From: Bob4Marley@aol.com
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 3:55 PM
Subject: Brutal Jean Grey - Colossus Combo with support - Phil Moravec

This is my first article. I've been playing this game about 3 weeks now, and I've been play testing some decks and combos. One combo that I found to be very devastating is a 3 card combo - lvl 4 Jean Grey, lvl 6 Colossus, and unstable molecules. I found this combo to be remarkably easy to pull off and in late rounds (7-8), when you didnt pull your wolverine berserker rage, a kevlar body armor on colossus can be just as good. But on to the combo.

Jean Grey: activate to KO a resource and place your top card face down in that spot.

Colossus: Give him +5 atk if you have 5 or more x-men in your KO pile.

The combo is pretty obvious. For the first 3 turns play your resources as normal. Get down your locations and good plot twists. Starting turn 4 play an x-men character and then KO him as soon as you get out jean grey. Do this turn 5 as well. Keep in mind you can play your plot twists from your hand anyway. So not having them down is no big loss. Just gotta make sure you get your locations down.

By the time you get colossus down on turn 6 you have 3 xmen in the KO pile. But somewhere on the road to turn 6 you probably lost 1-2 lvl 1 or 2 characters. So now you are primed. You have your lvl 6 17-12 colossus down.

The general problem is that for lvl 6, 12 def is not going to save you. You may stun your opponent's lvl 6 rogue, but say goodbye to all your efforts as your colossus finds its way to your KO pile. So DEFENSE!! You gotta protect your big bad booty daddy. The best way: unstable molecules.

Unstable Molecules: Equipment card with 0 cost! Equipped character gets +1 def. KO it to give him +3 def.

Its the best defensive equipment card in the game, and in my opinion, its THE best equipment in the game. And above all that, it has some special synergy with its late game counterpart kevlar body armor.

So basically, you play unstable molecules on your colossus as soon as he is recruited. The equipment is free, it gives him that +1 def, but its 2nd effect is the better of the 2. KO it to give him +3 def instead. On turn 6 this is key. Your opponent's rogue is not going to topple him now. Lvl 6 mystique, denied. Play an acrobatic dodge as well, he still has 13 atk!! You actually WANT to KO the molecules for late game.

So you have this 16 12 lvl 6 monstrosity running rampant. But anyone who has played this game before knows about the all important "mana curve". Your opponent drops his lvl 7 magneto with 16 atk and 16 def next turn. Didn't get your berserker rage? Its ok. You have a seemingly innocent, weak card that is going to trump your opponent's knight in shining armor. And thats kevlar body armor.

Kevlar Body Armor: Equipment card that costs 2. Give a character +2 def. If that character were to become stunned KO Kevlar body armor instead.

Can anyone say kamikazi! Your 16atk 14def colossus can now ram into your opponent's big fattie and then KO the armor - colossus makes it to turn 8... if there even is a turn 8. And he is still a 12def wall for any support characters behind him.

And this whole time there is still jean grey, KOing used plot twists and the occasional character that has to be used as a resource. She is hiding behind your impenatrable wall of doom just doing her thing. Or increase your chances of getting that berserker rage by playing longshot behind him. Or any support character for that matter. Find your lvl 2 nightcrawler and snipe weak characters without getting stunned. As long as your big daddy is protecting him you are safe.

Another great thing about this combo. You are protecting a support row character. You finally take out that magneto or rogue. Use the character directly behind him as the tap for finishing move. Or you didnt have the vest, use children of the atom to bring him back. With all the xmen regeneration cards this thing is not going anywhere.

And the best thing about this combo. Its the best thing about most combos. All the cards involved are great on their own. Unstable Molecules is great anytime to protect any important character. Kevlar armor is great for any turn your didnt pull a character to keep up with the mana curve. Jean Grey is great for recycling, and with 8 def she is a nice lvl 4 wall. And if you didnt get Jean's effect, Colossus almost always has his requirement by turn 7 anyway. And if he didnt get his requirement, you are probably killing your opponent anyway. And 11 12 is nothing to laugh at. 12 def is going to stop any lvl 5 or lower chracter. And there are more combos you can use too. X-corporation is a juicy way to get xmen into the KO pile and give you endurance as well. Danger room helps beef up jean and colossus. And base of operations or night vision can let you know what you are going to put down for jean' effect. Nothing worse than KOing a resource just to put your berserker rage in its spot :(. Using reconstruction program, which i use anyway, will recover anything your really dont want in that KO pile.

So without outlining an entire deck for this strategy, as it can fit into most xmen decks (except a constant regeneration deck), i can tell you the key players. Jean grey and colossus are going to be run in fours. Fill out your lvl 4 slot with a storm and your lvl 6 with rogue. Storm can also hide behind colossus if you didnt get any jean greys, and rogue... well she is rogue, and she is just plain awesome at any time in the game. Didnt get the colossus? Have no fear. Rogue will do nicely. I like running 3 unstable molecules in any deck, but for this deck i run 4. And i run 2 kevlar armors. And i run 2 berserker rage. So hopefully you get to draw either the rage or the armor. And as an added safe guard i run 3-4 acrobatic dodges. They team attack to get 17 or 18 atk points and you play 2 acrobatic dodges and KO the molecules you have 20def, and still 10 atk! You will get one of those team attackers with that much offense left over. And that is just demoralizing to an opponent.

Ok, thats long enough for that one. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Tune in for my next article... whatever it is...

Send any emails to bob4marley@aol.com and put something like pojo, or marvel VS response on it so i dont accidentally delete it as junk mail.

Phil