The Best of Both Worlds

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Phoenix - X-Men Red 0 0 0 1.0
Phoenix - X-Men Red 0 0 0 2.0
Phoenix - X-Men Red 0 0 0 3.0

HeroicSkeleton · 837

When Phoenix becomes unleashed, her THW goes down to 1 but her printed THW is still 3. So we can use Rogue to tap into that even after she flips, giving us the best of both worlds! The core gameplan of this deck is quite simple: Flip Phoenix Force to unleashed as quickly as possible, and use Rogue to continue thwarting 5 each turn. You will typically be set up in 2-3 turns.

Art by: PsychedelicHeroin

QUICK SETUP

In order to flip to unleashed within 2 turns, we want to be triggering Psionic Bond twice per turn- once on the hero phase and again on the villain phase. For this we have Black Widow, Nightcrawler, and Side Step. Since Psionic Bond makes a wild resource, it's a fantastic generator for these effects anyway. If you keep Black Widow around, she can protect you from Dark Phoenix. You can also remove a bonus counter with Phoenix Firebird to ready your hero.

Hopefully, you'll draw Rogue by the time you are unleashed, but if not we have Cerebro to find her. If anything, you should still do okay without her. Professor X and Telepathic Trickery will help both thwart and confuse the villain.

UNLEASHED

Once unleashed, you can focus on playing her powered up events. Mutant Education to cycle them back into the deck, Team-Building Exercise and X-Gene to help pay for them, and Weapon X to draw them. Protective Training and X-Mansion will keep Rogue alive while you burn everything down.

Two copies of Mutant Education and one copy of X-Men Instruction may seem strange, but this is the balance that has worked for me in testing. The single copy of instruction helps get Rogue back if anything goes wrong, and makes sure you always have a target for Cerebro.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Instead of Side Step, you could try Jump Flip, but I've found the extra damage reduction to be far more useful that 1 THW. Swapping instead for Mutant Protectors or Psychic Misdirection was a consideration, but both of those cards are inconsistent. We don't want to rely on having an ally in hand or a minion in play.

10 comments

Jan 12, 2025 Daring Lime · 3107

This is such a cool idea! I really like the combo. Great deck!

Jan 13, 2025 HeroicSkeleton · 837

@Daring Lime Thanks! They really do work great together. It feels like cheating being essentially in both forms at once lol

Jan 13, 2025 thom1977 · 70

Cool concept! Protective training is underrated. The Protective X-men build is fun, I used it in my Bishop healing deck as a sub-strategy for blocking when he is low on hp, and to help with thwarting and attacking. Black Widow feels thematically out of place though; Gambit could make a good substitute—give you information about the next encounter card.

Jan 13, 2025 Wilikai · 1

Thanks for making this deck. I defeated Venom Goblin on Standard III with it today, and it was a lot of fun. At one point, the threat buildup on all three main schemes seemed pretty insurmountable, but I dipped back into restrained mode and Jean and Rogue cleared it like it was nothing.

I didn't find Weapon X to be that useful; once I had a bunch of upgrades and supports out, I was seeing my identity-specific events enough. I think in the future I'd either replace it with a What Doesn't Kill Me or also drop Black Widow (who's not X-Men and therefore breaks Utopia a bit) and add Storm with Soul Sisters.

Jan 13, 2025 HeroicSkeleton · 837

@thom1977 Protective training is especially great for an ally like Rogue. Protection lacks ally buffing upgrades, but since Rogue's stats already get really high, the extra hp so she can activate more is perfect! Gambit would be a good choice too. For the theme of Black Widow, I like to think of her being hired by SHIELD to watch over Jean and ensure that the Dark Phoenix doesn't return xD

@Wilikai Wow, I love that you went straight to Venom Goblin to test it out! lol. Fair point on Weapon X, its not always going to be useful, I like having it for those late turns in unleashed where I really want to draw a Telepathic Attack or Trickery. What doesn't Kill Me sounds like a fantastic option too. Utopia is here mostly for the readying, and you could always chump block with Black Widow if you end up needing the extra slot. But Storm sounds like a fun pick as well. Rogue's 5 THW can sometimes be overkill on a scheme, so by moving threat around you can be more efficient. Thanks for checking it out!

Jan 13, 2025 bendrix · 1

Such a fantastic idea. Can't wait to try it.

Jan 14, 2025 boomguy · 1908

Awesome combo! This is a little combination I haven’t seen yet and it looks like a ton of fun. I’ll be trying this!

Jan 14, 2025 KingOfRohan · 5397

You finally posted your tighter Phoenix Protection deck! Excited to try this out, I think immediately after you commented on my Earth Angel deck, I tried pulling out all of the defense stuff, and was like "Oh yeah, this is way tighter." But I also don't know if I ever put in Cerebro, which is a crazy oversight. Nice work. And I love the Black Widow "save me from Dark Phoenix" idea.

Jan 14, 2025 HeroicSkeleton · 837

@KingOfRohan Thanks! I was going to leave a comment on yours that I FINALLY got around to posting it lol. The deck didn't even really change much since then, I just felt it needed more testing. Cerebro is nice, but I don't think its 100% necessary. Its just a nice backup if Rogue is at the bottom of the deck, or ended up discarded.

Jan 16, 2025 dr00 · 45929

i was actually working on this deck too, working off the printed THW of Phoenix for Rogue. when i get back to it, i'll definitely take a few of these into account :D

i really like the X-Men Instruction and Side Step a lot (i was considering Psionic Redirect)