Almost as soon as I shared my surfer deck I started thinking about how much work it needed. Here’s a version I’ve been running with this morning with decent success.
Out:
- Heimdall, obviously. He was fun for a cute win or two with Plunder Palace, but truly wasn’t actually worth it even then, and without that featured location has no place anywhere near this deck.
- Leech. I started thinking about this one, and Leech has some utility on his own, even in a deck he doesn’t otherwise synergize with. You can still back plenty of people down on turn 5 if the 3-cost surfer plays you want aren’t going your way. But Leech was really effective with a Leader as a backup. It was nice to know that if they didn’t back down when their hand got Leech’d, they were about to just drop a bunch of inert power which you could simply copy. With Leader being nerfed, Leech loses more of his utility than I first realized.
- Scorpion, because I just needed the room. Weakens early tempo/disruption/power, but hopefully offset by extra Surfer plays later.
- Sword Master. Even riskier now that he discards the wrong thing. When I get Maximus, he’ll probably come in for the “heavy hitting 3-cost” role SM was in (probably ditching Killmonger or Rhino at that point).
In:
- Psylocke, Absorbing Man, Wong. Ideally a Psylocke on turn five sets up a surprise Wong + Surfer or Surfer + Absorbing Man for a double Surfer effect on turn six. Frequently this will mean no plays on turns one and two, so the best positioning for this seems to be two 3-power in one lane (ideally Thor and Polaris or whoever have the most base power you can manage) and Brood in another. Spread yourself much thinner and even a surprise double Surfer risks not winning your non-Brood location.
You have some flexibility if you don’t draw the Psylocke, you could just drop Wong on turn five and then another 3-cost + Surfer on six. A little riskier because it tips your hand and leaves Wong vulnerable to disruption, although sometimes you also scare off an opponent, which can be good or bad depending on the cubes on the line.
A Surfer on five and an Absorbing Man on six can also get you the double surfer if you don’t have Wong or Psylocke available, but this probably isn’t going to be enough since it means a pretty weak turn six outside of the second Surf. I’m not sure if I’ll keep AM in this deck, but I just unlocked him yesterday, and if you do have Psylocke when you need her, giving you two options for a double-Surfer on turn six is nice. AM also gives you a little flexibility on a crowded board because you don’t need to play AM + SS on the same lane (like Wong + SS), and slightly more power overall since AM is stronger than Wong, and the AM’s copied SS effect will give a little boost to the SS you just dropped, whereas a SS that’s doubled by Wong doesn’t buff itself.
Also if you have another energy boost from the board, sometimes you can pull off a third SS If you get Wong + SS+ AM in the same lane. Note that AM’s copy ability is what’s doubled, not the ability that was the target of his copy, so AM only adds one additional Surfer effect instead of two, but it’s still fun.
Also also, sometimes you can drop Mjolnir on Wong for another huge surprise power push. - Rhino, who’s proving surprisingly useful at taking the sting out of some bad luck with locations–or even facilitating sneaky plays. Twice this morning I’ve Rhino’d a Limbo on turn six to leave the opponent unprepared for the end of the game and given me the win, but that’s the exception. Lots of more mundane utility in making the board less hostile, or occasionally countering a Storm play.