Keep your Friends Close, and your Enemies Closer

First Engagement

They may have passed Boot Camp, but can all the new recruits handle the enemy while Cable focuses on his own mission?

Art Credit: Mike Henderson - Cable: Love and Chrome (2025)

Mission Briefing

Cable isn't a hero who loves minions, even with his Plasma Rifle. He's focused on side schemes. If you try both, you end up with a deck that takes twice as long to set up.

What's changed?

• While Cable might not want to go Looking for Trouble, he does enjoy Spoiling for a Fight so he can use his basic thwart to defeat side schemes
• Being the Man on the Wall is also an economy option now, and he's one of the only heroes who is a Soldier in both hero and alter-ego

But even with that, Cable still doesn't really want to deal with minions on the board. The infantry can take care of them.

In fact, it might actually be best to just keep them right where Cable can see them.

Keep your Friends Close, and your Enemies Closer (Deck Strategy)

Minion focused aggression has always had roughly the same strategy: Get a minion, make sure "you" defeat it and reap the benefits, whether it's through a Hall of Heroes or a Blood Rage. With Man on the Wall, there's finally a new build around card that introduces an alternative approach.

This deck takes a different spin on minion aggression, focusing both on keeping minions in play and defeating them with allies rather than "you". Like any Cable deck, there's a main focus on side schemes here, but this one comes with a twist. We have extra readies from summoning minions and key cards around allies defeating minions, both working in tandem to help tee up side schemes for easy defeat. There's some Psionic cards in here too, allowing for consistent flipping to get the most out of strong alter-ego supports.

War of Attrition

War isn't won in a day. It takes a lot of consistent . With Graymalkin, we've got plenty.

• Sunfire, Thor and Valkyrie all have kickers that can easily be hit to help deal burst damage to minions or get rid of attachments
• "Bring It!", Psychic Assault and Spoiling for a Fight are all , so you'll always have some to spend even if you can't find Graymalkin

Leading the Troops

Our soldiers are no stranger to defeating enemies and are equipped to do so. Some of our allies here want to stay by your side while others help out in an opportune moment.

• We might not have many X-Men here, but the ones we do are Astonishing X-Men. With this side scheme, we can keep all minions in play for two extra turns, allowing for impactful turns with Man on the Wall and "Bring It!"
• Winter Soldier and Wolverine want to stay on board to make the most out of their experience. Rally the Troops and Render Medical Aid as necessary to keep them in tip top shape
• Marrow and Valkyrie can come in and ping off a tough or tee up a minion for Winter Soldier and can always block in a pinch
• Throg is small but mighty, helping Cable stay alive
• Thor can strike the field all at once, helping if you're getting overwhelmed
• Spider-Girl is similar to Astonishing X-Men, letting a minion stay on board a little while longer

Draft Dodgers

Even an army has to turn down soldiers sometimes. Feel free to swap some out if you'd like, but keep in mind you only want 2 soldiers by your side to stay on board so others can jump in and out of battle.

• Angela is normally a staple in minion summoning decks, but I found she wasn't worth it here. Without a thwart stat to use when I needed it, she just wasn't making the cut
• Deadpool is a fun voltron target, but his 2 THW stat is just too appealing to not use. Acceleration icons can definitely add up over time and because Cable is taking hits a lot of the time, that extra HP from Frenemies isn't always worth the risk
• Dust is another fun ally here. Ultimately I settled on Thor for the synergy with resources, but you could easily justify the swap, especially at larger player counts
• Generation X and Establish Perimeter are both very solid side schemes (and !), but I wanted to be careful of card count. If you prefer one of these, you can sub out Rally the Troops
• Tigra was one of the main reasons I made this deck, but Wolverine has better stats and a more useful passive ability. She might have a spot if there was a way to increase my ally limit

Spoils of War

This is dope! The combo with Astonishing X-Men and Man on the Wall is a Cable exclusive and can be absolutely nuts.

I'm also really digging the sequencing puzzle this introduces, giving you impactful decisions around trying to get the maximum possible value out of Man on the Wall and "Bring It!". Sometimes Cable decks can feel a bit formulaic, so a little variety has been fun to work with.

Let me know if you give it a shot!