Fan the Flames

After trying a few different builds and aspects for Phoenix in solo play, I realised she was a great fit for Aggression. Many aggression decks struggle in single player due to threat build up or with extra side schemes at the start of the game, which are very typical in expert mode. Starting with 3 thwart helps to cover this weakness, allowing you to set up without losing control. I tend to not rush into Unleashed and get a few supports out first.

The other advantage of Phoenix in Aggression is that she has access to so much stun and confuse. With confuse in particular this gives plenty of opportunity to switch to alter-ego and make the most of all the X-Men support cards. Some of the new supports from the Rogue and Gambit packs could be useful too once they are released.

As Phoenix has the psionic trait Cerebro with the chosen allies gives you a nice little toolbox to pick the ally you need. Sunfire is a really efficient way to deal with nasty villain upgrades, Cyclops can manage your power counters, Magik can deal with minions, and if you need to confuse you have Psylocke.

Defence mostly comes from allies, but Phoenix has a couple of nice tools with Telekinetic Shield and Rise from the Ashes. Mind Control is actually great if you find a decent minion to use it on, although I don't find Mental Paralysis very useful here.

There are not that many for Drop Kick, but there are wild resources from The X-Jet, Martial Prowess and the Psionic Bond ability.

I tested this against a few scenarios and it works well. It is quite a nice balance of attack and thwart, so should be able to deal with most villains. I managed to beat expert Magneto, even though there is the Steady keyword you have enough stuns and confuses to get through it. I did build this for solo play in mind, but it would be good in 2-player as well.