Cage Trap 

Put Your Opponents in a Cage!

Summary

This deck looks to trap your opponent by forcing them into bad decisions. No trap is complete without bait: you lure your opponent by showing weak positions and manipulating power at locations. Now, the trap is sprung!

Cards

1. Lizard – Lizard becomes 5 power for 2 energy in this deck, whether it’s via Enchantress or Luke Cage.
2. Luke Cage – The Cage of the aforementioned Cage Trap; he prevents you from falling into your own trap!
3. Hazmat – Theoretically, she can swing up to 12 power in a perfect situation. Usually, it’s 6 or 7. Not bad for 2 energy!
4. Cosmo – A great trap card and very meta right now. In high level play, decks tend to be be pretty predictable, so it’s not too hard to catch your opponent.
5. Typhoid Mary – After Enchantress or Luke Cage, she’s more like the Virgin Mary: clean, virtuous, and with the power of God behind her.
6. Jubilee – Jubilee is just such a fantastic all-around card for thinning out your deck and making your setups more likely. Also great with Odin.
7. Enchantress – A lovely little lady who can perform miracle cures on Typhoid Mary. She’s also very meta at the moment; Patriot and Zabu are everywhere.
8. Hobgoblin – Do not undervalue taking away a slot from an opponent, especially with a relative power level at roughly expected price. He’s a big swing card and a good trapper .
9. Spider-Woman – Another great swing card, though I find her to be one of the weaker parts of the deck currently. That said, she pairs great with Odin, especially if she were pulled by Jubilee first
10. Professor X – He puts the telekinectic dagger in a location, enough said. Once he’s locked in, you only need to worry about one of two locations.
11. Magneto – A ridiculously good Jubilee pull, and a great way to pull in opponents who have thus far avoided your trap.
12. Odin – Big Norse daddy, ’nuff said. Oh, he also becomes a massive power swing when paired with Hazmat, Jubilee, or Spider-Woman? Hell, he can even proc Enchantress in a pinch.

General Strategy

The name of the game is bait-and-trap. Convince your opponent to go for certain locations (or let them just walk in themselves) and then turn those locations into prisons. You can do these in a few ways, and it is absolutely critical that you pay attention to the first couple cards the opponent uses to figure out what deck they’re playing.

If they’re playing an Ongoing deck, make sure you hit a central one with Enchantress (e.g. Zabu or Patriot or Kazar). If it actually is one of those three examples, or any Aggro deck, also be sure to wait until later on to play your Hazmat and Luke Cage. Let them overcommit, expect to have a big lead, and then drop a Turn 4 Cage and Hazmat, 5 Spider-Woman, 6 Odin… or something like that ?. Be flexible, and generally let the opponent keep a lead early on.

If they’re playing something more On Reveal focused (e.g. Discard, Destroy, Surfer, Wong anything), focus more on controlling space and trying to increase the odds of your opponent playing their win card in a specific location so you can catch it on the right turn with Cosmo. Make sure to pay attention to when each archetype tends to play its bomb card, and adjust accordingly. Cosmo, Hobgoblin, and Professor X especially shine in these matchups.

When seems don’t seem to be fully going to plan, or you haven’t fully managed to trap your opponent by the end game, look for Magneto to potentially throw a (metal) wrench at your opponent. Suddenly pulling 1, 2, or even 3 cards from their current location can be a massive pain in your opponent’s game plan. Don’t forget he can pull a Wong or Cosmo, too. Just be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. Similarly, don’t forget to drop Odin on Jubilee or even Enchantress once in a while. If it seems like your opponent has caught on, then mixing up the game plan and doing something unexpected can win games. Don’t let the trapper become the trappee. 

Crucial Wisdom

I think there are two big things that will take you to the next level with this deck.

The first is to keep in mind when you want to let the opponent keep the lead early on so you can hit more cards with your power diminishers VS when you want to keep the lead early so you can hit a Cosmo or a reactive Enchantress. This might depend on the deck you think they’re playing or on which cards you have in your hand. Play smart, and know when to lead the opponent into the trap and when to pull them in.

The second is to play around locations. Consider which locations are generally advantageous to your opponent rather than to you. It’s more important to foil them at what they want to do than to, say, pull off a big move like Hazmat on Kamar-Taj. Of course, even in that example, the exception would be against Zoo or Aggro decks when you have Odin, too. Take advantage of the surprise from playing a Turn 6 Luke Cage with a power diminishing location present.

Playing The ~Meta~

If you couldn’t tell, this deck is all about countering your opponent’s game plan. As a result, the cards in it are likely to change based on the meta that you are currently in at your rank and collection level. It may not even be good in certain metas at all. You might also just not have some of the cards. Some adjustments to consider (not totally comprehensive, play around):

• ?Cosmo – If you just don’t seem to be getting that much value out of him, you’re probably not facing a lot of Wong or On Reveal combo decks. Drop him.
• ?Hobgoblin – The biggest downside of this card is that you often lose the game if your opponent plays Odin. Keep an eye out if you’re seeing a ton.
• ?Spider-Woman – Not all that good if your opponents tend to be spreading out their cards a lot or playing decks that win with few cards on their side.
• ?Armor – Great way to protect the many high power cards against Shang-Chi and disrupt Destroy decks (on Nova, The Hood, Bucky Barnes e.g.)
• ?Rogue – Self-explanatory, she basically becomes a super Hazmat if you pull something like a Blue Marvel or Patriot.
• ?Aero – I actually have not really experimented with Aero, but if the meta has a lot of big Turn 5s, Aero could be a strong inclusion

Now go out there and trap your opponents like the beady-eyed raccoons they are.