Re-Regroup

This has been my latest brain burn... a way to keep Regroup on the table, playing it every turn. This deck is my submission for The Winning Hand Podcast Episode 90 where Regroup will (almost certainly) be featured as the card of the day.

Core Cycle

Since we want Regroup every turn for fun and profit, we need a way to get it back from our discard pile. It's going to reliably be there. I though of Adam Warlock, and of Domino's alter-ego ability. Cyclops Alter-ego cannot get it from his deck (because he can only tutor a tactic upgrade, not a support). But Tactical Brilliance can get any Tactic traited card in your discard pile.

• start with Regroup and Phoenix on the board
• Phoenix defends the Villain's attack and returns to your hand
• the Villain phase ends, Regroup goes in the discard pile
• replay Phoenix
• if you have another copy of Regroup in hand, or a copy of Tactical Brilliance, you can grab another Cyclops card from your discard pile (maybe Exploit Weakness). Otherwise, get Tactical Brilliance
• play Tactical Brilliance to remove three threat, and get Regroup back
• play Regroup and you're ready to go again

Two ways the cycle can break

• Phoenix doesn't die to the Villain's attack (some countersynergy here with Practiced Defense, but Command Team can help ensure this doesn't happen). You'll then have to wait until you draw one of the other pieces to continue the cycle.
• you didn't prepare for the deck refresh. Regroup will always be in your discard pile, but if Tactical Brilliance isn't there, Phoenix won't be able to grab it. Save one copy of Tactical Brilliance in hand as you shuffle your deck, if you can.

Economy

Now that's a costly cycle, depending on what you have in your hand to begin with. Playing Phoenix is 3ER, but you get 1 back when you grab Tactical Brilliance. Tactical Brilliance is 3 ER, but you get one back when you grab Regroup. And then regroup is 2 ER. So how can we afford this?

• enter three copies of Uncanny X-Men, which discount all X-men by 1. Redundant copies to get it out FAST, increasing the reliability of the combo.
• enter three copies of Team-Building Exercise which can discount Phoenix by another 1. Redundancy here I'll explain in a minute.
• the X-Gene can discount Tactical Brilliance by 1
• the X-Jet can generate 1 resource (if someone else wants this unique card, you can pack a Helicarrier)

Cool Trick, but how to you Win?

Well, you can play this solo as a tempo deck, dealing damage with Optic Blast as often as possible, and using Ricochet Beam and your ally's basic attacks to chip away. When this deck is played in multiplayer, though, it shines.

Defend for the Table

• no matter the player count, Cyclops can put warm bodies in front of the Villain's attack. Utopia and The Triskelion allow him to field 5 allies
• This is why there are 3 copies of Team-Building Exercise, and woks really well with Uncanny X-Men
• Forge can grab Danger Room, "refunding" his cost
• Same with Pixie, but with another ally in the discard pile
• Triage heals an X-man, while Beak can do great on threat if played over and over.
• Kid Omega has great value when replayed, and The X-Jet can ensure the kicker of your choice
• Phoenix is a key blocker, but you can put any of these others in front of an attack, and replay them with Team-Building Exercise the following turn.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Order in the next 20 minutes and you can get lots of other allies thrown in who also benefit from being replayed! If other players bring these allies, they will love to block with them and then replay them the following turn! (note: if your teammates bring Team-Building Exercise or another way to discount their preferred Ally, they'll get a lot of mileage out of the discounts)

S-Tier (you're probably going to want to try this)

• Professor X (Basic) because his flexible boon is very powerful
• Nick Fury (Basic) for the same reason
• Moon Girl (Basic) if your a Genius or Champion for the card draw
• Ironheart (Basic) because she gives a rebate
• Otto Octavius (Basic) if you have exhaustable tech, bonus if you're a Web-Warrior with Web of Life and Destiny
• Madame Web and Ghost-Spider and Hobie Brown are all good for Web-Warriors
• I've already mentioned Pixie (Leadership) and Kid Omega (Leadership)
• Stinger (Leadership) is cheap (zero cost with a discount)
• Maria Hill (Leadership) for pretty obvious card draw
• White Tiger (Leadership) for the same reason, but gets better with higher Villain stage numbers
• Kaluu (Leadership) is likely to draw you an event
• Sunspot (Leadership) can clean house if you can reliably get his kicker (looking at you, Thor)
• Cyclops (Leadership) is great to play and re-play, but you'll need to "multiverse" it.
• Monica Chang (Justice)... I mean... you'll get free Surveillance Teams, and counters as fast as you can spend them.
• Agent Coulson (Justice) can get you a preparation card every turn... the same one if you like (looking at you Nick Fury and Black Widow)
• Angela (Aggression) is cheap and can pretty reliably get a minion of your choice
• Sunfire (Aggression) is an all-star here (and probably should just be in the base deck) for any Villain who has attachments
• Silk (Protection) can make sure you sculpt the encounter deck and never get your nemesis?
• Miles Morales (Protection) can stun & confuse every turn if you have enough Web-Warriors
• Jocasta (Protection) could have her own tier list of best Protection events to grab every turn, though these often reduce incoming damage (preventing Jocasta herself from re-cycling)
• Spider-UK (Protection) deals his ability damage first, dies, then comes back next turn to do it again.

