Colossus "4 or 5 moments" (Team Up)

Alright, finally time to release the third part of my Team-Up series. Better late than never....

This is the third and final part of the deck in the series, and for our purpose went with Colossus. While Colossus isn't the only deck that could thwart this build successfully, he is one of the best. He wants to flip down every other round often anyway, allowing him to take advantage of the synergy pieces provided by Cyclops. His ability to mostly always defend for himself means he's not sacrificing his X-men allies as chump blockers, so he can keep a pretty solid presence for Mutant Protectors and even helps feed Team Strike.

In case you missed the first two parts in my series you can find the accompanying aggression amd leadership decks needed to make this deck work here. I'd recommend checking out the Cyclops deck for the write-up on how these decks synergize.

The Other Decks

Cyclops Leadership

Wolverine Aggression

Other Heroes You Can Use

Other strong contenders to fulfill the justice aspect of this deck are Phoenix, who can have a strong base thwart and has some desires to flip down. If we were ever to run these decks again, however, I personally think I'd pick the upcoming Gambit character, as he has some great synergies here. Obviously, if I were to use another hero I'd drop Fastball Special and both Great Responsibilities. I'd also add Colossus to either this deck or the aggression one for his great ATK and chump potential. Any other X-men could do as well, but as of now, these would be my top picks.

General Strategy

Your job is to control the board until the Team is ready for an OTK. You won't be getting as much thwart as the aggression deck can pump out in damage, but you should be hitting mid-teens to high 20's in thwart pretty consistently. Try and stay up an additional round, so Cyclops can be flipping down every even round, and you flip down on odd rounds, moving it around as Wolverine needs to or wants to go down.

Colossus

As Colossus, you'll be taking full advantage of your tough, and hoping the villain doesn't have a piercing or secondary damage. You don't have great thwart, but Mutant Peacekeepers should be hitting for about 8-10 almost out the gate, and can pump up huge thwarts for turns when the Villian and schemes really start to pump out.

You'll be taking huge advantage of Cyclops Set-Up cards. Danger Room Training can ping your Mission Trainings, for larger Mutant Peacekeepers, use X-Mansion to help keep Wolverine or yourself healed up, and Cyclops can hit your ping damage with Crew Quarters.

You'll usually be able to keep a full roster of allies to fuel your Mutant Peacekeepers, and can help fuel the Wolverine player's Team Strike, though a lot of your allies suck for that card.

Allies

So, until Gambit drops next month we are pretty limited on allies. After that releases, I'd likely move Angel to the Aggression deck and add in Bishop. I'd likely remove Banshee and add Dazzler as well.

Angel is nice, having 2 attack and 2 thwart if upgraded. And he'd only cost 1 if Cyclops has Uncanny X-men on you already. Banshee's ability isn't overly useful, as Wolverine will be doing a great job at controlling the board for you, but being a 2/2 or 2/3 is solid for us. Blindfold has an excellent on-play to help give you a little control and is a very strong character for Mutant Peacekeepers. Marvel Girl has a nice situationally useful ability and is another strong thwart feeder.

Professor X does not synergize great with the goal of these three decks, as he leaves play in one round. Still, he has a strong on play ability and is excellent for 3 thwart for turns you aren't playing Mutant Peacekeepers. Shadowcat has solid stats, but I don't think we needed her special ability even one time with these decks.

Events

Since you'll be flipped down a lot, Armor Up is there to avoid a scheme, if desired. Usually, your main scheme will be around 0 and you'll have Under Surveillance, so you may want to stay in Alter-Ego for the extra card draw and resources. Bulletproof Protector is best used for an extra tough and card draw. We rarely saw use for Made of Rage in our group, but when we needed the hit, it was very nice to have. Steel Fist is simply amazing as long as the villian isn't stalwart. Even if they have steady, its well worth adding half a stun and confuse on the villian. You'll get to ping both cards every round.

For the non-Colossus cards, Fastball Special is amazing. With the Brute force Wolverine you'll be hitting for 6-10 for 1 cost. It's even better for you than Wolverine, as your more likely to be in Alter-Ego when Wolverine needed you in Colossus form. This will rarely be an issue for you.

I usually hate Great Responsibility, but its a pretty solid card for Colossus and Tough. With these deck set-ups you should have 1 Hero in alter-Ego each round, so you'll have a lot of chances to use it. If I was using a different hero for this part of the deck, I'd drop Great Responsibility for sure.

