Iron Maiden

Unusual X-Men Decks: #1 - Iron Maiden

Shadowcat in Leadership is already strange, but Leadership with only two allies added? Even weirder. But all you really need is Iron Man - and you have an almost 80% chance to find him on Turn 1 thanks to Call for Aid!

You provide the defense, Iron Man provides almost everything else. Upgrade him to the nines. Profit. Win. When fully upgraded, Iron Man is dealing 6 damage or 4 threat removal +1 damage every turn - and he loves Game Time.

Pepper? Fired. Kitty? Hired!

• Get Up and Game! takes the Iron Maiden up against Venom! Check out the full video here!

• And check out Night of the Living Card Game going up against Expert Absorbing Man here!

Overview:

• Archetype: Voltron (heavily upgrading an ally)
• Difficulty: Above Average
• Recommended Player Count: Any (1-4)
• Ideal Aspect Partners: Justice
• Ideal Hero Partners: Anyone with fast/minimal setup (Nova, Gamora, Wolverine, etc!)
• Matchups to Avoid: Scenarios which steal allies (Mysterio, Loki, etc)

Strategy:
Mulligan aggressively for Iron Man or Call for Aid - and I mean aggressively. Ditch all 6 cards if you don't see either in your initial hand! Find him as fast as possible. (And let's face it, Tony is probably at the bar.)

Including 3x Call For Aid along with Iron Man himself, we have a 77.5% chance to get Iron Man on our first turn if we potentially mulligan everything. Then, assuming you go to hero form and stay there, a 90% chance to see him on Turn 2 and 96.5% chance to see him on Turn 3.

Next, check the clock - it's Game Time! Make Iron Man an Honorary X-Men and give him some Danger Room Training. This is your top priority - Game Time can effectively be a 0-cost card for 6 damage. Or 0-cost for 4 threat removal + 1 damage.

Heal Repair Iron Man with First Aid. Innovation is great for this too. Never let him be defeated. Keep an eye on where your First Aids are and moderate your use of him if you have to. Meanwhile, focus on defending with Shadowcat and, once Iron Man is in play, aim to end each turn in Phased form or with Phased and Confused in play.

We run 3x Call for Aid, 3x Honorary X-Men, and 2x Danger Room Training. Why so many? To consistently get the deck online. Everything has to be played in the right order and this ups our odds of being able to do so quickly. Feed the spares to Plan B and Machine Man.

Because of the nature of playing and setting up Iron Man, this deck has a slight preference to avoid scenarios that start with multiple encounter cards in play. Also, watch out for modular sets like Enchantress, Whispers of Paranoia, and Mystique! They will steal your Iron Man. Or outright delete him.

Be the bodyguard he deserves - during the game and when setting it up!

Iron Man and Shadowcat can thwart well but are better at dealing damage between Solid, Sidearm and Power Gloves. This means they prefer to have a Justice player in multiplayer - but will still do great with any aspects and in solo play!

Mulligan Priorities:

• Iron Man
• Call for Aid (if Iron man is NOT in hand)
• Honorary X-Men (if Iron Man IS in hand)

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Other Tips:

• If Plan B is in play, Machine Man is lower priority - and vice versa. You won't often need two resource sinks.

• Did you know you can overpay with Innovation and still get its effects? Even on a 0-cost card? Sometimes this is useful!

• You still want to try and end every turn in Phased form like most Shadowcat decks. If you can't end in Phased but you have Phased and Confused in hand, playing it goes up in priority. You can also save the confuse from it on an earlier turn to duck into alter-ego.

• If you get unlucky and see all your Danger Room Trainings before getting Iron Man in play, once he is in play? You can use Call for Aid to reset your deck since there are no other Avengers - just make sure you can deal with the encounter card!

• Use Quick Shift. Every time. If both copies are still in your deck, Phased and Confused becomes a much lower priority (as it can prevent you playing Quick Shift, your best signature card).

• Iron Man is expensive and will cost your whole turn. Try to play him as early as possible while you still have hp and the main scheme's threat threshold to play with. The turn you play him? A huge tempo loss. Every turn following that? Enormous tempo gains.

• Throw a spare Honorary X-Men on yourself. It will thin your deck and +1 hp never hurts!

Good luck!