Rogue Unleashed

This deck was built in response to Winning Hand’s Rogue ally deck build challenge.

Phoenix + X-men ally build feels like the perfect spot for the Rogue ally…

1. Rogue has some excellent targets for her ability in the X-men shell. Professor X and Phoenix herself can buff her to 5 thwart while Rockslide and Colossus can buff her to 5 attack.
2. Phoenix’s cards are SO good while Phoenix is Unleashed but her thwarting takes a hit. However, because her “printed” thwart is still 3, Rogue can tap into her 3 thwart, covering Phoenix’s weakness while unleashed.
3. Utopia enables an extra activation for Rogue - so along with Game Time we can get a ton of value out of Rogue as she gets the thwart/attack buffs until the end of the round.
4. X-men allies are great on defense - Colossus, Armor, Polaris and Nightcrawler all have their respective ways to nullify an attack, keeping Rogue (and Phoenix safe) to focus on doing their own thing rather than defending.
5. Phoenix starts off with some handy extra resources, helping to set up with relatively expensive allies fairly easily.

Goal of deck is simple:

1. Spend Phoenix’s power counters as quickly as possible to flip to Unleashed.
2. Play Rogue as soon as you can. You ideally want her down before flipping to Unleashed.
3. Get Protective Training and Med Team down to keep Rogue healthy.
4. Get Rockslide (or Colossus) down to provide a target for an attack buff for Rogue.

By step 4 you’ll have the flexibility for Rogue to either attack or thwart for 5 every turn. Then you’re just setting up for repeat activations (Utopia + X-men ally or Game Time) for some big turns, helped by Phoenix’ super strong events while she is in unleashed. I’ve had turns with Rogue where she does 20 damage by drawing 3 attack from Rockslide and readying through Utopia and multiple Game Times.

I never had much joy with Phoenix but I’ve had a lot of fun piloting this deck. You don’t need to worry about when to flip to Unleashed so much - with Rogue on the table you can just go for it!