Deckbuilding, Pt. 2 - Tech Cards
What’s the worst card your opponent could play?
Tech /tek/
noun
- A card chosen to specifically to counter an opposing strategy. Usually has limited impact otherwise.
verb
- To substitute a card in this manner.
“You should tech in Cosmo.”
Tech cards are included in a deck to counter a particular deck archetype that is common in the current meta.
Most decks have only 1 or 2 tech cards, as they often do not directly support the deck’s primary win conditions. Instead, they’re chosen on their ability to counter a specific strategy, to give a deck a better chance against playstyles it might otherwise struggle against.
Many tech cards have clear interactions with priority, and are best suited to decks that can set them up for their ideal outcome.
Often tech cards are lumped in with disruption and control cards, like Korg, Iceman, Storm, Goblin, and Aero. But tech cards usually have a few things in common:
- They are 1:1 power-for-energy or worse
- They counter specific opposing plays, and are often not played otherwise
- They can be swapped for other tech cards without affecting the rest of the deck
This is not an exhaustive list, and the inclusion or exclusion of any card here is up for debate. We’ll focus on the most commonly played tech cards that meet the above definition.
Ability Counters
The first main class of tech cards are designed to specifically counter your opponent’s abilities.
Cosmo
Cosmo is the fundamental tech card against on-reveal decks. He’s a strong counter to lane-dependent setups like Wong, and can short-circuit destroy lanes before they drop Carnage, Deathlok, or Venom. Cosmo is also interesting in that he’s uncounterable - once played, nothing can prevent or deactivate his ability, short of location effects or random destruction.
Cosmo generally prefers to have priority, to prevent any played opposing cards from using their effects on reveal.
Cosmo is a strong inclusion in Ongoing decks, capable of being buffed by Spectrum, preventing Destroyer’s ability, and protecting a lane against Enchantress.
Enchantress
Enchantress is Cosmo’s counterpart, removing all ongoing effects from cards in the lane. This ability can be used to shut down opponent ongoing abilities like Devil Dinosaur, as well as to remove negative effects from your cards, like Lizard or Red Skull.
Enchantress often does not want reveal priority, to ensure her effect is applied to the greatest possible number of cards. Similarly, she is often most strong when played in the endgame.
But this is not always the case - Cosmo is the counter to a potential Enchantress play, so waiting to play her may put you at risk of being shut out. Similarly, you may want priority to deactivate an ability before it can be copied with Mystique. If Enchantress is in hand, consider your tempo carefully.
Rogue
Rogue provides a cheaper version of Enchantress’s effect, stealing an ongoing ability from an opposing card. This can be a complete counter to decks that rely on a particular ongoing effect, like Patriot, Cerebro, or Sera.
Rogue benefits from being played as early as possible, and ideally with priority. Her target is chosen randomly, so mulitple opposing ongoing cards have been played, she’s as liable to steal Lizard’s ability as is she is Blue Marvel’s. Rogue is an excellent counter to Mystique, stealing an ability before it can be copied.
Shadow King
Shadow King provides a niche but potent effect - resetting cards to their base power. This effect is devastating against cards like Black Panther, Shuri, Deadpool, Kraven, Angela, Bishop, Taskmaster, and others that boost power over time. However, this card ignores Ongoing abilities like Devil Dinosaur, Punisher, Cerebro and Kazar, which grant energy in addition to their base power.
Shadow King is ideally played without priority, as late as possible. Like other ability counters, it can only be prevented with Cosmo. However, it’s original placement in Series 5 means few players possess it, and even fewer play around it.
Destroy Counters
The second main category of tech cards are focused on destroying played cards.
Armor
Armor protects all cards in a lane from destruction, and can be used in many ways.
Armor counters your opponent’s Killmonger and Shang Chi, and is great for protecting 1-cost cards like Sunspot and high-power cards like Hulk.
