Wolverine "Knock Them Down" (X-Men Team Up)

This is the second part of my X-men team-up decks.

The strength of these decks is more in their synergy than their individual pieces. The Cyclops leadership deck is key for the building, while the Colossus Justice deck is a key player dealing with threat. You can find these decks here:

The Other Decks

Cyclops Leadership

Colossus Justice

You may want to refer to the Cyclops deck first, just to see the way these decks synergize together in a general write-up.

Other Heroes You Can Use

We made this deck with Wolverine, but it can be ported over to almost any other X-men character, unlike the Cyclops deck which is pretty hero dependent for its function. Storm would be high on my list to pick, being able to give all characters +1 attack will make some insane Team Strike Damages. She also just has an overall amazing kit. After Storm, it'd be a toss-up between Colossus and Jean Grey for me. Jean can get some fantastic damage and can help keep Thwarting in check early on. Colossus wants to constantly flip down which is great for this team-up. Shadowcat is my favorite X-men right now, but I probably wouldn't use her for this deck, personally.

General Strategy

You are the aggression arm of this team-up. It's your job to whittle the Villain down for OTKs and take care of the pesky minions that will be popping up. You'll find yourself hitting for 30-plus damage with Team Strike pretty consistently, to tear down multiple minions in a round after a rough drop, and you can use Wolverines Claws to gain piercing. You'll flip down to benefit from team pieces less than Colossus as Wolverine, but still enough to throw out a couple of tanky allies to assist you on the way.

Wolverine

As Wolverine, you'll be taking advantage of your healing factor and trying to set up while dealing at all the minion problems the game throws at you. Due to Brute Force, you'll be doing a little thwarting, or maybe even defending, rather than activating a basic attack. You want to keep your attack in that 6-7 range to maximize Smash The Problem, Team Strike, The Best Defense and the awesome Fastball Special. You'll tend to have a solid set-up pretty fast and then just strike round after round.

Unlike the other two characters, you'll likely be flipping more out of necessity than taking advantage of awesome Alter-Ego abilities. Once you get Logan's Cabin and Weapon X it makes it less painful to flip down. Try and time it on a round the other two can stay in Hero form, so you take less threat.

It's usually hard for you to get all 3 allies down, as you actually chump a lot more. Try and keep at least 2 on the board however, this would be even more true if playing as Storm. You won't be triggering Danger Room as often, but try and time your alters with allies.

Allies

So, unfortunately, you can't use probably the best X-men aggression ally for this build, Wolverine. Having that massive 4 attacks while buffed, and being used for non-consequential damage attacks and thwarts on the regular, he'd be quite easy to utilize every round. If you are playing the aggression deck with another hero, I'd definitely throw in a Wolverine.

Dust is our worst ally, but is situationally useful. And we don't have a ton to work with in aggression and Colossus needed the basic allies. 2 damage on 2+ minions is worth it, and she still fuels the X-men synergies. Jubilee is not great for our build but makes a solid closer at the end of the game. Magik is fine, but you probably won't be using her kicker too often. Remember you can utilize the X-Jet to play it as long as you are an X-men.

Our last two allies really shine through. Psylocke is great, She has a good thwart to feed Mutant Protectors, and 2 confuses, or even 1 with Steady, is well worth it. Sunfire is one of my favorite allies now. With the number of 3 cost or shuffle back into the deck attachments, Sunfire can be an effective ER0, ER-1 if you have Uncanny X-men played on you. If you can time it with Cyclops and regroup, you can peel an enemy clean in a couple of rounds. With no recursion mechanism, you definitely want him in the discard pile at the reshuffle.

Events

I'll just open with the amazing Fastball Special. Very quickly this will be hitting for at least 6, and maxs out at 9 - 10 if you can hit Fluid Motion prior to. With Overkill and Piercing for 2ER, you can eliminate most problems with this one card. Quickstrike is a cheap 6-7 damage when online. I'd probably remove Smash the Problem, but my wife wanted to keep 1 in there. She does get one really good use off it a game. Don't be afraid to use The Best Defense if you have another exhaust card if you have a good Cyclops player. He can ready with Utopia if any player is playing an ally, so he can trigger this pretty easily, especially if he is first in cue already. If there are no better targets, You and Colossus are the obvious targets, and Colossus won't be exhausted too often. This card can allow you to stay in hero form much longer.

