Scryclops (Expert Magneto? Defeato!)

Grab your suitcase and pack your crystal ball as Cyclops-- or should that be Scryclops-- takes you on a mystical journey around the globe!

Sight-seeing takes on a whole new meaning when you can see into the future!

If you like this deck, feel free to give it a ❤ ! Thank you!

At the time of posting, this deck has defeated:

• Expert Magneto
• Expert Mysterio
• Expert Thanos

The deck centers around the new X-Men ally cards in Justice joined with the idea of scrying (looking into the future, or in this case, decks). You can plan for what's coming and manipulate it with Global Logistics and Blindfold!

This deck offers a balance between threat removal, damage, and defense in combination with controlling the encounter deck. While it is completely viable at 3-4 player, it is not built to single-handedly control all the threat at such player counts and you will need assistance. It is best used solo or in 2-player. :)

Scrying with Cyclops

Global Logistics is an amazing card - especially for Cyclops, it’s a Tactic! The whole deck centers around having constant access to it and stacking the odds in your favor.

In solo, you can plan out up to two villain phases with Global Logistics. In 2-player, you can plan out one villain phase for two players. In 3-4 player, you can manage everyone's boost icons.

Look into your future - and make Shadow of the Past a thing of the past.

While you might be reluctant to spend a card on simply rearranging the top of the villain's deck, I cannot overstate how much value Global Logistics has. You can move low boost icon cards to be your boost card, and easy encounter cards to be your encounter cards. And outright discard anything nasty.

Do you see Advance is going to be your encounter card? Make it your boost card for the villain's activation instead! (It has 0 boost icons!) Now, the villain is hitting like a kitten and won't scheme unexpectedly!

Scrying is a whole other way to play Justice. And while it's been around since Sinister Motives, it hasn't been very popular due to restraints on deck space among other factors. But, since Global Logistics is a Tactic card, Cyclops can recur it with Tactical Brilliance! This lets you have Global Logistics in your hand on the majority of your turns! (But note you do need a SHIELD support in play to exhaust, so you can play it.)

Between using your alter-ego to find Tactic upgrades, Tactical Brilliance to find tactics, and Global Logistics and Blindfold to rig the encounter deck, the cards always fall in your favor. Cyclops has incredible control of his cards and his enemy's.

See the future, control the future, win the game.

The Crystal Ball

You need a single SHIELD card to exhaust it in order to play Global Logistics. Since this deck is primarily about repeated use of your X-Men allies, there are only a couple of SHIELD cards to exhaust - the deck should be played like an ally-focused Justice deck until you find either of the two targets, Surveillance Team and Sky-Destroyer.

(Note: Once you draw either of them, you should try to prioritize playing them or you will have a hard time using Global Logistics. While it might seem difficult, you have a 50% chance to find one in your mulligan if, upon not finding one, you ditch all 6 cards. Even if you don't mulligan, you have at least a 27.5% to find the first one in your next hand. And the deck is capable of waiting.)

Overall, I believe Surveillance Team is the best choice. You can remove 2 threat with it total between uses of Global Logistics and, for the purpose of encounter cards you don't see coming, it's basically never your lowest or highest cost upgrade - ensuring it remains in play. You can add a second copy if you wish to enable the combo with Global Logistics sooner.

If you add Sky-Destroyer into the mix? Every Global Logistics also deals 2 damage! It's initially a steep cost, but remember that you can trigger Sky-Destroyer's response on itself to get some immediate value. And Sky-Destroyer enables Global Logistics sooner if Surveillance Team is hiding deep in your deck.

(Note: While I think Cyclops can run a great full SHIELD deck, and it will provide a great deal more threat control, this deck is primarily designed to offer a balance of damage, threat removal, and defense through the incredible value/versatility of X-Men allies, with a secondary feature of rigging the encounter deck in your favor.)

Group Trip!

If you're flying around the globe, you had better bring some friends for the adventure! Fortunately for us, Scryclops can bring the best from every aspect.

• Blindfold is your glamorous assistant. In times without Global Logistics, she can be the one to read the future and arrange things to your liking! While her Response is, overall, a lot more limited than Global Logistics, it's still very powerful and can see further ahead.

• Wolverine brings the damage. He is one of our highest priority plays in the whole deck. Just having Wolverine on the board means you have a whole heap of nigh-permanent damage ready to go, and Toughs become even easier to deal with (read: non-existent).

• Polaris and Colossus bring the damage and the defense. Each of them can block TWO villain attacks while bringing 3-4 damage too! They're each a version of Mockingbird who ignore steady and stalwart effects.

• Angel is a solid ally who is effectively 2-cost for us. He deals a solid amount of damage and blocks when we need it.

• Phoenix is one of the most powerful allies we have. Being able to grab ANY Cyclops card we want to is amazing. This can be Priority Target to profit from a minion, Tactical Brilliance to thwart and grab a Tactic, or Full Blast to blast your enemy! From another perspective, her finding us another card is a partial refund - that makes her a 2 THW, 2 ATK, 3 Hp ally for 2-cost (3 effective resources)! Her balanced stats make her a great multi-purpose tool, she can help solve almost any issue.

• Professor X is last but definitely not least. For 3-cost and the card itself (4 effective resources), you would be forgiven for thinking you only get 3 threat removed and a blocked villain attack. That would be fine value. The fact he can also confuse or ready Cyclops? Incredible!

