The Diplomatic Web-Slinger

Here is a detailed breakdown of the deck's core strategies, turn-by-turn plays, and a piloting guide to maximize its potential.

Core Deck Strategies

1. The "I Love Spider-Man" Loop The Justice ally Spider-Man (Peter Parker) has a response that removes 3 threat per player from a side scheme when played from your hand. To abuse this, you use Chance Encounter. Whenever a side scheme is defeated, Chance Encounter allows you to tutor Spider-Man from your discard pile back to your hand. Because Cable’s deck is packed with side schemes, you can repeatedly play Spider-Man turn after turn to instantly nuke massive amounts of threat, completely trivializing scenarios that rely on heavy side schemes.

2. The Gunboat Diplomacy Finisher Gunboat Diplomacy is arguably one of the highest-value cards in the game when set up correctly. It requires you to exhaust your hero and an ally to deal damage and remove threat equal to their combined THW.

• Attach Mission Training to an X-Men ally like Gambit or Marvel Girl, boosting them to 3 THW.
• Equip Cable with Heroic Intuition and the Surveillance Specialist upgrade (earned by defeating the Specialized Training player side scheme), bringing his base thwart to 4.
• When you exhaust both characters to play Gunboat Diplomacy, you will deal 7 to 9 damage AND remove 7 to 9 threat simultaneously—divided however you choose among enemies and schemes—for just 2 effective resources.

3. The Unlimited Card Draw Engine This deck generates absurd tempo. By getting Skilled Investigator into play and earning the Surveillance Specialist upgrade, every time Cable uses his basic thwart to clear a side scheme, you will draw a card. When you defeat that scheme, Skilled Investigator triggers, drawing you another card. Add in One Way or Another to fetch a side scheme and draw 3 cards, and you will be tearing through your 45-card deck at lightning speed.

Turn-by-Turn Plays

Turn 1: The Setup Cable’s Soldier X setup ability allows you to put a player side scheme into play before drawing your hand. Your goal on Turn 1 is to jumpstart your economy.

• The Mulligan: Aggressively mulligan for Clear the Area or Mind Scan.
• The Setup Choice: Choose Build Support as your starting scheme.
• The Execution: Use your thwart events and Cable's basic thwart to clear Build Support immediately. Since it has the Victory keyword, Cable will ready back up. Defeating Build Support allows you to fetch Graymalkin (your best resource generator) directly from your deck and put it into play. If you still have resources, play an ally or an upgrade like Skilled Investigator.

Mid-Game: The Side Scheme Mini-Game During the mid-game, your focus shifts to thinning your deck and building your board while keeping the villain in check.

• Use One Way or Another to pull a side scheme out of the encounter deck and draw 3 cards.
• Play your player side schemes like Specialized Training (to get Surveillance Specialist) and Call for Backup (to fetch Nick Fury for more card draw or Professor X for a confuse).
• Clear Technovirus Purge using Cable's basic activations to gain the Psionic trait and your +1 stat boosts.
• Use your Chance Encounter loop to keep bringing Spider-Man back to your hand every time you defeat a side scheme, ensuring you never fall behind on threat.

Late Game: Total Domination By the late game, you will have 4 to 6 side schemes in the victory display. Your deck will be incredibly thin, meaning you will draw your powerhouse cards constantly.

• Your Mind Scan events will be removing 7 to 9 threat for just 2 resources.
• Your Telekinetic Blast events will be dealing 10 to 12 damage each.
• You will be playing Gunboat Diplomacy almost every other turn to wipe the board of minions and side schemes while chipping away at the villain's health. You will have so much control and card draw that the villain simply will not be able to keep up.

Piloting Guide / Tips & Tricks

• When to play One Way or Another: Never play One Way or Another unless you have a guaranteed way to clear the side scheme you are about to pull. With Cable's high thwart and Spider-Man in the deck, this is rarely an issue, but pulling a hazardous scheme without a way to deal with it can quickly spiral out of control.
• Dealing with Minions: Justice can sometimes struggle with minions. Use Take Out the Guards as a cheap 0-cost player side scheme. You can chip away at its threat, and pop it exactly when a nasty, non-elite minion engages you to discard them instantly. Use Turn the Tide (which costs 0 resources and deals 3 damage after you clear a scheme) to easily swat away smaller minions.
• Safe Alter-Ego Flips: Cable has an incredible 4 Recovery and the Professor support, which lets you draw a card or fetch a player side scheme when in alter-ego. Use Professor X, Blindfold, or your Precognition event to scry the encounter deck or confuse the villain, ensuring you can flip to alter-ego with zero risk of the main scheme popping.
• The Stryfe Contingency: Cable's nemesis, Stryfe, is brutal and cancels Psionic events. If Shadow of the Past pulls him early, do not panic. Because Gunboat Diplomacy is not a Psionic event, you can use your Gambit/Marvel Girl combo to blast Stryfe off the board safely without triggering his interruption ability.