Super Family: Strategy Guide

Ruby/Steel Super tribal that wins the combat step instead of the lore race. The whole deck is built to make its characters survive fights they should lose, and to draw cards every time a fight happens.

Resist is the engine. Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer gives your characters Resist +1, and Violet Parr - Super Resilient carries Resist +1 herself. Once either is down, their removal and their challenges start arriving a point short, and trades that should be even stop being even.

Combat is also your draw step. Mr. Incredible - Super Strong draws you a card whenever one of your Super characters challenges another character. Card Advantage draws 2 whenever an opposing character was banished in a challenge that turn. Babyhead - Leader of Sid's Toys draws whenever one of your other characters is banished during your turn. A deck that quests quietly and never fights draws none of those cards.

Three checkpoints:

• Turn 3. A one-cost Parr already in play: this is not about turn three, it is about having a Shift target on turn five.
• Turn 5. Mr. Incredible - Super Strong or Violet Parr - Super Resilient shifted down: for 3 ink, not 5.
• Turn 7. Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer online: from here every trade is favourable.

The rule: do not trade before the Resist is down. Early even trades are exactly what this deck is built to avoid. Develop, hold, and start fighting once Resist +1 is on the board.

What the card list hides

Four things do more work than they look like they do.

The Resist starts on turn two, and it defends. Violet Parr - Force Field Practice is a 3/2 with Resist +1 for two ink, not a filler body. More importantly, read the durations: the Resist from Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer has no stated time limit, and One Last Hope lasts until the start of your next turn. Neither says "during your turn," so unlike most combat buffs this protection is still there while the opponent is attacking. Resist stacks, so a Violet Parr - Super Resilient alongside Mrs. Incredible takes 2 less from everything on both turns.

You get a free extra attack. Next Stop, Olympus costs 2 less with a character of 5 strength or more in play, and Mr. Incredible - Super Strong is a printed 6. With him on board the action costs nothing. Challenge and draw, cast it for zero to ready him, then challenge again and draw again. The readied character cannot quest that turn, but it can absolutely fight.

Super Siblings scales with what is underneath it. Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings draws a card for each card under it, whenever it quests or challenges, and its Combo Shift can be placed on a Dash Parr, a Violet Parr, or one of each. Put it across two stacks that have already been shifted once, so Dash Parr - Super Fast on Dash Parr - Dodgeball Dynamo and Violet Parr - Super Resilient on Violet Parr - Force Field Practice, and there are four cards underneath. That is four cards drawn every time it quests and four more every time it challenges. Building the two stacks first is worth a turn of patience.

One Last Hope is the finisher, not a trick. Beyond the Resist, a chosen Hero may challenge ready characters that turn. Normally only exerted characters can be challenged at all, so an opponent who stops attacking is untouchable. Every Parr here is a Hero, and any character costing 3 or more can sing it for free. It is how you break a board stall, and why it is a four-of.

One tension to plan around: this deck draws hard, and Lexington - Small in Stature cannot ready while you hold 3 or more cards.

Your first game, turn by turn

One rule that carries this deck and is easy to miss: a character you play with Shift, on top of a character that has been in play since the start of your turn, can quest or challenge immediately. That is why a 5-ink threat played for 3 ink on turn five is not just cheaper, it is a turn faster.

Turn 1. Ink a card, then play Mr. Incredible - Bob Parr or Dash Parr - Dodgeball Dynamo. Bob is the sturdier body at 2 strength and 2 willpower. Dash has Evasive, which means only characters with Evasive can challenge him, so he quests safely against most decks. Either one is really a discount voucher for turn five.

Turn 2. Ink, quest with the one-drop, then play Violet Parr - Force Field Practice. She has Resist +1 already, which makes her annoying to remove and a fine Shift target later.

Turn 3. Ink to three. Lexington - Small in Stature is a 4 strength, 4 willpower body with Alert, meaning he can challenge as if he had Evasive. Read his drawback first: STONE BY DAY stops him readying while you hold 3 or more cards in hand, so play him on a turn you are emptying out, not a turn you are hoarding.

Turn 4. Ink to four. Develop rather than attack. Mr. Incredible - Taking Out the Trash is a clean 4 strength, 4 willpower body and another Mr. Incredible to Shift onto later.

Turn 5. The turn the deck turns on. Ink to five, then Shift Mr. Incredible - Super Strong onto your turn-one Bob Parr for 3 ink. ALWAYS UNITED gives him +2 strength for each other character you control, so on a board of four he is enormous, and LET'S DO THIS! starts drawing you a card every time a Super of yours challenges. He can challenge the same turn, and if that challenge banishes something, the 2 ink you have left is exactly Card Advantage, which then draws 2.