Initially, this card and Mutant Protector made me think of this combo. Your money ability is Team Strike. The important text of the card for our purpose is "and any number of X-Men allies". This means you can use the allies of your other two players, for some insane damages, with piercing if you want to pay for it with Wolverine's Claws. Picture this, you have 4 attacks from Colossus's allies, 18 from Cyclops, 3 from your own, and 6-7 from yourself. You're looking at up to 30 damage a round pretty consistently, a little more sometimes. And you can split it up, and even give it a piercing if you need to. We've had rounds of multiple scary minions that just melted away after this card was played. And all that while preserving your allies. It's not the closer you want for an OTK, but still great. And if you were Storm, you could have an extra 9-11 damage in that final number.

All the normal stuff applies to Wolverine events, and they can easily fill any gaps. Try and set up Track by Scent plays if you can coordinate it with the team. And Regenerative Healing is an obvious play with Deft Focus. You'll usually hopefully be able to use it for health, but both uses will find a use.

Support

So Boot Camp looks like a not-great card for this deck, and I'd have to agree with you. However, this may be the most powerful card in the combo decks, as you are playing it on the Cyclops player, who will consistently have 4-5 allies down. This card is easily worth 20 damage a game, often 30+, making it the second most cost-effective card for the decks. Try and play it the first time it comes through, though that can be complicated to do sometimes.

Helicarrier is useful and stays in the theme of helping others. While you'll often need someone else's resources, just as often you'll have 1 to spare. Logan's Cabin is nice because Wolverine's cards are so strong. Weapon X can help recur those as well, and you are the only deck that can really benefit from it. Colossus won't want to ping off toughness for no gain, and Cyclops doesn't usually want to mill his deck like that, as he often isn't looking for Cyclops cards. If you are trying to cut the deck down, this is a pretty safe cut.

Upgrades

Adamantium Skeleton is your most immediate concern. You need the extra health, and the boost to attack top is icing. After that, you are looking for Deft Focus. I know, crazy with only 4 target cards, but my wife insists on not cutting it because you really do want to play Regenerative Healing for free every time it enters your hand. Endurance and Brute Forces come next. Fit in the rest when you can. Fill in the rest when you can. Due to the nature of the deck, Berserker Frenzy is less valuable than in other Wolverine decks.

Try and get Attack Training on fresh allies when able. While not as much damage immediately, it'll be easy to net 5-10 extra damage off an Attack Training. Due to your nature, you'll need allies more for chumps than the other players, so pay attention to that while you are deciding to play it or not. You may also find, you can drop an attack training on someone else's allies, especially Cyclops with an additional +2 HP per ally, for great long-term value. Scope the board, 2 ER for an extra 10 damage is very doable and well worth it.

OTK

While these decks were made to mitigate all threats as a group, they are also synergized together to perform a one-turn kill at the end of the game. This has been very effective so far and is well worth setting up once the team has the board set and secure.

Optimally, for this to work, the team has to build up a solid board state. Hopefully, you have all the Brute Forces and Fluid Motion out. Cyclops will have out Exploit Weakness, so you should be getting +1 per attack. Any toughness and the form change will have been picked off by Cyclops, and the Villian should be half dead at least. You will have wanted to hold or draw into a fastball special. Most likely you'll have 2 allies on the board, hopefully, both with Attack Training. If you have 3, even better.

You can start off attacking with your allies, for about 7 damage. Next, you'd use a drawn-into Lunging Strike or Slice and Dice with Wolverines Claws for 9 or 8 damage respectively, putting you up to 15. This will allow you to activate Fluid Motion. Throw a Fastball Special for 11 damage getting you to 26. Hopefully, you can throw a Quickstrike or another attack card for 7-9 damage, getting you to 32. Then use your basic exhaust for 8 for 39. With the damage already delivered by Cyclops, you should be in the 75+ range, being able to OTK any Villian stage 3, but you'll still have Colossus if you need a little more.

Alternate Cards

My wife has liked this deck where it's at, so its stays slotted at 44 cards. Cut's I'd make in the following order would be: Weapon X, 1 Attack Training, Smash The Problem, Fluid Motion, The Best Defense. Cards I may add would be a 3rd Best Defense and Combat Training. I probably wouldn't try this set-up eithout the justice counterpart, but if I did I'd definetely throw in some more Smash the Problem.

tl;dr Get a few upgrades out and keep the board clear of minions while whittling down the Villian. When you and Cyclops are ready do a quick stage three where you OTK the Villian.

All that's left is Colossus. I'll post that in the next week or so.