However, Armor can be used offensively to specifically counter the Destroy archetype, by preventing the destruction of fodder cards like Nova, Bucky Barnes, Squirrel Girl, and Mysterio. This often requires priority, but when deployed successfully can shut down a lane and prevent the payoff of multiple turns of investment.
Decks that include other Destroy techs like Shang Chi should be careful about playing Armor too early.
Killmonger
Killmonger destroys all unprotected 1-cost cards, making it the natural counter to the zoo archetype. Killmonger is countered by Armor, but can circumvent cards protected from Elektra by Cosmo.
Decks with Killmonger must carefully navigate the inclusion of 1-cost cards, ensuring that they are protected by Armor or played after Killmonger to prevent their own destruction.
Killmonger is commonly used to destroy your own Nova, and may be used as a source of destroy with Squirrel Girl to reduce the cost of Death.
Shang Chi
Shang Chi destroys all opposing 9-or-higher-power cards, and can cause a dramatic swing in the final turn of the game.
Shang Chi shares many of the same considerations as Enchantress. Shang Chi is often best played in the endgame, when the most number of cards can be affected. Especially on turn 6, it’s often advantageous to not have priority, in order to destroy any potential high-power finishers. But waiting too long is risky, as your opponent may play Cosmo or Armor first.
Endgame Counters
Our final category of tech cards are specifically played to disrupt the endgame, and often represent a significant investment of endgame resources. These cards may also be considered finishers, but are included here given their relatively-low power and situational benefit.
Sandman
Sandman is a 4-cost card that limits both players to playing a single card per turn. It is a counter to decks like Deathwave and Sera Miracle that are designed for explosive turn 6 plays.
Sandman is particuarly dependent on the current meta, as many decks only play a single card per turn in the endgame anyways, making it an enormous turn 4 investment for no upside.
Accordingly, Sandman is commonly paired with Electro or Psylock to play it on turn 3, as part of a deck oriented specifically around playing high-value on-the-curve cards.
Leech
Leech removes all abilities from the opponent’s hand, at the expensive of giving up significant tempo on turn 5.
Leech is a highly-situational card, best for targeting end-game cards like Devil Dinosaur that depend on their ability to generate power. In many cases, Leech can backfire, actually boosting Patriot decks and cards like Red Skull.
Since Leech is typically played on turn 5, it can also result in a lot of retreats. Decks oriented around Leech should be very conscientious about when they snap and having a proper read on your opponent.
UPDATE - As of January 31st, 2023, Leader has been reworked, and has since largely disappeared from use. But feel free to read up on the good-old-days, when Leader was dominant turn 6 choice for countless decks.
Leader
The much-reviled Leader duplicates all cards played by your opponent. However, it’s not quite an instant win - playing Leader often requires some careful consideration.
Leader’s role is to maintain an existing advantage at the start of turn 6. You should have a lead in at least two lanes beforehand, with your goal being to preserve the same power differential by the end of the turn. Similarly, it’s important to ensure you have space in each lane to copy all played cards by your opponent. This means your first 5 turns are often best spent playing a single, high-value card on the curve, to ensure you have advantage and plenty of space.
It’s valuable to understand how opposing Leaders work - they will copy each other back and forth until the lane is full. If you suspect your opponent is playing Leader, this generally means you want to play Leader in the lane where your opponent has the fewest free spaces, to minimize the number of copies they receive.
However, there’s one exception to this case - Leader copies the opponent’s cards at the time Leader reveals. This means if your opponent’s cards are boosted by on-reveal or location effects, playing Leader without priority means you copy the final version of the card. If your opponent plays Gamora and hits for 12 power, your copy of Gamora will start at 12 and increase to 17.
It’s dangerous to rely on this interaction, but worth considering if you have a strong read on your opponent and no better options.
Leader performs poorly against several deck archetypes, especially ones like Patriot that use ongoing effects to boost their cards. Additionally, copying cards like Carnage can remove your lane advantage.