Ice for Iceman's Sake

Ice for Iceman's Sake

Goal: Get high-value cards into play ASAP. Then play anything you want.

This deck was inspired by Winning Hand's Episode 82 - Iceman's Most Thematic Card, with ‪@VillainTheory‬, where they mentioned the expense of Iceman's cards.

In this deck, I wanted to make sure Iceman had plenty of Ice/diamonds/resource cards to pay for his cards, so I included 6 resource cards to make sure I could get the most important cards into play quickly, such as The X-Jet, Utopia, and Cryokinetic Perception.

In addition, I wanted to utilize those resources each turn to get an X-Men ally into play and as well as Frozen Solid neutralize the villain.

Another important combination of cards includes The X-Jet and Stick-To-Itiveness to guarantee an extra ready each round for Iceman, while Team-Building Exercise and Power Belt tend to eventually make their way into play as well. Note that Team-Building Exercise can also help play The X-Jet and Utopia.

This means Iceman has plenty of Ice available, both in terms of Ice cards to play and with "ice" as the common nickname for diamonds since Iceman has plenty of wealth to pay for his cards (plus I played this around the holidays for a tie-in to the lyrics Be good for goodness sake or even the saying "be nice for niceness sake").

If you'd like to see a video discussion of this deck, check the following video: Iceman 'Pool Deck Discussion | Ice for Iceman's Sake

• "Demo" video(s) that shows off some turns with the deck: Releasing on Thanksgiving Day, 2025 Iceman 'Pool Demo Play Vs. Captain Marvel | Ice for Iceman's Sake

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VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck and/or game play strategies (in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Captain Marvel (Leader); Magneto; Ronan the Accuser (just once in Standard); Spider-Woman

Notable Results: (Moved to the end of this description for those who wish to read it.)

Deck Refinements:

• Additions:

  • Cutupper: To allow more "stacking" of Frostbite on the villain.
  • Not my Responsibility: For additional threat prevention.
  • Shadowcat: For the additional possible "ready" for Iceman and the thwarting.
    
    

• Removals:

  • all 3 copies of Mulligan: Once again, I found I never used this card in solo play, and it just took up valuable space for other effective cards.

NOTABLE ELEMENTS:

Ice/Diamonds/Resources "for Iceman's Sake": The following cards provide additional resources.

• Superpower Training: To grab Cryokinetic Perception (or Power Belt or Frozen Solid if that's already in play).
• Build Support: To put Utopia or The X-Jet into play (or Team-Building Exercise if those are in play).
• The usual 3 double-resource cards plus Self Confidence, Self Control, and Self Preservation, which should max out much of the time between Healing Factor, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Iceman's Frostbite cards, as well as Frozen Solid.

Due to the above, Iceman should be able to set up steadily throughout the game and have plenty of resources available to play his relatively expensive identity-specific cards or allies, or 'Pool Upgrades. Using a strategic Mulligan to start the game tends to facilitate that setup.

Allies: The most important feature of these allies is that there are many of them and that they are X-Men traited so that they can trigger Utopia, while also being able to help with thwarting, minion control, and defending Iceman when needed. One should be able to have at least one Snow Clone in play the majority of the game to continuously attack.

Events:

• Cutupper: Can contribute damage, as well as Stun the villain to help build up Frostbites.
• Not my Responsibility: A great card to prevent surprise threat from defeating the main scheme. In the late game, it can sometime be wise to hold onto this card for multiple turns.

Upgrades:

• Healing Factor and Tic-Tac-Toe: To maintain Iceman's HP in order to benefit fully from the 'Pool Resource cards.
• Stick-To-Itiveness: To ready Iceman regularly to render enemies ineffectual with Frostbites.

Conclusion:

Once refined, this deck effectively shut down the villains, while managing the schemes and minions. At times, letting minions stay in play with a Frostbite attached allowed allies to take care of any threat on the schemes and then clean up the minions later. Notably, Iceman wants to attack, so damage is typically dealt to the villain throughout the game, and Iceman's resource generation made sure he could play multiple cards each turn, a constant flow of both Ice cards and allies. Frozen Solid is an all-star card in this deck that allows one to build up Frostbites on the villain to continually dismantle their plans, especially with strategic flips to alter-ego to get them back into his deck. Surprisingly, I found myself playing Ice Wall in many of the games as well and even twice in one game against Magneto. It was fun having Iceman do what he was designed to do.

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.

Notable Results:

• Versus Standard Klaw: Maintained control throughout the game and dealt 20 damage on the final turn.
• Versus Captain Marvel: Once the deck was refined, maintained control throught the game; around 16 damage on the final turn in both Standard and Expert; neautralized Captain Marvel frequently with Frozen Solid and Frostbites.
• Versus Magneto: The Standard was a marathon match dealing with all of the minions regularly, but we played Ice Wall to absorb a number of attacks and often shut Magneto down with Frozen Solid. At the end, we completed Magneto II by attacking with a Snow Clone to remove the Tough status and then dealt 20 points of damage with multiple attacks from Iceman, enhanced by Ice Slide, as well as Arctic Attack, Ice Blast, and a couple of minions. In Expert, we had some (Frorzen) Solid control throughout the game even though the main scheme got to stage III. Not my Responsibility provided an extra margin of safety and was held in hand for a couple of rounds for an emergency.
• Versus Ronan the Accuser: I'll let you know next year when this game ends (LOL). Seriesly, though, I delayed him for a very* long time, but eventually he beat me with an Overkill.
• *Versus Spider-Woman: Had the game under control throughout; avoided many of her pitfalls most of the game with Frozen Solid rather than stunning or confusing her; dominated even more in Expert and with 17 points of damage in the final turn.