Bishop - 250th Jubilee

"Independence now and forever!" ~Daniel Webster

Bishop is one of my favorite X-Men, and it was high time I worked up another deck for him. With his kit's focus on resources, I figured Cameo was a good fit because he can more easily make up for the loss of early-game resources. There are some stellar options when going this route, but I really wanted to do something thematic for the United States' 250th Anniversary. So, why not have a Jubilee party?


This deck features a Cameo of the Jubilee ally to recur over and over in an ongoing celebration and takes advantage of her attack boost with readies. It pairs well with a friend using the Wolverine ally or hero.~D.M. Tip

The Party Plan

1. Bring the fireworks: As mentioned, we'll use Cameo to shuffle in Jubilee. We don't have innate access to Wolverine, so for the best party, you'll need to invite a friend. More on that later.
2. BYOG: Bring Your Own Gear (Rifle/Uniform) and deploy it as early as possible, using Lucas' Temporally Displaced as necessary. Important for every Bishop deck.
3. Set the Stage: Command Team, Cerebro, and Uncanny X-Men, are key cards to prioritize early, and Make the Call with X-Men Instruction is going to let us keep celebrating over and over.

Time to Celebrate

1. Play Jubilee, like, a lot. Totally. Get as many uses out of her 'enters play' ability with readies from Utopia and Command Team. Even without Wolverine, she hits hard for her cost, especially with Uncanny X-Men giving her a discount and an extra hit point.
2. When Jubilee hits the discard pile, you can Make the Call to bring her back, or use X-Men Instruction to shuffle her into your deck before grabbing her with Cerebro. This works best when you have a Psionic character in play.
3. Normally, Make the Call feels bad when allies are discounted with team cards, but Bishop has easy access to double resources between Energy Absorption and Temporally Displaced, so we're good to go.

The Guest List

1. Beast is a no-brainer for Bishop because he allows you to grab additional resources to fuel your gear and other cards.
2. Cyclops is a great addition/alternative to Jubilee to recur for larger parties (3-4p games).
3. Forge finds both Cerebro, X-Jet, and Utopia.
4. Kid Omega is a cheap Psionic, so he's nice to have hanging out in play for Cerebro.
5. Malcolm and Randall are mandatory includes and decent uses of extra resources when you can't spend them on other things.
6. Phoenix gets you an extra Jubliee trigger, which is what we're here for and is also Psionic, helping you use Cerebro.
7. Lastly, Professor X is a solid addition that gives you some additional flexibility with being able to ready Jubilee or confuse the villain to make it easier to flip down.

The Clean Up

1. Spend extra resources on Bishop's events and Super-Charged whenever you get a chance.
2. You won't always be able to recur Jubilee, so make use of what you have to keep the pressure on the villain and keep threat under control.
3. Don't forget to invite a friend. This deck is intended for multiplayer where you get a little more grace to set the stage with upgrades and support, as well as being able to pair with either the Wolverine ally or hero.
4. I highly recommend at least one of your friends playing Storm Aggression, such as this one here. This will let you make better use of the Thunderstorm weather, share an extra copy of Uncanny X-Men, and maybe get a Boot Camp in return, all while also boosting the Wolverine ally a little further.
5. Alternatively, boosting another Wolverine hero is great if you can alternate your Jubilee timing to perpetually boost attacks.

Final Thoughts

While there could be even more readies, with the likes of Danger Room, Danger Room Training, and Game Time, it was just too much to cram into a single deck that needs to frequently recur an ally.

I opted, instead, to bring a more balanced deck that can function decently enough when we aren't playing and readying Jubilee. A handful of allies give you tons of utility options. This is a common strategy in most decks, Bishop doesn't need them to block because of Energy Absorption, so you are free to use up their activations when they come out.

Resource Reserve is another stellar card for multiplayer, turning your extra resources into shared assets or improve timing to use Effective Leadership for Jubilee. With these types of tools, you'll be set up to handle whatever is thrown your way.

With that, I hope you have a blast celebrating the 250th this year! Let me know what you think in the comments below and, if you give it a shot, let me know how it went. Jubilee is not the strongest Cameo choice, but it can be fun and effective if you can line things up. Now, I'll head back to working on some decks with a bit more gumption.

~Peace!