Galactus Control

This is a deck I've been tweaking since I was able to purchase Galactus from the store shortly after it launched. The goal is to basically build yourself a power location through Goblin effects and possibly a turn 6 Death.

Card Choices:

- Galactus (46) is the reason to play the deck. When the board is set up properly, he completely nullifies basically all strategies your opponents may try to leverage. A Professor X (97) location doesn't survive the nuke. Trying to set up a cheeky Wong (144)means nothing if it gets blown up before it can go off. Discarding cards for an explosive Hela (305) doesn't work if the board only has one or two slots left open. Expect to see a lot of turn 6 retreats as your opponents knows there's no hope once all their hard work gets devoured.

- Nova (92) provides early game presence and will also automatically buff Galactus (46) and possibly Wolverine (143) for a little bit. Otherwise, he's a non-intrusive 1-drop that we can use to leverage Adam Warlock (201)

- Similarly, Uatu the Watcher (132) gives us presence as well, and also gives us crucial information about our locations. There's nothing worse than setting up for a Galactus (46) than seeing a location turn over that makes it a non-viable play (including but not limited to Knowhere (161), Kyln (162), Monster Island (170), Sanctum Sanctorum (180), etc. Edit: After further testing, I have dropped Uatu the Watcher (132) for Mojo (83). Details on why are posted later on in the deck profile.

- Adam Warlock (201) is a crucial card for consistency. There are times that Galactus (46) just lives at the bottom, and having an active Adam Warlock (201) can dig for him. It's the only real source of card draw in the game right now that we can use to try and pull Galactus (46) out if he's insisting on being shy.

- Psylocke (98) allows us the ability to play our top end a turn early. In most cases, this amounts to a turn 5 Galactus (46), but don't count out a turn 4 Hobgoblin (57) either. Whatever you do, just don't play Psylocke (98) on curve. There's no 4s in the deck to benefit coming down a turn early.

- Wolverine (143) pulls double duty at potentially enabling our Adam Warlock (201) while also actually providing power after Galactus (46) fires. It's consistently one of the most important cards in the deck.

- I'm going to tie Green Goblin (51) and Hobgoblin (57) together because they fill the same role: allowing us to actually have power in our targeted Galactus (46) location while still allowing him to remain active. Opponents often times begin to ignore the location that they're played on anyway since it becomes much harder to win what is essentially a 3v5 spot, which just adds to the power these 2 cards bring. Whereas the rest of the deck aims to support Galactus (46), these 2 cards actually provide the consistent power boost to turn a successful Galactus (46) play into an actual victory, instead of just blowing up the other locations and still losing at the third anyway.

- Storm (120) is a bit of a curveball. It's worth noting that she does not work with Galactus (46) in a cheeky way (that is, flooding the location, then blowing up the board as the location becomes unusable). What she does though is allow more reliability with the other locations, potentially allowing you to dump some resources into the other ones if you end up with one that doesn't play well with Galactus (46) (like maybe Mindscape (166), or Sinister London (183), or Weirdworld (303)). She also subtly encourages your opponent to dump some cards into the upcoming flood, which then further allows us to continue our real game plan by throwing Goblins at one of the other locations.

- Killmonger (69) has one primary purpose: slaying squirrels from Central Park (285). Central Park (285) singlehandedly shuts down the deck, and Killmonger (69) ensures that Galactus (46) can remain active, all while adding additional control support by sniping potential choice 1s like Sunspot (122) or Ant-Man (7). He also kills the ninjas from Shadowland (182) if that is required, and can also stop another silver bullet against the deck, which is an opposing Debrii (214).

- Like Psylocke (98), Wave (139) allows Galactus (46) to be played early. She also encourages your opponent to play their biggest cards as well, which can do double duty if they drop them in the wrong location. As a last resort, she also enables Death (33) to actually be played in an emergency situation, which has helped give me the win in games where the board wipe just isn't happening.

- Lastly, Death (33) is pretty self explanatory. If Galactus (46) comes down a turn early, she's a free 12 power bomb in the only location. The Death (33) / Galactus (46) combo is basically unbeatable if it can be pulled off, since your opponent just can't keep up with it if they're already behind. If you are the one behind, you probably should have retreated by now anyway.

Notable Exclusions:

- Electro (43) proved to be too inconsistent for my tastes. It's always great to get that permanent energy boost, but closing out games proved difficult in situations where Galactus (46) wasn't happening. Playing Electro (43) basically forces you to go all in on Galactus (46), which can still end up causing problems even if you manage to get it off.

- Magik (76) is a neat idea, but it doesn't work in practice. The only thing it may do is bluff the opponent into thinking they have an extra turn if you surprise them with a turn 6 Galactus (46), but ultimately it just gives them another potential out. Remember that you can never play Galactus (46) into the same location as Magik (76), so as soon as Galactus (46) comes down, the extra turn goes away.

- Shang-Chi (113) sounds great as denial in the final location, but you're basically always ahead on turn 6s where Galactus (46) has already come down, making him useless.

- Mojo (83) is not a bad choice, both as a finisher and as an enabler for Adam Warlock (201) to be active, he's just really hard to fit in. I can see a case made for dropping Uatu the Watcher (132) for him, but ultimately the fact is that in games where Galactus (46) goes off, the added power from Mojo (83) is basically irrelevant, if it even happens. I'd much rather have the option for Uatu the Watcher (132) on turn 1 into Adam Warlock (201) on 2, instead of Mojo (83) on 2 into Adam Warlock (201) on 3. I may toy with this some and report back though, I think it's worth investigation. The added information you get from Uatu the Watcher (132) also can be extremely helpful in determining where to set up your preferred Galactus (46) location, and often times dropping an Uatu the Watcher (132) on a location telegraphs to the opponent that they should also play their cards there, even though you fully intend on nuking that location by the end of the game.

Edit for more exclusions

- Cloak (26) provides an alternate way to clear out a troublesome location, and pulls double duty in that he can do so for troublesome Goblins too, basically giving you a full on pivot of your Galactus (46) location of choice. I took it out in favor of Killmonger (69) because I found that having Killmonger (69) gave me more beneficial situations, like the aformentioned killing of choice 1s while covering most of the scenarios where you'd end up with a clogged location, and he also optionally allows for a turn 6 Death (33) the old fashioned way if you have no other options.. I can see swapping out Storm (120) for Cloak (26) as an option depending on how the meta continues to evolve. In Goblin-heavy (or otherwise disruption heavy) metas, Cloak (26) is probably better. As it stands, I feel like the location consistency you get with Storm (120) is currently better, but there are certainly arguments for both.

- America Chavez (4) sounds neat in theory but is an absolute trap. She consumes your turn 6 draw, so if you end up missing your Galactus (46) by then, you know you'll never see it. She basically acts as a hyper win-more card where she ensures you win in the games where you already have a 95% win chance all while doing very little if you find yourself far behind.

Deck Update

After playing further with the deck, I have fully made the switch from Uatu the Watcher (132) to Mojo (83). Mojo (83) gives us more additional power end-game and basically ensures we can surpass 20 power on turn 6 after Galactus (46) has come down. He also gives the deck the ability to at least compete in matches where Galactus (46) is a nonviable play, since he can shore up a lane that is heavily contested.