X-Men #1 (1991, Blue Team)

X-Men #1 is the official first appearance of both Blue Team and Gold Team as the X-Men split up to address threats on multiple fronts.

This is my Blue Team deck to complement my Gold Team deck, found here

So it's another Cyclops leadership deck because Cyclops is the leader of Blue Team and blue = leadership, with one anachronism in Phoenix, as Jean Grey is in Gold Team per comics continuity. Not much to be done about that by deck building rules. It won't interfere with the Gold Team deck, and could be a small hack to get her out there for theme purposes. That being the case, you could slide Iceman in this deck to sort of help support Gold Team... I guess? It's your call. (For more about the Jean Grey/Iceman problem, see the description for my Gold Team deck.)

I took the approach of both decks being played in a two-player game, using one collection of cards. Gold Team has more X-Men supports since that deck has Forge, whereas this deck has more allies and two player side schemes that help both players, which feels very 'Scott Summers, Leader of the X-Men' to me. To that end, Blue Team runs Mission Leader. Both Build Support and Specialized Training help equip both teams for their mission.

"But oxthearsenal! Nick Fury, Sr.??? What???" Yes, Nick Sr. is in this deck because, believe it or not, he's the guy in the comic that gives the X-Men intel on Magneto's activity. He'll briefly turn off the ally discount from Uncanny X-Men while he's in play for one round and you can't fetch him with "To Me, My X-Men!", but I like the theme of having him in here for comic book reasons. He'll show up, give a quick report, then go away back to Washington D.C, or just use him as a resource. If you don't like him in here, take him out. It's just for fun. If you want a suggested swap, I'd recommend Call for Backup so both players can fetch an X-Men to the field.

When playing with Gold Team, keep an eye out for Professor X. He's unique, so you'll need to coordinate with the Storm player to see which team he sends his vast psychic powers to support. Could be a fun moment if he's on one team for a round, then on the other next round.

Honorary X-Men for goes on your identity so Uncanny X-Men still works while in alter-ego. In hero mode, use Team-Building Exercise with Uncanny X-Men to reduce the cost of an X-Men ally by 2, which will help with all the 4-cost allies in the deck.

Definitely a fun themed two-player set that recreates a big moment in X-Men comic history!