Card draw simulator
Derived from |
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None. Self-made deck here. |
Inspiration for | ||||
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Colossus Just Wants To Paint But Keeps Getting Punched | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1.0 |
A Song of Steel, Ice, Flesh, and Blood | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
Golossus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
Golossus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.0 |
Golossus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 |
Thwart-ing, fire and steel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 |
Herowannabe · 896
INTRO
If you’re like me, you’ve wanted to make Colossus work, but have found him to be lacking. I first tried him in Protection (as I’m sure most of us do), and tried to keep him fueled with plenty of Tough cards, and looked for ways to overcome his 4-card Hero hand size, but in the end I found that while, yes, he was really good at tanking damage, that was about all he was good at. I struggled to find the resources to play his attack cards and deal any significant amount of damage, and I lost many a game to the main scheme being filled with threat.
And then, a few weeks ago, I had an epiphany that changed everything, and turned Colossus from a C-tier character to a solid A-tier, if not S-tier character. You may be surprised to learn that we have all been severely undervaluing his best card (spoiler: it’s Armor Up), and it works best in probably the most overlooked aspect for Colossus: Justice.
Since I made this deck I have gone on to beat:
- Expert Ronan the Accuser (True Solo)
- Expert Venom Goblin (True Solo)
- and Expert Magneto (two handed with Aggression Gambit, though Colossus did most of the work)
Let me explain how it works:
SUMMARY
There are a few keys to making this deck work properly:
1. Always always ALWAYS end your turn in Alter-Ego!
2. Try to always make sure you have an Armor Up in your hand ready to play!
3. Thin your deck as much as possible to ensure that you can do #2 every turn.
4. Use your Allies to keep the Main & Side Schemes (and Minions, to a lesser extent) in check until you’re ready to start pounding on the Villain.
5. Once you’re ready, start pounding on the Villain.
DETAILED STRATEGIES
#1. Always always always end your turn in Alter-Ego. This will give you that sweet 6-card hand size every turn, and with Armor Up you flip up to Hero form during the Villain phase, and then you (almost) never have to worry about the Villain scheming. You get the best of both worlds!
Then, during your next Player phase, flip down to Alter-Ego, and use Colossus’s Aspiring Artist ability to shuffle Armor Up back into your deck. Which brings me to #2.
2. Try to always make sure you have an Armor Up in your hand ready to play!
Once you draw an Armor Up, hold onto it until the next Villain phase. Never spend an Armor Up to pay for another card. But wait, what if you manage to draw both Armor Ups into your hand at the same time? That’s fantastic! Hang on to both of them and you’re set for the next two villain phases!
(Side note: You'll often find that you're getting attacked/damage more than once per round, either from nasty villain cards or for protecting a friend in Multiplayer, and you won't have enough Tough cards to absorb all the damage. That's okay. Colossus has 14 health, so use it to soak up some damage, and since you'll be dropping to Alt-Ego every turn you can always recover if you need to.)
I cannot emphasize this enough, using Armor Up every turn is the key to making this deck work. I’ve found that most games you’ll end up with one or sometimes two turns where you don’t have an Armor Up to play during the Villain phase (though I have had games where I have been able to play Armor Up every turn), but once you get rolling you should find it very easy to play it every turn. And when you do, you’ll always have the tough card you need to block to villain’s attack. At that point, the only things you have to worry about are Minions and Encounter Cards.
#3. Thin your deck as much as possible to ensure that you can do #2 every turn. You’ll notice that this deck has a high number of Supports, Upgrades, and Allies. This is so that you can get them all out onto the board and keep them there, which thins your deck size down and makes it easy to draw an Armor Up every turn.
Of particular note are all the upgrades and supports that allow you to draw cards. Cards like Moira MacTaggert, Iron Will, Piotr's Studio, and Weapon X are all there to help you draw extra cards and dig those Armor Ups out of your deck, and thus you should get them onto the playing field as soon as possible.
Most of the rest of the cards are Allies or cards that are there to make the most of your Allies. Which brings us to...
#4. Use your Allies to keep the Main & Side Schemes in check (and Minions, to a lesser extent) in check
As Important as all of those supports and upgrades are, I find most games tend to go best when I play an Ally or two right at the beginning of the game. The Allies are mainly there to keep Threat down on the main and side schemes, but can also be used to chump-block (if you're out of Tough cards or need to save one), or help take out Minions, depending on the situation.
