Magik - The Infinite Dimension of Marvelous Mayhem

"To me...my marvelous X-Men." ~ Ms. Marvel

Player Count/Type : 1-4p / Johnny
Power Level: High
Complexity: High
Key Cards: Ms. Marvel, Honorary X-Men, Children of the Atom, Phoenix, 
           Beast, Mutant Mayhem, Band Together

Warning - Infinite Loop Ahead

There are several ways to go infinite in Marvel Champions, but this is by far the most fun that I've played.

Previously, this loop was only possible with 2+ players, where one X-character teammate provides an honorary type card to the Nova player. No longer is that the case. Enter the Ms. Marvel Cameo to go infinite while solo!

The Prerequisites

• Ms. Marvel in play exhausted and/or w/ 1 damage.
• Honorary X-Men on Ms. Marvel.
• Children of the Atom in play under your control.
• Phoenix in play.
• Beast in play.
• Mutant Mayhem in hand.
• Enough resources to pay for Mutant Mayhem. In multiplayer, take advantage of Alliance.

Ahh, you see it already, don't you?

The Loop

1. Start by Activating both Beast and Phoenix allies, unless they are already down to their last HP from a previous turn. Otherwise, proceed to step 2.
2. Play Mutant Mayhem (using Band Together after the first loop), choosing to return & play both Phoenix and Beast. Thanks to Children of the Atom, they are both valid targets.
3. Phoenix readies and heals Ms. Marvel, who is a valid target thanks to Honorary X-Men.
4. Beast finds and puts Band Together in hand.
5. Mutant Mayhem fully resolves and now you activate Ms. Marvel's response to return it to your hand.
6. You now have Mutant Mayhem and Band Together in hand.
7. Repeat Loop, starting at Step 1.

One of the really cool thing about this loops is the Alliance keyword on Mutant Mayhemmakes ie easier to trigger initially, before you grab Band Together with Beast.

How to Play Before Going Infinite

This infinite loops depends on six cards, three of which are unique, two have 2x copies, and one has 3x copies.

Ms. Marvel is the priority piece, because you cannot play Honorary X-Men without her in play, so if you must choose between her and Beast or Phoenix, she's who you play first.

Next, grab whatever set pieces you need to set up the loop.

With Magik, you have incredible potential to cycle through your deck to find exactly what you need. Spiritual Meditation and Assess the Situation help you see more cards on your first pass. Additionally, you can use Stepping Disc and your AE ability to use Scrying more often to dig even deeper. Lastly, you always have the ability to play the top card of your deck (with a discount), which essentially gives you a hand size of 6 before The Sorcerer Supreme!

Besides finding your combo pieces, the strategy here is to survive. You do not need to deal any damage to the villain, but instead you'll want to focus on clearing minions/side schemes, as well as keep the main scheme threat low. In multiplayer, this is much easier to set up because your team can help cover for you. Use Magic Barrier to shield yourself from villain attacks and Exorcism/Soul Strike to deal with threat/minions.

As for other Magik cards, Mystical Armor is the only one of note against villains like Ultron where you'll see weak minions and/or the extra defense helps you stall out easier.

Professor X is amazing in solo, helping you deal with threat and giving you protection from two activiations with a block and confuse. Pixie is there to recur him as needed in solo, to grab either Beast or Phoenix if they hit the discard pile. Make the Call also helps with grabbing the ally you're missing and smooths out the rough edges when setting up this loop.

The Professor and Phoenix also help get Cerebro online, which is more of a side quest here to provide another way to find an X-Ally you are missing, especially if you hit a second deck cycle without one.

Infinite Counters

Some villains or scenarios are hard counters to this type of deck. If someone like Ultron has a good chance of stealing your set pieces as drones or otherwise capturing them, try to add some insurance. You may want to include another copy of Band Together, for example, just in case.

Likewise, a retaliate 2 villain, like M.O.D.O.K. stops you in your tracks, so you'll need to pack a Team Training if you want to loop against it.

How Does it Fare In Difficult Encounters?

I threw together a 2-player game versus Expert Ronan, pairing with an unrefined and generic Storm Protection deck, and it was a fairly easy win. I didn't tech against Ronan ahead of time with either deck. I never stunned or confused him and only had one ally block the entire game. Maybe I just got lucky, but I'd say this deck is quite strong against difficult encounters, and it only gets better in multiplayer and/or if you tech against specific scenarios.

It was much easier to get the combo pieces out than I had anticipated, and the allies provide several activiations while you wait for all the pieces to get into place.

Deck Tips

This deck has a lot of moving pieces and back up plans to stay aware of as you pilot it.

• If you get Ms. Marvel early, she can give you several uses of her ability to recur events like Assess the Situation or Spiritual Meditation, which get you to what you need more quickly.
• If you must use an ally to block or otherwise sacrifice them to a treachery, Beast is your best bet, and then Phoenix. Phoenix can help you find Beast using Cerebro if you are close to a deck cycle, but Phoenix is cheaper to play up front and gets you another Beast activation.
• If you are pressured early on and don't have all of your combo allies out, use Pixie and Professor X.
• Sometimes you'll draw multiple combo pieces at the same time and have to make the tough choice of which to play or discard. Use Make the Call to get those discarded allies back and remember that you have multiple copies of all non-ally combo pieces so you'll get a second chance at them.
• If you can't reach the combo in under one deck pass, set up what you can and zoom into the next one as quickly as possible. Use your card draw power and events/activations to keep threat/minions under control until you get there.

I had a ton of fun playing this deck and can't wait to try some variations with some other X-characters, like Deadpool and Nightcrawler!

Let me know what you think and if you play it, please share your thoughts in the comments down below.

~Peace!