The Indomitable Snowman 2026

The Indomitable Snowman 2026

Note that this deck was created and playtested in order to compare two Iceman Protection builds. Note that this is Deck 2 of the two decks described below. The comparison will be done via video as noted.

Build Restriction(s) for both decks: X-Men allies only; no offensive "readying" events (for example, What Doesn't Kill Me, Repurpose.

Deck 1: The key, strong allies survive "eternally" because of Protective Training and Energy Shield. The numerous allies, Utopia, and Cryokinetic Perception allow Iceman to attack at least twice per turn, while those allies thwart and add to the attack, while also providing defensive cover (though they are also meant to contribute considerable damage).

Vs.

Deck 2: An Indomitable build that triggers Cryokinetic Perception mostly from defending, but attacks frequently as well due to a combination of Indomitable and Cryokinetic Perception. This is an updated version of a deck I had previous published about a year ago for the 4-Pack Challenge for The Masked Hero (www.youtube.com/@TheMaskedHero).

If you'd like to see a video discussion of this deck, check the following video: 2-Deck Comparison | Iceman Protection

• "Demo" video(s) that shows off some turns with the deck: Releasing on Thursday, December 11, 2025 Iceman Protection Demo Game Play Vs. Expert Iron Man | The Indomitable Snowman 2026

  ---

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck and/or game play strategies (in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Magneto; and Iron Man

Notable Results:

• Moved to the end of this description for those who wish to read it.

Deck Refinements:

Removal(s):

• Rockslide: too many expensive allies

Addition(s):

• Armor: 2-cost ally with a physical resource for Ready for a Fight
• Professor X: Confuses the villain to go to alter-ego and trigger Iceman's ability to put his cards back into his deck.
  • Electrostatic Armor: I had this in the original deck of 40 cards and had removed it, but I put this back again despite the 41 cards due to its effectiveness when in play.

NOTABLE ELEMENTS:

Note on the allies: The large number of allies regularly triggers Utopia, yet that are relatively low cost, with the exception of Rogue. The constant flow of allies allows Iceman to attack at least once each turn and often twice while still being able to regularly defend and give Iceman a larger hand size when he gets back to his turn, from potentially both Cryokinetic Perception and Unflappable. That regular card draw also means he could often play Frozen Solid and neutralize the villain's attacks most turns.

Events:

• N/A

Player Side Scheme:

• N/A

Support(s) of note: Note the lack of The X-Jet to decrease setup.

• Angel's Aerie: With the regular defending Iceman does for this build, this support allowed Iceman to often forego using his Recover on Alter-Ego.

Upgrades:

• Deft Focus: All 7 events, Cryokinetic Perception, and Ice Slide are all Superpower cards, and this relatively cheap Upgrade helped make up for the lack of the The X-Jet.
• Electrostatic Armor: This extra damage often added up, but it also meant that a Tough Status could easily be eliminated without wasting an attack on it.
• Indomitable: Because this is a response, one can wait to see if Cryokinetic Perception readies Iceman first, thereby preserving the use of Indomitable when truly needed. In addition, multiple copies can be in play at a time if convenient.
• Ready for a Fight: This facilitates going to alter-ego and using the Alter-ego ability Cool Off, used to put Frozen Solid back into the deck and allow Iceman to completely neutralize the villain.
• Unflappable: Drawing two cards per defensive turn greatly sets up the offensive play, especially since no event cards are used to deplete one's hand of resources.

  ---

Conclusion:

This deck is just is just fun to play. Neutralizing the enemy while getting consistent card draw and readying your hero is just fun to do. Even when he takes a while to set up, you feel like you'll eventually do so and then just absolutely dominate the villain.

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.

Notable Gameplay Results:

• Versus Standard Klaw: Extremely fun battle! Lots of card draw on defense and readying on defense and offense. Electrostatic Armor dealt regular damage, while Cryokinetic Perception and Unflappable drew cards. Ready for a Fight allowed Iceman to start with a hand-size of 6 and then add more cards when defending. Because Angel's Aerie could heal him instead of Iceman using his recovery, the card allowed Iceman to attack prior to going to alter-ego, thereby placing a Frostbite on the villain first and triggering his Cool Off ability. The many X-Men allies mostly attacked, readying Iceman from Utopia's ability. Indomitable served as a readying backup for Cryokinetic Perception. Because Iceman defended for himself, we regularly got full usage of the allies for attacking and thwarting.
• Versus Expert Klaw: Unlucky loss in game 1; however, it led to some helpful refinements. After the adjustments, Iceman dominated Klaw, finishing with 20 points of damage all from just his 2 basic attacks (with Ice Slide attached) and ally attacks (3 damage from Colossus and 5 from Rogue)
• Versus Standard Magneto: Magneto cleared his first two main schemes relatively quickly while I was setting up my kit, but by the time that happened, my kit was set up, and I had a Ready for a Fight in play to protect the 3rd main scheme while I regularly attacked Magneto the rest of the game, consistently building up Frostbites on him and drawing cards on defense from Unflappable and Cryokinetic Perception. Then I would ready Iceman each turn by playing an Iceman ally to trigger Utopia. Magneto's end was inevitable, with 19 points of final-turn damage to finish him off.
• Versus Expert Magneto: This was a more controlled game, though Magneto discarded a lot of his deck and ended up with 2 acceleration tokens and was able to get to the 2nd Main Scheme. With consistent card draw and readying, we dealt 16 + 15 points of damage the final two turns for 31 points altogether and could have kept doing that kind of damage consistently. Iceman also rarely had to Recover due to Angel's Aerie's ability.
• Versus Standard Iron Man: I ignored Iron Man's attachments (other than the "damage-prevention" ones, which can't be ignored), and I mostly just attacked and defended regularly. At the end, I finished off stage 2 with 17 points of damage.
• Versus Expert Iron Man: Played Frozen Solid regularly, keeping Iron Man incapacitated often, while dealing damage to him consistently, with 16 points of damage in the final round (20 points if counting the minion with Guard we first defeated).