That's a Tough Draw!

That’s a Tough Draw!

This deck is built around continually generating and spending Tough status cards. Tough protects Colossus from damage, but once Iron Will is in play, every Tough discarded from him also becomes another card in your hand.

The objective is therefore not simply to accumulate Tough cards and sit behind them. You want to use them deliberately, replace them through Colossus’s various abilities, and use the resulting card draw to give yourself as many options as possible.

Setting Up

The first priority is getting Colossus’s permanent upgrades and supports into play.

Iron Will is the fundamental engine of the deck. In addition to increasing Colossus’s THW to 2, it draws a card whenever a Tough status card is discarded from him.

If Superpower Training appears early, Iron Will will normally be its first target. After that, it can find Titanium Muscles or one of the two copies of Organic Steel.

Titanium Muscles increases Colossus’s ATK and turns his Tough cards into resources. Organic Steel allows him to replace Tough cards after they are discarded, helping keep the engine running through multiple attacks and Tough-spending effects.

Other important setup cards include:

• Moira MacTaggert, who draws a card whenever Piotr Rasputinchanges into Colossus.
• Piotr’s Studio, which searches through the deck for Colossus cards.
• Deft Focus, which discounts most of Colossus’s hero kit.
• The X-Jet and Helicarrier, which provide additional resource generation.
• Avengers Mansion, which supplies another consistent source of card draw.

Once these cards are in play, the deck becomes progressively thinner and more efficient, making it easier to find Taunt, Armor Up or one of Colossus’s identity-specific events.

Changing Form

Changing form provides another dependable route to Tough.

Where possible, Colossus can finish the player phase in alter-ego, provided that an Armor Up is being held in hand or a Ready for a Fight has already been prepared.

When the villain would activate, Armor Up changes Piotr Rasputin into Colossus. Ready for a Fight serves a similar purpose when an enemy would scheme, changing him into hero form and turning that scheme into an attack instead.

Changing into hero form activates Steel Skin, giving Colossus a Tough status card. It can also activate Moira MacTaggert, replacing the card used to change form.

Hidden Base supports the other side of this cycle by giving the identity a Tough status card after changing into alter-ego. This can allow Piotr Rasputin to enter the villain phase with Tough already in place before Steel Skin supplies another one.

Taunting and Drawing

Taunt is at the heart of the deck. It causes the villain to attack Colossus and then draws three cards.

With Iron Will in play, the ideal sequence is:

1. Play Taunt while Colossus has Tough.
2. The villain attacks and the Tough card prevents the damage.
3. The discarded Tough triggers Iron Will, drawing one card.
4. Organic Steel can replace the discarded Tough.
5. Taunt finishes resolving and draws another three cards.

That means a single Taunt can draw four cards while potentially leaving Colossus protected for the next attack. Those cards may uncover another Taunt, a Tough generator or one of the events that allows Colossus to spend Tough for additional value.

Bulletproof Protector is another important part of this engine. It deliberately discards a Tough card, triggering Iron Will and drawing a card. Colossus can then either give himself two new Tough cards or ready himself for another basic activation.

This creates the central cycle of the deck:

Generate Tough → spend or lose Tough → draw a card → replace Tough → continue playing.

Supporting ways to generate or replenish Tough include:

• Changing into hero form with Colossus’s Steel Skin ability
• Hidden Base
• Organic Steel
• Bulletproof Protector
• Polaris
• Hard Knocks

Hard Knocks is particularly useful when a minion can be defeated by its attack, allowing Colossus to regain Tough and restart the Taunt engine.

Managing Threat and the Board

Much of the deck’s threat removal comes from its allies.

Shadowcat can ignore crisis and patrol, while Beak can remove substantial threat when several X-Men allies are in play. Nick Fury provides flexible threat removal, damage or card draw depending on what the situation requires.

Forge, Gambit and Iceman also bring useful supporting abilities. Forge finds important X-Men supports, Gambit provides information about the encounter deck and Iceman helps control incoming minions.

Armor and Polaris can absorb attacks, allowing Colossus to preserve his own Tough cards for Taunt, Steel Fist or Made of Rage. Triage can also heal damage from an X-Men character, helping keep a valuable ally—or Colossus himself—in play.

Once Iron Will is in play, Colossus’s 2 THW also allows him to assist directly when the allies cannot handle everything.

Closing the Game

As the upgrades and supports enter play, the deck draws more cards and generates more resources. Those resources can then be converted into Colossus’s powerful identity events.

Steel Fist deals five damage and can spend Tough to stun and confuse an enemy. Made of Rage adds six ATK and overkill to a basic attack, while Bulletproof Protector can ready Colossus and allow him to attack or thwart again.

Titanium Muscles raises Colossus to 3 ATK and can generate up to two physical resources, helping pay for Steel Fist, Hard Knocks and the deck’s allies.

The deck ultimately aims to make every Tough card perform several jobs: prevent damage, generate resources through Titanium Muscles, pay for Colossus’s abilities and draw additional cards through Iron Will.

The villain can keep attacking—but every Tough card it breaks gives Colossus another card, another option and another opportunity to hit back.