Utopia and Cerebro are all there to help you get more allies on the board, and Mission Training along with Danger Room are there to increase their thwarting capabilities and keep them on the board longer.
Eventually you'll get to the point where you have most/all of your supports and upgrades out, and 3-4 Allies armed with Mission Training on the board, keeping the main scheme suppressed and ready to chump block, and you'll find that Colossus is ending up with extra Tough cards after the Villain phase. That means it's time for the last step.
#5. Start pounding on the Villain. By this point, you should have most of your supports and upgrades in play, and you'll find you easily have 9-10+ cards in your hand each turn, thanks to Iron Will and the other cards that let you draw cards. You should have several Allies out and the Main scheme should be well under control.
Once you find that you can start your turn with a Tough card or two already on Colossus, then you can start using them to smash the Villain with Steel Fist and Made of Rage, and it's even better when you can play a Bulletproof Protector first to gain another tough and draw another card. It's really awesome when you can do that and play both your Made of Rages on one attack, smashing the villain for 14+ damage. At that point it only takes a couple of turns to finish the Villain off and chalk up another victory. Congratulations Comrade, you did it!
CARD BREAKDOWN
In this section I want to go through each card and briefly explain why I included it in this deck. I did a lot of fine tuning, and I don't think there is much- if anything- that I would want to swap out, but I will include some of the runner-up cards down below.
ALLIES
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Beak Obviously he's best when you have 3 other allies out- removing 5 threat and blocking an enemy attack for 2 resources is pretty sweet- but even if you can't do all of that he's still good for a couple of threat and a block.
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Bishop Bishop is fantastic in this deck. In most Justice decks, you don't want to get attacked a lot, so his build up is very slow, but not this deck! He's my go to for clearing out minions: Play him, Thwart a little bit, and within 1-2 turns of villain/minion attacks you'll be ready to blast someone for 6 damage. He is also usually the best target for Mission Training and Triage.
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Blindfold She's okay. Not very strong, and only 2 health, but her Enters Play effect can be clutch for dodging nasty Encounter cards, and the Psionic keyword is nice for boosting Cerebro.
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Dazzler Expensive, but decent stat line and ability. It's best to play her with a Mission Training from Danger Room, which will let you thwart for 12-15 total threat with her. If I were going to swap an ally out for a different X-Men ally, she is probably the first one I would pick.
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Forge Great at helping you ramp up during the early game, but during the late game he's pretty much reduced to chump-blocking.
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Marvel Girl Solid 3-cost ally with 3 Thwart (with Mission Training) and 3 (or 5) health, but usually not as good as some of the others. But again, the Psionic Keyword is nice for buffing Cerebro
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Professor X Even though he only stays out one turn, I almost always play him when I draw him. He's very flexible and useful in a variety of situations, and always good to block an attack. I find that I often use his ability to ready another X-Men character, as it enables some very powerful turns.
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Shadowcat Colossus's signature ally, but a very solid one. As with the other 3-cost allies, its great when you can play her using a Meditation along with a free Mission Training for up to 5 turns of removing 3 threat each turn.
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Triage One of the most useful allies in this deck, for either healing a little extra damage off of Colossus if needed, or even better, removing some damage from one of your other X-Men allies like Bishop or Shadowcat and keeping them around for a couple extra turns. I always use Triage as my first chump blocker to get her back into my deck as quickly as possible.
EVENTS (Most of the events in this deck are Colossus's identity-specific cards, but I still want to mention how I use them)
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Armor Up If you have gotten this far and still don't understand what to do with Armor Up, then please go back and reread the Summary and Strategy sections. ;) To reiterate: try to always have an Armor Up in your hand, ready to play each turn. Never choose to discard one. Never use one to pay for another card, even when you have both Armor Ups in your hand. Whenever you flip down to Alter Ego, use Aspiring Artist to shuffle the last Armor Up you played back into your deck.
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Bulletproof Protector Mainly useful in the late game, once you can use chump-blockers, Organic Steel, and the occasional stun card to ensure that you start the Player Phase with a Tough card on Colossus. Then, play a Bulletproof Protector to double your Toughs or ready Colossus, draw an extra card with Iron Will, and use those Toughs to power up your attack cards.
