Xmen Playthroughs

Xmen Playthroughs

Note that I'm testing with Green Goblin Mutagen Formula again.  GGMF is a decent all around scenario to test most basic mechanics.  It has plenty of tougher minions, attachments, and side schemes. It has some start up pressure, and GGMF stage 2 adds a lot of pressure.  The villain pace is a good challenge ==> it's in the upper middle difficulty level among villains.  .  I added [A Mess of Things] to add more stuns in the deck.  The first Mutant Genesis villain is Sabertooth, who is maybe a little harder than GGMF.  I'll be trying that next.

Wolverine Aggression + Shadowcat Protection vs 

Green Goblin Mutagen Formula + A Mess of Things

Pairing:  

This was a slightly slower game.  The heroes were playing upgrades early on, and they didn't have an ally on the board for a few rounds.  Once they got allies out, it was a race to take down GG.  Nothing stunning, but Wolverine's hero power sure helps that push for the end.

Shadowcat

Shadowcat was able to discard a villain attachment once.  She was able to block for Wolverine most of the time.  She only took damage when the villain attacked 4 times in one round.  I love her ability to ignore Guard and Patrol --then do damage to the minion she ignored.  That's so thematic.  I used that a lot.  It's like reverse overkill (underkill)?

Wolverine

This definitely tested Wolverine's ability to handle minions.  He got stunned twice, and was able to clear it with a card once.  Wolverine controlled minions and threat while playing upgrades.  Due to his hero power, he was playing attack events early on.  He got down to 3 hp, then flipped to heal.  I added Downtime, Endurance, and Recuperation to his deck.  He might not need Recuperation. 

Gambit Aggression + Angel Protection vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula + A Mess of Things

Pairing

The stuns were definitely worse for this duo --although Angel was stunned early, and didn't clear it for like 4 rounds, due to thwarting and defending.  That was funny.  "Ah crap, I'm stunned already!  Now I can't attack when --er, oh I don't need to attack."  Anyway, these two were hitting early.  This was a slightly faster game.  GG got some attachments, which they just never cleared, because Angel was defending so well.  It let them focus elsewhere.  These characters had more going on, and I had to pay more attention to all the cards in play.  I would say that the Xmen, so far, are harder to play 2-handed solo.

Gambit

Trying out Gambit in Aggression to swap Colossus into Justice.  I loved Gambit's counters.  Gambit flipped every round. Unfortunately, two of his best upgrades were on the bottom of the deck: Gambit's Staff, and Gambit's Guild Armor.  Those would have made his game even better.  At the end, he boosted Melee to do 8 + 8 damage.  This is mostly a voltron aggression deck.  Bootcamp and Attack Training were amazing.  I used his Thief Extraordinaire power a few times, but then he was exhausted when he flipped.  It's interesting though.  Against a different villain, it might be great, because you get to discard one of the next two boosts, and use it against the villain to thwart --where it's usually most valuable.  If you're flipping a lot, this is great, but it makes me want to keep Gambit in Justice.  We'll see how Colossus does.

Angel

Angel as Archangel is amazing!  Unfortunately, this form is another fold-out card.  I get the giant cards for Antman and Wasp, but I'd rather have a regular form-switch card for Archangel.  I might custom print one.  Anyway, with Armored Vest and Soaring Acrobatics, he was defending for 5.  He adds the cost of an aerial event card as damage --that adds up so fast.  He hit Razor Dive for 9 + overkill three times.  This is easy because his hero resources can recur aerial event cards, and his Techno-Organic Wings can reduce the cost of aerial events by 2.  He shuffled a lot of aerial cards back into his deck with Worthington Industries.  His allies were fantastic.

Cyclops Leadership + Colossus Justice vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula + Goblin Gimmicks

Pairing

These two are an interesting pair.  Cyclops did most of the early thwarting with allies, then Colossus did a bunch.  I tend to agree that Colossus mostly just tanks damage, while throwing out stuns and confuses.  Consequently, they both flipped a lot.  They both had some bad draws mid game.  With upgrades on two allies, Cyclops really threw out the damage.  Shadows of the Past came out right at the end to put Cyclops' nemesis into play --didn't matter.  GG was down to 13, there was one Goblin Thrall out, and together they had enough to deal with the nemesis, the minions, and take down the villain.

Cyclops

I went through his deck once, just barely.  This was a convincing win.  He needs to add at least one more upgrade to his deck (Inspired)?  It was funny how Green Goblin sealed his own fate by keeping an upgrade on himself --enabled Cyclops' Eye Beam every round.  Oddly, Cyclops played Uncanny Xmen, and Team Training early for +1 hp for all allies.  Between those, Teamwork, Danger Room Training, and Game Time, he never lost an ally.  I  love how he can have allies from any aspect.  That's a cool trick.  I'll be looking to customize.  Oh, I should mention how I also misread Dust.  She can throw out tons of damage, if she has an upgrade.

Colossus

Sigh, another 4-card hand size hero.  Already I have one house-rule for Colossus: Instead of Organic Steel in hand on setup, he has Iron Will to get cards.  There are three Organic Steel cards (easy to draw one), but only one Iron Will.  Four card hand size is almost always too limiting and no fun.  Because of this, his deck was slow --and I think I used his Alter Ego power too liberally.  At game end, he still hadn't shuffled.  There were some cards which I never saw through the whole game, buried on the bottom (despite multiple shuffles).  He flipped every round -I mean, that's why I swapped him into Justice.  His tanking, stuns, and confuses were great, but he lagged in thwarting.  This was partially because of the minion swarm from GG.  I didn't want minions plinking any toughs, so instead of thwarting for 3, I sometimes had to attack for 2.

Thor Aggression + Rogue Protection vs Green Goblin Mutagen Formula + Goblin Gimmicks

Pairing

OMG.  Wow.  These two were an amazing team.  I wanted to match Rogue with an Aerial hero to copy the trait.  It worked so well.  Rogue helped Thor get built out super early with Superpower Adaptation to play For Asgard and give Thor an upgrade after Thor had just played it to get an upgrade.  It was trade-off, because they both had to flip to Alter Ego to do this, and this caused the main scheme to advance early.  Needless to say, it was worth it; Thor raced through his deck, then Honed Technique brought the power.  Rogue played Karma early on to grab a minion, which she then upgraded with Protective Training.  She always had a blocker out, and defended extra.  I loved the way Karma worked, because it's two blockers for the price of one plus you take out a minion.

Thor

Okay, this may be OP.  I added Honed Technique plus Dive Bomb, Bombs Away, Melee, and Browbeat.  I also added Team Building Exercise (maybe over-resourced) to help with Hammer Throw (and all the other traited cards) because it's always there to use...  Of course, Thor throwing an HT boosted Dive Bomb, is basically Thor arriving in Wakanda.  KA-SMASHA!  I've never seen Thor play this well so early, or hit this hard after he was built out.

Rogue

I really didn't know what to expect from Rogue.  Rogue never got retaliate out with Dauntless, but she did touch Thor several times to throw out Southern Cross and Goin Rogue for extra damage / thwart + draw a card.  She also cleared a stun with touched on Thor (Stalwart).  That was so cool.  She had Deft Focus out early, so the superpower cards were flying...  Also, at one point she threw Superpower Adaptation to grab Thor's Lightning Strike, which she charged with 4 energy to take out two goblin minions.  So thematic.  I loved it.  I added Flow Like Water to Rogue's deck, but she had so many blockers, she really didn't use it much.  I may remove it.  Overall, her deck was SOOOO thematic.  I had a blast with her.