Missile Toe to Toe

Missile Toe to Toe

This Bishop deck, Missile Toe to Toe, is built around the selective triggering of The Bellerophon's missiles and strategic play of Toe to Toe . The latter is particularly central, as forcing the villain to attack not only deals significant damage but also synergizes with Bishop's hero ability and other key cards to generate resources and trigger beneficial effects. This focus on controlled aggression and resource generation allows for impactful final burst damage turns, as well as consistent high-tempo damage.

If you'd like to see a discussion of this deck, see the following video: Bishop Deck Discussion | Aggression | Missile Toe to Toe

VILLAINS TESTED AGAINST to refine the deck (in both standard and expert): Klaw (with an expert house rule(1)); Unus; Dark Beast; and Magneto.

Deck Refinements

Removed:

• Both player side schemes: Build Support and Superpower Training (These proved unnecessary due to Forge's response and Bishop's alter-ego ability Temporally Displaced.)
• Beak

Added:

• Face the Past

Possible Exchange One Might Make:

• Add copies of Digging Deep in place of The Power of Aggression (This is a trade-off for alter-ego use of Weapon X.)

NOTABLE ELEMENTS OF PLAY:

• 10 Resource Cards:

  • 2 copies of The Power of Aggression: Although there are only 4 targets for The Power of Aggression, these resource cards consistently come to hand for the aggression allies and The Bellerophon.
  • 2 copies of The Power in All of Us: The inclusion of The Power in All of Us is easily more justified because of 7 targets for it, but especially with Lockjaw regularly available in the discard pile.

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• Alter-ego Elements:

  • Confusion: Psylocke and Professor X facilitate going to alter-ego with their confusion abilities.
  • Bishop's alter-ego ability: Temporally Displaced allows Bishop to get his critical upgrades into his hand from his discard pile, Bishop's Uniform and Bishop's Rifle, the former being the most important. In addition, Temporally Displaced can target his two identity-specific allies, Malcolm and Randall, which can then be played to trigger Utopia. Alternatively, one can add one of his Stored Energy resource cards to facilitate playing a card or to supply charge counters on a copy of Super-Charged.
  • Weapon X: This card helps ensure not too many of Bishop's own cards are discarded by his hero ability, especially Energy Conversion.

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• Cards the Deck Was Name After:

  • Toe to Toe: This card is the inspiration for this deck, allowing one to deal 5 damage for a cost of 1, while also triggering Bishop's ability, potentially immediately healing that damage with Bishop's Uniform or adding more resources to increase damage from Bishop's Rifle. It also can trigger "You'll Pay for That!" or Energy Conversion.
  • The Bellerophon: This card is meant to be used strategically to simultaneously rid the play area of minions and deal damage to the villain, while removing any pesky tough status cards (or to contribute damage in the final turn).

• Burst Damage: In the 8 victories against the villains, the last 6 of them resulted in 30-36 points of damage. Always, one of the Super-Charged cards contributed (and sometimes both). A variety of the other cards regularly contributed as well, including The Bellerophon, Toe to Toe, Concussive Blast, Bishop's Rifle, and one or more allies.

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Conclusion:

This deck provides a consistent and exciting gameplay experience, showcasing Bishop's unique abilities by transforming potential threats into powerful advantages. Mastering the timing of Toe to Toe will unlock the deck's full potential, allowing you to dominate the battlefield with strategic resource management, minion and threat management, and explosive damage.

(1) Note on expert house rule for Klaw: This modification assures that expert Klaw makes for a consistently challenging villain during playtesting. After discarding cards at the beginning of the game and putting into play the first minion that is discarded from the encounter deck, if that minion is NOT a Masters of Evil minion, I search the encounter deck for a Masters of Evil minion and replace the original discarded minion with it. I then shuffle that original minion back into the deck.