Turn 6. Shift Violet Parr - Super Resilient down onto Force Field Practice for 3. Now you have two Resist bodies and HEROIC SYNERGY looting you a card each time you play a Hero.

Turn 7 and after. Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer gives your whole board Resist +1. Shift her for 5 onto a Mrs. Incredible - Helen Parr if you have one; if you do not, she costs the full 7, and that is a normal outcome rather than a misplay.

When the draw does not cooperate: a cheap Parr on the board beats a better card in hand, every time. If you have to choose on turn one or two, play the body that something Shifts onto.

How this deck loses

You trade in the first four turns: an even trade is a bad trade for you specifically, because your entire deck is built to make trades uneven later. Develop, take a few points of lore on the chin, and start fighting from turn five.

You never fight at all: the opposite mistake, and it is just as common. Three of your best cards only pay out on combat. If you spend the whole game questing, Mr. Incredible - Super Strong, Card Advantage and Babyhead - Leader of Sid's Toys all do nothing and you run out of cards.

You hard cast the five-drops: Mr. Incredible - Super Strong, Violet Parr - Super Resilient and Dash Parr - Super Fast all cost 3 by Shift and 5 from hand. That is only true if you played the matching cheap Parr earlier, which is the entire reason to play a 1 strength, 1 willpower character on turn one.

You hold a full hand and wonder why Lexington will not ready: STONE BY DAY on Lexington - Small in Stature stops him readying whenever you have 3 or more cards in hand. You Broke My Smolder discards your hand and draws 2, which fixes it deliberately.

You expect the Liquidator to quest: Liquidator - Iced Over has Reckless, so he cannot quest and must challenge each turn if he is able. He also has 0 lore. He is a combat piece you do not get to point, and he is fine at that.

You reveal with Dash and lose the card: FOLLOW ME! on Dash Parr - Super Fast lets you reveal the top card of your deck when he quests and play it, paying all costs. If you reveal it and do not play it, it goes to your discard. Revealing is optional, so do not do it on a turn you have no ink left.

Matchup role. You are the grindy deck. You lose to speed and beat everything that wants a long game.

Two opening keeps.

• Option 1. Shift keep (default): any one-cost Parr plus a five-cost Shift threat in hand. Mr. Incredible - Bob Parr into Mr. Incredible - Super Strong is the line, and Dash Parr - Dodgeball Dynamo into Dash Parr - Super Fast is the same thing. You are keeping a 3-ink turn-five play, not a 1-ink turn-one play.
• Option 2. Curve keep: Violet Parr - Force Field Practice plus Lexington - Small in Stature plus an ink drop. A 3 strength, 2 willpower body into a 4 strength, 4 willpower one is a real early board that does not need the Shift package to function.

On the play vs. on the draw:

• On the play: Shift keep. Landing a discounted five-drop on turn five while they are still casting at full price is the game.
• On the draw: curve keep, and consider Liquidator - Iced Over. UNDERDOG makes him cost 1 less on your first turn when you are not first, and Reckless matters less when you were going to challenge anyway.

Never keep: a hand of five-cost Shift cards with no one-cost Parr to shift onto. That is the single worst opener the deck can have, and it turns a 3-ink play into a 5-ink one. Also avoid keeping Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings with no sibling in hand.

What to put in your inkwell

Eleven cards here have no inkwell symbol: all four One Last Hope, all three He Hurled His Thunderbolt, both You Broke My Smolder and both Babyhead - Leader of Sid's Toys. That is a lighter load than most decks in the range, so missing ink drops is rarely your problem here. Choosing badly is.

Ink in roughly this order:

• A spare five-drop. Fourteen cards in this deck cost 5, which is far more than you will ever cast. A second Dash Parr - Super Fast or a second Donald Duck - Along for the Ride is your best ink almost every game.
• Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings past the first copy. Even at the Combo Shift price of 6 you are not casting two of them.
• The Terror That Flaps in the Night. It deals 2 damage here, because its bonus needs a character named Darkwing Duck and this deck has none.

Two things to keep out of the inkwell. Your first one-cost Parr, because it is worth 2 ink later as a Shift discount and you only get that discount if it is on the board. And Mrs. Incredible - Helen Parr, because there are only two of her against four copies of Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer. She is the difference between paying five for that card and paying the full seven.

Ideal line. One-cost Parr on turn 1. Violet Parr - Force Field Practice on turn 2. Lexington - Small in Stature on turn 3, watching that you are not holding 3 or more cards on the turn you need him to ready. Turn 5, shift Mr. Incredible - Super Strong down for 3 and start fighting.

