Basic Bishop - not so basic after all...

Meet Basic Bishop

There are some amazing Bishop decks in here focusing on having tons of resources, and Lockjaw, and that's usually enough. They just draw lots of resources every round from getting hit by the villain and using Bishop's Uniform, to then shoot Bishop's Rifle and play Lockjaw from the discard pile. Rince and repeat. Interestingly, there is no specific aspect needed to play that way...

I usually play solo, and have 4 decks I cycle through, one for each aspect. And then, looking at this way to play Bishop, I figured out I could build a 5th deck to play with, a deck with no aspect, only basic cards. Looked like a fun challenge, and here it is.

Obviously this deck improves if you add the 5 resource cards typically available to a specific aspect (and a few staples of that aspect, instead of the many fill-in allies I've used here). But honestly, even with the challenge of playing no aspect card, it is still is a busted deck that will go through any villain with ease. If you are looking for a non no aspect deck, then I'd recommend Levati's protection Bishop, which just works much better than this one, even if I'd replace Starhawk in that deck with a low cost upgrade (Honorary X-Men) to deal with Caught Off Guard and the like (you can normally recover them by switching to AE, but in solo switching to AE can make you lose the game if you are unlucky to draw an Advance or similar)...

Deckbuilding: resources for all

The basis of this kind of Bishop deck is (ab)using Bishop's Uniform. And dealing with enemies with Bishop's Rifle. And for that you need resources, all the ones you can get.

If you are missing some of them because you're lacking one of the hero packs they come with, you can add a few allies and eventually upgrades to fill it to 40 cards (for example if you're missing the 3 The Power of Flight or the 3 Everyday Hero, you could add Hope Summers, Professor X, and Plan B).

Strategy (and mulligan)

You need Bishop's Uniform. Mulligan hard for it. If you can't get it but get Superpower Training, that's the plan B to get to your uniform. Then next go for Bishop's Rifle, and once Lockjaw is in play or in your discard pile, you're good to go.

You will usually get the first hit from the villain in the face and (over) recover thanks to Bishop's Uniform. Remember that most minions deal fixed damage, and in that case you should wait for the last attack to use it. This should keep you at max hit points the full game, never needing to go to AE (which is always particularly dangerous in solo).

Then with all the resources you got from that hit, you obvisouly shoot Bishop's Rifle, sometimes for 10+ damage!

You should every turn use Lockjaw for 2 threat or 2 damage, killing it from consequencial damage, then replay it from the discard pile, and use it again. Sometimes if the villain activates more than once or you have strong hitting minions, you may need to block instead of keeping it for next turn.

And that's about it. Usually your basic action, as well as Lockjaw's, will be thwarting to keep all the schemes at low value. Don't worry about wasting over damage from Bishop's Rifle on minions, you're not in a hurry. Better keep always the board clean, and shoot the villain when there are no other targets. When you are set nothing can stop you. And you are set very fast.

Other cards

So what about the other cards in this deck? White Fox sometimes plays for free so is not bad, Nick Fury gives you 3 draws so can sometimes even be beneficiary in number of resource cards (you play him with 2 double resource and draw 3 resources, it happens, especially after an Energy Conversion!). Stepford Cuckoos is just a safety net for encounter cards, but I honestly almost never end playing them. Honorary X-Men (that I play on Bishop) is mostly there to have an upgrade in case a treachery or game effect forces you to discard one. You don't want to ever have to discard one of Bishop's equipment. You may want to replace it with a cost 2 upgrade if you are facing one of the very few treacheries that force you to discard the highest cost upgrade you have. And finally the Avengers Mansion is just an extra card (so likely resource) every turn, which is just too good for this deck, and you'll have plenty of resources to play it.

Try to keep all the non-essential cards into play (play the upgardes and supports, keep a maximum of allies in play) to thin your deck. Emptying your deck isn't an issue (try not to get a villain attack with only 1 or 2 cards in your deck, it would be very suboptimal for your Energy Absorption), you can survive an extra encounter card once in a while easily.

Of course you can play this deck in multiplayer too, and the many allies you have will allow you to defend for other players (especially against overkill attacks, please give me more resources!).

Who thought an aspect-less deck could be so fun and efficient!