Cyclops "Set Them Up" (X-Men Team-up)

I am publishing this as part of my Team-Up Compilation. We were working on our next self-made expert campaign (Risky Business, Mutagen Formula, Wrecking Crew, Kang, and Hood) for my wife, son, and myself. I decided to run team-up decks using the various strengths of X-men cards. So far we have played through Kang with good results, suffering no losses up to now. These decks are really a group decks, doubtful they will perform as well alone as they do as the greater sum of their parts. I'll do a general write-up here on how they perform together and go over a little bit of individual nuisance under each individual character as well. For this build, we went with Cyclops, Colossus, and Wolverine. I likely would replace Wolverine with Storm, but my wife had just played her, and Storm is a little above my son's scale, and my wife really wanted to play Wolverine. When Gambit comes out these decks should get even better with Moira, more allies, X-Gene, and Gambit!

Also, this is my first long-form write-up. We generally only get 1 or 2 games on weekends, so this has been over a three weeks period and some of my recollection may be a little off. Any criticism on how to do it better or mistakes I make would be appreciated! Hope you enjoy.

Other Heroes

Wolverine Aggression

Colossus Justice

General Strategy

The point of these decks is to synergize together to take full advantage of all the amazing X-Men cards as often as possible and keep allies around longer than normal to take advantage of their strengths and training. I'll go into more detail for each character individually, but this will be to cover the team-up aspects.

Generally, Cyclops will be flipping every round, and Colossus will be flipping the other rounds. This has some ebb and flows during an actual game, and both characters need to actually flip down tends to diminish later in the game. This is great for Wolverine, however, as he tends to be a mid and late-game flipper from our experience. This will allow them to take full advantage of all the different team-ups that will come along, for whoever it makes the most sense for.

Crew Quarters A great card for Scott, as not only can he use it on himself, due to always going first, but can often use it on others while they are down for an extra point on characters who want to flip less in general. Since it gets used almost every round, and it spreads the love around, I feel this was more useful than downtime, though an argument could be made.

Danger Room Part of the bread and butter of these decks. Each character can take full advantage of these cards as long as they are able to flip down. It takes a little table collusion to get this correct, but this card will more than pay for itself.

Helicarrier & X-Jet Each player has a Helicarrier to share excess resources when they have them. Scott of course commands the X-Jet, and will often be giving it to other players.

Utopia Since all three decks are playing X-men, you can ready an X-men almost every round. Often, I'll use it to ready the Wolverine or Colossus player if they are exhausted, but it can be used to get an extra activation out of an ally or team event. Also, it looks like it can be used when ANY player plays an X-men ally, so dont be afraid to use it on someone elses turn those rounds you arent putting an ally into play, just watch for the opportunities.

X-Mansion While usually I'd pass on this card, it is a 1 damage healed every single round since someone will always be down. Usually, it ends up going to the Wolverine player, but Colossus or an ally will benefit from it periodically as well.

Team strike and Mutant Peacekeepers These two cards are the bread and butter, allowing you to keep your allies on the board for a long time and spread out thwart/damage as is convenient at the time. Cards don't say your allies, so hopefully, I'm correct in the fact that they can use everyone's allies, because otherwise these decks just don't work the way I intended. We've been able to break 30 damage, and hit 27 Thwart (though it involved another card)! I'll usually start my turn by asking the other players if any of them need my allies so I can decide if I'm leaving them up or using themself to control the board state. While wolverine will usually want to use all of them, Colossus may only need a set number to clear all the threat off the board.

Cyclops

I know there are a lot of 50 card haters here, and most the time I agree. The other two decks are 44 and 40 cards. This deck may be more optimized at 40, but I just can't fit all the pieces in correctly. I also think it may actually hamper my set-up, as I may end up having to spend key pieces to play other key pieces. I will have a dead turn or two near the middle or end of the game, but I try and take care of that with cards like Regroup or Rapid Response tutoring. Also, remember others can use a lot of your set-up cards in a dead turn.

