Brain Drain (CoH '26)

Phoenix Justice with Psychic Manipulation as the build-around card, with Psimitar as a kicker. Psychic Manipulation has some good math to it: you not only prevent threat from being placed, but the Villain removes threat from their own main scheme instead.

• Psychic Manipulation, at a cost of 4 ER, is usually better than Counterintelligence (which only prevents the threat) and a Confuse status (which prevents the scheme, but doesn't work well against steady/stalwart).
• It's playable from Alter-ego, and Sense of Justice can be used in Alter-ego as well to help pay for it.
• two copies of Vigilante Training to keep putting it back in the deck, and the Alter-ego hand size of 6 makes it fairly reliable to have Psychic Manipulation when you flip down and draw up.
• Psimitar is a hero action attack, but with 15 other Psionic cards in the deck, you can usually trigger it once per turn.

• with 16 total Psionic cards, The Power of the Mind was a good include, and it was almost always a double. Phoenix's kit is relatively expensive as well, so it was nice to have.
• I originally included Overwatch, but it's a hero response and ended up being pretty situational: have to be in hero form AND the Villain schemes AND you play Psychic Manipulation AND there's another scheme from which to remove threat...
• included three copies of Even the Odds, since Phoenix doesn't have much side-scheme-thwarting power. If needed, Even the Odds can be shuffled in with Vigilante Training, and Phoenix's Psionic Bond ability can provide the energy resource.
• Phoenix is a pretty good all-rounder. I usually try to go Unleashed as soon as possible, making her decent events into really good events. This deck won't be "thwarting for the table", and you'll need other people to chip in when it comes to side schemes and dime-thwarts. I usually play Telekinetic Shield on myself when it's available, and flipping down to heal when needed, which usually fulfills Phoenix's 9-health-survivability concerns.
• on the other hand (see John Travolta above), Phoenix is doing decent damage for a Justice player (with basic activations and Telekinetic Attack, and you can let others at the table flip down without too much concern (since you're going to Brain Drain the Villain with Psychic Manipulation and cut them with you Psimitar for good measure)

I'll be bringing this deck to CoH '26 along with these others:

• Justice Like Lightning - Quicksilver Justice
• Switchboard Domino - Domino Leadership
• Lethal in Pink - Winter Soldier 'Pool
• Stronger Than Ever - Ghost Spider Protection (by Castlefrank47)
• Golem 2.0 - Drax Protect-gression