Show of Energy (Winning Hand, ep. 100)

Bishop | Show of Energy

Comments:

"This may be the best Bishop deck you've ever seen" – Cappster_

At first glance, you might look at this Justice Bishop and think, "Oh, I've seen this before. Pretty standard."

I implore you to read on. This may be the best Bishop deck you've ever seen. And all from a meme of an idea that I hatched while listening to Winning Hand Podcast, Episode 100 on my drive to work (I'm a real one, by the way).

The Standard Bishop Things

So let's get the standard Bishop things out of the way.

• Mulligan hard, discard often, do everything in your power to get Bishop's Uniform into play as quickly as possible. I've added Superpower Training to help you along. If you find that not consistent enough, you can try swapping Sharpshooter for Weapon X.
• Continue to rush for Bishop's Rifle.
• Put Show of Empathy into play as soon as it hits your hand.
• Find an ally or two to help you control Threat as you set up.

Storm - the Meme Ally That Actually Became the Star

Initially, I included Storm for the meme potential of Show of Empathy. As soon as I was parked at work, I went to MarvelCDB to see who the BIGGEST minions were that could be targeted. Sentinel Mark VIII is a beefy 3 Attack, 3 Scheme, 8 Health, but he's only available if you're playing the Master Mold Scenario. Tombstone, however, is in the Running Interference mod set. He's got 3 Attack, 2 Scheme, and 9 Health.

As printed, Show of Empathy has 6 threat, which means you would have to damage either of these minions before you could begin their Redemption arc.

Or. You could use Storm to add more threat to SoE. GAMER GREED INTENSIFIES!!!

But - What if I told you that using Storm to move threat to Show of Empathy was actually BETTER THAN THAT??? Show of Empathy is one of those Side Schemes that has no downside to having ridiculous amounts of threat sitting on it. Go ahead - build up 12+ threat on it. You only have to thwart it down to match the HP of the minion you're trying to Redeem. And then guess where that threat goes? Poof!! It's gone. Blown away by the wind (thematic parlance). This essentially makes Storm a 4 Thwart ally. Sure, she's kind of expensive, but you're playing Bishop!

Redemption - the Friend We Make Along the Way

So I already called out Sentinel Mark VIII and Tombstone, but let's face it, that isn't going to happen often, even when we set the scenario up for this specific interaction. A more realistic target would be a minion with 4-5 HP and 2 Attack and/or 2 Scheme. In general, most scenarios will have a minion that matches these criteria, and Bishops' Nemesis Set includes Bantam as a last-case scenario. I have included Honorary X-Men to enable healing via X-Mansion, and even more value with Mission Training. Thwarting Show of Empathy to Redeem a 4 Health ally with 2 Scheme can net you 15 Thwart (assuming Honorary X-Man and Mission Training). X-Mansion pushes that value into the stratosphere. Math be Mathin'.

More Standard Bishop Things

Husk and Machine Man are your resource sinks. Having either or both will mean that even a full hand of Resource cards won't go to waste. There is an extra Honorary X-Men for Machine Man, so that he can benefit from Mission Planning and the X-Mansion as well.

Mutant Education should be used to shuffle Concussive Blast, Command Authority, and Super-Charged. You'll use your alter-ego to recur Stored Energy.

Shoot something every turn with Bishop's Rifle + Sharpshooter.

Build up Super-Charged and punch things hard.

Control Threat with your allies.

Face tank your Villain attack and heal up with Bishop's Uniform. Bishop should seldom have to flip to Alter-Ego to heal.

Current Stats:

• Mutagen Formula (Expert, Standard III) | Two Victories (w/ Wolverine Aggression)
• Sabretooth (Expert, Standard III) | Two Victories (1 w/ Wolverine Aggression, 1 w/ Drax Protection)
• Project Wideawake (Expert, Standard III) | One Victory (w/ Wolverine Aggression)
• Master Mold (Expert, Standard III) | One Victory (w/ Wolverine Aggression - but didn't redeem Sentinel Mrk. VII... so maybe not a victory?)
• Mansion Attack (Expert, Standard III) | One Victory (w/ Wolverine Aggression)