Phoenix Aggression SCL Season 18 Round 1 vs. Sabretooth with

This is the final version of the Phoenix Aggression deck I used in Round 1 of Season 18 of Solo Champions League. I tried Justice first and it felt like I couldn't push damage quickly enough. I pivoted to Aggression and the deck went through a couple iterations after a BUNCH of practice games that did NOT go well before finally landing on this build. Yes, it's a bunch of Stun and Confuse (which was always in the deck), but what I finally determined (at least for my playstyle) was that I basically had to give up any hope of having completely clean wins with no damage on Kelly and I accepted (as I'm assuming most people did),that there was probably no good way to win without letting the first scheme advance by rescuing Kelly. I did start letting him take damage the first couple rounds and that seemed to work a lot better as it gave me time to set up.

When I finally played for real, I got 3 legit wins with 0 threat on any schemes, 0 HP left on villains and minions and more than max health. Sure Kelly damage, but that was the price to pay.

Game 1: Rounds 5. 0 Threat on Schemes, 0 HP left on villain/minions, 7 Damage on Kelly. 11 Total HP left between Phoenix and allies.

This game went pretty well. I got stun and confuse going and that helped keep me from drawing too many extra cards. I did wait until Round 4 to actually rescue Kelly so he took 7 damage, but such is life.

Game 2: Rounds 3. 0 Threat on Schemes, 0 HP left on villain/minions, 5 damage on Kelly. 16 Total HP left between Phoenix and allies.

This game I lived the dream. I got Angel and Colossus out Round 1 and waited until the start of Round 3 to rescue Kelly. I had flipped Sabretooth to stage 2 during my 2nd round and stunned him so I didn't have to worry about him attacking. I had exactly enough damage to remove his tough and get in the 15 points I needed thanks to losing a counter from Phoenix's obligation and getting to turn on the extra damage from Teleknetic Attack.

Game 3: Rounds 7: 0 Threat on Schemes, 0 damage left on villain/minions, 5 damage on Kelly. 17 total HP left between Phoenix and allies.

I had a slower start in this game since Sabretooth's first encounter card was the attachment that gave him Stalwart and based on what was in my hand, the best option was to not immediately remove it. Once again I waited until Round 3 to rescue Kelly and he took an extra damage from the encounter card that pinged him, but I had Wolverine out with an Attack Training by that point and once I was able to remove Sabretooth's Stalwart attachment, I got things set up to take control. I again waited until I could pretty much just take out Sabretooth in Stage 2 in one round, it just took a bit longer to get there. Stepford Cuckoos saved me from Shadows and at one point Sabretooth got up to 8 threat on the final scheme, but I was able to clear the threat the next round and then it was just a matter of playing it out.

I did get fortunate in these games by flipping Mystique and Brother Grimm as boost/Sabretooth heal cards and avoiding the Shapeshifter cards for the most part. Those were what kept hosing me sometimes in the practice games. The luck was with me when it counted. Psimitar was also really useful in the games to go along with all the Psionic cards I wanted to naturally play anyway.