Under Lock & Key

Card draw simulator

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Rey Plays Games · 526

Keeping Dark Phoenix at Bay

Off the back of a comment by andyr from the Winning Hand Podcast, I thought I'd publish a work-in-progress (WIP) deck.

The intent is to then hopefully garner some discussion and feedback from other builders with suggestions to tinker and upgrade this deck!

VERSION 1

So the main focal points for this deck is to -

1) Thematically lean into the Psionic Trait;

2) Prevent Dark Phoenix from entering play

All allies have the Psionic trait and this is aided by The Power of the Mind being included in the deck (which of course covers the cost of Phoenix's psionic cards too.

I've tried to increase resources to trigger Telekinesis and Telepathy

Added Stepford Cuckoos and Intelligence to counter Shadow of the Past or other pesky encounter cards;

Justice Served to allow Phoenix to basic attack/thwart again;

Generation X because hitting those events may be hard;

Going Undercover to also try and fish out encounter cards you dont want to see;

Practiced Plan to recur Intelligence if needed be;

Finally, the only little flourish I added is Soaring Acrobatics for when Phoenix gets Aerial...amping up a base stat is handy in a pinch...

I've only tested this once against Mutagen Formula (Standard) and expectedly, it was a slow game...building board over playing events...

What are your suggestions to perhaps balance it a bit more? To increase the tempo, but to also maintain a level of control!

Comment below and let's start the convo!!

9 comments

Aug 07, 2025 Rey Plays Games · 526

The game iI had was fun...got Telekinesis and Psimitar out early so was hitting for 5 damage each turn...bur the minions slowed me down essentially..

Aug 07, 2025 boomguy · 6362

To make things more consistent you can try Agent Coulson to get your preparations back. What about Spycraft even?

Aug 07, 2025 VJakson · 1053

Cool idea!

I’m wondering if justice served could be something a little more offensively minded since you pointed out it can be slow going.

Aug 07, 2025 Rey Plays Games · 526

@boomguy yeah Agent Coulson is a good call!..only played it once and managed to get Stepford Cuckoos out before Intelligence...after which the Cuckoo sisters had everything covered...but yeah, getting Coulson to grab Practiced Plan and/or Intelligence would be mighty handy!

Aug 07, 2025 Rey Plays Games · 526

@VJakson Thank you!:) Yeah, I probably should do away with Justice Served...i ended up using Phoenix Force more to ready, than Justice Served ...maybe i can swap them out for Turn the Tide or something!:)

Aug 07, 2025 turtle-dude · 15

I'm kind of suprised you don't have Cerebro in here. It works thematically and mechanically with what you are trying to do. You might also consider finding some room for Turn the Tide to help with damage. Maybe that could speed up the game a bit.

Aug 08, 2025 Rey Plays Games · 526

@turtle-dude...to be honest I don't know how Cerebro slipped through the cracks too! Haha...i think I was hellbent to address keeping SOTP at bay, and wanted to use the Telekinesis and Telepathy upgrades...i forgot about Cerebro! But yes, Turn the Tide I'm keen on including...thank you!

Aug 08, 2025 andyr · 13761

Love this idea! Thanks for hearing that comment. One thing I was curious about: I saw Soaring Acrobatics, so I’m guessing you want the suit fairly quickly. Is there a thought to adding in Superpower Training? Might be good to have a second way to get her suit out.

Thanks for posting the deck and generating discussion

Aug 08, 2025 Rey Plays Games · 526

Thanks so much @andyr! Yeah, your comment really resonated, so just had to give it a go! Admittedly, Soaring Acrobatics was a bit of an indulgence from me...as the deck primarily focuses on psionic, I just dropped in Soaring Acrobatics cos I want to prop to Aerial a little!:p...But Superpower Training is a great idea since either Rise from the Ashes or Phoenix Suit would be great gets!...Might add it instead of Going Undercover as i think Going Undercover is a bit overkill in trying to mitigate bad encounter cards if I already have Stepford Cuckoos and Intelligence....I still like the idea of Soaring Acrobatics to give Phoenix 4THWT or 4ATK !:P