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Made of Rage - Mainly useful in the late game, but it's great for dealing extra damage to the Villain and/or overkill a Minion. Remember that if you have 2 Tough cards and both Made of Rage's in your hand you can pile them onto a single basic attack for 14+ damage with Overkill.
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Meditation - This is the first deck I've tried where I felt like Meditation really fits. You'll be ending every turn in Alter-Ego, so you will almost always have an opportunity to use it, and it's great during the early game to help you get out supports & allies and ramp up faster. Especially useful if you get one in your opening hand, since you won't need to exhaust Colossus for anything else on your first turn.
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Steel Fist - Fairly self explanatory, great for clearing out minions, or for damaging, stunning, and confusing the Villain when you have a Tough card to spare. Mostly used during the late game or to get rid of Minions.
PLAYER SIDE SCHEMES
- Superpower Training - Great for finding your useful identity specific upgrades and getting them into play, and Colossus has several. Iron Will should be your first priority, but if you already have that then grab an Organic Steel.
SUPPORTS
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Cerebro Great at finding allies and adding them to your hand, even if you're only going to use it as an extra resource. With 9 X-Men allies in your deck, Cerebro almost never misses, but still it's best when you can use Cerebro while Blindfold, Marvel Girl, or Professor X is out so that you can search your entire deck for whichever ally you want (I usually grab and play Triage if I can, but there are times when another ally might be more useful).
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Command Center Useful for the occasional couple of free damage or to remove a tough card from an enemy, but not critical to the deck by any means. Still, by playing it you thin your deck by one more card, allowing you to get your key cards more often.
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Danger Room Danger Room is fantastic in this deck, since you spend part of every turn in Alt-Ego. Get it out early and then add a free Mission Training to an ally you play almost every turn afterwards.
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Moira MacTaggert Moira is one of the most important support cards, and you should play her as soon as possible. You will be flipping to Hero form (nearly) every turn with Armor Up, and Moira allows you to replace that Armor Up you just played by drawing another card.
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Piotr's Studio Another clutch support card, play it as soon as possible. You will be in Alter-Ego every turn, and since it only targets Colossus cards it is great at digging Armor Ups out of your deck.
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Utopia Both of Utopia's abilities are super helpful in this deck. It won't be long before you're maxed out on allies, so making room for one more is always a good thing. Plus, since you will be playing allies very frequently you can use Utopia's exhaust ability to ready other allies, and really maximizing your turns. NOTE: once you play Honorary X-Men then you can also use Utopia on Colossus while you're in Alt-Ego. See the Honorary X-Men notes below for more details.
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Weapon X - Identical in function to Piotr's Studio, albeit with the added cost of taking a damage every time you use it. Fortunately, Colossus has plenty of Health to spare, so get Weapon X out there as soon as possible and start using it. It's especially nice alongside Piotr's Studio for finding those Armor Ups even faster.
UPGRADES
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Honorary X-Men This is the last card I added to this deck, but I have found it to be well worth it. Play it on Colossus, and now he has the X-men trait in Alt-Ego. This is important because now you can use Utopia and/or Professor X to ready Colossus while in Alter-Ego, which then allows you to play Meditation more often or to recover if needed.
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Iron Will Probably Colossus's most important card (after Armor Up of course). Play it as soon as possible so that when you play Armor Up and block the Villain you get to draw a card. Even more useful once you can use it to start drawing multiple cards per turn thanks to Organic Steel and/or Bulletproof Protector.
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Mission Training Very useful for buffing your Allies and keeping them on the board longer, but you never need to actually play it. Instead, since you'll be ending every turn in Alt-Ego, use Danger Room Training to get it out for free. I usually try to put my Mission Trainings on the more valuable allies, like Shadowcat, Dazzler, and Bishop, but don't be afraid to throw them on a weaker ally that you only plan to keep out for a couple of turns. You're getting the Mission Trainings for free after all.
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Organic Steel Not as crucial as some other cards, but still useful at any stage of the game. My favorite is when you can pair it with Iron Will and Bulletproof Protector for maximum card-draw shenanigans.
