Dive Into The Storm

Up front: I've beaten Mansion Attack, Master Mold, Project Wideawake, Sabretooth, Magneto, MaGog, Spiral and Mojo all on Expert I with this deck. Except Mojo all of them with the first try and I have to say, partly without even sweating...

I am by no means a good deck-builder, but going through Storms Hero cards I realised, that she basically can handle almost everything the game throws at her with just those cards and I could focus on what I would want to do when building a deck.

I decided to use Aggression because:

1- It's one of the weaker aspects and I have had a hard time beating certain villains on Expert I in Aggression. So a hero/deck that helps me enjoy Aggression against those villains was something I was looking for

2 - With the mutants wave Aggression (and Protection btw.) became more interesting in general I think. The scenarios throw lots of "healthy" minions at you and the arch nemesi are all pretty tough as well. Aggression cards with piercing are also very useful because of all the tough status cards you're going to see.

Given the main focus being Aggression and her Hero cards being very strong I also decided:

1 - I need some extra mean to handle the thwarting

2 - I wanted to go with the Honed Technique/Dive Bomb archetype, so I can finish the game off rather quickly once set up. I just like that!

So here is how I am trying to generally play this deck:

At the first run through the deck, I want to mainly get upgrades and supports out. Focus on Storm's Cape, Storm's Crown, The X-Jet, Honed Technique and maybe Martial Prowess/Deft Focus. During this phase you should be able to handle threat and minions already well thanks to her weather environments, events and allies.

I try to get to alter ego to heal up, when the villain is confused, thanks to Psylocke and Professor X, but typically you can also go to Alter Ego, when the threat on the main scheme is 0 as well, depending on the villain.

Once the upgrades are out, you'll see that you can do everything you want and then some. Honed Technique pushes Dive Bomb, but also makes Piercing Strike a force.

Now some comments to why I chose some of the cards:

Psylocke and Professor X: they can thwart and confuse. Almost staple cards for Aggression unless the villain is stalwart. You need to time it right though with the weather environment that gives everyone stalwart.

Forge: Should actually be Longshot for thwarting

Wolverine: Great against tough guys, but in this deck I use him mostly for constant threat removal

Piercing Strike: Maybe my favorite Agg event in this deck. With Honed Technique it deals 5 damage with piercing, which is very much needed in Mutant Genesis scenarios

Dive Bomb: that's a common combination with Honed Technique dealing 11 + 4 damage. Be careful though, you need Storm's Cape out first to be allowed to play Dive Bomb

Into the Fray/Chase Them Down: Well, I guess you could use something else instead. They just give you some extra mean to deal with threat, if necessary.

Honed Technique: To boost Dive Bomb, Piercing Strike and Into the Fray

The X-Jet/Martial Prowess/Deft Focus: Together with Storm's Crown, those cards help you play everything you want, even the expensive stuff, while getting kickers.

Endurance/Down Time: you want to make it count when healing up in Alter Ego. Ororo's Garden helps there as well. But in general: the more upgrades the better, because you will then later on see Storms great hero cards and the attack events to finish the villain more regularily.

Honorable mentions: You can also try out additional allies, Honorary X-Men for the extra life or Attack events that you like and that work well with Honed Technique. I tried No Quarter and have to say, I didn't like it, because it makes you skip your powerful hero cards.

To conclude: Storm is insanely strong, so you can really adapt her deck to whatever you like to do ;)