The three cards that decide the game

Mr. Incredible - Bob Parr is a 1-ink, 2 strength, 2 willpower character with no ability, and he is the most important card in your opening hand. Play him on turn one and Mr. Incredible - Super Strong costs 3 on turn five instead of 5. Ink him and it does not.

Mr. Incredible - Super Strong is the payoff. ALWAYS UNITED gives him +2 strength for each other character you have in play, so he scales with a board you were building anyway. LET'S DO THIS! then draws you a card whenever any of your Super characters challenges another character, which is what turns your combat plan into a card-advantage plan.

Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer is the card that ends games. PULL BACK gives all of your characters Resist +1, so every point of damage aimed at your board arrives short. REGROUP then readies a chosen Super character whenever another character is banished in a challenge during your turn, though a character readied this way cannot quest for the rest of the turn.

Openers. These are Shift discounts wearing a body:

• Mr. Incredible - Bob Parr: 1 ink, 2 strength, 2 willpower, 1 lore. Turn one play, and a 2-ink discount on Mr. Incredible - Super Strong four turns later.
• Dash Parr - Dodgeball Dynamo: 1 ink, 1 strength, 1 willpower, 1 lore, with Evasive, so only characters with Evasive can challenge him. The Shift target for both Dash Parr - Super Fast and Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings.

Two and three drops. The board you actually fight with:

• Violet Parr - Force Field Practice: 2 ink, 3 strength, 2 willpower, with Resist +1. Already resilient before Mrs. Incredible arrives, and the Shift target for her larger self.
• Mrs. Incredible - Helen Parr: 2 ink, 2 lore. PEP TALK gives a chosen character Challenger +2 for the turn, which turns an even challenge into a kill. She is also the only Shift target for Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer, and there are two of her.
• Liquidator - Iced Over: 2 ink, 4 strength, 2 willpower, 0 lore. Reckless, so he cannot quest and must challenge each turn if able. Four strength for two ink is the trade you are making.
• Lexington - Small in Stature: 3 ink, 4 strength, 4 willpower, with Alert, so he can challenge as if he had Evasive. STONE BY DAY stops him readying while you have 3 or more cards in hand, so empty your hand before you rely on him.

Four drops:

• Babyhead - Leader of Sid's Toys: 4 ink. REPLACEMENT PARTS draws a card whenever another of your characters is banished during your turn, which makes attacking into removal profitable. TIGHTEN THE BOLTS gives a chosen character +2 strength whenever you pay 2 ink or less for a card.
• Mr. Incredible - Taking Out the Trash: 4 ink, 4 strength, 4 willpower. KA-POW! deals 2 damage to a chosen opposing Robot or Villain character when played, which is conditional but free when it lands. Another Mr. Incredible to shift onto.

The Shift package. Read the Shift cost, never the printed cost:

• Mr. Incredible - Super Strong: Shift 3. ALWAYS UNITED gives him +2 strength for each other character you control, and LET'S DO THIS! draws a card whenever one of your Super characters challenges another character.
• Violet Parr - Super Resilient: Shift 3, with Resist +1 and 2 lore. HEROIC SYNERGY lets you draw a card and then discard a card whenever you play this or any other Hero character, so it filters rather than pure draw.
• Dash Parr - Super Fast: Shift 3, arriving with Evasive. FOLLOW ME! lets you reveal the top card of your deck when he quests and then play it at full cost; if you reveal it and do not play it, it goes to your discard.
• Donald Duck - Along for the Ride: 5 ink, 4 strength, 6 willpower, 2 lore. COMIN' THROUGH! banishes a chosen item when he is played, which is your only answer to an opposing engine.
• Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer: Shift 5, 3 lore. PULL BACK gives all your characters Resist +1. REGROUP readies a chosen Super whenever another character is banished in a challenge during your turn, and that character cannot quest for the rest of the turn.
• Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings: Combo Shift 6 onto a Dash Parr, a Violet Parr, or one of each. Arrives with Evasive and Resist +1, and INCREDIBLE TACTICS draws you a card for each card underneath whenever it quests or challenges.

