Cyclops Assesses, Then Assembles

Hi, Nonprophet here, with a Cyclops deck featuring what I personally feel is an underrated card, a card I'm honestly surprised to not have seen in any popular Cyclops deck yet, that I've made great use of - Assess the Situation!

First, why do I like this card, that doesn't see much play? It's not often I get a chance to use it, but, when you have a deck you'd like to be thinner and get through more quickly, it can sometimes be a decent fit. It's a great filler card - use the resource if you need it, and if you don't, you're setting yourself up for a stronger next turn. If you have a hero with a smaller hand size, it can also be helpful for bigger next turns, often flipping out of alter-ego, for a nice burst of cards that would be otherwise tough to get for a smaller hand size hero. Is it a meta card? Eh, you don't see it often in published deck lists - but I like it, and if I find an excuse to throw it in a deck, I will.

Why is Assess the Situation good for Cyclops? It's a tactic, and that means you can pull it at will from your deck with Constant Training, or, tutor it up from the discard after playing Tactical Brilliance. So, what exactly does this do for Cyclops in particular, and how does it combo into the bigger picture goal of getting to the point of quickly getting set up, bringing massively buffed allies out at will? The answer lies in the supports - the entire deck revolves around getting the supports out as quickly as possible, and Assess the Situation does that in spades for Cyclops. I've personally found Assess the Situation to be a very reliable replacement for something like Make the Call or Sneak Attack etc - getting the support suite out more quickly allows you to reliably bring out cheap, strong allies, and often have resources to spare.

Now, does that mean we want to pull Assess the Situation every Constant Training or Tactical Brilliance? Certainly not! Often, you know you just need another resource, card in hard to spend this round, so you'll be looking for a more useless tactic to pull for that purpose. If you have a reason to attach a tactic to a minion or whatever, pull for that instead! If neither of those are a present need, or if you just flipped down and you're going for a big hand next turn, Assess the Situation is a VERY strong choice that gets you to your support and ally goals faster.

Speaking of flipping down to alter-ego, you will probably want to do so as often as possible - Professor X and Pyslocke are your sources of confusion, both are very helpful for this. You have some good support options in hero form, but a wide array of powerful options are available in alter-ego with a full support suite, and your hand count and ability to play allies cheaper can get pretty strong. Since you'll be spending time in alter-ego, and often won't be exhausting to recover, Meditation was added to assist in getting some of the expensive supports, or allies out. Consider starting a turn in alter-ego, after having played an Assess the Situation or, let's say two, in the previous turn. Not too uncommon - 8 cards in hand to start. Fire off Cerebro - 9 cards in hand. A solid hand count for sure, easily attainable. Now, Constant Training - 10 cards. It's possible to have an 11 card hand count on turn 2! Now, you have at least one ally in hand (almost certainly), a ton of resources to play them with, and a ton of options - and the more supports you get out, the more options you have. Let's explore them!

Cerebro - FANTASTIC card for Cyclops, is probably highest priority support to get out. I find that I most often use this to pull, quite frankly, an extra card to load my hand with for more options while in alter-ego. This is more useful when you have a psionic ally in play, of course, but when you do, you can often pull a clutch Prof X or Psylocke to get some confuse action on the boss, saving you a lot of alter-ego grief. Have your other buff support cards out? Pull a Wolverine, or a Rockslide, buff them to space, and have them go to town. Quite a versatile support indeed.

Danger Room - Having the ability to get an automatic Danger Room Training on a new ally is another wonderful benefit of being in alter-ego mode. Usually, I want to have at least Cerebro and Danger Room down before my first flip back down to alter-ego. Danger Room Training is one hell of a buff to apply for free!

Team Training - Now, we're looking at allies buffed with +2HP, +1ATK, +1THW.

Uncanny X-Men - Alongside Team and Danger Room Training, now we're looking at, for example, a 7HP, 4ATK, 2THW Wolverine. A 9HP, 4ATK, 2THW Rockslide. A 6HP, 3ATK, 3THW Jean. Boom. Additionally, you may have noticed the inclusion of Honorary X-Men - this is to be used on Cyclops himself, to be able to take advantage of cheaper allies in alter-ego form.

X-Mansion - Yet another benefit of being in alter-ego, now all of these massively buffed allies are staying alive FAR longer. Wolverine is an amazing target for this, as are any psionic characters, which you want to keep at least one on the field for Cerebro purposes.

Utopia - You know what's fun? Smacking some bad guy with a beefed up Wolverine. You know what's more fun? Smacking some bad guy with a beefed up Wolverine, then, bringing out a beefed up Rockslide to smack the bad guy, and then, smacking some bad guy with a beefed up Wolverine again. Utopia + Danger Room + Cerebro makes it possible! Add Exploit Weakness for even more fun.

Team Building Exercise - We need some options to be able to help bring out allies and supports while in hero form as well, and Team Building Exercise does the trick, helping to bring out any support or ally outside of Uncanny X-Men (oddly enough), Team Training or Team-Building Exercise. Honorary X-Men makes this usable in alter-ego as well!

