Phoenix Blade

Phoenix with a blade?! What does she need that for?

Attacking an entity like the Phoenix should hurt and make you think twice about doing it, right?

That is what this deck is built around dealing damage back in the villain phase.

Why Phoenix:

Aside from the thematics of the Phoenix punishing you for attacking her she does have a few good reasons for why this works so well.

One is that once unleashed her Phoenix Suit gives retaliate 1. Superpower Training finds the Suit for us and if we already have it in play can find our Telekinetic Shield.

The second is that her hero ability allows her to generate a resource in both phases. This means with Excelsior out, we can guarantee hitting the kicker just from her ability provided we keep Phoenix Force counters on.

The last is her easy access to readies both in kit and the ones the Protection aspect provides. She acquires Aerial to take advantage of Ever Vigilant and can hit the kicker for What Doesn't Kill Me easily either Force counters.

Use Phoenix Firebird to keep counters on as well as flipping down to use White Hot Room and her basic recovery. Flip semi-regularly to keep counters on as well as get extra card draw from Moira MacTaggert.

How i typically play it is using her phoenix counters as rapidly as possible to go unleashed getting the retaliate from her Suit. Early game you can use her counters in the villain phase to pay for "I Can Do This All Day" accelerating the time it takes to unleash.

Indomitable provides readies after defending setting you up for big turns

You can also stay restrained to focus on keeping her 3 thwart if the scenario requires more thwarting or you are playing solo. You lose the retaliate from the suit but will still be dealing back damage from Excelsior, Electrostatic Armor and Energy Barrier.

Once set up she can routinely deal 4 damage back in the villain phase from Excelsior, Electrostatic and her Suit. 5 damage if we have energy barrier out.

Psimitar triggers for any of her Psionic events as well as several of her upgrades. It feels really nice to hit Telekinetic Attack unleashed and deal a total of 11 damage with Psimitar.

Staying Alive:

Phoenix has decent defense at 2 but nothing to write home about so how will we keep her alive doing all this defending? Defensive Conditioning bumps her to 3 plus adds another 3 to her health.

Northstar can block boost cards for you keeping her alive as well as helping to trigger Unflappable.

Telekinetic Shield can be used alongside her defense to mitigate damage and save us from extra activations.

Rise from the Ashes can be kept on board and save you from extra villain activations.

Other Considerations:

Astonishing X-Men can provide stun/confuse for flips. This is really nice in MP but I cut it in favor of Unflappable.

Change of Fortune is nice as Excelsior can be used after defending the villain attack but send the damage at a minion. In minion heavy scenarios or 3-4P this is more viable and could be added in.

This deck has been a (Psychic) Blast to play and has held up really well against a variety of scenarios. I'd love to hear any feedback or experiences with it!