Master of Puppets

Are you the puppet, or the puppeteer? Halloween approaches — and this deck is all trick and no treat! Pull the strings and make your enemies tear each other apart!

At the time of posting, this deck has defeated:

• Expert Zola
• Expert Tower Defense
• Expert Mutagen Formula

This deck specializes in minion-heavy scenarios, and works against most villains with an average amount of minions when in multiplayer. It likes to have multiple targets, and can really shine when there are multiple villains as well. With a balance of damage and thwarting, it is suitable at any player count.

♪ ♫ Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings! ♫ ♪

If you like this deck, feel free to give it a ❤ ! Thank you!

Basic Strategy

• Step 1: Put Pinned Down on a minion, preferably one with 1-2 ATK.
• Step 2: Leave the minion doing no damage until you draw Psychic Misdirection
• Step 3: Use Psychic Misdirection on the villain's attack, choosing the minion
• Step 4: Watch the villain defeat its own minion
• Step 5: Cue evil laughter!

Mwhaha!

You can also use Pinned Down to keep a minion around until you find Mind Control - this is especially good value on some of the high hp minions, or minions with Tough status cards or When Defeated effects.

Minions you've Pinned Down still attack, even with their ATK reduced to 0. If you have retaliate from Phoenix Suit, they will take the retaliate damage. Let them break themselves against you!

You can also use Pinned Down to gather up a few minions then cleave them down with Psychic Blast for amazing efficiency.

Drew a minion as your encounter card and still have Psychic Misdirection in your hand? Use Bait and Switch to have the villain attack, then Psychic Misdirection to have them defeat the minion. Make them dance to your tune!

And don't forget, every good puppeteer needs an assistant. Behold, Jocasta, who so kindly holds your Psychic Misdirection for the perfect moment...

Mulligan priorities are: Black Widow, Team-Building Exercise, The X-Jet, and Utopia.

Pulling the Strings

• Pinned Down - This card is one of the two key pieces of the deck, and is used to hold minions for all manner of nefarious puppetry. If a minion is on the board with 1-2 ATK and you have this in hand? Pin it down and save it later. It's your puppet now!

• Psychic Misdirection - The other key piece of the deck. This card not only completely nullifies any damage from an attack, but can outright defeat minions in one go. And, if you get a particularly juicy minion (Lauffey, for example), you can even use this card to make a minion hit the villain, a villain hit another villain in multi-villain scenarios, or have a minion hit another minion! Better yet, if the enemy has overkill, the damage goes through to the villain if a minion is defeated! Use this to make the villain your puppet.

• Mind Control - If you could put more of these in your deck, this would be the final key piece! Use this on a minion to pull on its strings! Now it's really your puppet!

• Bait and Switch - Not a great card on its own, and yet... it combos with Psychic Misdirection, letting you use it during player turns if a second target only appeared after the villain had already attacked. Bait and Switch + Psychic Misdirection = 4 threat removal and a defeated minion for 5 ER. It's a bit like an Uppercut and a For Justice in one! Just watch out for boost effects!

• Jocasta - Your glamorous assistant. Having her to hold Psychic Misdirection smooths out the combos immensely and her thwarting and blocking is a nice bonus!

Things That Go Bump in the Night(crawler)

• Nightcrawler - At a glance, our BAMFing ally here is a little low on value. He costs 4 effective resources (3-cost + the card itself) for 2 thwarting a blocked villain attack. However, when you incorporate Utopia, he's also a guaranteed ready on every - single - turn. And when you have 3 THW or 3 ATK, that matters! With your hero ability to generate a wild resource, his Interrupt is always on deck.

• Utopia - Phoenix likes to be readied. This would be worth it even without Nightcrawler, but when you factor him in this deck loves it. It's extremely consistent.

• Black Widow - What Phoenix doesn't like is Dark Phoenix. This ally helps us dodge both our obligation and Shadows of the Past, and when they're in the clear? She's safe to help smooth out any other problematic encounter cards. She also loves the wild resource from your hero ability.

• The X-Jet - Quincarrier and Helicarrier had a baby~ We like resources. Especially wild ones. And so do Nightcrawler, Black Widow, and What Doesn't Kill Me. Just don't try to use this thing in alter-ego!

• Team-Building Exercise - A ridiculous amount of Phoenix's cards have the Psionic trait. A lot in this deck also include the X-Men trait. And you can even use this to play allies or upgrades out of turn order. Your friend has a Patrol minion in front of them stopping them from thwarting? Take an action on their turn to Team-Building Exercise and Mind Control the Patrol minion. Let no minion escape your strings!

• What Doesn't Kill Me - Did I mention that Phoenix likes readies? This little card lets you do anything you need while topping up your hp. It also loves the wild resources from your hero ability and The X-Jet!

• The Night Nurse - Phoenix hates being stunned or confused. Especially while Unleashed or without Phoenix Suit. Her cards are expensive and her stats are big, so removing a status effect the hard way is very costly. Night Nurse helps top you up and keeps you ready to go!

• All Other Allies - While there is some nuance to the allies, generally they exist to help with anything and everything you might need them for. Another block, a little more thwarting, a pinch of damage. Don't tell them, but they're your puppets too!

Telepathic Trickery or Telekinetic Treat

• Phoenix Suit - In a vacuum, it's a little average at best. But in a deck where you keep minions out for multiple turns with Pinned Down? The retaliate really adds up. Remember that even 0-ATK minions still attack even though there's no damage! And, when not Unleashed, well- No one likes to be stunned/confused, but as mentioned, Phoenix really hates it! Steady is okay in that context.

• Psychic Blast - Lined up a bunch of allies with Pinned Down? Then they're not puppets any more. They're bowling pins. Use this to knock down groups of minions with ease who you've softened up with your retaliate and/or allies. This bypasses guard and retaliate too since it's not an attack. Just try to have Black Widow out before you go Unleashed!

• Telekinetic Shield - You can use this to take a few hits from minions you haven't Pinned Down, or ones you have with more than 2 ATK. Wear it down a little through tactical use, then use it's last couple of points to take a villain attack.

• Rise from the Ashes - This is already one of the better "resurrection" cards in the game, but with Bait and Switch? You choose when it goes off and always benefit from the readying. When at low HP, use your big basic ATK/THW, pop Bait and Switch, then ready up back to full health! It's a 6 ER combo for 7 thwarting and a full heal, or 4 thwarting, 3 damage and a full heal.

• Telepathic Trickery - In Restrained, it's a For Justice!. Which is to say, it's pretty decent. In Unleashed? It might as well be Swing In. Use it. Even steady villains will break eventually.

• Telekinetic Attack - And finally, if a minion is unworthy (cough, Elite, cough) of becoming your puppet, you have this little beauty. It's playable in Restrained, and very good in Unleashed.

  ---

Good luck, have fun — go pull some strings, Puppet Master!