Colossus Mission Training

Colossus Mission Training

Colossus' identity-specific cards are all great and this deck aims to get the most out of them thanks to Aspiring Artist. The plan is to re-shuffle Armor Up back and swap to Alter-Ego every turn.

The play sequence after you're set-up is to to start your turn in Hero mode, flip to Alter-Ego and shuffle back Armor Up, use Piotr's Studio/Weapon X to dig, then Armor Up during the villain's activation. With Moira MacTaggert and Iron Will, there's a good chance you're starting the next turn with 6-7 cards. Then you do that all over again every turn.

Weapon X might seem weird at first since you'll be chewing through your own Toughs but it is a 2nd copy of Piotr's Studio which is one of his best card. Losing the Tough is only detrimental if you flip to AE without using up your Toughs but there are multiple ways to end with 0 Tough before you flip. Another card that helps finding Armor Up is Assess the Situation.

Sometimes you'll miss on drawing into Armor Up and that's when you want to have a Confuse effect on the Villain whenever possible. This is achievable with Steel Fist or Professor X. Under Surveillance also helps prevent a loss from a bad string of encounters.

The rest of the deck helps Colossus manage threat via X-Men allies + Mission Training. Since Colossus rarely needs help tanking damage, we want to prolong the effective life of our allies with First Aid and X-Mansion. I prefer First Aid over Game Time since the extra heal is more efficient and it's usable in AE so you can easily pay the 1 from a card you can't use from Piotr's Studio]/Weapon X. First Aid also allows you to keep Bishop after he's charged so it turns 2 ER into effectively 6 damage or 6 THW.

Cards not included

• Mutant Education: this ended up being unnecessary since Aspiring Artist is enough recycling ability and it's not worth playing without X-Mansion in play.
• Danger Room: this deck is opting to use X-Mansion instead to prolong the life of the allies because the timing window when Danger Room is useful is smaller than the Mansion. Danger Room is better in decks that want to recycle allies constantly.
• Superpower Training: feels a bit awkward to pop early and not great later. You'd need certain things to line up to be able to pop it early and it ends up slowing the rest of the setup unless you draw perfect.
• X-Bunker: the idea is getting a 3rd draw effect in Alter-Ego but the 2 cost makes this harder to play.

Tested Against

• Expert Magneto: swapped 2 First Aid + 1 Mission Training for 3 Lay Down the Law to manage his starting side schemes ASAP. Once he loses Steady, Steel Fist does a lot of work.
• Expert Thanos: swapped 1 First Aid for 1 Unshakable to handle the status from Infinity Gauntlet. Outside of Avatar of Death, you can just tank all of his hits so just make sure you're keeping your health up to not die to it.
• Expert Hela: Hela's Cloak and especially Nightsword are problematic attachments but you can get rid of them by flipping her to Wounded side. So keep her low enough while dealing with the 3 layers of Hel to be able to flip her on demand. Titanium Muscles + Made of Rage does 9 and will flip her instantly if they get drawn early.
• Loki: swapped 1 First Aid for 1 Unshakable to handle the status from Infinity Gauntlet. If his Piercing version shows up, you have to force a swap via defeating his side scheme. If he swaps into it, then you either lock him out with Steel Fist or kill him ASAP (i.e. if he draws The Trickster after you've done damage to the former one).