Cable Give Diplomacy a Chance

A Paired deck, to be played duo (or at a higher player count) with Star Lord Diplomat Academy (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/46496/star-lord-diplomat-academy-1.0)

Key Negotiations

This deck is designed to optimize Gunboat Diplomacy and make it as efficient as possible. The general idea is for Star-Lord to play out X-Men and X-forces Diplomats" and boost their thwart with his upgrades, then for Cable to exhaust those allies for fantastic board control.

Gunboat Diplomacy is powerful. Maybe too powerful. For 1 cost (two effective resources), you get damage and thwarting. If you use Cable and one X-man ally, no upgrades, it's four damage and four thwarting. Once upgrades start coming out, it's not unusual in the games I played to be exhausting two 7-thwart allies from Star-Lord's board for 14 damage and 14 thwarting, flexibly divided amongst enemies/schemes in play. These duo decks are designed to make this setup easy and quick. I didn't really expect this setup to have tempo... But it does.

Add to that Gunboat Diplomacy is a hero action, so it can be called on off turn, and it counts as something Cable himself does (he is the technical source of the damage and thwarting). Therefore, it activates his Hero response, readying him if the flexible thwarting finishes a side scheme.

When Negotiations Break Down

The weaknesses can often be worked around. Because it's both and attack and a thwart, Gunboat Diplomacy can be interrupted/cancelled by both stun and/or confuse cards (though I'd like to see a ruling about whether "playing" it while you have both cards would get rid of just one or both). Additionally, as an attack without ranged, if you damage (and don't defeat) an enemy with retaliate, you'll need to take a little damage back. Not usually a big deal.

Patronize Your Academy

Cable can really jump start Star Lord's board with Build Support, which will often get Cable Graymalkin and get Star Lord Knowhere. Other side schemes that are great to get in the victory display early are Call for Backup, New Recruits and Superpower Training. These are good for Cable, and fantastic for Star Lord. Lastly, Cable only has one weapon, Plasma Rifle, and this is his only target for Lock and Load. So I try not to play out Plasma Rifle on it's own

Star Lord also needs X-Force Recruit in order to turn on his team card Uncanny X-Force, and give a copy of Skilled Investigator to the Academy (and one to yourself) as soon as you see them. Combined with the Mission Leader that graduated from Star Lord's Academy, a focus on side schemes becomes even more attractive because defeating at least one per turn also gets you two additional cards.

Closing the Deal

Cable does most of the damage in this pair, and his ability to do this damage ramps with the power of the Diplomats (Star Lord's high-thwart Allies), and with the number of side schemes in the victory display. Star Lord can use his Element Guns and Cable can use his Plasma Rifle to make little progress here and there. When it's time to close things out, Gunboat Diplomacy, Telekinetic Blast, and Lay the Trap can put big pressure on the second Villain stage and force them to sign the treaty of surrender.

"Your Passport is Rejected"

Star Lord's nemesis set is not too difficult to handle. Cable's nemesis set is much worse. Stryfe is annoying, but because this deck doesn't lean into Psionic cards, his ability isn't too damaging. Back to the Future will keep Star Lord from assisting, but Gunboat Diplomacy causes Cable himself to be the source of the damage and thwarting, so these limitations are pretty easy to sidestep. The treachery cards, though... those can end your game by surprise if you're not prepared. Cable has answers to these threats (Temporal Leap for Mind Scan and Telekinetic Force Field for Telekinetic Blast), but their priority is often ignored unless/until the nemesis treacheries are shuffled in. Just be aware of this weakness and consider it when deciding how fast/hard to move and what cards to prioritize.

Documents Under Review

I originally ran this deck with 46 cards, but found that Bishop and Blindfold weren't necessary. I also cut three copies of Mission Training, because I found I was always using Star Lord's Diplomats rather than trying to train my own. Lastly, it's tempting to run Superpower Training with Cable, because all his events have the superpower trait, but when you consider that there are only 5 events int he deck that can benefit from it, it doesn't seem so attractive.

Other cards that are tempting, but didn't end up making it into the deck are Heroic Intuition, Sense of Justice, and Specialized Training. I didn't find I was lacking the resources to pay for his thwart cards, and these decks don't tend to emphasize the identities basic activations. Also, two cost allies like Wiccan or Ironheart are always welcome. I would totally understand if you want to add one or two more cards to the deck if you are already in a committed relationship with them.

If you really need to cut one card, it would probably be Children of the Atom. It's ancillary purpose is to make New Recruits more valuable and make Angel and Colossus more cost-effective. Render Medical Aid is sometimes inefficient if you've not taking much damage, but as a Zero-cost side scheme that ramps the victory display, I couldn't bring myself to part with it. Maybe you could drop Vigilante Training, but I love the Gunboat Diplomacy recurrence. I want to add allies, not cut them.