m.A.A.d. C.I.T.T.y

This is the second of my Bishop decks released around using C.I.T.T. as a resource dump and readying up powerful Guardian allies.

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Resource Management

Bishop's most interesting hook to me is how he opens up some very inefficient plays. You need something to spend all of those resources on, so a card like Lockjaw that doesn't see play very often becomes something to do with all those extra resources so you're not wasting a whole hand.

The only problem is I don't particularly like Lockjaw.

• He's not operating as a chump blocker
• His traits aren't useful
• You have to strategically place him so he's not in the discard when you deck out

All of this just ends up with a sequencing puzzle I don't enjoy. I'd rather have other resource dumps.

Guarding the Guardians

Something I haven't seen anyone do is pair Bishop with a card typically reserved only for Guardian heroes, C.I.T.T.. This card is not trait locked with a play restriction, so there's no putting into play shenanigans going on.

C.I.T.T. offers a constant on-board resource dump, can be triggered with The Power in All of Us and can allow you to ready some powerful Guardian allies across aspects.

I'm patenting this idea. Over the next few weeks, I'll be releasing Bishop decks centered around this card.

The general idea here will be pretty similar, with modifications depending on the ally targets themselves and the aspect's strengths.

• Trigger Energy Absorption sparingly early game and use blockers as necessary to get key setup pieces on the board
• Build Support helps C.I.T.T. get into play if you mill past it
• Honorary X-Men gives our targets of choice the X-Men trait
• Forge helps us to get out Utopia and X-Mansion
• Alter-Ego access lets us use X-Mansion to heal our newly crowned X-Men/Guardian allies. Triage helps here too
  • Of course, this also helps us grab Bishop's Rifle, Bishop's Uniform and Stored Energy for Super-Charged
• All of the X-Men allies will be chosen to provide strong enter play abilities to cycle through and trigger Utopia
• Our Guardian allies will be chosen to mostly stay on the board as C.I.T.T. targets
• Mockingbird will be here to help combat scenarios where you need to stop activations that trigger adverse effects

Have a different favorite color? Here are links to the other builds (In-progress):

• Head over to the Paradise City for a slower version of this build in justice with the strongest alter-ego access
• Visit a Brand New C.I.T.T.y for a protection build all around lots of card draw and taking attacks
• Leadership - coming soon!

m.A.A.d. C.I.T.T.y

The aggression version of this build has been really interesting to create. Deck space has been tough to manage because there are so many cards worth including.

• There are so many Guardian allies to choose from
• Energy Spear is a really strong card to maximize those extra C.I.T.T. readies
  • This is far less conditional than an X-Men training upgrade for our Guardian allies and the low setup earns this a place in the deck!
• There are many low cost, strong X-Men allies that maximize triggering Utopia

However, aggression doesn't come without its drawbacks.

• The biggest problem is that most of these Guardian allies are extremely fragile. Marvel Boy, Throg and Bug are all only 2 health. You can be stuck waiting for an Honorary X-Men to put on these low health allies just so you can heal them with X-Mansion
• Any form of retaliate can be devastating for low health allies and C.I.T.T. just isn't worth getting out
• Thwart can also be an issue if you want these allies to be somewhat versatile, with most of these allies having a thwart value of 0 or 1

Keeping this in mind, we've got a singular Guardian that is our primary target for this build, offering the most health, attacks with ranged and the highest thwart value for a Guardian in aggression...

Star-Lord

I know! I didn't want to believe it either. His enter play ability is particularly rough, removing his viability in most Guardian themed decks. However, this isn't just any Energy Spear deck. It's one with the ability to heal allies.

The key is that as an X-Men ally, Triage and X-Mansion heal him to the point where you're only hitting his enter play ability once. As an Energy Spear target, he's swinging for 4 ATK and is guaranteed to not trigger any sort of retaliate. He can thwart when needed depending on the scenario too. He has closed multiple games out for me, at times being my Utopia target instead of readying Bishop.

Angela is another great target, mainly because of how cheap she is and her 3 health. She'll also swing for 4 with an Energy Spear, though she won't be doing any thwarting.

Bug can work nicely depending on the scenario. All of the readies that Bishop gets from Concussive Blast and Utopia let you basic attack to heal Bug regularly. Only swinging for 3, but that's not too bad!

Martinex is our lowest priority target but still offers some solid value due to his high health. With an Energy Spear you'll be getting the same value as Bug.

Turning Red

There are only a few aggression cards here, justifying reducing our copies of The Power of Aggression to one.

• Psylocke is great for alter-ego access and is particularly useful against steady scenarios.
• Tempus is great tech for stalwart villains, offering alter-ego access regardless of a confuse

In this build, we've also got Professor X to help supplement the lack of alter-ego access in aggression.

If you're wanting to make some quick swaps or additions, here are the cards that almost made the cut:

• Avengers Mansion is great for Bishop generally but deck space was too tight and I wanted to condense as much as possible. This started feeling like a 'win more' card that wasn't needed
• Sunfire is a great aggression X-Men ally and a strong Utopia target but attachments dealing with spending resources aren't so hard for Bishop. Could be swapped for Psylocke for stalwart scenarios

Thanks again, protection is up next!