Mutant Peacekeepers and Team Strike are what made me think of this Team-Up combo. The important text of the card for our purpose is "and any number of X-Men allies". This means you can use the allies of your other two players, for some insane thwarts. For some simple math that you can easily hit, 2 thwart from Colossus, 7-9 from his allies, 2-3 from Wolverine's allies, and 7-13 from Cyclops allies. This means you can pretty reliably hit between 18-27 threat, and you can increase this by a lot if you have Overwatch down. Even by round 2 or 3 round, you should be hitting for at least 8.

Support

Command Center can be useful, but if I rebuilt this deck, I may well drop it. See the list of replacements.

Piotr's Studio is one of the best alter-ego cards and should be played if at all possible when drawn. Colossus has excellent cards and since he can reshuffle back into his deck, you can set-up what you need, especially as the deck thins.

Upgrade

Colossus has a ton of upgrades in this deck. Chance Encounter can help you find the exact ally you need. Try and use before you flip down to draw a nice 2/2 ally and slap Mission Training on them. Counter Intelligence is there for an emergency, and will likely sit on the board, for most of the game, but it can save your life when needed.

Deft Focus is so good for Colossus. It hits 7 of his cards, 5 of which you can continually mill back into the deck.

I've covered Honorary X-Men in detail under Cyclops, but it's needed for some of the synergies. Throw it on Cyclops if he doesn't have it yet, and Colossus should probably get the second one. This allows you to use Uncanny X-men when flipped down.

Iron Will and Titanium Muscles maybe your two best cards, and you should prioritize them. above all others. Drawing a card every time you discard a tough is huge!

Mission Training is there for pumped-up stats. Remember, you can play these on other players' allies when it's desirable. When using Danger Room, it's better to pull them from your deck than discard pile.

Organic Steel is fantastic, but not a high priority. You'll usually want it as a resource early on, and then use aspiring artist to put it back in and play it later.

Overwatch is so good for this deck. We were consistently hitting 10 threat removal when we used it. Throw it on the main scheme and save it for when you really need a big hit for some side schemes and the villain added a ton of threat on the main.

Skilled Investigator thins your deck, gives you solid card draw, and is a good target when you are forced to discard an upgrade.

Under Surveillance is one of my favorite cards in solo play, and is pretty good for 2 players. At 3, its less useful, but it did save us in a few games where we were waiting for Colossus to draw into Mutant Peacekeepers to get the threat level manageable.

OTK

You roll in the OTK is smaller than Wolverines and Cyclops. Cyclops will have Exploit Weakness down already, so you'll get +1 to each attack. If they've both already gone you should be at at least 75 damage already, so really you can do almost anything and finish off the villian, even if playing a 4-player game. The only card you'd really need to hold would be Fastball Special. If you went before Wolverine, it should hit for 10 or 11, if after it should be 7 or 8. Your basic attack will be 4. If you have 3 allies you can hit for 4-9. A Steel Fist or Made of Rage will add 6. So you should be hitting for somewhere between 20 - 30. Not as strong as Cyclops or Wolverine, but still a respectable hit to push the damage to at least 95, and potentially over 100, enough to eliminate any Villians we currently have.

Alternate Cards

So, as I've alluded to, there are some cards I may cut, and others I'd definitely cut if not playing Colossus. These are Great Responsibility, Fastball Special and Command Center. One's I wouldn't cut but an argument could be made are Chance Encounter, Counter Intelligence, and Under Surveillance.

Some alternate cards I'd be thinking of would be Weapon X, if not playing Colossus. A great card and for most characters Identity cards are their best cards. I think you could easily add 2 more Skilled Investigator's to help out your allies with card draw as well, though the Cyclops player would have a hard time pinging it at a time that's useful for him.

One Way or Another is one of my favorite cards in solo play, but I rarely include it in multiplayer decks. However, with the very high thwart potential of Mutant Peacekeepers, I think it could be an excellent addition. You can use it to remove schemes whose timing could be very pesky if drawn at the wrong time and eliminate them. Plus, awesome card draw. I probably would only use it when I could reliably eliminate what I pulled, so would likely only have in 1-2 copies, but it could be great.

A Helicarrier would keep with the theme nicely, as your allies could take advantage of it if you don't need it.

Downtime or Crew Quarters would make strong additions. I really like Downtime in these set-ups because you will be flipping down often for its benefits, more so than for healing, and if it sets up correctly, you can hit another player with it.

tl;dr Help keep the board state in check while Cyclops gets set-up and Wolverine keeps the minions in check. Use Mutant Peacekeepers for massive thwarts and help set-up for an OTK.

Sorry for the long delay between postings. Hopefully you can have some fun with the amazing X-Men synergy between decks as we had.