Bishop Snipes From 100 Years Away

Got You in my Scope

Age of Apocalypse is here. Beeshop is finally here. Wait, not that one. Wait, not that one either. Ok, so there's this new Bishop. He's here, deal with it, let's move on. Wai-aaaagggh!

Ok, let's start over. Lucas Bishop likes to time travel and just be one of the most 90s heroes to ever exist. In addition to superhuman strength, superhuman stamina, superhuman healing, superhuman speed, and just seriously, there's way too many to name, but the big one is energy conversion. He makes even the most powerful villains blush by saying 'hit me harder daddy apoc' and then shoots a massive energy blast in response. This ability is represented in the game with Bishop's Energy Absorption ability:

• After Bishop takes any amount of damage from an attack, discard an equal number of cards from the top of your deck. Add each resource card discarded this way to your hand.

So this deck has lots of resources: 15 in fact. There's also a lot of self-milling, and eventually you get a point where your whole deck is just resource cards thanks to Energy Conversion.

Digging for Gold

Bishop's hero ability is constantly milling himself, but this deck doubles, triples, even quadruples down on that strategy.

The first focus hinges on the latest and greatest from NeXt: Digging Deep and White Fox. With so many self-discard effects, you'll often get free resources and a free ally. You'll often has so many resources you won't know what to do with it all. Just spend like you're Jubilee at the mall though. You got that bag, so spend it anything you want.

The next major focus of the deck is the synergy between Call for Aid and White Tiger. With White Tiger being the only AVENGER in the deck, you'll always either find her or completely reset your deck. You'll also know the odds of how many Digging Deeps, White Fox, etc. are left at all times because if they're not in your discard, in play, or in your hand, they're in the deck. Keep track of White Tiger specifically to know when you can easily play Call for Aid and what effect it will have. One great time to use it is when White Tiger is in play, but all or most Digging Deeps and White Fox aren't. A single Call for Aid will reset your deck, net you some resources, and a free ally all for the cost of a single encounter card (trust me, it's worth it; especially if you just win before the game ends).

Another part of the strategy is Weapon X. Since you'll be flipping to alter-ego a lot (more on that later), you'll get to dig for more cards. It'll discard past White Tiger, but that's ok. You'll still get your Digging Deeps and your White Fox, and hopefully dump some other things into your discard (more on that... now!).

Exiles

There's a many off-aspect allies that work really well here thanks to (totally fair and balanced card) Make the Call.

• Gamora: mills a ton of cards thanks to her response ability, filling your discard with more options, earning you more money, or even White Fox from time to time.
• Ghost-Spider lets you easily grab out one of your events. Keep in mind that it's deck-only, so it won't save you from things you'd milled away. In a vacuum, Energy Conversion is the best choice (more on that later), but keep an eye on your board state to see what's most helpful.
• Lockjaw: although you don't need Make the Call to play him, he works very similarly. The biggest part is just remembering he's there. He won't always make an appearance in every game, but he's super clutch when you just need something to spend your resources on and need an extra body on the board to make some progress.

Energy, ENERGY, ENERGY!

There are so many resources to help fuel this deck. 15 may seem like a lot more most decks, and it may seem like not enough for Bishop, but many other options simply aren't as good. If you are wanting to include more resources, I would recommend looking first at Band Together and potentially adding Beast.

• Band Together: worth up to 3 resources if you have enough allies, but keep in mind that it doesn't actually have any printed icons for things like Super-Charged.
• Digging Deep: think we've covered this one already. Card's just crazy good. It's a bit superfluous with its own ability and Bishop's hero ability, but there's a lot of ways to get extra bites at that apple.
• Effective Leadership: Not an insane amount of value as there aren't a lot of readying effects, but it's one of the best ways to get a lot of extra value from Malcolm or Randall on the turn you play them. Also keep in mind that it doesn't work with Make the Call. Although you are still 'paying for' the chosen ally, you aren't paying to play' the chosen ally. Still, it's a decent card that will get you more mileage that The Power of Leadership since there's only one target for it.
• Energy, Genius, Strength, Stored Energy: always just double resources. They're good. Stored Energy can also always pay for the ability on either Malcolm or Randall cos they're super versatile like that.
• Innovation: sometimes you gotta heal something. Really fun with Lockjaw since it gives him an extra activation, and you feel like you're getting away with something. Best option though is Gamora since you also get another card out of the deal.
• The Power in All of Us: helps pay for most of your allies (even with Make the Call), also helps pay for Lockjaw whether he's in your hand or in the bin. You'll get a lot of value from this.

