Russian Diplomat

I didn't like playing Colossus much. I had no clue how to make him defeat the villains (in 2 player games). Then there was this deck: "The Night Guard (We’ve all been playing Colossus wrong)" by Herowannabe. It changed my understanding of how Colossus actually worked and, yes, I was playing him wrong all along. After trying this deck, it still didn't feel as if Colossus had enough thwarting potential to feel safe while he was monopolizing the Justice aspect. After some trial and error, I've tweaked the deck so I could maximize his potential. Here's how:

First of all, as Herowannabe mentioned:

• Your # 1 priority is to try to ALWAYS finish your player phase in alter-ego.
  • This will give you a hand size of 6 cards.
• Make sure you maximize the possibility to start the villain phase with Armor Up in your hand.
  • This makes you change to hero form, get a tough status, draw a card with the help of Moira MacTaggert and gives you the opportunity to switch back to alter-ego at the end of your player phase. Try to loop that as much as possible.
  • When switching to alter-ego, ALWAYS recycle Armor Up with your alter-ego response (unless you have it already in your hand to finish the phase).
  • Also, if you don't already have Armor Up in hand, use Piotr's Studio to try and grab it.

Here's my twist:

• Gunboat Diplomacy is a staple, and this deck is taking advantage of all of it's might.

  • Children of the Atom let's you play allies like Pete Wisdom, who can have Mission Training (4 THW on him in particular).
  • Heroic Intuition and Iron Will gives you a 3 THW stat.
  • For 2 ER, you can play Gunboat Diplomacy, exhaust Colossus and Pete Wisdom to remove 7 threat FROM AMONG SCHEMES IN PLAY (this card is simply OP), and then deal 7 damage among the ennemies.
  • What's that you say? You have 2 Gunboat Diplomacy cards in hand? If you have other allies, when in Rome! Even better, if you have Bulletproof Protector and a tough status card, you can draw a card if you have Iron Will, ready Colossus and play another Gunboat Diplomacy, exhausting another ally.

• While switching every turn to your alter-ego, Vigilante Training becomes a huge game changer, letting you recycle Gunboat Diplomacy.

• All that being said, you still have X-Gene and Deft Focus to give you the opportunity to play Steel Fist, if you have it left in hand before going to alter-ego form.

Once you get comfortable with the loop system this deck is built on, you will be unstoppable. I just finished another campaign of Mutant Genesis, paired with Shadowcat and Magneto had no control whatsoever on this big metal mutant. How ironic, right?