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Titanium Muscles is actually the least useful card in this deck, but it still has its uses. Because you aren't actively trying to stack tough cards, you usually won't find much use out of the Resource effect, and the extra attack usually isn't useful until late game. But once you're built up and ready to start attacking the Villain, you can then make use of both of those abilities.
ALTERNATE CARDS TO CONSIDER ADDING
- Beat Cop Beat cop isn't the best card at 3-cost, but if you really want to put one in a deck, this isn't a bad place for it.
- X-Mansion I originally built this deck with X-Mansion in it, but found I was usually skipping over it for other cards. But still, it's nice for keeping your allies out longer and since you're always flipping down to Alt-Ego you'll get to use it every turn.
- Build Support Not really necessary because you'll have Forge fetching your supports for you, but still can be useful to have for an extra side scheme to thwart and for getting your crucial support cards out.
- Avengers Mansion for even more card draw
- Different/additional X-Men allies - A lot of the allies in this deck can be swapped out for other X-Men allies if you desire.
- New cards - I built this deck before Jubilee came out, and Night-Crawler and Magneto will soon be here, so it will be worth reviewing those packs to see if any of their cards would find a good home with Colossus.
CLOSING REMARKS I drew a little bit of inspiration from several other Colossus decks on here, but none of them enough so that I could rightly say that this deck is "derived" from them. This deck just plays so differently from any of the other Colossus decks I've ever looked at. But still, thanks to all the other creators out there who indirectly helped me refine this deck.
And thank you for checking this deck out. Give it a try and let me know how it goes! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
37 comments |
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Aug 03, 2024 |
Aug 03, 2024Frequent flipping is a great way to play Colossus and really helps him maintain his supply of tough cards. I think you can be a bit more willing to spend Armor Up though. Due to Aspiring Artist you can always shuffle it back in, with a high chance of drawing it (or even a certainty of drawing it when you are near to decking out). You also have easy access to confuse via Steel Fist |
Aug 04, 2024you're like preaching to the choir here! i've been saying this for so long that flipping and shuffling back in Armor Up is the way to go. shout it from the rooftops! i know so many people who use Steel Fist instead, but that just uses the toughs you're generating! also about step #5, are we still doing phrasing? |
Aug 04, 2024Why not include Stepford Cuckoos as well? |
Aug 04, 2024Where is limitless stamina and déft focus ?! |
Aug 04, 2024
Deft focus wouldn’t be a bad addition, but once you get rolling you’re usually starting your turns with 8+ cards each turn, so finding resources to play your cards isn’t hard. For the same reason I didn’t include other resource-generating cards like X-Jet, Helicarrier, or X-gene. |
Aug 04, 2024So correct me if I’m wrong but if you’re in AE, the villain is about to scheme, you play Armor Up, the villain no longer schemes but attacks instead? I’m sure that’s the point of this deck but I’ve never played Colossus as I could never get him to work haha! |
Aug 04, 2024
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Aug 04, 2024Hi |
Aug 04, 2024Generation X for armor up ? |
Aug 04, 2024
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Aug 05, 2024Do you have a video showcasing this deck? Would love to see it in action! Colossus is a top 5 hero of mine. I play 2 handed solo. I've only used him in Aggression and recently Protection. |
Aug 05, 2024Hi there, thanks for sharing this great deck! I just wondered about Weapon X – Colossus will loose a tough card for the 1 damage it causes whenever using it. Does that not go against his core mechanics? Do you only use it when he does not have a tough card on him? |
Aug 05, 2024if Armor Up is so crucial, wouldn't Mutant Education be important? (along side Generation X) Thanks for the write up, really enjoyed the read! |
Aug 05, 2024
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Aug 06, 2024So the issue with weapon-x on colossus is if he has a tough status card, you can't use its effect because part of the cost is actually taking the damage which is negated with a tough.. so i think i'm going to take it and command center out for 2 beat cops.. being able to remove 2 thwart every turn is pretty sweet |
Aug 06, 2024
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Aug 06, 2024Funny that I came up with pretty much same idea the same time as you posted your decki, while I am playing Modok League with duo Vision & Colossus (20 - 30 games already). I run deck like this in Leadership, but im pretty sure u can do it in any aspect due to all necessary supports are basic based. Colossus seems very bad when you just sit in hero form, but staying in Alter-Ego makes him shine!
