoring the power stolen. Luke is also a decent counter, but he doesn’t stop RRG from gaining power
Synergies
Now that we talked about their generalist power, let’s have a look at some cards that would actually work in their favor.
Nebula is my favorite member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and I truly hope that a deck shows up featuring her with RRG. Having them both in the same location puts your opponent in a tricky spot that they will have to choose between letting Nebula grow or having their power stolen by our duo.
An obvious synergy would be Ajax; he loves seeing cards with lower power, and RRG does exactly that while also growing bigger. The only problem here is that Ajax’s decks recently have all started using Malekith due to his potential of grabbing Luke Cage or Hazmat from your deck and surprising your opponent on the last turn. It goes without saying that having Malekith grabbing RRG would not work well because they would only show their pretty mugs after the game was over, meaning that their effects would be useless. Perhaps a new variation comes up without our Dark Elf friend.
Scream is often referred to as the best card of a so-so archetype. Perhaps our galactic friends can make it better. Kraven and Miles, two staples of the deck, would love to meet RRG. By maneuvering your opponent’s options with cards like Polaris, Aero, Stegron, etc., we would be forcing your opponent into playing constantly into RRG’s location.
Lockdown would benefit from RRG; the only issue is that Lockdown is pretty awful right now; the deck can’t compete with the amount of power that can be achieved with Wiccan decks right now. Storm still would be good with our duo; forcing your opponent into playing in fewer locations means more power to steal for RRG. One day I hope that they test out reducing Jean’s cost to 2 because right now she is too expensive to even use with RRG, which should work wonders with her.
Last but not least, ironically, the High Evolutionary, but just for Abomination and Wasp. Reduce your opponent’s power with RRG, Wasp, and Hazmat; get a free Abomination at the end of the game. Should be golden.
Dualgloves’ Day One Rocket Racoon & Groot Decks
I won’t feature any decks that use their Generalist power. Let’s see some decks that try to synergize with what they can do.
Three Double O's
The reason why I love Silver Surfer decks is that they are extremely versatile; there are so many great 3-cost cards in this game that are difficult to choose. With RRG's debut, the choice will be even harder to make. I must say that this is an extremely expensive deck to make from scratch, but the only must-have cards for a Silver Surfer deck are the titular card, Sebastian, Brood, and Sera. So, feel free to change things around according to your collection level and meta.
Bunch of Jackasses Standing in a Circle
Ajax as we know and love but with some changes to slot in RRG. This curve is lower and doesn’t require Malekith's shady shenanigans to work. I want to test out how good RRG will be in this shell, as I feel like this will be the best home for our duo. Luke Cage is your most important card; protect him from Red Guardians that are all over the place by playing smaller cards if possible.
Mafia Robbers
If you are a proud owner of Scream, it's time to make her join the tree and the trash panda. Usually your opponents will play directly into your Kraven and Kingpin locations; that’s when you play the boys to dissuade your opponents from doing that. Move stuff steals power; just be careful with Luke Cage; he counters this deck hard.
I Am Groot
Evil, devilish, and mean. Try to scam your opponent out of the game by locking it up by turn 5 with the Legion and Storm Combo. If you can't, RRG and Galacta plays should make you enough power to win you the game.
Variants
Verdict
I’ll say the same thing that I always say when a new card shows up: be patient. I believe that RRG will be incredibly powerful, but I still recommend that you hold back a few days to gauge how powerful it will actually be. The 3-Cost competition is huge, and they might prove themselves not as useful as Red Guardian or even Copycat. I could be extremely wrong with my prediction, and we will never find a home for the card. So once again, be patient and wait a bit. Don’t risk your hard-earned currencies just because I have a hunch that it will be good.
I must say that Second Dinner probably shares my belief that RRG will be incredible because they chose two of the most awful spotlight mates for them. Selene is a card that many have tried to use, but it simply isn’t that good, even in Goblin decks. Blob lost his spot as the resident big guy, he isn’t that competitive right now simply because Gor does what he does, but better.