"The record of the Defenders has been a proud one so far. I am certain that whatever the future may bring, nothing will ever change that." - Stephen Strange (Defenders Vol 1 #11)

Previously a neurosurgeon, Dr. Strange is a egotistical man with mysterious mystical training in ancient sorcerous ways. Quite different from other super heroes having innate or super powers, he is a practiced professional. How does the Sorcerer Supreme stack up to other heroes in VS2PCG?.

Leveling

Level up (5) "Supreme Power": Whenever you draw one or more cards, Dr. Strange gains an XP.

Drawing cards isn't so hard, we do it every turn at the very least right? Leveling up on turn 5 isn't ideal or considered fast for most decks. Moreover, you can't gain XP while your Main Character is stunned. The draw step is before the recovery step.

There are not many ways to draw extra cards in this game as the game's balance is in the fact that most cards has some sort of card advantage built into it already in one way or another.(Check out a Card Advantage article here). Dr. Strange's first ability does help with that though.

Super Powers

Level 1 Power: Supreme Knowledge - Build : Draw a card. You may use this power any number of times on your turn.

Drawing cards is a good thing. Here though you are trading a [symb=2b] for a card. A 1 for 1 trade. If it was used from your resource row, you could consider it a 1/2 for 1 trade, though most super powers are on that level or higher for the effect that they provide. I won't go into the Card Advantage statistics here as I've already done in a previous article.

You can use this power as many times as you want on your turn during your build phase though which is great. It is a great way to thin out your deck and get to things you need. Having in a Dr. Strange deck is pretty essential.

Level 2 Power: "Mass Transmutation" - Main : Choose any number of characters. For each one, remove its +1/+1 counters and put that many -1/-1 counters onto it, or vice versa.

This ability is amazing and as long as +1/+1 counters are relevant, this ability will be also relevant. The fact that you can do either +1/+1 counters to -1/-1 counters and do -1/-1 counters to +1/+1 counters per character is great. You can get rid off all of the -1/-1 counters on your characters while at the same time getting rid of all of your opponents +1/+1 counters and giving them -1/-1 counters. The ability to do both of them depending on the character all at once is amazing.

Your opponent will likely try to play around this as much as they can, trying to anticipate when you are going to use it. Some decks can't play around it because they are too counter based, while in some circumstances this ability could be dead due to you not having any -1/-1 counters or your opponents not having any +1/+1 counters. It is pretty matchup dependent if it is going to be amazing or not but often even in non counter dependent decks they will at least have a few +1/+1 counters from powering up.

Deck Construction

There are a variety of ways you can build this character. He can be a very defensive control deck or a combo deck. I'm not sure if he has the stats and support to be an aggressive deck, though it is a possibility.

The idea of him being a defensive control deck or combo deck is the fact that he is on defenders and he wants to stay unstunned the first few turns so he can get XP from drawing at the beginning of your turn. This often leads to running defensive characters and plot twists which aid to a defensive control or combo deck naturally.

With Kane available, often Dr. Strange decks run him so they can find 's easier to level him up quicker, though not all have the room to run him.

Overall Dr. Strange is a pretty versatile character. He is very flavorful in that aspect, adapting to situations by often playing a reactive game until your end game plan comes to fruition.