Our daring band of misfits and rogues are out to pull off a heist! Fortunately, they collaborate instead of compete, for they know the code:

HONOR AMONG THIEVES

Was super excited to bust out the Sly Cooper reference on this one, even though I think the second game is the best one!

Planning the Perfect Heist

The core concept here centers around Thief Extraordinaire. This is the first time an identity has had meaningful use for its exhaust in an AE centered deck!

• The real power of Thief Extraordinaire is setting the top card of the deck every turn!
  • Perfect boost knowledge means always knowing the next turn's incoming threat, usually leaving a low boost on top to guarantee the villain can never advance the main scheme!
  • Using Mutant Education to cycle Creole Charmer (on top of Professor X and Dazzler), the villain can be reliably confused every turn. Every turn the villain is confused, Thief Extraordinaire is selecting the encounter card for the round!
  • This perfect knowledge of the top card of the encounter deck at all times means reliably staying in alter-ego for extended periods, and potentially the whole game!
  • What's even better is that Thief Extraordinaire has its discard as part of its cost, meaning you still get to do it even while confused!!
  • To put this in perspective, if a 3-boost would have been the villain's scheme boost, and you discard it to remove 3 threat while leaving the villain a 0-boost, it is as if Gambit has just thwarted 6! Likewise, if Advance was set to be in the encounter spot, but you discard the other card, making it the boost for the round; that's as good as a confuse!
• When the villain is confused and minions SCH for a negligible amount, some games, Gambit doesn't even have to deal with minions! Pulling off the heist from right under their noses! With low SCH minions essentially being free encounter cards, the tempo for setup is huge, letting him keep the lock going indefinitely. When it is time to win, Gambit has crazy burst damage potential!
• Always being in alter-ego means 6 card hands + extra resources from Cerebro, Danger Room, Weapon X, Mutant Education, and all of his doubles (he hits doubles more often thanks to Mutant Education).
  • This means fast set up and the ability to flood expensive allies w/Training upgrades

It almost feels like Gambit is in a different game from the villain since there is very little the villain can do to disrupt this. An alter-ego strategy means:

• More resources per turn
• Never taking attacks->no risk of losing to damage
• Status-lock the villain
• Perfect control over the top of the encounter deck->no risk of losing to threat
• Quickstrike always whiffs (like Belladonna)
• Can always deal with alter-ego obligations and attachments
• Can play Weapon X and Cerebro from 6-card hands instead of needing to flip down from a 5-card hand

This deck feels like cheating a bit, but it's really just the card up your sleeve!

Assembling the Crew

Removed profanity since this is a family site, but you know the caption already, right?

In order to guarantee the confuse from Creole Charmer or the card draw from The Thieves Guild, Remy needs ways to tweak threat numbers outside of the unreliable Thief Extraordinaire. This will primarily be done with allies and Mission Training, where permanent/extended alter-ego allows for repeated use of Danger Room, Cerebro, and X-Mansion

• Professor X is the mastermind, in constant contact with the whole crew, getting them ready and in position for additional thwart, damage, or use of Thief Extraordinaire!
• Dazzler is the demolitions expert, setting things off so the crew can infiltrate!
• Blindfold is the pickpocket, stealing key items from the mark and leading them away from the scene! Stack the deck in Remy's favor, either before or after using Thief Extraordinaire to increase the odds of getting what he wants!
• Banshee is the communications expert, shutting out the guards' comms and leaving them in the dark! Excellent minion tech, I've had games where he confuse-locks a minion parallel to Remy confuse-locking the villain. With Mission Training or X-Mansion, he can do this for the entire game! In one 2-player game with a Voltron deck partner, Banshee locked down a Werewolf Pack from the Horror show mod and kept it in front of him the entire game so it wouldn't be shuffled back, saving the Voltron ally from any risk of being hit by its effect!
• Marvel Girl is the conwoman, chipping a minion while putting the main within range for Remy to safecrack!
• Storm is the getaway driver, laying down some fog cover and pulling the crew out in the The X-Jet! Rearranging threat with her ability can really line things up nicely!
• Forge provides the tech for the heist, setting up bases of operation at the X-Mansion, Cerebro, Danger Room, Utopia, and providing a getaway vehicle in the The X-Jet!
• Rogue is a beater with an extra health thanks to toughness! In solo, there won't be many attacks to block, so soaking retaliate into her tough to cue something up for another heist crew to clear is a niche positive! After a single flip, she'll be free the rest of the game!
• Cerebro pulls the crew together!
• The heist plan is run through the Danger Room, where each crew member receives their Mission Training! It is almost always best to pull a copy of Mission Training from the deck instead of the discard. This thins the deck and guarantees that it is never drawn in place of a more useful card
• The X-Mansion is the heist crew safehouse, healing one crew member every turn! Alternate between the skillsets with the most utility in terms of stats and ability
• Beat Cop is our man on the inside. Removing one threat per turn allows for precision control over the heist. We can also order him to plant evidence and apprehend an obstacle in our way, even from alter-ego! Beat Cop's damage works through stunned, ignores retaliate, and is trigger able from alter-ego to clear pesky Patrol minions

The Cooper Gang receives help from Sly's ancestors in the form of techniques recorded in the Thievius Raccoonus, while Remy has his loyal band of mutants!

