The Wild Blue Yondu

Climbing high, into the sun!

Psylocke's got skills. But we're going to give her more. Specifically, we're going to load her up with 3x Target Practice - the ideal, ahem, target for Training Regimen (secretly Psylocke's hypest card). Why is it the ideal target? Because it costs 0, can be played in AE, and can be triggered in AE or hero. Psylocke likes to flip, and we've got allies to trigger this. We can grab and play two on a flip early in the game, and can also pull them for cheap resources if we must.

And who should we find at the firing range but a trio of fine (?) gentlemen (??) - Yondu (the Good), Deathlok (the Bad), and Deadpool (the Ugly). Deathlok pulls a Sidearm or Inspired from the discard for free. Deadpool functionally takes no consequential. Yondu truly takes no consequential. Yondu can also carry a Laser Blaster and its Overkill is extremely handy when you've stacked 2-3 Target Practices on board.

These are all useful traits when you give them each a good psychic kick (Psychic Kicker) in the seat of their pants. We're getting high value activations that can avoid Retaliate damage (with Sidearm and Yondu) and can be boosted in multiple ways. (By the by, have you noticed how incredibly valuable Ranged is against NeXt Evolution? Maybe not yet as you've been greedily flinging damage with Domino's pistols and Cable's rifle. Knock those crutches away and you'll find that Pyslocke's lack of ranged damage is a bit of an issue.)

We round out the deck with some complementary value cards. X-Gene and Moira MacTaggert are useful economy cards and are reliable to play and trigger thanks to Pyslocke's easy Confuse access and propensity to flip. Command Team squeezes additional value out of the squad, especially Yondu to close the game. Call for Backup and Build Support help cheat out our key pieces faster and cheaper, buoyed in solo by Psylocke's 3 Thwart.

Sideboard considerations

There are some notable flex considerations.

• Fantomex. He's another high-value ally who is quite resilient to multiple activations thanks to EVA. Very handy, but not essential. Feel free to swap him for Professor X or Vivian or Major Victory - all are more chumpable and can be useful to swap in for scenarios where the villain pressure is especially high.

• Weapon X. Very handy to play more of Psylocke's events, and especially useful when you want to lean into control with Flurry of Blades to ensure a steady stream of Confuse. But it can easily be swapped for Team-Building Exercise for more overall economy, or you could opt for a cheeky Rapid Response - an insurance policy and win-more jank-enabler all-in-one (insurance if Juggernaut decides to punch your weeniest ally, jank-enabler when you want double Major Victory readies on Yondu).

• Uncanny X-Force. This card isn't currently in the deck. If you INSIST, you could swap out Yondu for Caliban and run Uncanny X-Force (instead of a Command Team). That's probably a more effective deck in a multiplayer scenario with a Cable player and a less fun deck because laser blaster go pew pew pew.

Piloting notes

Psylocke has a high skill cap. That's part of the reason why I think a fairly straightforward aspect package is a boon, especially as we learn to play her. Figuring out how to sequence her weapons flipping to maximize her stats is extremely tricky, I've found, and I've had to run turns back again to get it right. Don't be daunted - you can do this. Finally, I like all of Psylocke's innate Skills, but Weapons Training is especially nice for banking resources in AE and then accelerating in the right turn.

Another piloting observation: Psionic Redirect and Telepathic Suggestion are so comforting. Psionic Redirect is an amazing card to pay for using your PSI-ENERGY weapons - you can wait to see how big the hit is and flip the weapons to redirect up to 6 damage or even confuse a Steady villain. Telepathic Suggestion has saved my bacon more than once and can feel like you've closed the game a turn before you really have knowing you can stop any problematic Treachery and even kill the villain - again perfect to spend your PSI-ENERGY weapons on to decide whether to Thwart or do damage.