Magneto Was Right [GMW Expert Campaign]

Magneto Was Right

Deck showcase versus Ronan (Expert)

With this deck, Magneto is always right. Knowledge is power and with the ability to predict the future, we can prevent what happened on Genosha from ever happening again. Blindfold and Gambit scry the encounter deck and Global Logistics sets us up for perfect player turns. Magneto is one of the best heroes to use Global Logistics on his own deck because of his hero ability, Magnetic Pull.

Max imizing Value

Magnetic Pull is the perfect ability to set everything in motion since it’s extremely reliable and accessible. Global Logistics allows us to rearrange the top 4 cards of any deck. This is usually more useful for manipulating the encounter deck (and we still will use it for that), but Magneto can utilize the top 4 cards in the player deck very effectively. In the above example, we rearrange the first 2 cards to be milled with Magnetic Pull. Discarding Blindfold and Master of Magnetism will proc Magneto's Armor and give him +1 THW/ATK/DEF until the end of the round since each resource icon was discarded. Magnetic Pull will hit Master of Magnetism, a double resource with the Magnetic trait which gets added to our hand. Legion will discard the 3rd card to trigger the corresponding ability that we need for the turn, and Avengers Mansion will draw us the 4th card. In a single turn, Global Logistics can give us:

• Boosts to whichever stat(s) we want

• Control over Legion's ability

• Draw the 2 specific cards we want

It won't be this exact sequence every time, but being able to manipulate the top 4 cards of our deck amplifies the value of Magnetic Pull.

Thematically, it’s not out of character for Magneto to team up with Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to accomplish his goals, even if it’s for a brief moment.

S.H.I.E.L.D.

The cost to use Global Logistics is to exhaust a S.H.I.E.L.D. card we control. Helicarrier is our priority S.H.I.E.L.D. card to play because even if we don't use it for Global Logistics, it's still a good card to have in play as a pseudo resource generator to reduce the cost of the next card we play by 1. As we get more built out, Surveillance Team becomes the main target for Global Logistics to exhaust but make sure to always keep at least 1 snoop counter on it to keep it in play. Nick Fury is also an option to exhaust for the cost of Global Logistics although it's not ideal because his basic activation is powerful and he only stays in play for 1 round.

Building a Utopia

We want to include X-Men allies to ready up with Utopia because Magneto's Armor powers up his basic stats. Every mutant ally in this deck is important to the cause!

• Alter-ego access: One of the few checkmarks Magneto lacks in his hero kit is the ability to prevent threat and flip down safely in true solo (flipping in multiplayer is no issue with the increased breathing room in this mode). Blindfold and Gambit scry the encounter deck and predetermine the boost card for the villain's schemes and the encounter card dealt to make sure it's not another activation. Dazzler and Professor X confuse the villain (if they aren't stalwart) which gives Magneto more safety in flipping down.

• Board control: Legion maximizes Global Logistics, being able to guarantee 3 threat removal/3 damage per turn.

• Flex spots: Beak, Forge, and Triage are cheap 2 cost X-Men allies that can trigger Utopia and have powerful abilities that synergize with X-Men. They have more general abilities and can be swapped with other cards, although I highly recommend sticking with X-Men allies for Utopia.

Justice & Survivor

The main reason for choosing the justice aspect is because of Magneto's alter-ego ability, Survivor. Being able to put discarded cards back into the deck improves Magneto's consistently and reliability. We want to recur the most impactful cards in this deck over and over again. Tools from the yellow aspect and Under Surveillance give us the breathing room to flip down consistently.

The Honorary X-Men

Constantly battling with Xavier's ideals, Magneto is the Honorary X-Men. In this deck, Honorary X-Men gives Magneto the X-Men trait in alter-ego to trigger X-Men abilities on our identity like readies from Utopia and Professor X, healing from Triage and resource generation from The X-Jet. We will be in in alter-ego a lot so it's important to not feel restricted when playing these cards.

Build Support

In this list, Build Support is more important to grab Helicarrier/Surveillance Team so we can have a S.H.I.E.L.D. card in play for Global Logistics. Superpower Training is very good for Magneto but not as important in this deck because we have easy access to Magneto's recursion with Survivor and Asteroid M. Magnetic Pull will also help dig for Magneto's identity upgrades (since they are all Magnetic). You can definitely make the case to run both player side schemes. I personally don't because of deck space and the reasons I mentioned.

Why No Digging Deeps?

Magnetic Pull can trigger Digging Deep when it's milled from the top of the deck. This has good synergy with Magneto but since we are running Global Logistics in this build, there are too many possibilities for dead cards if we end up with all these cards in hand. In addition to Magneto's identity specific cards like Magnetic Missile (when no minions are in play), our hand could get cluttered with unplayable cards (5 double resources, 2 Wrapped in Metal, 2 Magnetic Missile, along with 3 Digging Deep is our worst nightmare). Digging Deep also has a printed wild resource icon, which means it won't proc the ability of Magneto's Armor or Legion. White Fox is also an option, but her statline and lack of the X-Men trait gives her more drawbacks than advantages in this build. These cards synergize with our Global Logistics combo, but the payoff is already there. It's not worth increasing that payoff at the cost of diluting the deck in the earlier phases of the game when we're trying to buildout. See example gameplay with a Digging Deep deck where I draw into White Fox every deck pass and am never able to proc her ability.

Generation X

Tapping into his youth, Generation X allows Magneto to play Metal Shards 3 times in a single turn. After playing 2, Magneto can thwart out Generation X with a single basic activation since he gets +1 THW with the side scheme's effect. After getting built out, Magneto can afford to play 3 Metal Shards in 1 turn even though he only has 2 printed copies in his hero kit. This 21 damage will blast through the villain with style. Generation X has a lot of versatility and can also help us get out of a dire situation early to mid game if we need Magneto's thwart event to remove attachments or attack event to get a tough status card.

Conclusion

This is the most reliable and powerful deck for Magneto that I could think of. In true solo against the more difficult scenarios, we scry the encounter deck more often to predict the villain’s turns but against easier scenarios or in multiplayer where there’s more breathing room for the player, we can pivot to manipulating the player deck to set up fun combos and massive turns!