"ALERT!! This is a Winter Storm Warning!!"

Storm seeks to perform the totally busted, totally bodacious combination of Dive Bomb and Honed Technique at least once (often twice) every round by the mid-to-late game. This widely popular combo in the community deals a whopping 11 damage to any one foe while shredding all the rest for 5 each! On turns you can pay for this through Aggressive Energy, this increases to a mighty 12 and 6. One of these is nasty enough, often clearing the minion board and sometimes even sundering your villain to dust, but 2-3 certainly seals the deal.

Side Note - I tried to cut one last card to bring this to a tightly packed 40, but just couldn't bring myself to remove anything. Every card serves a purpose here and I love the way it runs, so 41 it is! If you just can't live without that efficiency itch, maybe drop one Assess the Situation?

Most Storm decks love to slam that Thunderstorm button (and for good reason) with a ton of allies, however, I want to take us in what I think it is uniquely different direction. In fact, Thunderstorm is pretty useless here and this doesn't have many allies. Instead, for the Villain Phase, we want Storm to summon a powerful Blizzard as often as possible, all for that sweet damage reduction and sometimes useful minion blanking. From there, swap to Clear Skies for the draw power as desired, or Hurricane for additional threat removal when needed, but only on turns you can whip it all back into a Blizzard via Weather Goddess. This will make more sense as we go along.

As the encounter begins, your focal point should be Ororo's Garden, X-Mansion, and Crew Quarters. By equipping these tools, you gain an amazing 4 healing per round without needing to recover often, if ever. Between our constant Blizzard as well as Flash Freeze and occasional ally blocks, Storm becomes quite the face-tank. Rarely (if ever) should she need to block with her low 1 Defense after the first round or two. To this end, Forge can help snag the X-Mansion (and then The X-Jet) while Weapon X can help seek Ororo's Garden, Storm's Cape, and Storm's Crown). Other priorities are Honorary X-Men and Endurance to gain +4 hit points, bringing Storm to a solid 14. Not only does this help her survive multiple bigger hits in a single round, but also grants her the The X-Jet even in Alter-Ego form.

As the walls of Storm's defense begin to rise, your side project becomes rather straightforward. Build the following in whatever the most convenient order: Honed Technique, The X-Jet, Deft Focus, Martial Prowess, Storm's Cape, and Storm's Crown.

Along the way, use Professor X and Psylocke to confuse the villain, keeping you safe on turns you flip down. Between this, as well as Hurricane, Torrential Rain, Forge, and Storm herself, threat should remain well in hand just as she and allies can handle most minions with relative ease.

After her defenses are all online and your arsenal of resource generators stand complete, Storm will be cycling through her deck far more quickly. In these stages, you want to drop Dive Bomb from your hand or those drawn via Plan of Attack. Even without bombs, you'll have Blast of Wind and Lightning Bolt, though these cannot trigger Honed Technique. Speaking of which, you should be hitting a honed bomb each and every time you have Storm fire one off, because of the The X-Jet, Storm's Crown (Blizzard is conveniently mental!), and a deck brimming with plenty of more of the bluer sciences. Then, after your attacks, if the poor villain yet lives, flipping down lets you not only heal but also use Assault Training to shuttle your bombs right back into the deck.