The Longshot Gambit

Usually, Longshot is a bit of a gambit. But nothing is ever really a longshot when playing with Gambit!

Using Thief Extraordinaire or Blindfold to put a star boost on the top of the deck guarantees that Longshot will defeat a non-elite minion! With a Mission Training and some healing from X-Mansion, Longshot can stick around all game, clearing patrolling guards out of the heist crew's path. (And minions with Patrol can block Remy's alter-ego thwarting, so they need to be cleared!)

Of course, Longshot won't come out unless Gambit is throwing the cards around in hero form, so at least once there needs to be a hero turn to either play Longshot or play Honorary X-Men to set up a future play. While in hero, may as well Charge de Card twice and gain any additional counters from Natural Agility and Molecular Acceleration, setting Rogue up to be played for free from alter-ego!

• Longshot is the wild card of the heist crew. Sometimes uncertain, but with Remy's guiding hand, they can call the villain's bluff, up the ante, and go all in!

Money Heist

The goal is to steal enough money that we can move to a tropical island and hang up the gig for good!

One benefit of staying in alter-ego is always having a 6-card hand size. Having an extra card up the sleeve, really helps to win those games of 5-card draw!

• Molecular Acceleration won't place a charge counter when spent, but it is perfectly playable in alter-ego!
• Mutant Education is not a card I recommend in any deck except Gambit, where it is never dead and even preferred! The key targets are Molecular Acceleration, cycling economy, and Creole Charmer for the confuse (remember, there is the option to only shuffle 1 card back in if there is only 1 of these, don't thicken the deck with jokers that won't be useful)
• Weapon X combos well with Mutant Education, sometimes immediately drawing a card that was put back in the deck. This is a great use for Remy's health while he camps in alter-ego! X-Mansion can always heal it up in a pinch!
• Forge sets up remarkably fast with all of the double resource recursion and pulling Cerebro in alter-ego means it is always playable immediately
• Cerebro is worth it even trying the odds at the top 5 without a psionic partner. With the amount of deck thinning there is, odds are pretty high! With Mutant Education to put Rogue back in the deck, Cerebro can pull her and play her for free! (Particularly with a Psionic ally out)
• The X-Jet is a resource that can be used on anything, but in this deck is a lower priority, as value from it is dependent on flipping up and playing Honorary X-Men
• Utopia is great to ready a Mission Training ally, stats and activation effects are the name of the game here. But once Honorary X-Men is on Remy, Utopia can allow for double Thief Extraordinaire turns! Triple with Professor X! This means he can set up Longshot and still set up the top card for the villain phase!

Everyone remembers this scene from Now You See Me right?

Thieves Guild

This card is so much fun, but when given the option to trigger The Thieves Guild or Creole Charmer, the latter is always the correct choice even if it wastes threat. A confuse is worth so much more than a card, even with a higher upfront cost vs The Thieves Guild. The extra turn in AE means more resources next turn from larger hand size and AE supports. If the villain is already confused, go right ahead and line up the Guild! Unfortunately, it is very hard to trigger the draw, being almost entirely luck dependent (except on turns where he can Thief Extraordinaire multiple times!). At worst, the scheme empties and Guild whiffs, but usually it is just 1 extra threat off a scheme.

Signature Cards

With Remy's time primarily spent in alter-ego, his hero cards will be underplayed.

