Rocket Raccoon (2021)
This is a review of Rocket Raccoon's pre-constructed deck, mostly through the lens of solo play. It is in no way an exhaustive review or commentary on the meta game. Rather, it is my thoughts and experience of the pack as a relatively new player.
P.S. The hero pack art featured is one I put together, not official. The artwork comes from Rocket Raccoon #1.
Rocket Raccoon/Rocket Raccoon
Alter-Ego form: Rocket Raccoon's alter-ego form has an average recover, 3, and hand size, 6, with below average health, 9, but can be raised. Rocket's ability is fantastic, really thematic and really good. Rocket is all about using weapons, emptying them in the opponent, chucking them, and grabbing a new one. His ability Tinkering facilitates this. As an action, you choose and discard a tech upgrade that you control, then draw 2 cards (Limit once per round). This allows you to end your turn in alter ego and draw 2 cards to potentially get something else in play. Then, if you set it up correctly, use the action at the start of your next turn, with full weapons and a full hand.
Hero form: Rocket's hero form has a base thwart of 2, attack of 1, defense of 1, and hand size of 5. Rocket is great at dealing damage so having a higher thwart makes him really well rounded. Where Rocket shines is his signature ability "Murdered You!", which allows you to draw a card every time you deal excess damage. EVERY. TIME. What this means is you can shoot 4 Ultron minions with one shot of a rocket launcher, and get 4 extra cards. This is insane and can make for really big turns.
Hero Cards:
Like all other hero packs, Rocket comes with 15 signature hero cards. What makes Rocket so fun are his different weapons; using them, reloading them, emptying them, and throwing them away, only to grab a different gun. I really enjoy playing as Rocket and like a lot of his hero cards. I won't go into all of them, but will discuss my favorites, which will be hard to narrow down.
Particle Cannon - Particle Cannon is Rocket's big hitter. It is a 3 cost tech upgrade that has 2 ammo counters. Using the gun, you exhaust it and deal 4 damage with range and overkill. The Particle Cannon is excellent at taking out minions and not wasting damage. Where this card goes from good to great is when you add counters to it, keeping it the game for 4, 6, or even 8 shots.
Rocket Launcher - Rocket Launcher is Rocket's other big hitter. It is also a 3 cost upgrade that has 2 ammo counters, and when used deals 2 damage to the villain and every minion engaged with the player. This was beyond good against Ultron and Green Goblin. Really helped keep the minions under control to focus on the villain.
Thruster Boots - Thruster Boots is a 1 cost upgrade that gives Rocket +1 thwart and the aerial trait. The aerial trait isn't super useful (yet), but +1 thwart makes Rocket so well rounded, able to do damage with weapons and thwart as a basic action.
Aspect Cards:
Rocket's hero pack comes with 7 Aggression cards, 3 of them new (I think). I'll just discuss the new cards here, but the ones we have seen are: Chase them Down, Into the Fray, Looking For Trouble, and Relentless Assault.
Bug - Bug is a 2 cost ally with 1 attack, 1 thwart, and 2 health. At a cost of 2 he's automatically a cheap blocker, but where Bug gets better is his ability to heal. Whenever you hero does a basic attack, heal Bug 1 damage. This can Bug useful for taking off tough statuses, but ready to block when necessary.
Hand Cannon - Hand Cannon is a 2 cost upgrade that has 3 ammo counters and deal 2 damage per use. This is a cheap enough card for 6 damage total. What is most exciting is the tech keyword, meaning it could work really well with a hero like Ironman to make him viable quicker.
Follow Through - Follow Through is a 2 cost upgrade that is a Hero Interrupt: When your hero's attack deals any amount of excess damage, increase that amount by 1. I really like this card, though I didn't play it every time it was in my hand. However, if there was nothing else to play, it's still great. Rocket loves excess damage, so being able to increase that amount (potentially by 3) can be big.
Tips from a beginner:
Get Cybernetic Skeleton in play as soon as possible. It boosts Rocket's attack and makes him more viable in hero mode with boosted health.
If you can play Battery Pack, do it. You might want to cycle your weapons, but boosting the big guns can be huge, and then you can still use Rocket's alter-ego ability to toss the empty battery packs instead.
I added Endurance and Down Time to my deck which allows Rocket enough breathing room to take hits, and fantastic healing for those turns where you flip to discard weapons.
Play with the Guardians of the Galaxy playlist in the background. It doesn't help, but it's fun!
Feel:
This hero pack feels like Rocket and I love it! It feels so good to shoot your guns, reload and shoot until their empty, only to toss them and bring out new ones. On top of that Rocket thrives on excess damage, producing extra cards. With Rocket, extra cards means one thing: more guns. I was pleasantly surprised with this pack. Rocket is just so fun to play!
Final thoughts and recommendation:
The big box expansions are huge value, so you should get them regardless of the heroes included. However, Rocket is a great inclusion. He is so fun, and the tech he brings, open up new possibilities for other tech heroes, like Ironman. Rocket has quickly risen to my favorite hero to play as. I am still working through the Red Skull Campaign, so I haven't started Guardians Most Wanted, but have enjoyed the content so far.
Purchase the Guardians Most Wanted box expansion: https://amzn.to/3h1DB4x