Jean Grey's School For Gifted Youngsters

I think Phoenix is a criminally underrated hero, and has some insane potential. The aim of the deck is to swarm the board with insanely cheap yet potent allies and let them control the board state while Jean does her thing. Is this necessarily the best deck for her? Probably not, but it still is insanely fun to pilot when the engine gets running.

Classes

Starting off the Jean Grey’s School are all the Supports:

Cerebro- Let’s Jean look for any ally, which ideally we want either Professor X or Storm for Confuse or Storm’s insane value for thwarting…

Danger Room- …and after putting them into play attach Danger Room Training to them, which makes Storm a 3ATK 3THW(Really 5) 4HP Monster and makes the cheaper allies even more valuable for their single activation before they chump block…

Utopia- …and when they come into play they ready Jean? Even more value there. Also increases ally cap to 4.

Team Training- +1 HP to all allies? Yes please, ‘nuff said there

Team-Building Exercise- Almost every single card in this deck has either a Psionic or X-Men trait so this has incredible value in this deck.

The Triskelion- Utopia+Triskelion= 5 Allies in play

Uncanny X-Men- Extra HP and Cheaper X-Men allies, letting you swarm the board with Jeans students

White Hot Room- Allows Jean to control her Power Counters or heal if the Villain deals a hefty hit So If we get out just a few of these we could have a 3ER 3ATK/3THW 6Hp Storm that readies Jean(If she has Honorary X-Men attached)

Faculty and Students

Storm- Effectively has 4 THW if you have a side scheme to dump threat onto (hello Build Support), and her ATK is respectable enough to use

Professor X- Confuse, chump, done

Beast- Nabs us a resource to use for another ally or one of Phoenix’s events with decent stats an effectively 2ER (or 0 if you get Team-Building Exercise and Uncanny X-Men)

Colossus- Block, ATK, Block

Cyclops- Helps us control if Jean’s Restrained or Unleashed, and two Power Counters are nice

Shadowcat- Negates Consume the World’s Amplify for a round which is allows us to focus on the main or Dark PhoenixI f she’s in play

Angel- Cheap chump ally, but can get up to 6 Hp just like Storm with supports

Triage-Heals our Voltroned out Allies to keep them running, then chumps

Beak- If you play it right… this sucker can remove a whopping 5 threat from a scheme! Typically it’ll probably be three but he’s cheap and a chump block too

Forge- Nabs us any of our X supports and chumps too? Yes please.

Phoenix’s Kit and The Last Cards

The general rule of Jean’s Kit in this deck is to constantly gauge whether to be Restrained or Unleashed. To be honest those Power Counters are super tempting to spend on allies or supports in the early game, I on multiple occasions have instantly summoned Dark Phoenix and made it that much harder for me. While her events aren’t the star of the show, they come in handy when she’s Unleashed. Jean’s 3 THW is absolutely insane, and means you can risk the villain scheming and still be able to control threat on the board. I included Build Support for it’s value as an instant clear by Jean’s basic THW and grabs any one of the absolute broken supports Jean needs. Honorary X-Men is here for readies in Alter-Ego.

The general strategy of the deck is to stay Restrained (or not lol I’ve many times instantly Unleashed because I get greedy) until your supports are sufficiently set up and then Unleash the Phoenix Force. Send in your insanely cheap allies to ready you and they’ll take care of threat and make big swings at the Villian. And if you want even bigger swings at them Psychic Kicker is there to help them maul anything in their way. While Jeans events aren’t as important, use them if you have free resources or need to dump your hand. (Just watch Mind Control if you have Utopia because you’ll lower your ally limit) The biggest thing to watch out for is Dark Phoenix, since she can ruin your game with her 12 HP.

Alternate Cards could be Pixie to pull any of your allies from the grave. You could also throw in Legion as another valuable ally. Gambit (When he comes out with Nightcrawler) is also a very good option because you could possibly steal Jean’s Obligation and use it to your advantage. Psychic Kicker could be replaced for Make the Call if wished but personally I like the burst potential of Psychic Kicker. Build Support could be replaced with Call for Backup, Rally the Troops or Specialized Training in multiplayer.

This is my first deck published on this site so comments and critiques are always appreciated! Thanks for reading and have fun leading Jean Grey’s School For Gifted Youngsters!