Now you're thinking with portals

Eat your heart out GLaDOS. Magik doesn't need science to make portals. In fact Magik's portals aren't just good for moving around the battlefield. She can use her powers to deploy X-men all over the battlefield, and send them back to limbo for a strategic retreat.

Deck summary

Here are the main bullet points if you don't want to read a whole writeup:

• Use Limbo, Scrying, and Spiritual Meditation to manipulate the top card of your deck. Play "To Me, My X-Men!" when you know it will hit an ally
• When "To Me, My X-Men!" hits, you effectively have +1 hand size next turn, so try to get it to hit every time it comes up
• the discount from Uncanny X-Men and Magik's hero power stack. Play a lot of x-men for cheap
• Use Command Team to get multiple activations out of your temporary allies, sinc ethe extra consequential won't matter

The roster

Each of the X-men bring something to the table. And depending on the situation, you'll want different ones out.

Good "on enters play"

Once you have Utopia down, every X-men character has a pseudo "on enters play" ability. Try to trigger this every turn to either get more out of your allies, or from Magik's basic powers

Beast, Mirage, Professor X and Triage have great abilities that trigger when they enter play. If you pull them in with "To Me, My X-Men!", you have a chance to trigger that ability again next turn!

It's important to note that Pixie effect is only "after you play pixie from hand". However, since Pixie is so cheap, you can play her the regular way to get that benefit. She will also help you dig good allies out to start portal-ing them in again!

Big hitters

Storm, and Havok are usually too expensive to be worth it. But if they come in for cheap with "To Me, My X-Men!" and can swing once (or twice with Command Team. Then hop back into your hand to be a resource, or get portal'd in again next turn!

Consequential damage: who cares

Havok and Gentle both have effects that cause them to take extra or random consequential damage. However, if they were played with "To Me, My X-Men!", they go back to your hand, and that consequential doesn't matter! With luck, Havok could hit for 5 damage with an attack, survive the consequential thanks to the +1 hp from Uncanny X-Men, and then go back to hand

Also Legion and Colossus

Colossus Isn't the ideal "To Me, My X-Men!" target. But his interrupt is very nice. Play him from hand or top-deck with that interrupt whenever possible.

Legion similarly doesn't have synergy with "To Me, My X-Men!" but he's just good in Magik, where you can see the top card before you decide to use his power

Magik herself

The typical tricks with Magik's spells and deck manipulation still work. This deck and Magik in general should have enough resources to get her upgrades and The Sorcerer Supreme down. The deck contains a lot of energy resources, which is good for Legion and Magic Barrier, but makes it a little harder for Exorcism and Soul Strike to hit their conditions. I recommend reading the write-up on Journeyman2's Devil May Scry deck for advice on making Magik's identity cards shine.

Strengths and weaknesses

This deck is great at survivability and versatility. Allies can attack or thwart, and you have plenty of options, and cheap ways to get chump blockers out. Combine that with Magik's already versatile kit, and you've got a deck that can really control the board.

The deck is also Cash Money Resource Rich. Magik starts with essentially 1 extra hand size and 1 extra resource from her hero power. Combine that with a low cost curve and Uncanny X-Men making allies cheaper and you've got ways to play a lot of cards per turn.

One issue I have with this deck, and Magik in general, is planning and sequencing turns is complicated. There are a lot of decisions to make and you may annoy the table with turns 3x as long as theirs.

The deck also has generally low numbers on the cards. There's not swinging web kick in here to burn down the villain or strong minions. You have to depend on allies and basic activations to get your damage, which can make games drag a little long.

Just below the cut

Here are cards I tired in the deck but didn't make the cut of 40. They could certainly work, depending on preference

Cerebro: Didn't end up using it much, since there were other ways to find allies

Honorary X-Men: sometimes nice to put on Magik so that the Uncanny X-Men discount stays active in alter ego. But I found with all the blockers, Triage, and Colossus/Magic Barrier I didn't need to flip all that much.

Cosmo: Good with Magik, but he turns off Uncanny X-Men. Sorry pup

Team Training + The Triskelion + Strength In Numbers: If you include these cards, it sort of becomes a different deck. Allies stay alive longer and you get to do big draws. It's effective, but not what I was going for.

Thanks!

Let me know if you have any fun games with this deck, or interesting card substitutions! Hit me up on the marvel champions discord anytime if you want to play a game :) Happy villain hunting!