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Aug 06, 2024Any room for Disguise in this deck you think? |
Aug 07, 2024I wasn't trying to stack toughs, fought magneto with wolverine and all but 1 time I had a tough while flipping down, but maybe it was just that strong a game.. i also didn't get allies or moira for the first 3 times through my deck |
Aug 07, 2024Ironically, despite the deck name and write-up, I do want to point out that 5 out of the top 10 most-liked Colossus decks are Justice decks! And that now includes this one. It's extremely good for him - notably in solo. Safely going alter-ego for constant Toughs and bigger hand sizes cannot be matched from my experience. I have a Mission Training deck and a Meditation deck among those, but combining them seems fun. Glad you've had so much success! |
Aug 08, 2024I don't have much experience playing solo at all, would you say this deck works just as well in 3-4 person multiplayer? |
Aug 08, 2024Super fun deck! Really enjoying it :) |
Aug 09, 2024
Another player I’m playing with has the major player side schemes so I’m also swapping Specialized Training with Stepford Cuckoos. But if you are playing solo, Build Support and Stepford Cuckoos seem like a great combo for this too. |
Aug 10, 2024Very cool idea, but I have a question: doesn't the idea of always ending up in AE so you can use Armor Up to flip up during the villain phase kind of negate the awesomeness of the Steel Fist stun/confuse lock? If the villain is confused he/she won't activate, which means you can't use armor up. How do you work around that? |
Aug 14, 2024I tried this deck against Magneto and got destroyed 3 times like I have never been defeated before. Maybe it's just a bad matchup or maybe I need to practice more. Magneto just put out too many minions and blew through the the first two main schemes in just a few rounds. Tried it against Klaw and it was amazing. |
Aug 15, 2024Man this deck plays really good. Messed up Magneto Expert in true solo. Definitely the best Colossus has felt to me, feels very unlocked with this playstyle. Very intelligently crafted. I'd possibly consider adding an X-Jet anyway, just to make removing villain attachments go over easier (as piercing and retaliate attachments obviously very scary for Colossus and screw up his gameplan). Disguise could definitely find a place here considering it's very feasible to end up in a situation where you're readied in Alter-Ego with nothing else to do. Though I feel the major consideration should go to Generation X. With all your X-Men allies you can clear it very easily, Command Centre synergizes really well for this, it thins your deck which is a key objective of this deck, and it can grab you an Armor Up early on OR help complete your combo later by retrieving Steel Fist/Bulletproof Protector/Made of Rage, whatever you need. |
Aug 16, 2024
If you don't have a copy of Armor Up near the start of the game don't flip down unless you have a comfortable margin of threat on the main scheme. |
Aug 16, 2024Love the idea, will give it a try. If you want to thin the deck wouldn't skilled investigator be a good option for the deck? |
Aug 19, 2024Hell of a deck! Made a few changes but overall what a great concept! Thanks |
Aug 20, 2024Amazing deck!!! I've includen an Bajo vigilancia just in case I can't have an Armour Up when i draw cards |
Aug 21, 2024Great job on this! I like to make adjustments to fit my play style but this one is for sure a solid deck for a good Hero. |
Aug 22, 2024I'm with Would you consider: Husk here with Mission Training. She'll do repeating Thwart3 for 1 mental resource...that's what The X-Jet could guarantee. She can even do it on multiple times a turn if you wanna resource dump on her! No need to spend 3ER on Triage to get 2 healing...Husk will do her own healing MORE efficiently. |
Aug 23, 2024Hope Summers Could be a nice addition. She is yet another way to find an Armor up |
Sep 18, 2024Wow ! You play Armor Up in your colossus deck ! What a genius idea... |
Sep 21, 2024I've just played your deck in boardtale weekly challenge with Ant-Man Pool on Expert. boardtale.com This is one awesome deck! <3<3 I will be returning to this one |
Oct 07, 2024I have tried this deck twice to expert, and I have to say... it is really one of the BEST and most FUN deck I have ever played!! My only complain is that it feels... broken, really. winning without having to ever touch your 14 health wheel for the whole game... Many thanks for giving life to one my best marvel heroes! |
The deck looks good, I will try to give it a spin at some point