Jean does "all the Alter-Ego things" w/ 2 Expert videos

Jean does "all the Alter-Ego things"

I built this deck to add a Phoenix video to my channel because she won a poll in early July, and I thought it would be fun to "do all the alter-ego things".

It tries to confuse-lock the villain and stay in alter-ego most of the time, then flip to hero, go Unleashed and wreck the villain's face! That doesn't mean I have to stay in alter-ego until that point - in fact, I need to flip up to attach Honorary X-Men - only that I'll spend most of my time there.

Testing

To test the deck I chose Expert Rhino (and you can see the matchup here), not because Rhino is super easy even at Expert, but because he has a Threat Threshold of only 7, and since I'm playing Aggression I don't have access to Under Surveillance!

I won every game (I mean, she's WAY overpowered for Rhino LOL), and because I expect to catch some grief for using Phoenix to beat Rhino, here's an Expert Ultron video too! The only change I made to this list for Ultron was adding Sunfire!

One Treachery kept messing me up: Masterplan, which can chew through a huge chunk of the encounter deck looking for a side scheme. So I added Keep Up the Pressure with the hopes of finding it early and letting it just sit on the board and "soak" Masterplan, then at the right time clear it and search for Telekinetic Attack (while Unleashed of course!)

"All the Alter-Ego things"

Cerebro makes a ton of sense in Phoenix because she's Psionic in alter-ego. Mulligan hard for it (or for Forge who can find it), because it's critical for achieving confuse-lock!

Cerebro + X-Men Instruction is nothing new for looping Professor X, but it's fun, especially with X-Mansion in play too!

When you get Psylocke out you can break that loop for Forge because he can tutor all of your Basic Supports: Cerebro which can only be played and used in alter, Danger Room which can only be used in alter, The X-Jet which you can't actually use in alter until you attach Honorary X-Men to Jean, Utopia, and X-Mansion which can only be used in alter!

Since you're spending most of your time in Alter-Ego, Meditation let's you play those expensive allies (and The X-Jet) much cheaper, and then Danger Room tutors and attaches an Attack Training to that ally (except for Professor X! Don't put one on him unless there's a really good reason to, like taking out a bothersome drone!).

A card I've not used much in the past but shines here is X-Mansion! Attack for 3 (or 4) with Wolverine and take 2 consequential damage, heal him 1 with X-Mansion, then he'll heal another one at the beginning of your turn. He can stay around "forever"! And while I love using it on Wolverine this way, it's just as good with any ally because they only take 1 consequential damage when thwarting or attacking! With that said, I often found myself needing my allies to go away a little quicker so I could loop them back into the deck to replay for the "enters play" ability: (Professor X and Psylocke obviously, Forge and - against Ultron or any villain with bothersome attachments - Sunfire)

As mentioned above, you can't use The X-Jet as a resource in alter-ego until you attach Honorary X-Men to Phoenix, and you have to flip up to do so!

Flipping up to hero

Even though this deck focuses on Confuse-Lock, flipping up to Hero isn't too dangerous, and you'll want to do that when:

• You can't get the villain confused (especially important against Rhino)
• You need to pop up to play Honorary X-Men
• You have an event you want to play
• You're ready to go Unleashed
• You have a blocker or two. Don't be afraid to block with an ally even if they have an Attack Training, because X-Men Instruction will shuffle that ally back into the deck where it can be found by Cerebro and they'll get their Attack Training back from discard with Danger Room!
• But also don't be afraid to take the attack undefended. Phoenix has a Recovery of 3, White Hot Room can heal 2, and X-Mansion can heal 1 more!

Going Unleashed

Since you're spending most of your time in Alter-Ego there's no rush to go Unleashed, BUT you still need to setup the ability to go Unleashed when you're ready to (i.e. when you're ready to knock out the villain). So every time you flip up to do something in hero form, make sure you take at least one counter off of Phoenix Force, or two if needed (one when you flip up and then one more next turn before flipping back down).

There are a few cards in her kit to help manipulate the count too so you can better time exactly when you want to go Unleashed:

• Cyclops
• Phoenix Firebird
• White Hot Room

And while counter manipulation is fun, something I think is even more fun is to intentionally let the villain hit you while you have Rise from the Ashes in play. This is a ready, full heal, and remove all counters from Phoenix Force so you become Unleashed!

Dark Phoenix

Dark Phoenix coming out really sucks here because you want to be confusing the villain, NOT Dark Phoenix, and if SHE gets to scheme she adds threat to Consume the World instead of the main, giving you a second Loss condition.

This means you'll have to stay up in Hero longer to get rid of her and Confuse-locking the villain becomes less viable.

I actually love this because she's Villainous, so it's like having two villains at once pursuing their own schemes!

43 Cards

This was a 50 card deck at one point, making it much harder to get Cerebro in my opening hand. With much heartbreak and difficulty I paired it down to 40 but the deck really missed Psychic Assault!

I added all three copies of Psychic Assault back to the deck, but I can't find 3 cards to cut to get it down to 40. Suggestions are welcome in the comments!