MODOK Decks to Try on Day 1

Idea:
turn 2: Invisible Women
turn 3: Electro/Wave
turn 4: Modok into Invisible Women’s lane
turn 5: Hela into Invisible Women’s lane

Magneto idea was to pull Cosmo out of Invisible Women lane

Our new season pass card deck – everything has a purpose.

Ideally, we want a Morbius > Lady Sif > Dracula > MODOK > America Chavez, but that doesn’t work often. Psylocke and Wave are included for a turn 4 MODOK or even an urgent Apocalypse. Psylocke can even give us a Dracula on turn 3, with turn 4 shenanigans like Morbius and Colleen Wing.

Before playing MODOK we want to make sure there is(on the board):

1. Morbius on board

2. Swarm or Wolverine in hand

3. Dracula on board

4. Apocalypse in hand

Morbius is most important, and a Dracula on board would combo well with him discarding Apocalypse or America Chavez.

Discarding our hand will give us many benefits:

1. Singling out Apocalypse for Colleen Wing/Dracula to discard.

2. Buffing our turn 2 Morbius

3. Guaranteed Swarm / Wolverine hit

Hela and Ghost Rider are pretty bad here, because chances are MODOK will discard a late low power card like Psylocke, or even Swarm who you don’t want to bother reviving(by sacrificing a later turn).

America Chavez is for us to draw into the main combos, or even a backup Dracula fodder.

REPLACEMENTS(in order of relevance): Instead of Iceman or Blade, we can have Sunspot or Nightcrawler. Instead of Colleen Wing, we can have a 3-cost discarder (Sword-Master, Moon Knight, Gambit). Keep in mind Colleen works well with early power and also discards Swarm and Wolverine. Iceman and Blade are less important, and realistically you could use Yondu or even Korg instead of the other 2 options if you want.

MODOK Package:

• Agent 13: Included to increase hand size so MODOK can discard more cards. Provides a turn one play and potential flexibility through generation if key late game cards aren’t drawn. Could be replaced with Sentinel for more hand size or a tech card if the generation isn’t useful often enough.
• Morbius: This deck’s method of turning MODOK into on board power. The key reason to run hand size cards and essential to the deck’s game plan.
• Wolverine: One of the few currently available cards that benefits from being discarded, which can be guaranteed through MODOK. Ideally wants to be held until MODOK is played, but can be used on Destroy locations.
• White Queen: Included to increase hand size so MODOK can discard more cards. Provides potential flexibility through generation if key late game cards aren’t drawn. Could be replaced with Moon Girl for more hand size or a tech card if the generation isn’t useful often enough.
• MODOK: The fuel for Morbius and a method to guarantee discard Apocalypse and Wolverine.
• America Chavez: Provides a guaranteed turn six play after MODOK has left you with no cards on turn 5.

Dracula Package

• Lady Sif: Only role is to discard Apocalypse, should not be played if MODOK is the highest cost card in hand, unless alternative win condition has been generated.
• Dracula: The method of turning Apocalypse discards into cheap power. Lower priority play if MODOK is not in hand to control turn six discard options.
• Apocalypse: Ideally would like to be discarded twice to reach 16 power by turn 6. One of the few cards that can be a guaranteed benefit from MODOK.

Tech Package

• Iceman: One of two turn one plays in the deck and a generically good disruption card.
• Scorpion: The deck generally needs early game and Scorpion is a good card in almost any deck.
• Cosmo: Flexible card slot to disrupt common meta decks and protect high power cards against Shang-Chi. Must be avoided when playing MODOK, White Queen, or Lady Sif.

Closing Thoughts:

The objective of this build was to theorycraft around MODOK. As with most discard decks, I am trying to walk the line between discard synergy and discard induced inconsistency. I believe this deck lacks resiliency to losing its key win conditions to random discards, so only targeted or mass discards were included, however if drawing into these win conditions is not reliable enough the pivot would be to increase the discard synergy and embrace the chaos. In that situation, hand size would be de-emphasized and Ghost Rider and Helicarrier would be solid inclusions. I don’t believe Hela will be able to exist with MODOK as they could only be played together if Hela is drawn on turn 6 and removing America Chavez leaves MODOK and Dracula vulnerable to sever low rolls to close the game.

OK, I know this might seem like just a meme, but think about it: If we have a full hand and play MODOK, Morbius’s effect is worth +12, which is a crazy amount of power for a 2-cost card. So, this deck is built around trying to maximize that power as much as possible. Mystique and Moon Girl give us extra copies of Morbius’s effect, and from there we fill the deck out with ways to get extra value from our key cards, added consistency (both from Chavez and backup cards for our primary effects), and protection from interactive cards.

Core Package:

Morbius + MODOK: With a relatively full hand, MODOK’s On Reveal can give Morbius 8 to 12 power; a truly absurd amount for 2 energy.

Moon Girl: The best way to fill our hand, she also gives us an opportunity to play multiple copies of Morbius (Morbiuses? Morbii?).

Mystique: A backup way to get a second Morbius into play.

Complimentary Cards:

Quinjet: A natural accompaniment to Moon Girl and to other ways to fill our hand. Also allows for a triple Morbius game with Moon Girl and Mystique.

Wolverine: The best card to have multiples of if we play MODOK on turn 6.

America Chavez: We need to draw a lot of specific cards at specific times. While this decreases our chances of playing MODOK on turn 6, it increases our chances of drawing the cards we need for a good T4 Moon Girl.

The Hood: Demon is another excellent card to copy with Moon Girl if our main strategy isn’t working and can help fill our hand if we don’t draw Moon Girl in time.

Agent Coulson: Our best backup plan for filling our hand if we still want to play T5 Morbius into T6 MODOK.

Hellcow: Our best backup plan for discarding cards if we don’t draw MODOK.

Protection:

Goose + Cosmo: If we’re going to lean this heavily on Ongoing effects, we need to protect from Enchantress and, to a lesser extent, Rogue. 

Other Considerations:

Lady Sif + Helicarrier: A better way to fill our hand than Coulson, but requires multiple slots and is somewhat inconsistent.

Swarm (+ Colleen Wing): Swarm works great with T5 MODOK but doesn’t do much with a T6 MODOK unless we hit Kamar-Taj. Colleen Wing can’t hit Swarm consistently with multiple cheap cards in our deck, and the risk of discarding Morbius is too high.

Invisible Woman: Could allow us to delay MODOK until after turn 6 to try and use our energy more efficient and refill our hand w/ Coulson or the like beforehand, or even include a Hela backup plan, but initially seems too inconsistent.

Strong Guy: Potentially a backup Morbius, but more difficult to get multiple copies of (without Zabu). Strong Guy + MODOK may well be stronger than Morbius + MODOK, but you’d need to build it differently.

Devil Dinosaur: May actually be our most effective backup strategy if we don’t draw MODOK, though obviously if it’s big then Morbius is small and vice-versa

Beast: Could be another way to refill our hand before MODOK, the only cards we’re really happy to pick up are The Hood and Wolverine