A-Tier (fantastic... siutationally)

• I've already mentioned Forge and Beak and Triage.
• Miles Morales (Basic) has good value (better with Command Team)
• Mockingbird (Basic) has good value, but a little countersynergy with Stunned card
• Yellow Jacket (Basic) can help characters with a high proportion of Upgrades in their deck
• Nick Fury, Sr. (Basic) isn't the same value as Jr, but his flexible boon is still good.
• Marrow (Basic) is harder to discount (with the X-Force trait,) but damage when played is a good boon
• Hugin & Munin (Leadership) is a cheap ready for the cost of "Pick a minion"
• Squirrel Girl (Leadership) is actually fun to re-play every turn. Enemies with a Tough/Retaliate combo aren't so annoying
• Mirage (Leadership) can stun under the right circumstances
• Caliban (Leadership) is tough to discount, but "rebates" some of his cost
• Phoenix (Leadership) again requires multiverse rules, but can keep another X-men ally ready and swinging
• Beast (Leadership) will grab a resource card as a "refund" every time.
• Black Panther (Leadership) could have his own tier-list of Leadership events to recur
• Blindfold (Justice) gains control over the Encounter deck
• Manifold (Justice) can keep the side-schemes comin'
• Pav (Justice) is great at controlling threat if you're running Web-Warriors
• Valkyrie (Aggression) is great if you can get her kicker
• Throg (Aggression) has situational tough, but loses some Tempo if you actually want to benefit from the Tough
• same with Armor (Protection) and Polaris (Protection). The tough slows the cycle, but it's not a bad thing (you don't have to re-play them as often)
• Spider-Byte (Protection) can be free if you have enough Tech, bonus if you've got Web of Life and Destiny
• Lady Deadpool ('Pool) can defeat a non-elite minion during her sacrifice, but is costly to re-play (maybe those 'Pool resources or Deadpool Corps Ship can help).

B-Tier (situationally... good)

• Vivian (Basic) to blank something for the round (crisis icon, bad When Defeated ability)
• Shadowcat (Basic) here's the money-shot for 'Pool. Play out Live Dangerously, benefit from the icons... everyone gets the +2 hand size, then replay Shadowcat and blank the icons until the start of your next turn. You get everything, the Villain gets nothing.
• Hope Summers (Basic) will tutor a Superpower card from your deck, but is costly to re-play over and over.
• Victoria Hand (Leadership) can ready a S.H.I.E.L.D. support you control (maybe the Sky-Destroyer?)
• M: Monet St Croix (Leadership) is expensive, but can delete a low-health minion every turn, in addition to her basic activation
• Falcon (Leadership) can give you a peek a the upcoming Encounter cards and maybe thwart a bit, but he's costly.
• Captain Marvel (Leadership) has a great "enters play" ability, but is quite expensive to re-play.
• Spider-Woman (Justice) can be cheap if you're playing a Float Like a Butterfly build and leaving out those Confuse cards
• Quasar (Justice) can get some thwarting work done
• Dazzler (Justice) confuses, but is expensive
• Peter Parker (Justice) can delete a side-scheme, but is expensive to re-play (and high health means you lose some tempo if you try to recur him too often)
• Thor: Jane Foster has a great kicker, but is expensive to re-play to often

H-Tier (Bonus round!)

(Sometimes, the real treasure is the Signature Allies that we re-played along the way)

• Agent 13 (Captain America) gets bonus thwart
• Angel (Pylocke) is a consistent ready
• Black Widow (Winter Soldier) could have her own tier list of best attacks to recur, but Winter, Widow, Soldier, Spy comes to mind first
• Blue Marvel (Spectrum) helps her control energy forms
• Captain Americat (Spider-Ham) gets an extra Toon counter
• Daytripper (Nightcrawler) is Fire, keeping Bamf! on the Villain
• Diamondback (Domino) can do good work each turn
• Gamora (Nebula) can trigger a Technique card that you just played (maybe after you flip to Alter-Ego and get the card draw from playing it?)
• Nebula (Gamora) can get you the right event at the right time
• Iron Man (War Machine) can help build your kit, or at least "refund" part of his cost
• Jubilee (Wolverine) is much fun much profit
• Lockheed (Shadowcat) has a flexible boon on arrival
• Moon Knight (Tigra) can grab a specific minion for her every turn, fueling her card draw
• Rogue (Gambit) gets a great discount depending on how many charge counters he's holdin'
• Shuri (Black Panther) grabs an upgrade. Any upgrade. You're welcome.
• Snow Clone (Iceman) is pretty easy to discount to Zero cost
• Spider-Woman (Captain Marvel) confuses on entry
• Vivian (Vision) is flexible and cheap
• Wiccan (Hulkling) grabs one of his events, ensuring that he hits his Shapeshift upgrade every turn
• Winter Soldier (Black Widow) is pretty reliably discounted to zero.

And that's the deck! And that's an in-depth analysis of ways you can play it! Let me know if you've got thoughts or questions!