Daring Lime's: On Call

One of the best archetype of the game for me in term of power and fun to play ! Spectrum seems a good idea ! Thanks for sharing !

Will have to give this a go, looks like a super fun, effective Bishop deck. I also love the Spectrum ally but find her difficult to play in most decks, so that's just icing on the cake !

I definitely agree that Temporally Displaced is the way to go to get your key set-up cards into play. I have an Aggression deck that runs Toe to Toe to mill the deck faster in that manner. I would also consider Face the Past as it can see an extra 6 cards - at least 3 to hand and at most 3 to discard.

@Lifeburst Spectrum really brought the deck together. You're welcome!

@Swarles90 I play tested this deck quite a bit. I took it up against Magneto at first and it trivialized the scenario. It's very very strong. Let me know how it goes if you try it out!

@Drakow Toe to Toe makes a lot of sense for him. Face the Past is a good consideration. I thought about it and ultimately decided against it, but you're right that it helps you see more cards. If you want even more consistency to find the upgrades by turn 2 it's definitely a good option. If you try it with both I'd like to hear how it went!

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm glad you're enjoying the deck :)

Call for Aid and Spectrum with Digging Deep and all the other resources available in a Bishop deck = very clever!

I note that you include Endurance. I always include it in Bishop decks. It's low cost, pairs well with Bishop's Uniform, and takes Bishop to a comfortable 15 hit points.

Regarding consistency: I've been warming up to Plan B as a resource sink for those times when I have a hand full of resource cards and nothing to spend them on.

Bishop is my favourite hero and with your build, I want again play it! Good game :) You talk about @machine man in your explain but it doesn't exist in your build?

@Daring Lime Took me two tries to defeat Magneto - the first time around I got really unlucky and Call For Aid discarded too many cards so the deck got reshuffled before I had a chance to flip to alter ego. Then in back to back encounter phases I pulled three minions and Shadow of the Past with no way to actually deal with them xD By the time I dealt with that, I got schemed out lol.

Second time was much, much better and I was set up by about round 3, then it was pretty smooth sailing from then on!

@Excelsior! Thanks! It's actually the reason I decided to post it. I felt like the Spectrum combo was really fun and unique. I really like Endurance for characters that heal. I don't think it's optimal in most spots because a tough status card or ally will almost always get more value. But for characters like Bishop, Wolverine, Peter Parker, etc. that can get excess amounts of healing, I like to get the extra value and safety out of the hp. Plan B is a super fun card. I think it was in the first draft, but when I played it I never needed to use it because I had better places for my resources to go. It's such a fun card though and I add it to a lot of my decks that I'm not trying to go for max power.

@JVDaedelus That's a good catch! Machine Man was in the first few drafts of the deck. He was unfortunately a Professor X casualty. I never ended up using him in my playtests because I had better places for my resources to go. In theory he makes sense, but didn't ever make it to the table. I couldn't justify keeping him over Professor X when a core part of the strategy is going alter-ego. I'll take Machine Man out of the write up. Thank you!

@Swarles90 That first game sounds rough! That's a really unlucky shuffle having both Avengers allies at the very bottom of the deck. Did you deck out literally turn 1 after drawing up at the end of the phase? If not, it's okay to let Magneto finish his first scheme. I'm glad the second game went better! Thanks for playing it and telling me how it went!

@Daring Lime Yes I immediately decked out xD I played Spectrum instead of White Tiger as I thought i'd be fine but miscounted how many cards I would end up drawing haha !

Sorry if this is a stupid question. How can you have Gamora in this deck if Bishop doesn't have the guardian trait?

@sunkist219Make The Call bypasses any "play" restrictions because you are putting the ally into play and not "playing" it. Build Support works the same way with traited supports, for example, you can put a Quincarrier into play with any character.