Cyclops is the leader of this team of X-men. You may notice that he's missing all the basic, aggression and justice allies. That was because the other player decks needed them to take advantage of the deck synergies.

Cyclops is all about setting up your other team member to win. You do this by giving them upgrades, allies and resources. And you aren't too useless yourself either. Your early game will be all about setting up key pieces you and your allies can abuse and helping control the board. Your middle game strategy is generally all about filling up the board. Late game, you get out key pieces so you can basically OTK any villian. We killed Green Goblin Mutagen Formula in one round with 18 damage extra!

You want to mulligan for Uncanny X-men, if you don't have it, and after that you want resource generators. This deck has a lot of set-up, and you want to make it as efficient as possible.

So Scott is going to flip almost every round early game. You use this to draw more cards, abuse Constant Training, and heal up, as I take my hits to the face nearly every round early game unless I'm recurring an ally. At this early point, you'll usually be fishing out upgrades for extra resources for set-up. If I know for a fact that I can spend the resource, I'll usually take exploit weakness. We want to be optimal in setting up so we can have all of our pieces down before a single deck pass. If I can't math properly at the time, I'll usually take practiced defense or priority target so we can benefit from the 0 cost effect if i dont need the resource. I'll usually only take Rapid Response if I'm desperate for a resource or I have the 2 extra resources to spend to get it into play.

If you draw forge round 1, you can get set up extremely fast. I've had the entire set-up done by turn 3 or 4 in one game where the stars aligned. Wrecking crew was tough because I lost X-Jet and Uncanny X-men in turns 2 and 3! Obviously, I recovered from it, but it hurt my game pretty significantly, basically eliminating a little over a turn of progress so early.

You can also use Cerebro for more tutoring, but be careful of your timing. Due to other players taking a lot of X-men, we are only running 10 X-men, so its easy to get to the end of your deck and have 2 turns of no allies. Sometimes this hurts, and other times you can be set up to the point where it doesn't matter. I will use allies for resources to set up key pieces faster without holding onto cards. Try and always have Mirage or Phoenix in play so you can tutor the entire deck. I usually won't let one die unless I know I'm about to play the other one.

After a deck pass I want to fill out my roster and get the extraneous pieces, usually only Team Training and maybe Triskelion by this point and get your roster filled with stronger allies with team-trainings. By this time, Mutant Peacekeepers and Team Strike have really gone off the rails, especially if Wolverine has played Boot Camp on me, which way more than pays for itself with my 2 extra ally slots and always being full on allies past the midgame.

After that, we just set up for a big turn. Get Exploit Weakness and Full Blast in Hand, Get them in play, attack with each character individually, you don't care about consequential here, and deal 30 plus damage while Colossus and Wolverine finish them off.

I'll go into detail about key pieces now in each card type.

Allies

The bread and butter for Cyclops, allies. For a 50-card deck, hes running a little lite, but you shouldn't have any problem with all the tutoring and recursion mechanics you'll have going for you.

Early on, Forge is your key ally. Recur him with Pixie, Regroup and Rapid Response to get your board state set so fast you can get into the game. You'll want to get a psionic character out as soon as you have Cerebro so you can get the right tool for the job. Beast is your money. You can use him to keep getting Band Together, assuming you have 3 allies out, to help set up super fast. Do note, if you can't take advantage of all 3 resources its often better to keep them in the deck if still in there. Its a great feeling to get beast back with regroup, play him with Band Together, and then recur Band Together to your hand.

Rockslide was initially here for a second Clarity of Purpose battery, but I never actually got it on him in play, and eventually dropped it. He's still a great hit point sponge and damage dealer, Being able to often take a villian hit, a minion attack or two, and attacking. If using Cerebro, Pixie is best pulled late deck so you can get another ally. Gentle and Havok are great for this deck as you won't be activating them a lot yourself, and you'll still get a couple of activations off both of them. Polaris's best target is Rockslide, often after he activates. Scott is a terrible choice for toughness under most circumstances because it blocks Clarity of Purpose and you are down so much. Nightcrawler is a great mid to late-game ally, as you'll have some dead hands at that point, and you can recur nightcrawler to get a little more value out of them. Remember, he can be used for the other players too. When Rogue comes out there will likely be some expansions or switchouts.

