Frostbite sucks (for the villain)

Frostbite sucks (for the villain)

I'm only running 7 'Pool cards because I only chose the cards which really help Iceman in certain ways:

• Stick-To-Itiveness is the card I chose the 'Pool aspect for because Iceman makes good use of readies (more on that later).
• Cutupper stuns the enemy, allowing you to carry Frostbites on that enemy over to the next hero and villain phase.
• Get Rage-y works great with your Snow Clones because they don't take consequential damage after attacking an enemy with Frostbite attached.
• There are several 2 and 3 cost cards in this deck, so as long as you keep Iceman's heath up (which is easily doable when the villain is getting Frostbite-nerfed attacks) Self Confidence, Self Control, and Self-Preservation are providing at least 2 (and often 3) resources. They're especially good to see early for board-building before you've taken any and damage.
• Healing Factor also helps keep you healthy so you can stay in hero form longer, which helps keep Ice Slide in play longer.

Ready Up!

As mentioned above, Iceman makes good use of readies because every time he makes a basic attack or defense you put a Frostbite on the attacked or defended enemy. For that reason, I wanted several opportunities to ready to maximize the number of times he can add a Frostbite to the villain:

• Stick-To-Itiveness: with The X-Jet in play you'll always have a resource to spend for this, but even if you can't find it early the deck has plenty of resources until you do!
• Utopia (along with 9 X-MEN allies)
• Face the Past: Even though you can't attack the villain again after you play this, you still get the ready (and can attack something else or thwart) and draw 3 cards!
• Cryokinetic Perception: You don't always get the ready, but you'll get to draw a card. Iceman is one of the few heroes I always restrict to 40 cards so I hit ICE more often with this card!
• Professor X is another great way to ready Iceman because you don't really need a confuse on the villain if you have two or three Frostbites on them when you flip down, and if you have Utopia in play you can also use it to ready a Snow Clone when the Prof enters!

More Frostbites on the villain means more opportunity to stay healthy, letting you stay in hero form longer, so readying Iceman for more attacks is the goal of this deck!

Key Cards, Mulligans, and Play

Get these out as quickly as possible, even if you have to mulligan HARD for some of them:

• Stick-To-Itiveness
• Ice Slide
• Cryokinetic Perception

Next, get these out with some urgency:

• The X-Jet
• Utopia
• Healing Factor

This deck will play pretty smoothly once you're set up, and if you you have to flip down to Alter-Ego, try to flip down when you have 6 or fewer cards in your deck and have two or three Frostbites in play, because it ensures you'll get Ice Slide quickly since you have to shuffle it when you flip down. Two or three Frostbites in play lets you shuffle cards like Chill Out! and Arctic Attack back into your deck, while at the same time limiting the villains ability to scheme without needing a Confuse (But Professor X can give you one if you want it).

No Laser Swords?

I had Laser Swords and Live Dangerously in the earliest version of the deck, and while they would benefit a hero who readies often, I found they were more-often-than-not getting in the way of other cards I wanted or needed to play more. Also, with no "bad icons" in play Laser Swords does exactly nothing, and without Laser Swords in play you're truly living dangerously with Live Dangerously in play (I personally don't think the +2 Hand Size is worth Acceleration, Amplify, Crisis, and Hazard WITHOUT Laser Swords in play, but your mileage may vary).

Testing

I haven't done extensive testing with this deck, but it sailed through the Next Evolution and Agents of SHIELD campaigns on Standard difficulty with ease! I do grant though that these campaigns are both on the easy side as far as campaign go LOL