Iceman - Clone Work (Beginner Series)

BEGINNER SERIES NOTE

These decks are designed for friends new to the game, while also being fun to play for a veteran. For context, my professional background is in training teachers in how students learn as a school administrator and professor, so I am actually building these decks using my background in educational pedagogy, not just what's easiest. I would rather people learn to love playing this game in the same manner I would want them to love taking part in my class. The last section in the guide will actually break down the educational rational of the deck, much in the same way a teacher would do a unit plan.

Iceman is one of my new favorite character's for aggression. He's insanely fun to play, tagging enemies with Frostbite and finding plenty of resources discounts through the wealth of Traits (ex.Ice, X-Men, Superpower) that are exploited via Deft Focus, The X-Jet, and Team-Building Exercise. However, aggression takes planning, patience, and resource management; characteristics friends of mine new to Marvel Champions often lack. So the question came to mind: How can I build a deck or two that doesn't rely on complex chaining of different actions and can be used to introduce people to a game I really enjoy.

GAMEPLAY STRATEGY

This decks whole purpose is to make whoever plays it feel as though they have learned how the game works, while also helping out in a meaningful way in controlling the villain. Here's how...

• CLONES + Children of the Atom. I have always wanted to find a meaningful way to use Multiple Man, but continually felt his Stats, Cost, and X-Factor designation made him halfway to pointless compared to other options. Then along came Children of the Atom! This one card forms the core of our strategy, making all our Multiple Man and Snow Clone's gain both the X-Force and X-Men Traits. With Utopia in play, this means more chances to ready, alongside getting all three Multiple Man and a Snow Clone on the board. Our clones exist to block and activate Serve and Protect. For this reason, we should never attack or thwart with our clones, aside from a Snow Clone choosing to attack an enemy with Frostbite.

• Serve and Protect: Thanks to Children of the Atom we can now use Serve and Protect at will, not only mitigating any threat that can be added, but also giving out toughs to our Multiple Man and Snow Clone army! Our friends can now comfortably flip to Alter-Ego knowing that whatever thwart may be thrown on can be completely nullified. Keep in mind Serve and Protect is an Alliance card, meaning the whole team can pay its cost and requirements, hence our second copy of Children of the Atom that can given to a friend.

• BASIC ACTIONS (DEF/ATK): When they are able, whoever plays this deck will be doing a basic defense every single turn. As a protection deck without defense cards, we are really just looking to use this an an excuse to put Frostbite on an enemy, taking advantage of the +1 (x2) DEF given by Armored Vest and Ice Slide, with another +1 DEF from Soaring Acrobatics if we think it's absolutely necessary. Both Power Belt and Endurance give us a handy +3 HP (x2) in addition to Ice Wall providing a giant shield to work behind. Thanks to Ice Slides penalty, we really want to avoid flipping! From there we can use Cryokinetic Perception and Ever Vigilant for chances to ready and apply even more Frostbite through Basic Attacks, as well as opportunities to play Taunt for even more cards.

• THWART: Serve and Protect aside, this deck actually does solid consistent thwarting. Chill Out! is a great cheap option thanks to our generated resources (More on that soon!) and once Ice Slide is in play we can throw out Ever Vigilant to knock down the main scheme slightly. Again, thwarting is not this decks priority, but anyone who has played enough knows that every little bit helps! REMINDER: doing a Basic Action Thwart with this deck is an absolute waste as it doesn't apply Frostbite.

• DAMAGE: The bulk of your damage will come in bursts from Arctic Attack and Ice Blast. It's always immensely satisfying to do a burst of damage, eliminating an elite minion or knocking the villain down a significant peg. This shouldn't be prioritized until you've built enough resource generating supports and upgrades to comfortably do without sacrificing the application of Frostbite or building up your various layers of protection.

• RESOURCE GENERATING: This should feel like overkill, and honestly it is for good reason. There are x2 Team-Building Exercises as 15/40 (37.5%) of our cards share either the ICE or X-Men trait without anything added; which turning into 18/39 (46%) once we put either Children of the Atom on the board or Ice Slide thanks to our three copies of Multiple Man and Ever Vigilant respectively. Tie that all together and 21/38 cards (55%) in our deck share our traits! Now tie that in with the 1/3 of our deck made up of ICE trait cards for Power Belt alongside 9/39 (23%) of those ICE cards that are also SUPERPOWERS for Deft Focus and you find yourself in a golden position to play cards out of your hand at will! Helicarrier and The X-Jet round out this deep resource system, with the added bonus of sharing the wealth when it's convenient.

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  PEDAGOGY APPLICATION

• BLOOMS TAXONOMY (UNDERSTAND & APPLY): This decks objective is to help the new player UNDERSTAND how TRAITS impact abilities with recognizable moments where possessing a certain trait allows the player to APPLY additional benefits or opportunities through combinations (ex. Children of the Atom + Multiple Man = Serve and Protect, Team-Building Exercise + Deft Focus + The X-Jet = Ice Blast, Ice Slide = Soaring Acrobatics or Ever Vigilant, Children of the Atom on another player, taking advantage of the ALLIANCE keyword for Ever Vigilant.

• IBMYP ATLS (SELF-MANAGEMENT, COMMUNICATION, AND SOCIAL): A big key to this deck is self-managing how resources or cost discounts will be applied. A second would be communicating the opportunity for multiple characters to block incoming damage to assist your fellow players. Finally, collaborating with players on the best times they should flip to Alter-Ego for Serve and Protect, or assisting them with resources through [Helicarrier] (/card/01092) and The X-Jet.

• IBMYP KEY CONCEPT (SYSTEMS): Understanding and utilizing [Frostbite] (/card/46002) to impact the effectiveness of an enemy or trigger your own effects.