The Power of Shadowcat (Protection)

In this deck, Shadowcat shows off the Power of Protection!

After endless rounds of defensive combat simulations under the watchful eye of Professor Xavier, Shadowcat has honed her focus and is ready to rumble.

On your first turns, prioritize stabilizing the board by using Shadowcat Surprise and Airwalk to help you clear minions and side schemes as necessary. Even if you only play an upgrade or two early, that's alright — if Shadowcat ends the player phase in Phased form, any of her 14 (!) defense events will leave her completely unharmed as she continues to set up.

In the midgame, play out your Protection upgrades (mostly ignoring her own upgrades), which will gain you more and more value each villain phase.

Remember that Powerful Punch is a defense event, so you can use Nerves of Steel to help you play it!

A constant pattern of play is 1) ending the player phase in Phased form, 2) the villain attacks you and you use Quick Shift, Defiance, Preemptive Strike, or Side Step to take no damage and potentially deal damage, remove threat, and draw cards, and then 3) mandatory flip to Solid form.

Once you have flipped to Solid form, you will likely thwart or attack in the next player phase, then play a Shadowcat Surprise and flip to Phased form where you can thwart again before heading into the villain phase.

If you have a minion engaged with you with 3-4 hit points remaining, you will likely still end the player phase in Phased form, play a defense event when the villain attacks, and flip to Solid form. Now you are in a perfect position to play Powerful Punch potentially for free, using Nerves of Steel and the physical resource from Solid, to kill the minion before it can even resolve its attack.

Keep in in mind that Powerful Punch can flip you twice — immediately after attacking, and then again when the defense has concluded. This is why you will typically want to play it when you are in Solid form, so that you get the discount and either kill the minion or you have immediately flipped to Phased and so you take no damage from a second attack in the villain phase.

When you need extra thwarting, remember Shadowcat Surprise readies you so you should be able to reliably thwart for 4 on any given turn, which you will mostly do to remove hazardous side schemes, since you will have the main scheme mostly handled with Hard to Ignore.

Professor X is sort of a "break glass" include, while Lockheed and Ready to Rumble are cards you can play and then hold onto in case of emergency.

Have fun out there enjoying the Power of Shadowcat in Protection!