Phoenix's Psionic Dominance

NOTE:

I have a tiny spoiler about NeXt Evolution at the bottom of this description, which impacts how you play Phoenix through the campaign. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read the final section!

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Phoenix's Psionic Dominance

Phoenix gets a damage boost with Psimitar and this deck takes advantage of it with 14 other Psionic cards, all of which can be paid for with Phoenix's Psionic Bond ability, The Power of the Mind, Team-Building Exercise, 4 of them with The Power of Justice, and 6 of them with X-Gene: 2 Allies, 9 Events and 3 Upgrades. Psimitar is also Psionic, but it won't trigger itself.

Resource considerations:

• You're looking for a discount on as many cards as possible so that you can play allies, upgrades, etc. and still be able to play your Psionic cards, OR play Psychic Misdirection or Get Behind Me! during the villain phase and still be able to play cards on yours
• 15 total Psionic cards is just shy of 40% of your deck, so 3 The Power of the Mind is warranted.
• Phoenix has 8 signature events (20% of the deck), making X-Gene another great board resource generator (and 6 of those also happen to be Psionic)

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Piloting the deck - Board Control

As helpful as free resources are, I like to show some restraint (pun definitely intended) with my power counters until Burning Hunger hits the discard pile (see "DON'T unleash Dark Phoenix !" below), despite the fact that some of the signature cards get better when you're Unleashed!

Phoenix's (Restrained) 3 THW helps keep the main and side schemes in check, and you have some allies who can help there as well (and you can use Cerebro to grab the one you want in Alter). The real power comes from her many control options:

• Black Widow and Get Behind Me! (can) control the encounter phase, and are the cards which make me think Protection is the best aspect for Phoenix (because of Shadow of the Past)
• Karma literally controls a minion for you then chump blocks when the minion is used up, Mind Control (expensive, but Superpower Training can put it into play) does the same only better, and Mental Paralysis shuts down a minion until you can Psionically Redirect the villain's attack to it!
• Nightcrawler can repeatedly control the damage you would take, Armor is good for 2 blocks, Polaris gives you a tough, Psychic Misdirection (which Jocasta can dig out of discard for you) sends incoming damage elsewhere (hopefully lethally), and Telekinetic Shield soaks more than 5 damage (and can soak multiple attacks until there are 5 or more damage on it after a hit), all of which put you in control of the damage you'd take, and that makes exchanging a Shadow of the Past for an attack (with Get Behind Me!, see below) fairly safe.
• If you do find yourself with a bunch of damage, Rise from the Ashes can say "no" to a lethal hit, and can be a very tactical use of actually taking the damage if it would force you down to Unleashed
• Professor X Confuses the villain to control an Alter-Ego Villain phase.
• While you're Unleashed, Psychic Blast, Telekinetic Attack and Telepathic Trickery let you control the board even further, and a Mutant Education can shuffle those back into your deck.
• Also don't forget that Psimitar can deal 2 damage after a Psionic card is played, which can ping a minion off the board. It's also a Response, so you can play Psychic Misdirection to have the villain defeat a minion, and then exhaust Psimitar to ping off another (or push the villain)

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DON'T unleash Dark Phoenix!

There are two ways Dark Phoenix can be unleashed, and Black Widow can say "no" to both of them whether you're in Alter-Ego or Hero form:

• Shadow of the Past is real bad for Phoenix! It's always nice to see it go as a boost, but it's a major source of anxiety while it's still in the Encounter Deck. Get Behind Me! will trade it for an attack in Hero form as a safeguard if you don't have the spy out yet.

• Burning Hunger while Unleashed is also REAL bad, so it slows your use of power counters until you see it hit the discard pile. This makes cards like Phoenix Firebird, White Hot Room, Cyclops and basic Recovery super attractive, either to keep you from becoming Unleashed or to get back to Restrained quickly if you're forced down and BH hasn't come out yet! Once it's gone, and as long as you're not playing a villain who cycles their deck often, use them up and become Unleashed for the Psionic benefits gained!

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Superpower Training

Superpower Training is really good in Phoenix because her Restrained 3 THW can clear it in one activation, and I like to let it sit on the board until I "need" it. There are three circumstances that stand out to me:

• If I'm on the verge of taking lethal damage, I can pop it for Telekinetic Shield or Rise from the Ashes
• If I want to strategically go Unleashed but I have too many power counters, I'll grab Rise from the Ashes and let myself take all the hits
• When a decent minion (what is considered decent is subjective of course, and it must be non-Elite) comes into play, I can crack it to dig up Mind Control.

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What didn't make the cut?

These are some cards I can think of that would probably be good here, and my answer to all of them is "If you really want it you can go to 41 cards or swap it for Mutant Education":

• The Night Nurse is super powerful in any Protection deck, but you're at least Steady while Restrained if you have the Phoenix Suit in play.
• With 5 X-Men allies Utopia could definitely see some use, but I couldn't fit it in a 40-card deck.
• Unflappable is a consideration only because of Nightcrawler and Telekinetic Shield. You can Basic Defend and take no damage for a card draw, but I'm not sure that's worth a card slot (or the exhaust, but that would depend on the board state and circumstances).
• Armored Vest gets you up to 3 DEF for when you have to basic defend, but it's not really necessary imo.
• Build Support will find you Team-Building Exercise, which offers a discount on MOST cards in your deck. The reason I didn't include this is because I like Superpower Training to sit on the table until I need it, and you can only have one Player Side Scheme out at a time (in a one or two player game).

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NeXt Evolution SPOILER

When playing the NeXt Evolution campaign I generally think that the Campaign Player Side Scheme "Assemble the Team" is the best to start with unless you have a key 2-or-less-cost Upgrade for your build, in which case "Mission Prep" may be the way to go.

With this deck, "Assemble the Team" is definitely the one to get first! Clearing it earns you the "Team Assembled" Campaign Environment (which you keep for the entire campaign), which lets you search your deck and discard for a 3-or-less-cost ally (Black Widow) and put it into play! This keeps you safe from Shadow of the Past and Burning Hunger for as long as you keep her alive!

Take "Mission Prep" in scenario two, for Psimitar!

Note that these side schemes don't search you hand, so if you end up with Black Widow or Psimitar after you mulligan, make sure you use them to pay for something before you take the action on the Environments, or can pay for them (and still be able to do other stuff) and use the action for a different ally or upgrade!