Oh wow. Had no idea lol

@sunkist219 exactly,@Swarles90 explained it well. The reason I added Gamora is because of her ability to find events. With so many resources in hand you need to find ways of getting cards to play. Gamora can stay on the board, you don't need her to block because of the healing from Bishop's Uniform, and whenever you need an event you can use her basic activation and grab one. If it's Make the Call you can grab any ally. You could grab Nick Fury to get an ally and draw even more cards for your resources, or Professor X if you need threat removal and a confuse. If it's Call for Aid then you'll get either Spectrum or White Tiger. Spectrum is a great ally if you have extra resources, and White Tiger can draw you even more cards. Bishop's events are also really powerful. Gamora is essentially an insurance policy that you can save on the board for tight spots. She also combos with Digging Deep and White Fox which can be really nice.

Resource reserve?

And do you think Innovation can have a place for heal Spectrum?

@Drakow You can add it in multiplayer if you're wanting to support your teammates. I didn't find it necessary for bishop because I was able to spend all of my resources each turn. It depends on your teammate if it's optimal or not. If you're teammate is doing a really broken build up strategy like Maria Hill S.H.I.E.L.D. or Uncanny X-Men etc. then the resources accelerating them might be better than using them for yourself.

@JVDaedelus It makes sense in theory, but there's a few reasons I chose not to. The first is that in 1-2 player games it's over before Spectrum's hp runs out. In my solo Magneto test I defeated Magneto before Spectrum ran out of health. The second is that I hesitate to add more resources. I feel this deck is already close to the limit of the amount of resource cards I can add without risking dead hands. Another thing is that Bishop is so rich that playing spectrum again isn't difficult, and that's essentially healing her for 5. There's also a bit of an anti synergy if you Voltron Spectrum and don't allow her to go back into your deck. It makes Call for Aid more risky only having White Tiger in rotation. I prefer to allow spectrum to go into the discard pile so that the Call for Aid's are less risky and you can just play her again as soon as your deck resets. Innovation isn't bad idea by any means, but hopefully it's useful hearing why I didn't end up adding it. I'd like to hear your thoughts! If you test it out with Innovation and it makes some clutch plays let me know!

This deck was a lot of fun!

@Goatzilla Glad you enjoyed it! :)

This deck is amazing. Cleaned up Expert Magneto hardly breaking a sweat!

Man this deck feels so crazy spectrum just feels so powerful and it seems like she's out turn 1 or 2 almost every game for me. Also ending up with so many resources because of the ability to just end up with 3 digging deeps if i mill my hole deck knowing i have spectrum and white tiger on the field is so nice.

Stuff like 3 attack on spectrum then she dies and come back with make the call only to swing for 3 again is insane, and in the same vein lockjaw dying on his second attack then spawning back in and attacking again is so nice. I had one turn where i had so many resources i was able to attack with all my allies then replace spectrum with nick fury have him attack then make the call spectrum back in to replace nick fury deal 3 damage then make the call nick fury back in to replace white tiger deal 4 damage and swing. I feel like i've never seen spectrum in a deck before either so this feels so unique as well.

@Masterseck Awesome! That's why I labeled it "Beyond Omega Level" lol

@Garethmagis That's the idea! With so many resources you can take advantage of your identity specific cards well and Make the Call and Call for Aid grabbing allies and letting you draw more cards is really consistent power. Unfortunately Spectrum's ability doesn't work with Make the Call. Make the Call puts her into play so it's technically not triggering her ability of "After you play" her. As long as you keep it on the down low I don't think FFG will mind lol. On the bright side though, you can still use Call for Aid to bring her into your hand and play her. I almost didn't want to point out that rule, but I felt like it's good for people to know if they want to be very strict about the semantics. It sounds like you were using Lockjaw and Nick Fury perfectly, and I'm really glad Spectrum feels like she is working so well in the deck. It's hard to get 5 cost allies to work, especially when their ability isn't always consistent. I think of Captain Marvel as well. Thanks for sharing your experience with the deck! It sounds like things worked out well :)

This is a good riff on ) Droo's "Bishop Snipes From 100 Years Away". I like the addition of Spectrum.