• Thin the deck by playing Gambit's Staff and Gambit's Guild Armor with extra resources when possible. Flipping up when the boost is known can guarantee a ready off the armor, and the staff is excellent vs toughs or enemies like Badoon Assassin and Shifting Apparition

• Royal Flush is his signature attack. The endgame of this deck usually is play x2 Royal Flush for 18 and attacking with a board of allies and Gambit for another 12-14. Each charge counter spent on Royal Flush will boost each instance of damage on it. Just note that his hero interrupt must be used before the counter from Royal Flush is placed on him, so it cannot be used towards itself

• Natural Agility is normally a great card, all but guaranteeing trigger Gambit's Guild Armor when you defend for 7+ (I've gone as high as DEF 16). Getting a counter can also make the most out of the few hero turns he needs to win

Mulligan

Sometimes you just need a do-over on the heist! Here is what we are looking to start out with:

• X-Mansion or Forge are important to get the Mutant Education + Creole Charmer loop started

• Any confuse is good turn 1

• Any economy support The X-Jet, Cerebro, Weapon X can help snowball things

Multiplayer

In 2-4p, Remy no longer has perfect knowledge of his boost/encounter card every round. But giving a partner knowledge of their boost can really help perfect defense decks or help a partner with the decision to chump, tank, or defend. With constant confuse and boost knowledge, multiple players can safely flip down at once. Higher scheme thresholds of multiplayer are easier to stay down against, but will take more work to set up for Creole Charmer. I've played this deck at all player counts, usually spending most of the game in alter-ego and still carrying the thwarting and confusing for the team.

Scarlet Witch makes a great partner, since Remy can use Thief Extraordinaire out of turn to manipulate the top card of the deck for her, and she can use Scarlet Witch's Crest or Chaos Control for him!

Other Versions of this Build

Initially this started as an "only AE" build, but the realization of how good Longshot is, made me add him, The X-Jet, Utopia, and Honorary X-Men that previously had been left out. The previous iterations had the following cards:

• Under Surveillance was included for awhile, and is useful vs villains with low threshold main scheme 1's, like Ultron, letting the villain scheme once without popping it and then getting things back under control with the AE thwart and allies. This is one that is worth teching in sometimes!
• Breaking and Entering was cut because Gambit-J already has so much thwarting potential! With it gone, Sense of Justice was also dropped
• Operative Skill was very awkward, since the decision to use an operative counter had to be made before knowing how much Thief Extraordinaire would thwart for, either resulting in too much thwart and shutting off his other cards, and/or completely wasting a counter.
• Foiled! was an idea once Longshot joined the crew, since setting up Longshot meant leaving Remy vulnerable to scheme boosts on non-confuse turns. The idea was to always be able to calculate incoming threat, but it was often unnecessary, and so many times Remy leaves a 0-boost on top of the deck. It also had bad match-ups, like Master Mold, where it is blank. It does have some good match-ups, like Spiral, and it did save us one game vs Magneto!

Matchups

The current build has won games entirely staying in alter-ego, staying in alter-ego until the final turn, and with a more flipping strategy. Minions can either be ignored or dealt with via allies. With the villain confused and a few 1 SCH minions out, we always have perfect knowledge of the next turn's threat. Being able to ignore things instead of deal with them, generates a lot of tempo, contributing to the feeling of Gambit playing another game entirely from the villain

• For example, Mutagen was an all-AE game until the final turn, confusing Green Goblin and taking a couple threat per turn from minions. Banshee is excellent at confusing them, while Longshot can instant-delete them when necessary. Beat Cop and 2 ATK allies can do some work, and at worst, Remy can don the jacket, flip up and instant-kill with his attack events.
• Zola is weak to confuse and has plenty of schemes for Creole Charmer to target, while also harboring 0 SCH Quickstrike minions that Gambit excels with. Longshot is very strong here
• Against Drang, it is important to flip up once early to remove the spear, but once stalwart is gone, perfect AE can be achieved and we don't even mind the indirect from Badoon Ship.
• Venom was easier than expected. Gambit's confuse can outpace Venom's steady and Royal Flush matches up really well with the Bell Tower and Venom's attachments. Down to Earth is a negligible mod for all-AE Gambit and Charged Card getting around retaliate is relevant.
• Project Wideawake is probably the hardest matchup for this deck, since staying in alter-ego is very risky and steady/stalwart really hampers the ability to slow down scheming. He does match up nicely with Warn the Others, but this is a tough one.
• Master Mold is also tough, if opting not to use the Magneto ally. MM doesn't get a boost card when scheming, so it is impossible to set the top card of the deck, and stalwart turns off all of the confuse. Gambit will need to build allies and counters early, tanking hits with Natural Agility + Rogue while burning down MM's relatively low health pool. Teching in Under Surveillance can go a long way, but this is beatable without it. Longshot is very strong here
• Magneto is really a great match-up as well, since we dodge his magnets in AE and Remy's high thwarting out of the gate rushes him down to his strained form.
• Scenarios without starting threat are tricky, since Gambit can't trigger Thief Extraordinaire or play Creole Charmer. Dazzler makes the best opening here to stay down, but flipping up is also viable. Having a confuse when flipping back down is key

Assembled and ready to pull off this job!