Cyclops Phoning It In 1.0

This deck came into being from a random thought I had as I was building a Psylocke Justice deck.

As I went through the -frankly- lackluster allies available for what I was doing, I saw Blindfold, and thought...I would love to make this guy recursive.

Then I forgot about it for six months.

Until a week ago, when Venom Goblin completely housed my X-23 and my previously undefeated Ghost-Spider, and Blindfold seemed like an ally I should look into again.

So here we are.

The Gimmick

The original version of this deck was all about using the Med Lab to recurse Blindfold, Sunfire and Pixie for their ‘enter play’ abilities. But then I kept adding tweaks like Utopia and Honorary X-Men. Then Danger Room and Danger Room Training.

I eventually ended up with a deck that does a lot of fun things. Let’s take a look at some of the fun!

Combos

There’s the 'Permanent Vacation' combo for Cyclops. By slapping him with the Honorary X-Men upgrade, he becomes able to use the The X-Jet in alter-ego mode, keeps Uncanny X-Men active and remains a target for Utopia.

We have Forge acting as an extra copy of Cerebro, Danger Room, Utopia, The X-Jet or X-Mansion, depending on your needs. With Med Lab, he becomes a tutor that can dig all of the crucial support and upgrade cards out of your deck or discard, so you don’t need to worry about not having resources for everything in the early game.

Nightcrawler evolves into an entire Protection deck by himself in the late game. He shuts down all damage and then returns to your hand to be played the next round and ready (with Utopia) the defending ally he protected. As long as you keep the The X-Jet on standby, he is a permanently recursive solution.

Uncanny X-Men allows a copy of Meditation to dump Wolverineor Psylocke onto the table, and we have Pixie and Make the Call to help us bring Professor X back whenever we have a moment.

Oh, and we can’t forget Blindfold and Sunfire recursing with the Med Lab to eliminate villain problems…which was the actual -original- purpose? I cannot overstate how powerful Blindfold’s ability is. You can literally plan the entire villain turn with two heroes, but when playing solo he gives you intel to plot the next two villain phases. Recursing Blindfold is as close to cheating in Marvel Champions as you can get without bringing Doctor Strange into the mix.

Final Thoughts

What I like most about this deck is that it allows you to adapt to whatever you are facing. Which makes Cyclops exactly as nimble and effective as he is supposed to be, all while leading a ferocious team of mutants into battle.

If I had a complaint, it would be that Cyclops himself rarely has much to do. Though his AE ability to tutor for a Tactic card can often function as a free resource. Most of the time though, he’s most useful keeping the villain scheming so your allies survive to thwart, then you occasionally have him step up to deal with some crazy minions.

But seriously, if my biggest issue is that the deck handles so many elements that the hero takes a backseat? That’s not much of a complaint.

Weaknesses

It definitely relies on several upgrades to get into full swing. However, there are plenty of allies and Meditation available to get them on the board cheaply in the early game. With Pixie and Make the Call, you don’t have to worry about sacrificing allies in the early game as resources, because you’ll see them again soon enough.

Another weakness -and I can’t believe I’m saying this- is that it’s harder to KO your allies with consequential damage. It seems insane to say that, but getting full use out of Med Lab means being able to konk your own team out whenever you want. And Uncanny X-Men makes that harder.

However, the additional benefit of the lowered resource cost for allies far outweighs the Med Lab exploit. But that is the reason Team Training is not also in this deck. Instead, you can use the Danger Room to slap an upgrade on whichever allies you want a few extra turns from, and then use X-Mansion to keep them around as long as possible. And let’s not pretend that Wolverine as a 4/2/6 that can heal two damage each turn isn’t a gorgeous sight.

Mulligan

Utopia should be your main priority. It allows you to have an extra ally and once you get Honorary X-Men on Cyclops, he can recover twice in a single round.

Honorary X-Men is your second priority, as it will allow you to be fully operative in Alter-Ego mode.

Uncanny X-Men and Cerebro are the final priorities because they open up a wealth of opportunities. Uncanny makes all your allies cheaper, allowing you to reap long-term resource benefits, and Cerebro can be used to just add a card to your hand regularly. Since four of the allies are Psionic, you’ll regularly be able to use Cerebro to search your entire deck.

Sideboard

Several of the allies can be swapped out to tailor the deck to specific villains.

For example, Sunfire is vital against Venom Goblin (Advanced Glider) or Spiral (Spiral's Swords), but almost useless against Juggernaut, whose main attachment (Juggernaut's Helmet) Sunfire can’t touch.

Psylocke could easily be swapped out when facing a steady or stalwart villain, and the same could probably be said for Professor X.

You could also ditch the Make the Calls in exchange for an extra Meditation and a Team Training, if you want to focus on having your allies last longer. Or a Down Time, if you want to have Cyclops mix it up with the villain a bit more.

Overall, I have found the deck to be a lot of fun and highly adaptable.

Enjoy!