Fun deck. Challenged Expert Ronan with it—my first try. And I would’ve won if it hadn’t been for Gang Up, after taking a quickstrike from a minion. One more turn…

Thanks DL, this was a lot of fun.

@Dansome Thanks! I didn't look at any Bishop decks while making it, Call For Aid and Digging deep is just a really solid combo for getting cards into the discard pile, but dr00 is a very good deck builder so that's high praise lol. I really enjoy Spectrum in the deck too. It feels really good having 3 ATK or THW on demand.

@thom1977 Ronan first try is brave! I'm confident this deck can defeat him, but without specifically teching for Ronan it can be tough. It's often just a gamble of if he hits you for 10 with overkill too many times in a row lol.

@saintmatthew No problem! Thanks for trying it out!

Great Deck! What would you play instead of white tiger? (i don't have the mad titan box)

@IlNottolone There's a lot of possible choices. You just want something that can make use of Bishop's strategy (abundance of resources and abundance of cards in the discard pile). Some initial ideas for me are: Black Panther (easily affordable and can bring Make the Call into hand to grab any ally), Ant-Man (because you can overpay and get a lot of stats), Wonder Man (you can easily afford to use his 3 ATK), Giant-Man (Bishop can afford him easy), or just any other ally that you can picture being useful every time they enter your hand with the Avenger trait. Another option would be to just play without White Tiger. It's a more risky strategy, you'll get an encounter card much sooner, but you will also more reliably find both of his upgrades. Just try out different things and see what works :) Hope that helps!

Played this again because Valkyrie sucks against expert villains (it was so easy. I have never lost to Master Mold before using Valkyrie). In my anger, I pulled this deck back out. Sweet, Sweet vindication.

Awesome deck. I’m going to build it as soon as I get Age of Apocalypse. (Fingers crossed) One question, how do you get the Guardian trait, to put Gamora into play?

@thom1977 I like this deck being used like that lol! It does feel like it trivializes a lot of the villains, but when you've got a score to settle it's the perfect time to use it.

@CircusNate Make the Call "Puts" allies into play, which is distinct from "playing" them. So Gamora's restriction on "playing" her only if you have the guardian trait is bypassed by Make the Call. It's a weird rules lawyery thing, but it applies generally in marvel champions. It works the same with things like Build Support allowing non avengers characters to put Quincarrier into play. So the idea is since you're discarding so many cards, you're likely to have Gamora in the discard pile. You can use Make the Call, and then while Gamora's out she can find you events to use your extra resources on. Originally I had Ghost-Spider in the deck, but since Bishop doesn't really need blocks, I preferred Gamora's ability to get multiple events over the course of a few turns. Hope that helps!

I love this deck so much. I noticed that Cameo could be a great addition to this deck. I'm thinking Captain Marvel instead of White Tiger for card draw. What are your thoughts for how Cameo could impact this deck?

@MadHatter98 I'm generally pretty down on Cameo as far as power goes (I haven't played it yet though so I may change my mind). I think you're right though that Bishop can sort of power through the econ hit and not really notice. I would have to go through the whole roster of allies to see what the best are. Since this deck doesn't care too much about turn 1 economy and more so turn 2 it could be a really really good idea. Captain Marvel seems like a good generic option. Another could be Ms. Marvel. Another one that might work would be Black Cat. If you try it out I'd love to hear how it went!

@Daring LimeWhile Black Cat and Ms. Marvel are powerful choices, I elected for Captain Marvel to guarantee that we have an Avenger in deck after Mulligans. That way, Call for Aid is never dead turn 1. (It's also why I elected to cut an Avengers Ally: to ensure we still only run 2.)

This honestly feels like one of the most powerful decks I’ve ever played. Like no sweat clearing through Mad Titans Shadow campaign powerful.

Are Bishop's Rifle and Bishop's Uniform easy enough to find? Is there room/need for Build Support and/or Superpower Training?

Really fun deck! I played it cold, having never played Bishop before, and found it very easy (and successful) to pilot. Thank you for sharing!