Gambit - The HUX-Men (Honorary Upgraded X-Men)

Gambit is letting anyone onto the team and into the Danger Room. Get allies out, keep them in play and power them up with upgrades while Remy hangs out at the X-Mansion and Thieves Guild.

There is only one actual X-Men ally on the team, Rogue. Everyone else either has some sort of benefit tied to upgrades (Deathlok, Iron Man, Ronin), or is simply a character who can stick around long enough to benefit from multiple upgrades (Fantomex, Deadpool, Yondu). You have three copies of Honorary X-Men to give them access to Danger Room Training and X-Mansion benefits.

Gambit should be able to use his alter-ego ability as well as Creole Charmer to spend a few extra turns in alter-ego while his team takes care of the bulk of the work.

If you want to go over 40 cards, adding Strength can give you another double resource card and only adds one very useful card to the deck. Mission Leader is worth considering in any Leadership deck if you are expecting side schemes.