Just Drawin' Cards

With all these resources, you need some fuel to pump it into. This write-up has already mentioned Gamora, White Tiger, and Weapon X. There are a few that haven't been mentioned yet:

• Nick Fury. White Tiger can't be played from your discard pile to draw cards, sadly, but thankfully Nick Fury can, and drawing cards usually is the best option, but it's especially good here since you're often not struggling to thwart or do damage, and your cards will often convert to way more thwarting than 2 and way more damage than 4.

• Command Authority. Try to play this as early in the round as you can, depending on the board state. See what needs to be thwarted, draw your card, then see where the turn takes you. Don't be afraid to save it for some important (like the main scheme after a crisis goes away, or one of many schemes that cannot be cleared while a particular enemy is in play). But in general, try to do this first so you can get all of your options right away.

• Temporally Displaced (Bishop's Alter-Ego ability): Since it triggers immediately after swapping to Alter-Ego, get into the habit of checking your hand and board before swapping if there's a TEMPORAL card you could maybe spend/use up and bring back to your hand after you flip. All things being equal, you'll want his Rifle and Uniform if they aren't out already, but it does allow you to grab Malcolm, Randall, and Stored Energy as well, so spend/use them up if you can before flipping down. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks grizzlie for the reminder! knew I was forgetting something)

Fire Everything!

There will be times where you have a glut of resources in hand. Thankfully there are many resource dumps available. A few have already been mentioned, like Lockjaw, who's always available if nothing else. There are a few others:

• Machine Man: a decent card in its own right, and just allows you to convert resource directly into a lot of value onto the board.
• Malcolm and Randall: Malcolm needs and has 2 ATK, while Randall needs and has 2 THW. Randall is usually the best option, but either are fine if you just need to dump resources. Keep in mind that you can ready them with any kind of resource, they just need a particular printed resource to heal, so none of the wild resources will heal them, but you can still get those extra activations.
• Super-Charged: keep in mind that it charges up based on the number of resource icons on the card, and the value caps out at 4 total icons. If you have 3 already but only have a double to discard, that's still probably fine. Do keep in mind, however, that you can never get any counters with Band Together even if you have many allies out. It will only ever have 0 icons on it. Also keep in mind that it says 'max +8' so you can only ever get +8 ATK on a single attack, even if you have two of them out.

Stayin' Alive

Bishop loves getting hit with all the attacks imaginable and even Weapon X hurts you, so self-healing is pretty important.

• Energy Conversion: its primary function is refilling your deck with resource cards, but don't overlook the fact that it caps out damage from a single attack at 3. This can be crucial for surviving 'just one more turn' without worry.
• Bishop's Uniform is the premier healing for this deck, but thankfully he can still survive with out it. If you're having trouble finding it:
• Down Time is also available to get more value out of your REC. If your playgroup is cool with it, definitely consider a Symbiote Suit here instead, and don't forget that it also increases your REC value as well. If you're worried about not getting enough of them, try to use some Mutant Education (but I've found that it was unnecessary).

Sniper no Sniping

This deck wins by just getting a lot of value onto the board as quickly as possible and overwhelming the encounter deck with that value. The last, and certainly not least, value piece is: Concussive Blast. The ready isn't super helpful most of the time, as it's just 2 extra thwarting or attack, and you aren't defending most of the time. But it does you with Super-Charged, allowing you to use it after recovering or hitting twice with both in a single round.