Interaction and refuel:

• One Last Hope: 3 ink song, free from any character costing 3 or more. Resist +2 until your next turn, and if the chosen character is a Hero they may also challenge ready characters this turn. That clause is how you break a stalled board, and almost every character here is a Hero.
• Card Advantage: 2 ink. Draw 2 if an opposing character was banished in a challenge this turn. Rewards the entire game plan, and it is dead on a turn you did not fight.
• The Terror That Flaps in the Night: 2 ink. 2 damage to a chosen opposing character. The bonus clause needs a character named Darkwing Duck, and this deck has none, so treat it as a flat 2 damage.
• He Hurled His Thunderbolt: 4 ink song, free from any character costing 4 or more. Deals 4 damage to a chosen character, which is enough for most things you cannot outfight.
• You Broke My Smolder: 1 ink. Discard your hand, draw 2. A reload once you have emptied out, and it deliberately turns off the STONE BY DAY restriction on Lexington - Small in Stature.
• Next Stop, Olympus: 2 ink, and free while you control a character with 5 strength or more, which Mr. Incredible - Super Strong almost always is. It readies a chosen character, who then cannot quest for the rest of the turn, and gains you 1 lore the next time that character challenges this turn. A second challenge from your biggest body, for nothing.

Reading an opponent you have never seen

You are the deck that wins long games, so what you need to identify is how fast the clock is and whether your removal has anything to do. Watch their first three turns.

• Cheap characters, questing every turn, four or five on the board by turn four. They are faster than you and this is your bad matchup. You cannot afford to spend turns four and five developing. Start challenging as soon as you have any Resist body out, and use He Hurled His Thunderbolt on their best card rather than saving it.
• One expensive character at a time, trading carefully. This is what your deck was built for. Do not commit your whole hand; develop one threat at a time and let Resist +1 make their removal a point short.
• Characters they will not let you challenge. Characters with Evasive can only be challenged by characters that also have Evasive, and you have three: Dash Parr - Dodgeball Dynamo, Dash Parr - Super Fast and Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings. Lexington - Small in Stature has Alert, which lets him challenge them too.
• Items and locations, few characters. Your removal suite is close to dead and so is their combat plan. Donald Duck - Along for the Ride banishing their engine item on arrival is often the whole matchup, so hold him rather than playing him as a body.

vs. Amber/Emerald Toys and Elinor (Unfavorable): Watch for: Elinor - Renowned Diplomat, Woody - Jungle Guide They are faster than you and they go wider than your removal answers. Your Resist package does not care about Elinor's 1-damage ping, which is the good news. The bad news is that they are gaining lore every turn while you are setting up Shift targets. You need to be challenging by turn four rather than waiting for the perfect board.

vs. Amber/Amethyst Midrange (Even): Watch for: Demona - Scourge of the Wyvern Clan, Hades - Looking for a Deal A genuine grind, and the matchup your deck was built for. Resist +1 blanks a lot of their damage-based removal, and Card Advantage out-draws them once trades start. Do not commit Mrs. Incredible - Determined Rescuer into an open board with removal up; she is the card the matchup turns on.

vs. Emerald/Steel (Even): Watch for: Angel - Experiment 624, Strength of a Raging Fire Board-based, which suits you. Strength of a Raging Fire scales with their board rather than yours, so it is at its worst when you have committed less. Play around it by developing one threat at a time rather than emptying your hand.

vs. Amber/Emerald Book Control (Favorable): Watch for: Raging Storm, Enigmatic Inkcaster They have almost no characters, which means your entire removal suite is close to dead but so is their combat plan. Donald Duck - Along for the Ride banishing an Enigmatic Inkcaster is a real play here. Keep a Shift threat in hand so a sweeper does not end the game.

vs. Amber/Ruby Boost (Favorable): Watch for: Mr. Incredible - Super Strong, Ohana Means Family The closest thing to a mirror, and you have the better version of the plan. Their threats go tall; yours go tall and carry Resist. Whoever resolves the Resist effect first wins the combat step, and only one of you is running four copies of it.

Against fast aggro, cut 2 Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings for the fourth Lexington - Small in Stature and a third Liquidator - Iced Over. Eight ink is unreachable in a game that ends on turn six, and a 4 strength, 4 willpower body on turn three does more than a late enormous one. Violet Parr - Force Field Practice is the card you would rather add and it is already at the maximum four.

Against control, trim 2 The Terror That Flaps in the Night for a third Donald Duck - Along for the Ride and a fourth Card Advantage. Removal is dead against a deck with one or two characters; item removal is not.

Against mirror-shaped Super decks, bring One Last Hope in on every trade rather than saving it. Resist +2 on top of Resist +1 makes your character effectively unkillable in combat for a turn.

If Mrs. Incredible keeps costing you 7: the cheapest fix is a third Mrs. Incredible - Helen Parr over a fourth Dash Parr & Violet Parr - Super Siblings. Four copies of a Shift 5 threat against two Shift targets is the one genuinely awkward ratio in the list.

Outlook. Ruby/Steel is a narrow slice of the current Core field, and this deck is chosen for the family on the cards rather than for the ladder. The Shift package sits in Sets 12 and 13 and survives the October rotation intact, so the deck does not get worse; the format around it may simply keep being faster.