Sneaking in Diagonally

This was built specifically with two constraints/general things in mind: It only uses cards I already have (I'm missing a few packs with some nice little things I'd like), and I was building this at the same time as my friend who's going to be playing Magik (she's going fairly heavy on allies, but in Aggression/Justice (hasn't settled on aspect yet, iirc)).

So with that, here's what we've got. It's all X-Men, baby. My friend will be bringing Professor X, btw.

It seems pretty obvious at first; play supports and allies so you can swing wide on villains and schemes. I believe, though, that Bishop is particularly good for this in the same way that other heroes that like thin decks are good for this. His Energy Absorption ability becomes more powerful the more consistent it is (imagine that). Ideally, he won't take so much damage that he NEEDS to flip to Alter-Ego all the time, so if you can increase your chances of discarding resources, you're golden.

Obvious card for Bishop: Beast. Ya boi plays right into Bishop's style.

Cards that are good here but I don't normally advocate for: Storm (I mean, if she can cost 2-3...), Angel (yo, is he just free?), Rally the Troops (normally a waste of thwarting but 10+ worth of healing on 4-5 health allies is sick)

Things that don't explicitly serve the main purpose of the deck: Clarity of Purpose, The X-Jet, and depending on how you look at it, X-Mansion.

This is not a solo play deck, per se. To make it so, replace X-Mansion, the second copy of Team Training, and Build Support with something else. These are not necessarily bad inclusions but they are, relatively speaking, better in teams. The X-Jet could also potentially be replaced, since it was initially included to benefit my friend while she's on hero side while I'm not (same benefit as X-Mansion, really).

Cards to consider: Strength In Numbers (draw 5 cards, yo), Band Together. If you have other suggestions, make them. I plan to get every pack eventually, so don't worry about my very first caveat about already owning the cards for this deck.

One particular advantage to Bishop is that he comes with two built in allies with a matching trait. We can use that advantage to use the combination of Uncanny X-Men and Utopia in a way that some heroes like my personal favorite, X-23, cannot. And because of the saturation of X-Men cards in the game overall, Team-Building Exercise becomes incredibly good (I could see an argument for taking it down to 2 copies, but we'll experiment with it). In fact, I would almost suggest mulling for it, because not only are all of the deck's allies X-Men, but so are several of the supports. So although I've said it would be fine to remove two of them, they are extra useful when they're made cheaper.

Ever since playing tons of FFG's L5R, I advocate heavily for running cheap decks. You may think I'd change my tune for a deck that loves resource cards, but no. You just want your resource cards for a specific purpose: damage. Randall, Malcolm, Concussive Blast and Super-Charged require you to use resources. This deck's cost reductions do not mean you can pack it full of 4+ cost cards. This deck is not running lean.

So yeah...

• Play allies, supports, and side schemes, reducing costs and getting wide buffs.
• As the deck thins, don't be afraid to take a little damage to fuel your stuff, but also don't be afraid to have allies defend you when you know you're low on resources, since allies can come back for cheap.
• Don't be stingy about spending your resources early, since Energy Conversion can bring them all back.
• Do your best to keep Storm, Randall, and Malcolm on the board and play them to their individual strengths, but the rest of your allies can freely cycle through your other two ally slots, especially Beast.
• I recommend staying ready mostly recover, but whenever that's not necessary, you should be thwarting until your Super-Charged upgrade(s) have 3-4 counters, or whenever they count up to a finishing attack. Compared to some other decks, it may feel like you're only doing chip damage for quite a while, but when you do an all-out swing it'll be for like 30+ish damage. Checkmate.
• Edit the deck slightly, depending on your friends' strategies.

Did this write up feel ramble-y to you? It felt ramble-y to me.