There just doesn't seem to be enough minions to trigger the aggression cards to thwart and heal me. I survived Crossbones and Absorbing Man but stuck on Taskmaster.
Normal is fine but Expert I am struggling. Is this just the case with Expert in solo.
Posted Feb 25, 2021, 10:27 AM UTC
Get more villain damage down. You need to rush the villain since you are a glass cannon without a consistent minion flow.
I've found aggression pairs poorly with Hawkeye unless you play it like an ally-focused deck.
Hawkeye already has great and cost-efficient damage dealing cards, so attack events in his deck seem mostly redundant, except maybe drop kick to provide extra stuns with it's kicker.
He also is squishy so cards like toe to toe, you'll pay for that, counter attack don't pair well.
He also doesn't necessarily do much with his basic attacks because of double-firing arrows, so it's a mixed bag on whether Jarnbjorn and other cards that boost/trigger on basic attacks are worth it--they are nice on turns when you don't have arrows. (Jarnbjorn of course isn't limited to basic attacks, I just don't always have the resources for it on arrow-heavy turns)
But aggression allies are great. Hawkeye wants allies so they can take the hits for him and provide extra thwarting, or at the very least he wants allies in the interim so he can get out mockingbird and TBE/Helicarrier/Tower to make her free every turn.
Ultimately, you can either try to shore up his low health and defenses with allies, or you can try to stun the villain a lot and burst them down. I've found generally that the latter is not a consistent strategy.
Absolutely. If I was going to play Hawkeye Aggression solo, I'd start with the allies and stuns, add Boot Camp and threat mitigation like Chase Them Down or To the Rescue, then look at other possibly useful attack events like Press the Advantage. Might have to try that out sometime.
Are you working with the default deck?
You will have trouble with a specific minion deck with few minions to face for sure, particularly in solo if you have little else in your hand you can do. Perhaps dont take 3 of each and swap out a copy or two for more general damage cards such as uppercut.
You need to rush Hawkeyes Quiver for your confusion and threat removal arrows. For healing you need to make use of the confusion arrow and heal in Alter Ego. Ignore crisis icons with your threat removal arrow.
In between you then just have to rush damage on the villain. I don't think Hawkeye aggro has much time to build or counteract the encounter deck. You probably need to be aiming for a turn 5 stage 1 defeat and turn 7 stage 3 defeat (rough guidance).
Hawkeye can be tricky solo particularly if you aren't building a specific deck, so you're not alone in this regard.
Between Drop Kick, whatever the stun arrow is called, and Mockingbird, could you stun lock the villain and use Mockingbird when the villain does get an attack? You would probably need to use Martial Prowess and a bunch of physical resources for it to work. The idea would be to prevent threat by just always being in hero form and using allies here and there to reduce threat. Just brainstorming.
Edit: To The Rescue may actually work in this build, gives you a physical and some reliable if overcosted thwart when you need it.
Aggression is arguably the weakest aspect for solo play due to lacking of thwart.
Make sure you are playing what you can for thwart. Cards like lockjaw can guarantee you can always do a bit of thwarting even when you have a bad hand.
Brawn is a very strong aggression ally who helps to give you steady thwart over time.
You'll pay for that is a very powerful thwart event - though you'll have to be very careful with Hawkeye's weak hit points.
I do run Brawn and a few of the cheaper allies. Haven't been running Lockjaw because he is expensive, but I could add him along with the Basic double resource.
That's another thing with Hawkeye, he can't play some of the aggression cards that trigger you getting attacked because he is so squishy.
I love Brawn. He's my favorite Aggression ally. I haven't run Lockjaw in many decks, but I do like him for low hand size decks just because he can be used as a resource, then played from discard later, costing you one less card from your hand. I tend to rank him with allies like Clea, where their value isn't necessarily blaringly obvious, but when you figure out how to use what they do, they become very useful.
Brawn is great, he can hit and twart in one turn, then usually tank a hit and still be in play.
I like to give him Enraged and run 3 First Aids so I can keep healing him while he keeps hitting. I really want to put together a Spider-Woman Aggression Leadership deck with him at the center so I can throw Reinforced Suit, Enraged, Honorary Avenger, and Sky Cycle on him and then keep standing him up and healing him while he goes to town on the villain and minions. I realize it won't be the most efficient build, but it would be fun.
I wanted to try something other than Leadership, which is great in solo.
Hawkeye was easily able to smack around Green Goblin because there are a ton of minions.
Fair enough, not criticising you for choosing aggression at all.
Generally speaking for solo play leadership and justice are the strongest and aggression and protection are the weakest.
But in many ways giving yourself a challenge can be fun too.