Unless you are replacing them the next turn, you want to try and not chump with your allies. They are the bread and butter of your partner's decks, and their decks suffer if you aren't providing them supped-up allies.

Events

Just the Cyclops events. The biggest note here is Tactical Brilliance. You can continuously recur Regroup to keep your hands full. This becomes very useful after you are fully set up, as often the best thing to do with your turn is to get out fresh allies. Use the rest to do cyclops things. And Optical Blast with Ruby Quartz Visor can get you out of most minion jams.

Resources

The 3 standard and Band Together. With Beast it is just too good. I've never had an issue yet where I couldn't generate at least 1 resource off it, and its almost always at least 2, often 3.

Support

This is most of your deck. The most important piece, of probably the entire deck, is Uncanny X-men. This card is amazing in this deck so I've included 3 copies. Max 1 per player you say? Don't fret, this is not a dead card. Both of your other players are also X-men with X-men, so they too can partake in this amazing card. I don't think I've ever gotten both in one pass-through, but I end almost every game with them on both players. They won't get as much value out of it as you will but should pay for itself.

After that Team-Building Excercise, Danger Room, Cerebro, Utopia are the biggest priorities, but try and always play your Helicarrier or your X-Jet if they come up. Early on, they'll help you set up fast, later on, your allies will greedily be needing your resources.

After that Crew Quarters and X-Mansion are a pretty big priority. They may seem weak, but the cost per hit point is really. I also take almost every villain hit to the face until I get a good flow of allies and can keep my roster full each turn. They help keep you full when you want your activation for something else.

Team Training and Triskelion are pieces I usually won't prioritize right away. Depending on my situation at the moment, either one could be better. By passthrough 2, you should have them out. You'll have more allies that live a long time. In fact, most often you have to try and kill some of them to make room on your bench.

Regroup is an amazing card in this deck and for the team. Early on, the entire team can utilize it and get an ally back. Later, you'll probably be blocking for all three of you as you can get all those allies down again next turn. This and Rapid Response will be amazing for you while you get set up. Once set up, I try and use it as a shield to keep allies on the board and block for Wolverine, myself, and maybe even Colossus.

Upgrades

I always prioritize Field Commander and Ruby Quartz Visor. Free use of ability with piercing is so good. Even if all you do is knock out that tough and a scratch, you'll be in a good place to help your allies. And this deck always wants to go first anyway. I'm the most likely to play an ally, maybe 2 or 3, which my allies can then utilize with Mutant Protector or Team Strike.

Clarity of purpose is well worth its value over time, especially with Crew Quarters and flipping down so often. Danger Room Training should be pretty self-explanatory by now. It's so good, especially for free from your discard pile or deck. And it makes your Rockslide up to 9 hit points if fully upgraded.

Rapid Response is dual purpose. A, if you have to, its a resource. You can very easily tutor all your Tactic Upgrades, and Allies, at the wrong time and leave your deck thin at the end. These are very useful free resources when you really need them early on. Additionally, it can recur your best characters when you need them. Early on I'd just use Forge to get the exact X-Men piece to complete my hand that turn. Later on, Beast and Phoenix are your go-to. Rockslide isn't a terrible choice either.

Exploit weakness is your closer. When you guys go to blast through the enemy Exploit Weakness will end it. It's unlikely your fellow players will be full, but they'll usually be provided at least 3 that can damage, so you should be hitting for at least 8 just on your allies, before them and their bonuses. You should have 5 more from boot camp from Wolverine, which will generate so much damage over a game! Practiced Defense is mostly a resource for me, but I'll drop it if I play out my hand without needing it. I like Priority Target, and I may change my play to get it on a minion I know an ally can draw 2 cards from. They like that. And if I need some cards, I may steal them for myself, but usually, just hand them to Wolverine.