Fortune Seeing in Style

Be seen in style as you see into the future! Treat yourself to some nice upgrades and supports. You deserve it.

• The X-Jet is your private jet. It's like Quincarrier, but worse in alter-ego and better in multiplayer. It helps greatly when it comes to dealing with encounter cards that demand a mental resource since the deck has so few, and also enables Optic Blast at all times. I will often just play this and ignore Ruby Quartz Visor for the rest of the game!

• Mission Training is essential if you want to be seen in public with your allies. Why settles for a 4 hp Wolverine, when he can have 6? Is Phoenix's 2 THW not doing it for you? Give her Mission Training, now she's thwarting for 3 and can do so 4 times before blocking - that's 5 effective resources for 12 THW and a block. That's good. That's VERY good.

• Game Time - If you're seeing the world, you might as well have some fun! And Game Time is fun. 0-cost to ready an ally and heal it? If the ally has 1 consequential damage, then this might as well be a 0-cost, deal damage/thwart equal to ally's ATK/THW. One card for 2 damage is great, but with Mission Training, one card for 3 threat removal is exceptional. Did I mention that it's a Tactic? Play it, play Tactical Brillance, then play Game Time again for amazing output.

• Plan B is amazing for Cyclops and this deck in particular. With so many Tactic upgrades, you're bound to find the odd turn with too many in hand. Justice also lacks a little damage and, since this deck relies on allies for thwarting, Plan B is a solid and consistent damage, always ready to go. Oh, and it's a Tactic and an upgrade! You can find this with either your alter-ego ability or Tactical Brillance! Play it when convenient, use it as necessary.

• Sidearm is fantastic for Wolverine, but also a great addition for any ally with 2 base ATK and Mission Training. How did you smuggle it past airport security? Best not to ask.

• X-Mansion is your holiday home. Accessorized your allies with Mission Training? Treat them to a relaxing day by the pool and they'll feel much better. You can also use this to heal yourself in a pinch! Even a busy fortune-teller deserves some downtime.

Tourist Tips

Mission Training is extremely efficient. On Phoenix or Blindfold, each extra point of hp is 3 more thwarting. That makes it a 1-cost card that gives you 6 more threat removal! If you keep healing with X-Mansion? This only increases. Even on Angel, Polaris or Colossus, it’s a 1-cost card for 4 threat removal. Don’t hesitate to throw this thing out there on anyone - except Professor X!

In solo play, with thwarting this efficient, suddenly side schemes aren’t a problem whatsoever. When using Global Logistics (when solo), you can choose to have a side scheme as your encounter cards without fear. Many of them can be dispatched with one use of an ally!

Once you have Plan B and Sky-Destroyer up, combined with Optic Blast, you almost always have 7 damage on deck. Combined with your 2+ ATK allies, this deck can handily deal with minions too. Of course, you can use Global Logistics to dodge the worst of them!

In general, you want to try to use Global Logistics as much as possible in 2+ player, and ideally at least every other turn in solo. 0 boost icon cards are ideal to line up for boost cards! And I have found success just using Cyclops to defend since his allies have such excellent value - even 2 DEF is enough when the boost cards barely ever have boost icons. Or, if you know you have an ally ready to block with, even a 3+ boost icon card is fine as long as it doesn’t have a boost effect.

For encounter cards, you’re obviously looking to line up any of the weaker ones. If you know you have enough allies/upgrades to defeat a minion or side scheme already, they are always solid choices. Better yet are cards that simply give the villain a tough or make you discard an upgrade - put one of Cyclops’s Tactic upgrades on the villain after lining it up and simply discard from the villain at the encounter card stage!

In general, you want boost cards without boost effects, and encounter cards to cost you 1-2 resources to deal with (or less if possible!). Even the toughest of villains tend to have a good amount of more mild encounter cards you can maneuver into position. Do this, and Global Logistics more than pays for itself.

While you can also use Global Logistics on your own deck, it pales in value and I wouldn’t recommend it. That is, unless one of those sneaky Mystique modular set cards is lurking. Or one of Mysterio’s. Then you can simply discard them!

Modifications and Other Options

There are a lot of good cards in the game, especially when the X-Men are involved, and it's impossible to take them all! Here are a list of some additional cards you may wish to consider.

• Utopia - An incredibly powerful card but, with Scott's measly attack stat and the immense amount of thwarting that this deck already has access to, the readying isn't necessary. The ally limit increase is nice but the deck already has enough to set up that this didn't make the final cut! But you won't regret bringing it if you so choose to.
• Danger Room - The same as Utopia, it's a great card but it didn't make the cut. While Danger Room makes your upgrades cheaper and easier to find, X-Mansion makes the upgraded allies last forever.
• Cerebro - With Blindfold and X-Mansion, you always have a psionic character. But with only 7 allies, and usually 2-3 already on the board, this can run out of targets and is ultimately not necessary either. But, like all the other X-Men supports, it is amazing and you can't go wrong with its inclusion.
• Marvel Girl - While she's an excellent card, this deck has an immense amount of thwarting for solo play to the point she's not needed. In 3+ player, however, she's an excellent swap in. And can still bring excellent value in 2-player.

Ultimately, with unparalleled access to your deck, discard pile, and encounter deck, Scryclops is prepared for every situation! Set up powerful allies, control the villain with Global Logistics, and cruise your way to victory.

Good luck!