Spring Break Retcon playthroughs

This spring I will be playing the Retcon home rule cards to test them out.

Rocket / Aggression + Groot / Protection vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula 

Pairing: It's a classic pair.  I ran them for their Team-up cards.  I forgot how difficult Green Goblin can be.  I think he hit us with all his minions. Rocket got stunned at a bad time, we were on the ropes for a while.  At one point we had 5 minions facing us.  We were able to clear side schemes and attachments.  I deliberately passed up some opportunities for Groot to hit the villain for 10, in favor of building and controlling the board to get more play with the Retcon cards.  Last round, they were able to combine for 40 damage to flip GG and take him (and his minions) out.  

Rocket: He did most of the early thwarting.  Firepower works great with Rocket, as he can sometimes ready all his tech upgrades.  That's a plus.  On the downside, his Retcon card was only use once on the first round and never recharged.  It never seemed worth it.  Perhaps there should be some weird way to recharge it --Thwarting, flipping to Alter Ego, exhaust this card to gain a token?  Not sure.

Groot: Groot used his Retcon card a few times for extra defense.  I should have prioritized his other upgrades, but he defended almost every round.  He was able to get two extra growth counters on the Retcon card.  That has a good feel no matter what else he does, as it absorbs extra damage.  The effect was minimal, but it gives you options, so I'm keeping it for better consistency.  However, without Rocket, Groot wouldn't have had so many counters.

Valkyrie / Aggression + Vision / Leadership vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula 

Pairing: Two of my favorites, they played very well together.  They tried to hold back on damage early, but Val just keeps on hitting.  I don't know how many minions Val killed, but she pulled at least 8 from the discard pile.  At the end, they combined for 45 damage to take out Green Goblin after he flipped.  This is always a good test of hero build-outs --can they finish the fight in one round?

Valkyrie: Had some big turns, as usual.  Could have been bigger, but even when you're unlucky, she doesn't disappoint.  Lots of card draw.  I used her Retcon card three times for Hall of Heroes and for Annabelle Lee.  This is definitely one of the better retcons...  

Vision:  So fun.  Lots of Vivian, lots of thwarting, lots of allies.  Very flippy, he flipped every round...  Vision highlights the point that only a few heroes need retcon cards.  He was great in Justice, and he's great in Leadership.  He does great with Deft Focus.  He's super-consistent; he never has a bad game.  

Hulk / Aggression + Hawkeye / Leadership vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula 

Pairing: Once again, Hulk didn't thwart once...  Hawkeye had to handle all the schemes --allies and arrows to the rescue.  With several stuns and confuses, we were lucky to draw no obligations or nemesis cards.  Both Retcon cards contributed to the game --I'm keeping both in my box.  I would say both decks were unlucky, but the Retcon cards really helped improve consistency.  They flipped GG and finished him in one round, so it shows that both have finishing power.

Hulk:  No Hulk Smash this game due to bad timing.  I ended up throwing a couple Thunderclaps to handle multiple minions.  He got his attack up to 5 for a few rounds with Now I'm Mad.  One weird thing was maybe wanting to keep a cheap-o minion in front of Hulk to get hit for 1 damage and get 1 rage counter.  Nevertheless, he was the minion slayer.  With his Retcon card, he had one round where he spent 4 rage counters to play a lot of cards.  That felt powerful, but he still had to discard many cards, and he still had a round where Limitless Strength was useless due to all 2 and 3 cost cards in his hand.  With my Wreckless home rule, he at least did 2 more damage.  Last round, he did around 20 damage.

Hawkeye:  He basically has an Avengers Voltron deck which was unlucky with the upgrades.  He finished the last round with 4 allies and 2 arrows for 25 damage.   Hawkeye's Quiver only pulled three arrows the whole game, but this was useful.  Without the Retcon card, the quiver would have been useless.  He had a few two-arrow rounds, and Earth's Mightiest Heroes came in with a ready to get him a third arrow on the last round.  That was nice --felt way more like Hawkeye.

Spectrum / Protection + Wasp / Aggression vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula

Pairing: Wasp and Spectrum traded off on thwarting.  A few times, they were almost competing to thwart.  Again, I went for the slow build to get a feel for things.  They did not get the one-round kill on Green Goblin, which might show their limitations.  Wasp handled minions as you'd expect --so many ways to kill them.  Last round, Nadia drew Shadows of the Past.  Spectrum thwarted the scheme, and Wasp had one more target for overkill.

Spectrum:  Her Retcon card got used several times, much more than I thought, because she was unlucky with a few hands.  It's a great use of a leftover card.  She never flipped down, and blocked for Wasp most of the game.  She only killed one minion to get a stun on the villain.  Her economy is so nice.  She can play any aspect.

Wasp:   She has so many upgrades in her overkill deck, it takes too long to set her up.  Obviously, she does great as she builds up.  She flipped down a few times.  Her Retcon card got passed up a few times because she was playing upgrades, but mostly, it was a great option.  She got a triple overkill shot twice which wiped out three targets and then did 15 damage to the villain.  Once she gets going, the more targets there are, the better she is.  I like that the Retcon card is linked to changing forms.  I got a decent amount of play with it, and used tiny form several times during the game.  I still would like to try a Wasp Justice deck; I think it would build out and play faster --but you wouldn't get those "Timmy" overkill moments.

Conclusion:

All of these Retcon cards are immediately playable except for Rocket.  I've thought about a fix for this.  So far, I've got that every time Rocket discards a tech upgrade, he adds a counter to the Armor Pack Generator.  That would lean into his alter ego ability more, but you could still do it on hero side with a lesser effect.  Well, having played these, let's be silly and rank these by how much fun / playability each adds to their heroes.

1.  Hulk - Almost necessary to have fun
2.  Hawkeye - Almost necessary to have fun
3.  Spectrum - Definitely useful / more fun
4.  Wasp - Definitely useful / more fun
5.  Valkyrie - Definitely useful / more fun
6.  Groot - Fun idea, feels great / sometimes useful
7.  Rocket - Barely useful in current state / feels broken