This time around we have three new spoilers, Luke Cake Main Character Level 1, Luke Cage Main Character Level 2 and Iron Fist which is very complimentary to Luke Cage, though he is strong enough to be played independently. Let's dive right in to analyze these cards and how they might shape up in the metagame.

Here is the link to the original article: http://upperdeckblog.com/2016/01/vs-defenders-preview-1/

This Main Character is very aggressive stat wise but the deck I would make with him would not be an overly agressive deck. The reason for this is that he has the ability to extend the life of the game with his ability to keep himself from being wounded with a Fotress. Also the way he gains experience by spending additional recruitment points is counter productive to an early Agressive strategy. While I'm not suggesting we go into a full out Star Lord or Hulk type resrouce ramp deck, it is a possibility.

Iron Man seems like a great fit here thematically as Luke Cage and Iron Fist are Heroes for Hire and Tony Stark has the money. It also makes sense that you would want to reuse Fotress resources to extend Luke Cage's lifespan. I am not sure how much longevity the deck has vs other late game decks and I don't think you would want to go late game against a deck like Thanos or Hulk unless you were prepared for it. Luke Cage feels like he fits in some midrange spot in between.

One thing that I have been thinking about recently is not playing locations down in your resource row and discarding them for activate super powers instead. Possibly getting a Fortress back with Rocket for the cost of a Training Ground could prove worthwhile. The Issue with doing that in this deck is that we would probably want to include Iron Fist due to the fact that he is fetchable with Luke Cage's level 2 card.

Iron Fist is very good late game against the ramp decks dropping big threats which is great. Iron Fist doesn't do well against Ferocious Characters but most of the larger drops you would want out of the way don't have Ferocious. Iron Fist taking out a Thanos, Hulk, Adam Warlock or other large characters seems great. Maybe a Spider Man to pull their MC to the front is exactly what this deck needs. I've started to come around on Moondragon and Spiderman quite a bit recently. Positioning is crudial in this game and you don't want to have to worry about a character with Flight or Grab blocking your way.