Put that theme song on repeat, you know you want to.

With the release of Nightcrawler's pack, we've got basically all the X-Men allies we could ask for. Magneto might still add one not named Cyclops or Phoenix, but I doubt it honestly. So it was time to update my Cyclops deck and present its final mutation with the how's, what's and why's.

"To Me, My X-Men!"

My biggest gripe with TMMX has always been missing with it. My second biggest gripe is that we want to do more than play an expensive ally every other turn. We want to play a lot of them, perhaps even multiple in a turn.

After playing my previous version(s) a lot in true solo Expert through basically every scenario and winning consistently, I did notice that there were plenty of times where I needed to go into hero form to deal with the board. In other words, Cyclops couldn't sit on his comfy couch back at the X-Mansion to endlessly engage in some Meditation every single game.

The solution? We're now running both "To Me, My X-Men!" and Meditation. Both of them effectively cheat in allies and the two are surprisingly synergistic as well. That 4 cost ally you just played with "To Me, My X-Men!"? Next turn, you put it back into play with some Meditation.

This combination allows for a lot more actions per turn and most importantly, lets us answer the question "How many X-Men do you want to play?" with a resounding "Yes".

The other (one time) way to cheat in an ally is of course Call for Backup. The card needs no introduction and you love to see it turn 1 for a very explosive turn and bringing multiple allies out. It helps you set up early game and mid to late game, it just brings out whatever key ally you need to kick the villain's ass.

The ones Scott doesn't meditate on

We're running a total of 5 allies we'll likely never play through Meditation and 3 of those 5 you will only grab through "To Me, My X-Men!" if you really need to.

That doesn't make them any less powerful though.

Forge may as well be one of the most crucial allies early game, giving you access to Cerebro or Utopia, which are your highest priority supports to get with him. Danger Room and X-Mansion are great too of course, but both Cerebro and Utopia open up your gameplan a whole lot more.

Sunfire is such an amazing card in so many different scenarios. He makes Ronan the Accuser and Venom Goblin cry. While technically costing 3, because you play him mostly for his ability, he's a silver bullet and best of all, you're able to get the energy resource needed for him with Scott Summers's ability, provided you have Practiced Defense left in your deck.

Pixie allows you to get back any of your allies from the discard pile and that's an awesome ability. Early game, she's likely to get Forge back so you can find another one of your supports. Mid to late game, it's really whatever you need back.

Beak is a new one, thanks to Iceman's introduction to the game. His ability is so damn good and it shines even more so in a deck like this where your allies can stay around for a long time. It's not rare for him to come into play late game and be able to remove 4 with his ability and that's damn powerful for a 2 cost ally.

Triage is also new, introduced with Age of Apocalypse. Healing for 2 is essentially renewing an ally already in play and letting them stay even longer which is a ton of value. You likely won't play him early game, but starting from turn 3, you're very happy to see him.

The ones to Meditate on

Meditation is awesome for Cyclops as he gets to do a lot of what he wants to do without needing to use his basic powers. We have a total of 7 allies, including Phoenix, that can be played using just Meditation and no other cards, which gives you a whole lot of bang for your buck.

The non-Psionics are Polaris, Colossus as he is effectively permanently a 3 cost ally in any X-Men deck and our favorite new 3 cost ally, Gambit.

Colossus is mostly there to have another big hitter and honestly the least interesting ally of the bunch. You'll play him if some minion needs to be taken care of, or if you really need an ally that can effectively block twice.

Polaris is amazing and most of the time will basically give any ally another activation by giving them the tough status. Her most clutch use though, is giving Cyclops a tough status for a villain that's going to be attacking with piercing and overkill. Piercing removes the tough from the defender before doing damage, but blocking with an ally makes it so most of the damage still gets soaked by the tough.

Gambit has some variability to him, but manipulating the villain phase is powerful and more often than not, he'll have a solid 2 thw/2 atk/3 hp stat line. Hitting that Under Fire though is phenomenal.

Our 3 cost Psionics are Phoenix, Marvel Girl, Professor X and Legion. Their most important function, outside of Xavier, is to enable Cerebro, but they're each powerful in their own right.

Phoenix is Cyclops's signature ally and her ability is at worst an extra resource in your hand. At best, it's a Priority Target or Exploit Weakness you're about to leverage for a ton of value.

Marvel Girl provides solid thwarting and can help deal with minions. If they have a high thwart stat, then all the more so. She's mostly there to enable Cerebro though, so don't be afraid to trade her in when you are ready to play another Psionic ally.

Professor X is one of the best allies in the game. He will help you enable Cerebro for a turn if you need him to, but between potentially confusing the villain or readying an X-Men character and then thwarting for 3 and blocking, he just always provides value. Unless there's literally nothing to thwart, ready or confuse.

