A Few Good X-Men: Quality Over Quantity

Instead of using Scott's ability to include an obscene number of X-Men allies, this deck is about choosing the select few and keeping them around the whole game. My approach was to divide the allies into specific roles: specialists in attack, defense, thwart, and utility. The goal is to get the Specialists in attack, defense, and thwarting to stay on the table, while the utility allies cycle as needed. I've outlined the roles below and provided some alternative ally choices and tips for playing this deck. Playing with this approach felt much more thematic to me than using waves of allies for their responses and then blocking a villain attack. Hope you enjoy!

Attack Specialist

Wolverine

• It's hard to choose anyone else as the Attack Specialist when Wolverine comes with 3 attack and piercing, and when it comes to staying on the table, the ability to heal one damage per round certainly helps (though his two consequential damage for attacking somewhat cancels it out).
• With Uncanny X-Men down and Danger Room Training attached, Wolverine's 6 health gives him room to attack in 4 consecutive rounds without being defeated.
• X-Mansion allows you to heal extra damage from him when you flip to alter-ego, and you can always rest Wolverine for a round or use him to thwart if you need to avoid the double consequential damage from his attack.
• The goal of keeping allies on the table also makes Coordinated Attack another useful option to help out ol' Wolvie.

Gentle (Alternative)

• Gentle gets an honorable mention as an alternative to Wolverine for having 3 attack and being easier to play with a cost of 3. Gentle's reduced consequential damage for minions is nice but is essentially worse than Wolverine's healing. Ultimately, I favor Wolverine, but Gentle would still perform admirably as the Attack Specialist.

Defense Specialist

Nightcrawler

• Although the nature of Nightcrawler's ability does not technically keep him in play, the intent with this deck is to use his ability to prevent damage to Cyclops and then immediately play him during the player phase.
• Clarity of Purpose ensures you have an to trigger his ability, and the discount to allies from Uncanny X-Men makes it more manageable to keep playing him.
• Because Uncanny X-Men also gives your allies an extra hit point, you may wish to alternate turns of defending with Cyclops (possibly aided with Practiced Defense) and using Nightcrawler's ability to get the most out of his health.
• Looping Nightcrawler also ensures that you can trigger Utopia's ability to ready an X-Men character.
• Because Nightcrawler is frequently leaving the table, you'll want to save Danger Room Training for the Attack and Thwart Specialists.

Thwart Specialist

Bishop

• I think I like Bishop and Phoenix equally in this position, but I gave Bishop the edge here because his ability specifically centers on staying on the table without blocking a villain attack, which is the heart of this deck.
• At 2 thwart and 0 attack (hopefully increased to 3 and 1 with Danger Room Training), Bishop lives to thwart, and with Nightcrawler and Cyclops covering all the defending, Bishop is left to generate energy counters to his heart's content.
• The extra health from Danger Room Training and Uncanny X-Men will ensure he can thwart multiple times and attack for 7 after 2 or 3 turns without defeating himself with consequential damage.
• As with everyone else, flipping to alter-ego and using X-Mansion will restore at least some of his health. If you are really desperate, you can play Game Time to heal 1 and just not use Bishop again that round, and you can always use Med Lab to get him back on the table if you run out of healing options.

Phoenix (Alternative)

• As I said, I like using Phoenix just as much in this position. She has good stats and a strong ability when you play her. If you want to use Phoenix instead of Bishop, cutting Bishop will open a deck slot for Psychic Rapport, which you will be more likely to trigger since the plan would be to keep her on the table.

Marvel Girl (Alternative)

• Rachel performs the same as Bishop on thwarting, but her ability is fairly situational. If the minion has less than 2 scheme, I'm generally inclined to still thwart with Rachel and leave the damage to the Attack Specialist or an Optic Blast.

Storm (Alternative)

• Using Storm's ability to shuffle threat between schemes is also situational, and her higher cost makes her more difficult to play. So while I like Storm, the others edge her out on my team.

Utility Specialist

While the three other specialist positions are the stars of the show, the Utility position helps fill in the gaps while you're working on assembling your full team.

Forge

• With multiple X-Men supports being critical to this build, Forge is invaluable in getting set up. Generally, I try to use Build Support to get Uncanny X-Men down and rely on Forge to help with the others.
• The X-Mansion and Danger Room are important to get down early, but Utopia will be critical later to help ensure you have enough ally slots available.
• Once those are set, you can use Cerebro to find Forge to use as a resource, since later on the other allies are likely taking up your ally slots.

Psylocke

• Getting to alter-ego is important for this deck, and Psylocke's ability to confuse the villain is key to that purpose.
• Being in alter-ego gives you access to healing through the X-Mansion, training upgrades with the Danger Room, Scott's ability to pull a tactic upgrade, and more.
• It's worth mentioning here that playing Honorary X-Men on Cyclops is helpful, as it allows you to maintain the discount from Uncanny X-Men while also triggering the Danger Room. The extra point of health also helps.
• Psylocke is your best target for Med Lab, but if you know she is about to be defeated and you just reshuffled your deck, using Cerebro to get her back in hand may be the better option.

Phoenix

• When using Bishop as the Thwart Specialist, Phoenix gets much less play, but she can still be used to pull a tactic upgrade or Full Blast from the discard pile when needed.

Early Game

• Your first time through the deck, getting your supports out is key, so an early Forge is helpful. Support choice is discussed in Forge's section.
• You'll want to get down Build Support and Call for Backup to help with set up as well. Psylocke is my usual choice for Call for Backup, but there are situations where anyone outside of Forge may be a solid choice.
• Before you get Nightcrawler out to help with defense, use Practiced Defense and Cyclops's defense to deal with villain attacks. Flip to recover as needed, using Psylocke to confuse the villain if possible.
• If you can, choose to play the Specialist who best fits your needs at the moment (e.g., if you are having trouble with minions, you may want to prioritize playing Wolverine).

Mid-to-Late Game

• Once you have Uncanny X-Men and Nightcrawler to fuel your economy and defense, it should be fairly straightforward to get the rest of your team down.
• If your allies are getting low on health, drop to alter ego to use X-Mansion for healing.
• My tests have shown that X-Mansion, the health boost from Uncanny X-Men, and Wolverine's healing are generally enough to keep your team on the table. I usually only used Med Lab to get Psylocke back, but it works as a failsafe if one of your core Specialists runs out of health.
• Once you are mostly set up, just have your Specialists all do what they do best and fill in the gaps with Cyclops's thwarting and optic blasts.

Other Notes

• In testing this deck, I found Down Time helpful to offset the damage from Clarity of purpose and the inevitable defending Cyclops will have to do, but you could likely go without it.
• Cyclops doesn't really need Superpower Training. I anticipate substituting in the "Rally the Troops" player side scheme, which heals each all by 2, once it comes out. If you are inclined to use Storm as your Thwart Specialist, you could use Superpower Training to soak up the threat moved by her ability.