VS Deck Garage
The X-Men
by Paul Hagan

06.21.04  Hey all, and welcome to another edition of the VS Deck Garage! What is a Deck Garage? It’s where you send in a deck that you want help with, and I’ll adjust it to maximize its potential – free of charge! If you’d like to see your deck in the VS Deck Garage, feel free to e-mail me at Hagan0001@aol.com and I should get back with you within a day or two.

I’ve been receiving about one X-Men deck a week for the past three or four weeks now, so I think it’s time that I break down and fix one up! This week’s submission comes from Screech, who is playing a strait X-Men deck. Here’s what it looks like now:

CHARACTERS (34):

4 Forge, Cheyenne Mystic
4 Cyclops, Slim
3 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner
4 Wolverine, Logan
3 Banshee, Sean Cassidy
2 Nightcrawler, Fuzzy Elf
2 Gambit, Remy LeBeau
2 Rogue, Power Absorption
2 Professor X, Charles Xavier
1 Wolverine, James Howlett
2 Lady Deathstrike, Yuriko Oyama
2 Rogue, Powerhouse
1 Colossus, Peter Rasputin
2 Wolverine, Berserker Rage


PLOT TWISTS (18):
4 Flying Kick
4 Acrobatic Dodge
3 Finishing Move
4 Children of the Atom
2 Fastball Special
1 Relocation

LOCATIONS (6):
2 Avalon Space Station
2 Cerebro
2 X-Corporation

EQUIPMENT (9):
4 Dual Sidearms
1 The Blackbird
4 Unstable Molecules

Screech’s deck looks pretty solid, but we’ll see what we can do to help make it more competitive against the more popular decks. But first, as usual, I need to announce:

WHAT LOOKS RIGHT:

For the most part, Screech is playing the correct characters. There are very few in the deck that need to be removed, and there are very few that aren’t being played that should be. Also, there are very few “chafe” cards in the deck, meaning there is nothing in the deck that is eating up space and has no reason to be in.

WHAT NEEDS FIXIN’:

I think that the Plot Twists in this deck could use a bit of work, and there needs to be a drastic reduction in the amount of equipment in the deck (as most decks only need between 2 and 4, unless it is a Fantastic Four deck). Other than that, the only changes I will be making will be mostly to the count of some cards, a few character choices, and some modifications to locations.

HOW WE DO IT:

By far, the easiest part of card analysis for me is going to be in characters. Screech has a good idea of who the “good” X-Men are, such as Cyclops, Slim; Wolverine, Logan; Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner; and others. The only changes I want to make to the characters from the 1-Drops, 2-Drops, and 3-Drops are:

+1 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner
-1 Forge, Cheyenne Mystic

I’m a firm believer in playing at least eight 2-Drops in aggressive decks (if not more), and filling out the count on Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner is the most logical step, especially since Nightcrawler is one of the best 2-Drops in the game.

As far as Forge is concerned, I will be lowering the number of equipment in this deck dramatically, so Screech can afford to lose at least one.

When I first started playing with X-Men (there’s a dirty joke there somewhere), I decided that Gambit was pretty good. Then, as the game went on, it seemed more and more like Gambit was a pretty poor card – he just wasn’t big enough. Now, the more I play, the more I realize that Gambit is kind of a house, especially with decks like Doom and New Brotherhood running rampant. Puppet Master, Doom-Bot, Pyro, Avalanche, Wolverine, and many more are all on Gambit’s hit-list, making him worth playing.

[Side Rant: Why doesn’t Gambit have range? He *throws cards*! He throws them from a ways off! Meaning he should have range. C’mon, guys, you know I’m right!]

+1 Gambit, Remy LeBeau

Likewise, when I first started playing, I really liked Rogue, Power Absorption. She could steal powers! That was cool! Then, the more I played, the more I realized that there aren’t a lot of activated abilities that I want to steal, especially only once I hit the combat phase.

-2 Rogue, Power Absorption

However, since he has (pretty much) flight and range, a great ability, and a decent body, I have to give the nod to one more Nightcrawler, Fuzzy Elf.

+1 Nightcrawler, Fuzzy Elf

[~*GIGANTIC SIDE NOTE*~]

This is the point where X-Men really suffer. When compared to the other teams in the set, the X-Men (by far) have the worst big-men. I’m pulling for some good 5-Drops and 6-Drops in future sets, but as it stands right now, the X-Men really hurt here.

[~* END GIGANTIC SIDE NOTE*~]

Ok, with that out of the way, I can’t say that Professor X, Charles Xavier; Wolverine, James Howlett; or Lady Deathstrike, Yuriko Oyama are especially good. Xavier is small and his ability is lack-luster, Wolverine is OK, but Screech is already playing Wolverine, Logan and Wolverine, Berserker Rage, and Lady Deathstrike isn’t an X-Man. While most teams have 9/8s, 9/9s, and 9/10s in their 5-Drops, the X-Men are left behind with a cluster of 8/8s. The solution? Don’t play X-Men 5-Drops.

-2 Professor X, Charles Xavier
-1 Wolverine, James Howlett
+2 Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff

As much as I don’t like keeping Lady Deathstrike, she does get to be a 13/13 when it really matters, and there aren’t too many other 5-Drops that can slide into this slot in the deck very easily.