Honorary X-men is a special card here. You need it to operate a ton of your shenanigans and make certain plays legal and make Uncanny X-men usable in alter ego. Each deck is running one copy. The deal is, whoever draws the first one plays it on me. The second is going to the person with Uncanny X-men on them already, or vice versa. It's not necessarily a priority for either player, though Wolverine gets more immediate value than Cyclops due to having more of a fluctuating hit-point pool. However, Colossus flips down more natively so gets more benefit from Uncanny X-men, as a result.

OTK

While these decks are made to mitigate all threats as a group, they are also made to perform a solid one turn kill at the end of the game. Unlike a Quicksilver dexk that can OTK a villian by himself with 100+ theoretical damage, these decks due it as a group, which is really all you need. We successfully used this strategy on Risky Business and Mutagen Formula. Obviously you cant really use it in Wrecking Crew, though we did OTK the final Villian once he was the only one left, mostly just by chance. And we will certainly use this on the extremely deadly Hood to avoid his stage 3.

For Cyclops part you want to set up to do the most damage possible. Ideally, youll do your part by being able to tutor an Exploit weakness, preferably by having it in your deck. Dont tutor this card as a waste card on your third or sexond dexk pass depending on how aggressively your team is playing. For us its usually the third deck pass, at least for Cyclops.

At this point you’ll start cycling out weaker allies for harder hitting ones. Gentle, Rockslide and Havoc are your best key pieces, with Nightcrawler, Polaris, Beast and Phoenix coming in next.

Usually I'll try and hold onto Optic Blast, but you can tutor it with Phoenix. Having a nice ally to play is nice, and try and have one with Danger Room Training in play at 1 health to die from consequential. And a double tap from a Rocket Beam wouldn't hurt.

So your ideal last turn you’ll be starting in alter-ego, and tutoring an ally and Exploit Weakness. If that ally isnt Phoenix, you should have Optic Blast in your hand. You open with sticking the Villian with Exploit Weakness. If you can get out only the best fully trained X-men you'll hit for 19 from allies, 3 from danger room training, 5 from boot camp, and 5 from Exploit weakness for 32 damage. The next ally you play should be another 4-5 with Danger Room Training from Danger room for 37. Flip up for a Ruby Quartz Optic blast delivering 12 damage, for 49 damages. And if you were lucky enough to draw it or held it, Rocket Beam will be 8 damage for 57. One ally hit will be used to flip the Villian phase, so you have a top hypothetical stage 3 damage of about 47. So far, my actual damage the final round has been between 34-39, but dont worry, Wolverine will pick up the pieces for us...

Alternate Cards

This deck has gone through probably the most changes out of any of them. I originally was running Meditation, which just wasn't panning out consistently enough like it has in other alter-ego decks I've played, likely because of the 50 cards and usually wanting your activations early to recover from all the punches to the face, and later running short on 3 cost cards due to Uncanny X-Men.

Team Training could probably go. Your allies already do stick around a while, and rarely you won't be able to kill someone you wanted off the board with consequential. I might try replacing it with a Command Center for extra activations.

I ran some Make the Calls early on, but just found regroup to be way more valuable throughout the game, especially because you have Tactical Brilliance and late game resource flushes.

I considered running Weapon-X but put it in the Wolverine deck because ita just better for him. I don't want to be milling cards through most of the game, and most of my best cards are often set-ups I do not want to accidentally throw away for an entire deck pass.

With the number of 4 and 5-damage allies you end up with, I'd highly consider running a variant with Command Center.

You could drop Band Together, its value is definitely lower late game, but I think it pays for itself fine in the mid-game with Beast.

tl:dr Prioritize putting into play a ton of cards that help the other players, Danger Room Training, X-Mansion, Utopia, but primarily Uncanny X-men, make beefy allies for the others to use, Tutor and recur cards and keep and make multiple strong allies for a massive OTK at the end with an Exploited Weakness beefy ally swarm and Wolverine.

Have fun and I'll post Wolverine and Colossus soon.