Rogue Champions- Rocket Raccoon

Greetings! This time we’re going to take a small break from the X-men to jump back to explore a Guardian of the Galaxy, the smart-ass, genius, furry menace, Rocket Raccoon.

Hero Summary

Our good friend Rocket Raccoon is here to save the day with a unique gadget and then steal some things. His hero and alter-ego abilities set this up. They are all about gaining more and more cards. Kill something more than you needed to kill it, aka excess damage, you get a card thanks to “Murdered You.” Done with that bit of tech, recycle it for more goodies with “Tinkering.” Both of these help Rocket always have a large hand with which to repeat this carnage. When you lean into it it gets stronger.

Rocket’s kit comprises mostly of upgrades. While many of these have counters and therefore a limit to how many times you can use them, critically, they do not have the Uses keyword. Rocket Launcher, Particle Cannon, and his two Rocket’s Pistols do not get auto-discarded after their last use. This means a number of unique things for Rocket. Primary benefit is you can recycle them on Alter-Ego with “Tinkering” for some new cards. That’s a good thing to do with his Pistols as they are cheap to play. Because all four of those cards have the Restricted keyword, you can never play all four. However, thanks to Side Holster generic upgrade card, you can get three of them out, allowing you to preserve your two expensive weapons and cycle in your pistols. There are other uses you can put your defunct upgrades too besides “Tinkering” if you are playing Protection in the form of Repurpose.

Aside from recycling your now ammo-less cards, Rocket also two Battery Packs which allow you to recharge them. These too are Tech items you can Repurpose or, they also don’t have the Uses keyword so are your best option to use with “Tinkering.” You also have access to Flora and Fauna to recharge an upgrade if you have brought Groot along, though he is not part of your standard hero set. When you do finally send one of your techs to the trash, it won’t stay there long. Rocket also has a double resource card, Salvage, which makes playing those expensive upgrades easier and has an added benefit of allowing you to move a Tech upgrade from your trash to the top of your deck.

The rest of Rocket’s upgrades are more standard remain in play hero type upgrades. Cybernetic Skeleton boosts Rocket with extra health and extra basic attack. Likewise, Thruster Boots gives him extra basic Thwart and the Aerial trait. Now, when Rocket originally came out, the Aerial trait wasn’t very useful, none of his own cards make use of it. These days you have a number of fun options in each of the aspects.

Finally, Rocket has a small set of event cards to round out his deck. Reload is a simple one that readies all of your tech upgrades. This can be handy to cycle through a Battery Pack quickly or pull off double area damage with Rocket Launcher in one round. That works especially nicely on a turn you play Schadenfreude, which is the most Rocket card in the set. The little murder furball heals every time he damages someone. Fire off your Rocket Launcher a few times against a cluster of minions and Rocket gets fully healed. That’s including his bonus health from his skeleton and if you have Endurance. He’s a potential candidate for Symbiote Suit too thanks to this massive healing potential. Your last event card, I’ve Got a Plan, also works with this as it will ready him and net you even more thwart removal. Which is important because the only thwarting Rocket gets from his kit comes from basic thwart action. But, he can do seven in a turn when he has a plan.

Obligation & Nemesis Set

Rocket’s Obligation, Crisis on Halfworld, works much like many Obligations, requiring exhausting your identity while in Alter-Ego to get rid of it. The downside if you can’t could be very costly as it forces you to discard your highest cost upgrade. As you have two three cost upgrades in your kit that could be expensive. It is also a strong argument against ever taking Symbiote Suit, as it could literally kill you if you’re under ten health and have to toss the suit away.

His Nemesis, Blackjack O’hare, is fairly meh. Three health and only one thwart/attack is not particularly scary. He does have Quickstrike and Villainous though, which could up that damage all the way to five if you’re unlucky. That can be lethal at a time when you’re already struggling. However, you’re more likely to only take one or two damage and he’ll die quite easily.

His Nemesis side scheme is likewise meh. Vendetta only has two per hero threat, so a maximum of eight, and only adds the Amplify icon. Now, that is one of the more annoying icon based affects but it is also just boring. Now, when we get to the rest of the upgrades we start to find cards with some stronger impact. Blackjack’s Bazooka provides +2 damage which is nothing to sneeze at. Now, if it gets attached to Blackjack, he dies quite easily and has probably already attacked this round so probably just gets discarded with him next round. But if Blackjack is not in play, it goes to the villain. Removing it requires three mental resources which is no small cost. Having any hero, unless built around mental resources, have that many at once can be a crap shoot. If it gets onto the Villain, you might be stuck with it for awhile. Fortunately, Rocket is a Genius so could have Ingenuity upgrade plus Salvage to help him get rid of it.

Finally, Planetary Invasion is another so-so card. Depending on the type of villain, discarding cards until you find a minion could be a quick way to cycle through their deck. But Rocket does best against minion-heavy enemies so you’re probably not using him in a skirmish against one of those. Gaining a new minion may even help Rocket as he now has a new target to heal after hitting or draw more cards after killing excessively.

