Ready for a Spell

This perfect-defense deck combines Magiks great "when changing to hero form" ability with Ready for a Fight and Change of Fortune. It's a bit of a mind-bender with the sequencing, but it was a lot of fun, too.

As with most of these decks recently, we need consistent access to Ready for a Fight, and we include 3 copies of Practiced Plan so we can "bank" Ready for a Fight if you didn't draw another copy. The X-Jet can consistently hit the resource requirement. So you drop down to alter ego.

Now for the tricky part, but all the choices to make here allow flexible board control. The Villain phase begins.

1. If you have Moira MacTaggert in play, you should use Limbo to top-deck Magic Barrier or Riposte at this time. If you just have Limbo, consider top-decking a lightning resource from your hand.
2. Then, after threat is placed on the main scheme, the villain "schemes" against you. Discard Ready for a Fight and flip up,
3. When you flip up, you get to top-deck a spell from your discard pile. If you have Moira MacTaggert, this spell will immediately be drawn to your hand with the "After Flipping to Hero Form" ability, If you don't have her in play, you should choose Magic Barrier if possible, so you have something to play for free in the Villain phase.
4. The Villain attacks you. Basic defend and/or use your top-deck defensive card for free. If you combine these two, you almost always get a perfect defense.
5. Deal damage back to the Villain with Riposte, Electrostatic Armor, Dauntless, and/or Magic Barrier.
6. If you took no damage, thwart with Hard to Ignore from the main and draw 1 with Unflappable
7. If you're engaged with a minion,don't have to perfect defend the Villain because you can perfect defend the minion to trigger your "perfect defense" upgrades, along with Change of Fortune from retaliate-killing the minion. Now you take an encounter card and begin your turn with 8-10 cards in hand, plus one more if you used Practiced Plan to put Ready for a Fight back in your hand.

• Stepping Disc can ready Magik and put her own cards back on top of the deck. This is a good way to recur your best events, and/or control the resource icon on top of your deck while Limbo is exhausted
• Colossus is the only ally in the deck, and he will mostly be a thwart-bot. I occasionally use him to block an extra Villain attack. Once he's in the discard pile, recur him with Stepping Disc or Mutant Education
• I find that threat, particularly on side-schemes, is the hardest condition for Magik to deal with here. I like to recur Exorcism when I can, folding it back into the deck to be drawn again. If you can hit the kicker, often Confuse will stick around on the Villain for a while until it cancels a surprise scheme from the encounter card. (someone who studies the rules more closely might be able to tell me if Confuse breaks Ready for a Fight?)
• The X-Mansion can heal one from Magik if you're getting low on health, or it can heal Colossus and keep the thwart-train rolling.
• Magik gets one point of retaliate with Mystical Armor, another from Electrostatic Armor, and a third from Dauntless. Endurance can help keep Dauntless online, as well as "Come Get Me, Bub!". Whittle the Villain down, recur your favorite solution to your current problem, and you'll be looking at "00" before you know it!