Catch You On The Flip Side

Unusual X-Men Decks: #2 - Catch You On The Flip Side

We'd have to be crazy to give a small hand size hero thirteen 3+ cost cards, right? But we have Meditation. Use it to quickly set up huge cards while keeping the villain confused so we can always safely flip to alter-ego.

And we really, really want to flip to alter-ego. Colossus has a puny hand size of 4. Piotr, however? A glorious hand size of 6! With value like that, who even needs X-Men supports? Or thwarting events? (Just don't bring this to 3-4 player!)

Catch you on the flip side.

• Nelson All Over takes the deck up against Expert Magog and Expert Red Skull! Can he make the comeback of the century? Check out the full video here!

• And check out Night of the Living Card Game take on Expert Mysterio here!

(Let's all just pretend that's a Sonic Rifle!)

Overview:

• Archetype: Meditation/Confuse-lock
• Difficulty: Above Average
• Recommended Player Count: 1-2
• Ideal Aspect Partners: Leadership
• Ideal Hero Partners: Anyone who wants to stay in hero form. (Ant-Man, Shadowcat, etc!)
• Scenarios to Avoid: Any with steady/stalwart villains.

Strategy:
This deck isn't built as a threat remover. This deck is built to be an all-rounder, more like a Leadership deck, with a balance of damage (Colossus + allies), defense (allies + stuns), and threat removal (allies + Beat Cops).

And, of course, this deck is built to confuse the villain, flip alter-ego and have the confuse block their scheming, and then meditate in big cards Colossus couldn't normally afford. You'll ideally never stop confusing the villain and thus never stop flipping alter-ego.

With +2 hand size and a free Tough card on the way back, there's no reason not to keep flipping to alter-ego. If we value a Tough status card at 2 resources and each card in hand as 1, one trip to alter-ego and back is basically worth +4 resources - equivalent to another whole turn in hero form!

And with great confuses comes great safety in going alter-ego. This deck has 11 potential confuses per deck cycle between 8 cards, more if you shuffle Steel Fist back into your deck with your alter-ego power. On Turn 1, on an aggressive mulligan, you have a 96% chance to find a confuse - and, with no mulligan still a 75% chance.

And if we can go alter-ego whenever we like, we can use Meditation whenever we draw it. Beyond that? Just keep doing Colossus things. Constantly changing form will keep you topped up with Toughs.

Your goal each turn is to end the turn in hero form with a stun on the villain or a low hp ally to block with, or end your turn in alter-ego with a confuse on the villain. You ideally want to keep at least one Tough status at all times.

Despite officially being a Justice deck, we're really just here for the confuses. And as an all-rounder, this deck is great for solo play and great in 2-player. Just don't try this in 3+ player - this is not the threat removal you are looking for.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Iron Will
• Steel Fist
• Meditation
• Avengers Mansion
• Piotr's Studio

Other Tips:

• Since we're going alter-ego so much, Piotr's Studio is effectively +1 card draw every turn. That makes it one of the best cards in the deck!

• Sonic Rifle is great. Don't be afraid to use it for the damage option either if you're well set up and the villain is confused - using it for confuses is more efficient, but its damage-to-cost ratio is still equal to Clobber or Scare Tactic and can really help bring the villain down. There's no point ending the game with charges left on them.

• If the main scheme is generous, feel free to stay alter-ego for another turn if you've used Meditation. Especially if you have, say, brought in Dazzler while alter-ego and set up another confuse status.

• Armor Up is a good card but denies us access to Piotr's Studio and generally shouldn't be necessary with this much confuse. However, consider keeping it in hand and flipping alter-ego without a confuse on the villain in a pinch.

• Once Psylocke releases, be sure to add 1x Float Like a Butterfly to this deck!

• While Meditation is obviously best used for a 3+ cost card, don't be afraid to use it on something 2-cost if it's the only way to get a key upgrade into play. Namely Iron Will and Titanium Muscles.

• When shuffling cards back into your deck with your alter-ego ability, I recommend Steel Fist or Bulletproof Protector. If you are ready to bring the game to an end, Made of Rage becomes particularly excellent as well.

Good luck!