Sample Decks

Rocket Draws All the Cards (Aggression)

Allies
- Groot
Events
- 3x Assess the Situation
- 2x Dive Bomb
- 1x Flora and Fauna
- 2x Melee
- 2x One by One
- 2x Precision Strike
Resources
- 1x Aggressive Energy
- Genius
Supports
- Avenger’s Mansion
- Hall of Heroes
Upgrades
- 1x Combat Training
- 1x Endurance
- 1x Honed Technique
- 1x Ingenuity
- 1x Martial Prowess
- 1x Side Holster
- 1x Symbiote Suit
- 1x Warrior Skill

We’ve seen similar style decks before with Ant-man, aiming to exploit Assess the Situation and a thin deck to try and achieve a handsize as large as your deck. Rocket doubles down on this by also seeking to exploit Honed Technique to do ungodly amounts of area damage AND then draw a bunch more cards in response. Once your upgrades are all in place, Rocket’s deck is down to 22 cards (17 events, 4 resources, 1 of his restricted weapons). If you start in Alter-Ego form after playing all his Assess the Situation’s the round before, he’ll have a hand of 10 cards (6 base, +1 Symbiote Suit, +3 Assess the Situation). Then he can trigger Hall of Heroes, Avenger’s Mansion, and his AE ability Tinkering for 6 more cards for 16 in hand. Flip up to Hero side, odds are he has at least one of his Dive Bombs in hand. Use Aggressive Energy + Salvage + Martial Prowess to pay for Dive Bomb with only losing 3 cards from hand, at the same time putting whatever Tech he discarded with Tinkering back on the top of his deck. He then triggers Warrior Skill to further boost Dive Bomb to 13 damage to the villain (7 + 4 from Honed Technique + 1 from Aggressive Energy + 1 from Warrior Skill) and 7 to every other enemy (1 + 4 from Honed Technique + 1 from Aggressive Energy + 1 from Warrior Skill). If that 7 to everyone wouldn’t be enough to kill a minion, prior to playing Dive Bomb he could make use of his other attack events or weapons to weaken them enough that they have less than 7 health. Rocket then gets to draw cards equal to the minions he just dealt excessive damage too. With a full party, its not unreasonable for 4 minions to be out, which means his total drawn cards this turn are now 20 out of 23. He can then replay his Assess the Situations and batter the Villain with his other event attacks and then thwart twice for 9 total threat removed.

Now, getting to that point will take some time. His other attack events are mostly there to help him get to that point because he does have a lot of upgrades to get out and can not play Dive Bomb until Thruster Boots are in play. By the end he’ll be up to 25 total health, a large chunk of which he could heal at a time with Schadenfreude, but he does start the game with only 9, which makes him vulnerable early.

Repurpose the Raccoon (Protection)

Allies
- Groot
Events
- 3x Ever Vigilant
- 1x Flora and Fauna
- 3x Repurpose
- 3x Shake it Off
Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
Supports
- C.I.T.T.
- Hangar Bay
Upgrades
- 3x Energy Barrier
- 1x Endurance
- 3x Forcefield Generator
- 1x Ingenuity
- 1x Side Holster
- 1x Symbiote Suit

What’s better than a great piece of tech to solve all your problems? Taking that tech and using it to solve your next set of problems. Rocket is a great candidate for a Repurpose build since much of his kit is based around Tech cards. What’s better is that his Tech cards do not auto-discard when he uses the last counter on them. That means he can keep them around until he wants to use them for Repurpose, assuming he doesn’t recharge them with Batteries or Flora and Fauna. Using Repurpose, Rocket will buff himself to better thwart or attack as needed. Using Ever Vigilant and C.I.T.T., and I’ve Got a Plan, Rocket can ready himself to make double use out of this bonus.

While, he has Forcefield Generator and Energy Barrier to keep him safe, he doesn’t have to with this build. This build makes full use out of Groot as a Rocket Protector. With Shake It Off, Groot can take a hit, heal two of the damage, and then get a tough status card. With Hangar Bay, Rocket can then also ready Groot to defend again. This allows him to heal four heal before risking losing any more health.

Rocket Seeks Justice (Justice)

Allies
- None
Events
- 3x Brains Over Brawn
- 3x Making an Entrance
- 3x Turn the Tide
Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
Supports
- 1x C.I.T.T.
- 1x Interrogation Room
Upgrades
- 1x Endurance
- 2x Followed
- 1x Heroic Intuition
- 1x Ingenuity
- 2x Justice Served
- 3x Overwatch
- 1x Side Holster
- 1x Skilled Investigator

Rocket likes to do it all. This list tries to feed that by letting him use his kit upgrades to focus on damage and his Justice cards to enhance thwarting. When he makes a basic Thwart, he can play a Making an Entrance to thwart to bring his thwart up to 6 (Base 2 + 1 Thruster Boots + 1 Heroic Intuition + 2 Making an Entrance). He can then clear 6 more from another scheme if he had Overwatch attached. If he clears that scheme, he heals for two, and then can dish out four damage to a minion if Followed was attached, and then draw a card if he did excess damage. Skilled Investigator will trigger letting him draw another card. He can also play Brains Over Brawn and Turn the Tide to deal damage even more damage to enemies, potentially drawing even more cards if its excess damage. If he had Justice Served out or an I’ve Got a Plan (either drawn or in hand) he gets to ready and can then thwart for 7 (or 8 if he opts to take Symbiote Suit which isn’t unreasonable for him). His whole array of weapons do their usual tricks of nibbling at enemies to get them to the right health to allow his attacks to give him that excess damage trigger.

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