You’ll notice that, at this point, Screech will only have four 5-Drops in the deck. What if he doesn’t pull one up? That’s fine -- because Turn 5 is probably the turn to drop Blackbird. As all of you will see in a moment, I’m upping the number of Blackbirds in the deck to help with an X-Men Turn of Doom (or Turn of Catch-Up).

At 6-Drops, Colossus seems to be an OK choice, but he is overshadowed by the power of Storm, Weather Witch. With a decent size and a great ability for the turns when you have initiative and the turns when you don’t, Storm is an all-around amazing card.

-1 Colossus, Peter Rasputin
+1 Storm, Weather Witch

Finally, at the 7-Drop slot, Wolverine, Berserker Rage is perfectly acceptable and should be played in every X-Men deck, hands down.

Turning our attention to Plot Twists, I can see that Screech is already off to a great start with Acrobatic Dodge and Children of the Atom. Screech mentioned that Savage Beatdown has been somewhat difficult to find, so until he gets a hold of those, Flying Kick will be a good substitute. However, I think all of the following can be cut:

-2 Fastball Special
-1 Relocation
-3 Finishing Move

With X-Men, it seems like all of your characters needs to be turned sideways every turn, which Screech is doing. However, some of his characters are turned sideways and not doing damage, which is a bad thing. Why is this little bit of utility a bad thing? Because with such small 5- and 6-Drops, X-Men will be spending a lot of the late game trying to punch through every bit of damage they can. Hence, we’re going to get rid of Fastball Special and Finishing Move.

Relocation has to go because of the presence Forge, Gambit, and Children of the Atom in the deck; there really isn’t room for anything else that makes Screech discard.

As I’ve said before, X-Men’s weakest point is definitely in the late game. While Screech’s opponents start laying down their Scarlet Witches, Dr. Dooms, Things, and so on, the X-Men are starting to roll over and die. These two things aren’t a good combination.

However, X-Men do have the best early drops in the game (Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler). So how do we make these things work together? Simple: Foiled and Ka-Boom! If Screech’s opponents can’t make it to their late game, then Screech will be at an advantage throughout the entire game. These cards will come in very handy against Doom Control, New Brotherhood, Big Brotherhood, and Fantastic Toys, four of the most popular decks in the current metagame.

+3 Ka-Boom!
+2 Foiled

Finally in Plot Twists, I have to bring up Burn Rubber. X-Men will tend to have to rely on their smaller characters, and late game, those same small characters become liabilities. Screech’s opponents will be gunning for his Cyclops, Slim with their Thing, Heavy Hitter, which can potentially mean a *lot* of damage. Burn Rubber helps X-Men work around that disadvantage.

+3 Burn Rubber

With quite a few cards in his deck that cause him to discard, Screech could definitely use a way to draw cards. Looking over the few card draw abilities currently in the VS System, the one that looks the best for X-Men is definitely Genosha. This will help keep Screech’s hand stocked with plenty of discard fodder, and it will help guarantee some consistency in his draws.

+2 Genosha

While in locations, I would also like to tag on an additional Cerebro. A lot of readers who haven’t played with Cerebro won’t understand why this card is so good. It really doesn’t matter that card advantage isn’t being gained, the point of playing Cerebro is card *quality*. Cerebro can single-handedly turn a bad hand into a great hand, starting on Turn 2. I would suggest that everyone using X-Men play at least three of this card.

+1 Cerebro

I think Screech should cut Avalon Space Station. With only two Brotherhood characters in the deck, Avalon Space Station is mediocre at best, and with three Cerebro and two Genosha, Screech should be able to find almost any character he needs for the appropriate turn. Also, with Gambit, Forge, and Children of the Atom hanging out in the deck, Screech doesn’t really need to be discarding too many cards.

Now, in equipment, I have to start making up for all of the cards added during the course of this Deck Garage. I said earlier that equipment would be cut, and that means:

-4 Dual Sidearms
-4 Unstable Molecules

There really isn’t a good reason for Screech to put all of his eggs in one basket, and with X-Men’s tendency to have characters stunned, that’s exactly what playing Equipment on the little men is doing.

The Blackbird, which doesn’t quite follow the same “All Eggs, One Basket Principle” as it helps Screech’s entire team, can stand to have its count upped. On the off chance that Screech loses one, or maybe he might need two, I’ll add:

+1 Blackbird

The three Forge in the deck will help Screech hunt down this valuable asset at any time he pleases.

That about wraps up the changes to Screech’s deck. The final decklist looks like:

CHARACTERS (33):

3 Forge, Cheyenne Mystic
4 Cyclops, Slim
4 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner
4 Wolverine, Logan
3 Banshee, Sean Cassidy
3 Gambit, Remy LeBeau
3 Nightcrawler, Fuzzy Elf
2 Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff
2 Lady Deathstrike, Yuriko Oyama
2 Rogue, Powerhouse
1 Storm, Weather Witch
2 Wolverine, Berserker Rage

PLOT TWISTS (20):

4 Acrobatic Dodge
3 Burn Rubber
4 Children of the Atom
4 Flying Kick / Savage Beatdown
2 Foiled
3 Ka-Boom!

LOCATIONS (5):

3 Cerebro
2 Genosha

EQUIPMENT (2):

2 Blackbird

Hopefully, this will help Screech to start laying the smack down on his opponents. I guess that about wraps up this week’s VS Deck Garage; I hope it was helpful to Screech and all of my readers. If you would like to see your deck in the VS Deck Garage, drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com and I’ll be giving you all the help you need within a couple of days.

‘Til next time,

Paul Hagan

 

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