Cyclops Ally Recycler

Shocker another Cyclops deck that utilizes To Me My X-Men! This deck is part of a pet project of mine to take decks I enjoy playing casually and fine tuning them to be useable in True Solo Expert Play. My hope is by the end I'll be able to use these decks in True Solo Heroic! As of writing this Cyclops has finished the Core Box and Rise of the Red Skull Campaigns on Expert I.

The general idea of the deck is to cycle through allies while getting the most out of them in the moment. In early game this is done by using To Me My X-Men and Sneak Attack to cheat out expensive X-Men. Using Regroup to weather villain attacks while returning allies to hand, and using the many On Play effects from your allies to set up your Support cards. In late game benefit from the cheaper costs from Uncanny X-Men, The X-Jet, and Band Together to play allies that can clear minions and schemes allowing you to shoot all the laser beams you want with Exploit Weakness for maximum lasering.

I will go through each section explaining my reasoning for card choices and uses.

- Allies: Beast, Blindfold, Dazzler. Forge, Polaris, and Professor X are your go to X-Men Cards (Also Phoenix but she's required so that doesn't count.) All of these cards are able to use their effects whether being played from hand or the deck. This allows you to get full use of the ally no matter the situation. Pixie and Karma are a little more difficult to use since they can only trigger their effect when played from hand. Pixie can help with resource management, fishing allies from the discard to use as resources, or grabbing an ally that died earlier to reuse the effect. Karma is more situational. If the villain your facing doesn't have minions then she has little use. However on the flip side against villains that focus heavily on minions (cough Zola cough) She becomes almost indispensable. Angel, Gentle, and Psylocke round out the rest of the allies for their general usefulness. Angel being a cheap ally with a good stat line that goes from 2 cost to 1 cost when Uncanny X-Men is in play. Gentle used to be Dust, however I found that in solo play Dust was underperforming in the minion killing duty. This changes if you take the deck into group play or two handed solo. Psylocke is in the deck for extra confusion power. While a little excessive against most villains in Expert I, in theory she will be vital when I move to Expert II and face Steady villains.

- Events: 3x To Me My X-Men and 3x Sneak Attack. Looking through the Leadership events while deckbuilding, I found a lot of good cards and cards that excel in niche situations. Though after ending with 60+ cards in my deck I chose to filter it down to just the core of what was needed. Though that didn't stop me from added other cards that aren't entirely needed in the deck.

- Player Side Schemes: Speaking of which, Call for Backup is one such card that can be removed with no performance change to the deck. I like to keep it in due to Cyclops having a 2 Thwart and Tactical Brilliance able to clear it by itself. Most games this just stays on the field in the off chance I need to search for an ally to save me.

- Resources: Band Together began as a 2x in the deck, but after finding I has too many resources in my hands I cut it down to 1x. Early in the game Band together has minimal use generally acting as a 1 or 2 resource card. In late game it consistently generates 3 and 4 resources allowing you to pay for your more expensive allies.

- Supports: This is the section that has surprised me the most from the initial deck build. I was hesitant to have both Utopia and Triskelion, and was not sold on Regroup being a useful card. However after playing the deck Regroup is easily one of the most valuable cards. Let's start with why both Triskelion and Utopia. Simple answer is, Karma. Triskelion allows you to keep your increased ally limit while using Karma's effect. It also gives you the option for a cheaper ally limit bump in the games where you are strained on resources. In these games not only do you get to keep your increased ally limit but then you can use Forge to search for Utopia and use it as an extra resource. Most games I prefer the versatility from Utopia but Triskelion has saved me from time to time. Plus in the rare occasion you get both out that gives you 5 X-Men allies to play with! I initially had Regroup at a 1x but swiftly bumped it up to 2x when I found I needed it more often. This card allows you to use an ally, getting it's on play effect and attack or thwart, have it defend an attack from the villain or minions, and then bounce them to hand to use their on play effects again the next turn. In a deck that wants that constant cycling this card has become one of my favourites to use. Not to mention that it is also a Tactics card that can be fished out of discard with Tactical Brilliance. I don't have much to say about The X-Jet other than resources are good.

- Upgrades: These cards have had varying degrees of usefulness. Clarity of Purpose easily is the most useful because again, resources are good. Rapid Response is a nice card that can be searched for with your Alter-Ego or Tactical Brilliance. It also allows you to use your ally on play effects again which is nice. Leadership Skill is another card that can be removed with no change to performance.

All in all I'm very happy with how the deck is performing and hope I am able to make it through all the campaigns on Expert I, and eventually on Heroic!