Dial M for Magneto's Minion Manglers

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST (in standard and expert, until one victory against each): Klaw; Rhino (with The Doomsday Chair encounter set, which includes M.O.D.O.K.); Mutant Genesis villains (Sabretooth, Project Wide Awake, Master Mold, Mansion Attack, and Magneto). There were only a couple of losses, one against Mansion Attack and one against Magneto, prior to those particular victories.

NOTABLE ELEMENTS OF PLAY:

Sides Schemes Provide Targets for Electromagnetic Blast: The four side schemes make great targets for this card, making it feel more useful even when one can't use its secondary ability to discard an attachment from the villain, and each of these side schemes provides notable benefits. For example, even if one has already played The X-Jet and Asteroid M, Command Team can be a highly valuable card for extra attacks and thwarts from the allies.

Clarity of Purpose's Reduced "Damage Cost": A surprise synergy in this deck was using Clarity of Purpose when Magneto had Magnetic Bubble in play, making it feel as if the 1 damage cost of using Clarity of Purpose was truly negligible. Also, Clarity of Purpose can result in a net gain of health when used for Noble Sacrifice, even ending up with a tough status, which more than makes up for the lost hit point.

Why Such a Large Supply of Allies and Cards?

1) Magneto's Magnetic Pull ability: This is the primary reason for the profusion of allies. Having so many allies allows for a likely pull of an ally when drawing cards at the end of a turn, which is between uses of Magnetic Pull, and it provides an ongoing pool of targets for Make the Call.

In addition, Lockjaw is often available in emergencies in case one essentially has a dead hand with too many Magnetic Missiles and Wrapped in Metals, though the chances of this are significantly diminished due to having the extra cards as a buffer between Magneto's identity-specific cards when one draws cards. That one time when you need Lockjaw, though, you're grateful to have him.

White Fox provides an additional asset that typically comes as a welcome surprise when discarding cards. At the same time, one is still guaranteed to get magneto's cards and is less likely to get two of any given card, including making it less likely to get both Metal Shards cards simultaneously. Also, when one has Magneto's Armor in play, having more cards to discard also means one is more likely to get both the +1 attack and +1 thwart to flexibly handle the need of the moment.

2) Noble Sacrifice: In addition, if you're going to throw away an ally, then you'd better have enough of them available to replace the one you just discarded. Enough said on that, I think. :-)

Overall, the allies truly did mangle the minions, as well as stymie the schemes, assisted by Magneto himself and his cards, while Magneto was kept healthy by his numerous ally defenders and regular tough statuses between Metal Shards and Noble Sacrifice. The latter is really an upgrade on chump blocking since it accomplishes the same thing while adding life to the hero (for a cost, of course, but at the same price as First Aid and usually for three or even four health instead of two.)