Alivepool — Unusual X-Force

...Is it really a Protection deck with only 4 green cards? Er...

The penultimate deck in my Unusual X-Force series! Built for fun over power, but still intended to do very well against most scenarios. But just why is it unusual?

There's a joke somewhere about it being unusual for Deadpool to use the name of this aspect. I won't say it, but Deadpool? Deadpool totally would.

What I will say is that Deadpool is a VERY risky character! And so this deck is dedicated to try and keep him alive.

You could argue that a Global Logistics / Spycraft deck would be better at this a lot of the time. But not in multiplayer, not against such threats such as everyone's favorite Rogue Vessel among others.

In short, this aims to be the Deadpool deck you can throw against ANY scenario, at ANY player count, in ANY team, with no complicated tracking of the discard pile and such things, and not randomly be defeated. Boring? To some, certainly. And it needs a little setup. But when you're sat out defeated for ages or everyone has to restart? Maaaybe it was the better option!

Overview:

• Archetype: Power in All of Us
• Difficulty: Average
• Play Style: Uhhh... Deadpool?
• Recommended Player Count: 2-4
• Ideal Aspect Partner: Justice/Leadership
• Ideal Hero Partners: At least one other Mutant at the table

~ MULTIPLAYER NOTE: This is an all-rounder Protection deck that leans toward DAMAGE and will NOT often want to defend for others! ~

Mulligan Priorities:

• Black Widow
• It Ain't Over...
• Helicarrier / Avengers Mansion / Moira MacTaggert
• Target Acquired
• Chimichanga Truck

Simple Guide to Success:

1. Avoid using your Regeneratin' Degenerate ability early on outside of emergencies. One wrong card and you're history. And the point of this deck is to avoid that! We first need to find some solutions to unexpected defeat.

2. Black Widow is the most important card here for us. Your biggest threats are usually encounter cards that deal damage, that can defeat you while you're alter-ego at 1 hp. She stops that and works in either form.

3. Enhanced Awareness helps us pay for Black Widow's ability when we're in hero form, boosts the amount of mental resources in our deck for her when alter-ego, and provides a flexible target for The Power in All of Us. ...But you may consider swapping one for Quincarrier which we can get through Build Support (doing so bypasses its Avenger requirement).

4. Next, we have Target Acquired to save us from nasty boost effects that deal damage. Note that boost effects trigger immediately upon before the rest of the attack and final damage goes through. In other words, if a boost effect "defeats" us and we trigger Regeneratin' Degenerate, we eat the main attack damage in alter-ego and are truly defeated.

5. And finally we have Energy Barrier. This can also save us from encounter card and boost effect damage, but it can also save us from alternative damage sources. This also works in either form!

6. To be extra safe, I recommend trying to keep Blade healthy on the table with you to soak any pesky indirect damage. This is not a priority, but it's pretty handy.

7. They won't teach you this in Deadpool School, but you can just go alter-ego normally and REC! Thanks to a REC of 8, this is still excellent and can help slow the gain of acceleration tokens.

8. Beyond trying to keep Deadpool alive, it's a Deadpool deck that wants to do Deadpool things with Deadpool cards! It's armed with a bunch of powerful basic cards that revolve around finding and playing our Deadpool toys - use them all shamelessly. Just like Deadpool would want you to.

9. Although this deck can function well solo, it's intended for multiplayer and will perform better there. This is because those things we are setting up to stop us defeating are slow tempo cards, at odds with Deadpool's speedy nature, so Deadpool appreciates some friends to help him get safe in the early game - so he can be a powerhouse in the late game.

10. This deck secretly becomes a support deck in the mid/late game. Once set up, your cards and combos are relatively cheap overall. Give your other players Avengers Mansion, Helicarrier, and Moira MacTaggert when able!

And that about does it! Thanks for reading.

Good luck and have fun!

If you would like more decks like this, the rest of the series can be found here:

• Cable "My Own Worst Frenemy" 'Pool Deck
• Domino "Honorary Psionic" Leadership Deck
• Angel "Aerial Arms Dealer" Protection Deck
• Psylocke "Chain Lightning" Aggression Deck
• X-23 "Web of Slicing Enemies" Justice Deck