Marvel Super Hero Squad TCG - Iron Man Intro Deck Analysis

The Iron Man Intro Deck

The Marvel Super Hero Squad Trading Card Game has a series of one-player introductory decks that are themed around a single character. The second deck I'll analyze is Iron Man's.

First the package comes with the rules, a cardboard Marvel coin, a standard booster pack, and the 30 card Iron Man deck.

I feel like this deck is a great value - 40 total cards for $10 means each card is only 25 cents. 

The Iron Man deck has the following 30 cards (I place an * next to the cards that are not actually Iron Man related cards):

RARE

1x Incoming!

UNCOMMON

2x Shoulder Cannons

1x Stealth Mode

1x Pick Up a Friend*

2x Heavy Weapons

2x Juiced Up

2x Teddy Blaster*

COMMON

2x Hulk Practice

2x Combined Arms Fire

3x Cold Fusion

3x Playing with Fire

2x Repulsor Rays

2x Jab of Justice*

2x Fierce Competitor*

2x Animal Instinct*

1x Hurl the Shield*

Card Levels (the power cost to play the card):

level 1 - 5 cards

level 2 - 7 cards

level 3 - 5 cards

level 4 - 5 cards

level 5 - 2 cards

level 6 - 2 cards

level 7 - 3 cards

level 8 - 1 card

This deck uses a classic distribution of card levels. 

Card Factors

Red (Animal) - 4 cards

Green (Strength) - 3 cards

Blue (Elemental) - 6 cards

Purple (Energy) - 2 cards

Gray (Tech) - 14 cards

Orange (Speed) - 1 cards

The gray cards are obviously the workhorses of this deck. I'm disappointed by the inclusion of most of the other factor cards. Having only one orange, it is very likely going to be blocked. The red, green, and three of the blue cards just seem to be stuck in there as blocks - they don't even seem to go along with the theme of the deck.  

Blocks

Red (Animal) - 5 cards

Green (Strength) - 8 cards

Blue (Elemental) - 4 cards

Purple (Energy) - 7 cards

Gray (Tech) - 3 cards

Orange (Speed) - 3 cards

The blocking factor distribution is a bit uneven which does give this deck a few areas of slight weakness. 

OVERALL

The way to play this deck is to get the Juiced Up and Cold Fusion keepers into play early and then just grind the gray cards. I'm disappointed by the number of non-Iron Man cards include in this theme deck, especially since most of them don't support the gray grind keeper engine that drives this deck. Like with the Spider-Man introductory deck I want to buy multiple Iron Man decks so I can combine the and make one really good deck.