A Mutant Mayhem Massacre

Upon seeing Mutant Mayhem my brain started going crazy. It's a very powerful card, especially since you are playing the allies from your hand, which means you can trigger play from hand effects again. The result is a deck that holds a lot of versatility and power.

The idea is to get at least one X-Force ally out and then whatever X-Men ally you can get or fits the situation. Once they are out and have been used, we let mayhem reign and bounce both of them to get their triggers again.

For X-Men allies, Beast and Polaris are especially good to bounce. Flickering Beast essentially makes the play only cost one resource outside of Mutant Mayhem itself. You then also get to use Beast again, getting you another 2 damage or thwart, and then whatever plays you make on top of that. Polaris flickering can lead to essential invulnerability as you tough attack after attack. If Utopia is out as well you are getting further value.

For X-Force allies, we have 3 in the deck. Marrow and X-23 are the preferred options. They equate to a lot of damage over time. Every Marrow flicker is 4 total damage spread how you like, while X-23 resets a hard hitting ally. Caliban can help with finding other allies to further push the toolbox nature of the deck. Sadly Sunspot just doesn't play well with Mutant Mayhem or he would be a fast include. I thought about possibly having a package of Deathlok and Clarity of Purpose for extra resources, but two spots in the deck doesn't seem worth the effort.

Originally the list didn't have the Rapid Response as I was testing other things out, but I forgot they are tactics and also fit the entering the field feel of the deck overall very well. 1 Leadership Training seems like it is the right number, and the deck does tend to flip down somewhat often to make use of Meditation as well as Scott's ability to find tactics. You can even get into a situation where you spent a lot of time flipped down by using Psylocke twice, flipping up and Mutant Mayheming her, just to flipp back down the next turn and start it all over!

Cards that were considered: Beak: I know Beak is insane, but there is already a lot of thwart here and he felt unneeded. Cable: Thematically fits very well, and probably good in a version that uses more player side schemes. Hope Summers: If Cyclops had more superpowers, I think it could be really good. It's possible it is worth the spot but 4 resources is expensive and it's going to wiff a lot given only 3 superpowers in his kit. Forge: The closest out of all these to be included, but really we would be just getting Utopia and then his use is very limited. Utopia is a cherry on top, not a necessity.

I've tested against Unus, Klaw, Ultron, and Magneto. It handled them all pretty easily and was a lot of fun to play. I think a sidescheme heavy version of this deck could be made with Psylocke as your identity and only playing the Leadership allies. Not sure if it would be any better or not because Polaris alone feels worth the multicolor deck building. Hopefully some more X-Force allies are gifted to us at some point to make Mutant Mayhem even better!