Colossus - The Heart of the X-Men, but X-Force at Heart

Colossus, the gentle giant who'd rather paint than fight, has always been at the heart of the X-Men from his first appearance in Giant Size X-Men #1. But he's also often found himself as part of X-Force where he's done some questionable things for even more questionable reasons. This thematic deck takes advantage of Colossus's long history on both core X-teams to generate endless toughs and card draw so you can crush villains in both solo and multiplayer. And it was "tough" enough to survive both Con of Heroes 2026 and Ronan on expert.

^Our friendly, neighborhood Russian's got some blood on his hands...

Toughs, Toughs, and More Toughs

Colossus's entire engine runs on toughs; he needs them to get the most value out of his best events and to make up for his 4-card hero form hand size. The two most important cards to mulligan for are Iron Will and Titanium Muscles which capitalize on toughs to provide card draw and resource gen respectively, while also providing boosts to Colossus's base thwart and attack. Indeed they are so important that Hope Summers has real value in the deck since she can find these cards in your deck, along with his 9 identity-specific events cards and Organic Steel, all of which are superpower traited. The excessive amount of superpower cards in his kit also makes Deft Focus a must include.

But as anyone who has played Colossus knows, sometimes it just feels like he doesn't have a tough status when he needs one. So this deck gives Colossus eight cards that can generate a tough status for him: Polaris, Hidden Base, three copies of "Come Get Me, Bub", and three copies of Serve and Protect. With Organic Steel replenishing lost tough statuses and Bulletproof Protector turning one tough into two, you should almost always have enough toughs to get his engine to run.

Flipping Every Turn

To the extent possible, you should aim to flip Colossus every turn with this deck to cycle back his powerful events with his alter-ego ability and to take advantage of his card draw potential. Piotr's Studio is an excellent card that gives you both card draw and a chance to draw key identity specific cards. Weapon X is basically a second Piotr's Studio to be used when he doesn't already have a tough status; the 1 HP cost is irrelevant to a hero who barely gets hurt with the amount of toughs he has and who has healing through "Come Get Me, Bub" and X-Mansion anyway. Mutant Education let's you cycle even more identity specific events in and, when paired with the X-Mansion, gets you yet another source of card draw. And Moira MacTaggert gets you even more card draw for turns where you start in alter ego.

Once you are set up, you will have 9 to 10 cards in hand on turns you start in alter ego by the time you flip to hero - and that's not even counting various additional card draw you can get through Iron Will. And those cards in hand will likely include 2 or more identity specific cards.

Hidden Base also gives you an extra incentive to flip down to alter ego as a means of accelerated tough generation.

Sorry Villain, You Don't Get to Scheme

Of course playing so much in alter ego runs the risk of the villain's scheme getting out of hand. But Colossus has Armor Up to turn the villain's scheme into an attack against a tough hero with all the added card draw bonuses mentioned above. Particularly in solo games, Armor Up is a great target for your alter ego and Mutant Education recycling. Ready for a Fight effectively gives you another Armor Up in the form of a low cost upgrade that both helps thin your deck and protect more valuable upgrades and supports from being discarded.

Colossus's ability to get back his identity specific events means he can also constantly keep the villain confused (and stunned) with Steel Fist, thereby providing another means of negating scheme.

But the card this deck is truly built around both thematically and mechanically is Serve and Protect. It's particularly effective in multiplayer - especially in games with players running X-Men and/or X-Force heroes and allies - where you can allow other players to go alter ego, share the cost of playing Serve and Protect, and turn the villain's scheme into toughs for Colossus and another hero/ally.

The deck's five included allies are also perfect for helping meet Serve and Protect's exhaust criteria given that they rarely need to be used for chump blocking due to Colossus's toughs. Hope Summers gets Colossus's X-Men trait and is thus immediately both an X-Men and an X-Force ally. Rogue can steal a trait from any X-Force ally or hero in play. Deadpool never dies through consequential and so you can rely on him being around for Serve and Protect duty. And once you play Children of the Atom, Colossus and each of your allies are all both X-Men and X-Force.

And if you are in hero form while solo or your multiplayer partner is also in hero form, you can still get value out of Serve and Protect by using it to prevent step one scheme accumulation while gaining some tough statuses before the villain even attacks. This is particularly valuable if your Deadpool has been adding acceleration tokens. Alternatively, if you are in hero form you can hold on to Serve and Protect to negate a potential Advance.

Finishing Blows

Once your engine is running, you should look to cycle Steel Fist and Made of Rage. Those events combined with the five cards in this deck that ready Colossus -- the three copies of Limitless Stamina and the two copies of Bulletproof Protector -- make Colossus more than capable of dealing huge chunks of damage to villains on a given turn.