The X-Jet - Solid card, Honorary X-Men makes the resource usable by yourself in alter-ego.

As you can see, you have a LOT of options to get set up quickly, with buffed allies out. But is that the whole picture for Cyclops? Nope, there's a bit of nuance as far as the tactical selection when you get an opportunity to Constant Train or Tactical Brilliance. Knowing which tactics (and allies!) are still in your deck, and which are in your discard pile, is critical for a successful player of this deck. Luckily, chances to take a peek at what is left, via tutoring, are frequent.

Assess the Situation - Again, I just like this card. As mentioned above, if you don't have a pressing need for another tactic, it's a great way to speed into your support suite more quickly, or just give yourself more options on the next turn. Try to avoid pulling for just a resource.

Exploit Weakness - Your win condition will often be a few allies lined up, maybe with some Utopia ready action, ready to smack the bad guy as a team - this is exactly when you want Exploit Weakness on the villain. 3, 4 ally hits, plus your basic attack, maybe an optic blast, it adds up. In multiplayer, with Field Commander down, it gets even better! However, outside of these situations, it's not fantastically useful - maybe for an optical blast but is pretty expensive for that purpose. Outside of going for the kill, when it's amazing, it makes a great target for a resource card you may need this turn instead.

Priority Target - Depends. No minions? It's a decent pick for an optic blast enabler, being 0 cost and all, and it's a great pick for a resource card you may need this turn. Obviously, when you can put it on a minion, it's quite a bit stronger and can contribute to the high hand count of options this deck is capable of. Even if you don't get the two cards out of it, pulling it for a resource isn't too shabby.

Practiced Defense - Great optic blast enabler to have on harder hitting villains, it's value skyrockets in multiplayer. For the most part, it's just a solid target for another resource or option in hand this turn.

So what about these allies? Really, pick your favorite 10 x-men, and it'll work. The cheaper, smaller allies get buffed just as well as the bigger expensive ones! About the only ally I would not consider is Beast - I love Beast, but without any resource cards in deck, Beast obviously isn't all that great. However, there are some allies you probably will want in your deck for sure - specifically, Professor X and Psylocke - you need that confusion to be able to safely flip down into alter-ego, which is always a goal of this deck. Professor X, Psylocke, and Pheonix will turbo charge Cerebro for you, try to have a psionic ally in play as much as possible for this reason. Other assorted psionic x-men allies like Marvel Girl or Blindfold can fit this role as well. I would also advise having some big, chonky targets like say, Colossus, Wolverine, Rockslide, etc, as they make great targets for Danger Room Training - keeping them in the fight longer and making them hit harder is quite beneficial.

Hey, anyways, this is Cyclops we're talking about here. What's the deal with Optic Blast / Full Blast / Ricochet Beam? Pew pew pew pew, right? Well.... not really while setting up. Before your supports are all out, it almost always makes sense to play with the goal of getting those out instead of using tactics and resources for the purpose of Optic Blast. Yeah, even a Full Blast, as much damage as it does, might be better spent getting supports out if you don't have enough out. However, once you do have those supports out and a few allies out, the lasers start, and you will often find an excuse or opportunity to throw some Optic Blasts, or Ricochet Beams if minions are around, and more often than not, you will be building towards one huge win turn, dropping an Exploit Weakness, optimizing your total number of ally attacks, and then, Full Blasting for the win. It's some serious style points, and it will impress your group.

Other random Cyclops items of note that aren't really deck specific - Field Commander is AMAZING in multiplayer, obviously, because you want every player to be able to Exploit Weakness when you drop one on the villain, allowing some really big, stompy damage turns. However, in solo, it's almost always just a resource card. It's probably not worth bringing out for the buff, at least in this deck. There's some shenanigans with Pinned Down that make sense to bring Field Commander out in solo, but that's for those Green players (also a fun Cyclops style - see the popular Cyclops Perfected deck for a guide on that)!

Mulligan - Mulligan tactics with a vengeance! They can be easily tutored at will. Just try not to load your hand up with all supports and no resources to pay for them, that's not a great start at all. You're mainly looking for Cerebro, Danger Room Training, X-Jet, or Team Building Exercise. The other supports are decent, but can often be tutured up by Forge later if you discard them now.

Lastly, the obligation - quite possibly one of the tamest in the game, can actually be beneficial to Cyclops, if you have not played Ruby Quartz Visor yet. Now, remember that you usually don't need to start with the lasers until you are fully set up. With this in mind, I often will hold off on playing Ruby Quartz Visor until I have enough supports on the board to bring out buffed allies at will. It's pretty frustrating to lose 2 resources because you wanted to Optic Blast for free early :) Ask me how I know. However, once you reach that saturation point, there will probably only be a turn or two left, and enough of your deck will be filtered so that it's usually possible to get these equipped just before you need them if your obligation never fires, and if it does fire, you can reliably do so.

Anyways, if you made it this far, thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to read this rambling wall of text - it's my first deck I've ever published but I felt strongly enough about giving Assess the Situation it's due in a Cyclops deck that I'm going to go hit that publish button right now. Thanks again!

-Nonprophet