Legion is a new Psionic X-men and, man is he awesome or what? Most of the time in this deck he'll be hitting mental resource off the top of the deck, followed by the energy resource. Keep in mind that it is unlikely to heal him with his ability and we have no way of manipulating the top of our deck. Even so, he's a solid ally to have around. He also helps speed up the rate at which we go through our deck, which is never a bad thing.

The Big Guns

Finally, we have our 4 costs that we really like to see off the top of the deck with "To Me, My X-Men!" or put into play with a Meditation and another resource.

Wolverine can stick around all game long when properly supported. Amazing target for Danger Room Training as the extra hit point allows him to attack three times in a row against anything that doesn't retaliate. Mister Sinister also hates him, especially if Cyclops is suffering from a case of Lost Visor.

Beast will give us a double resource back or get it from the deck. Preferably from discard, but playing him off of either "To Me, My X-Men!" or Meditation gives you a ton more resources to use during that turn.

Psylocke and Dazzler are primarily there to confuse the villain so we can comfortable meditate in Alter-Ego without concern. Psylocke also helps enable Cerebro so we don't mind keep her around after she used her psionic counters. Just don't tell Jean that Scott is keeping her around.

Lastly, we have our new favorite 4 cost ally and that's Rogue. My god, she's amazing. Hitting her off the top with "To Me, My X-Men!" is decent, but what we really want is to have her in play and then hit "To Me, My X-Men!" so she has a free use of her ability without it actually costing her target anything. Her stats can get bonkers high and helps effectively deal with high HP minions or high threat side schemes. Worst case scenario, you can have her target Cyclops to get +2 THW and +1 ATK. Best case scenario, she gives Gambit a smooch and gets up to 6 THW and 6 ATK. Won't happen often but damn it's beautiful.

The Support

As mentioned during Forge's section, Cerebro and Utopia are your key targets to get and keep on the board. Cerebro because it just lets you get what you need in so many situations and Utopia because you will likely hit the ally limit at some point and be wishing you could play even more allies. The ready is also fantastic, allowing you to get more uses out of your allies or to ready op Cyclops.

Danger Room and X-Mansion are less important, but still incredibly powerful. X-Mansion allows us to keep any ally around indefinitely. Often our Psionic ally, but Wolverine and Rogue make excellent targets as well of course.

Likewise, Rally the Troops is something we can usually clear with a single ally activation or Tactical Brilliance in true solo. It will refresh your entire army of allies and that can make a world of difference. The most important part is to remember that its When Defeated ability triggers before consequential damage, so you can use it to save an ally that has 1 HP left even if that ally is the one that has to clear it.

Danger Room Training is something we want to see through Danger Room preferably, but the stat boost can do a lot even by just playing it. Remember to grab them from the deck first with Danger Room to help thin your deck and not draw into them.

Lastly, we have Leadership Skill. This is the flex slot of the deck. It's +3 THW/ATK divided as you choose between activations and it is really good to help push an ally's power to the point where you only need a single activation to clear something. But, it's not a must-have in the deck and there are a ton of interesting options. Uncanny X-Men or Team Training can both provide a ton of value by buffing your allies' HP, but usually the allies sticking around isn't an issue as is, nor do you really need the reduced ally cost in hero form as you're likely to play your most expensive allies in Alter-Ego. Med Lab, Strength In Numbers, Rapid Response and a bunch of others could easily fit in this slot, but to me, Leadership Skill always pulled its weight.

Final Thoughts

There's still a bunch of allies that are really good and could find a spot in this deck and could replace, for example, Colossus. Goldballs, Dust, Nightcrawler, Iceman, just to name a few all have their applications.

If taking this deck to a two hero game with another X-Men who really wants some of the allies that belong to their aspect, you could probably find some to replace them in this deck. This deck has priority mostly on Psionics though, so keep Psylocke when playing with an Aggression deck and Marvel Girl when playing with Justice.

For multiplayer, I honestly might even suggest dropping "To Me, My X-Men!" and just stay in Alter-Ego all game long. With the threat threshold being at least doubled, you can take the villain scheming once a turn. Just be careful of those Advances in a 2 hero game. That being said, Rogue and "To Me, My X-Men!" are an awesome combination that scales well in 2+ hero games.

Lastly, as much as this deck doesn't rely on Cyclops's kit, don't forget that his identity specific cards are really solid, even outside of the tactics. Tactical Brilliance can put in a lot of work and Ricochet Beam can help you deal with Mister Sinister effectively after removing the tough and Genetic Manipulation. Full Blast is still an amazing amount of damage to close out a game with.

Chances are though, you'll never even need to use them with the X-Men at your side.