Leading From the Front

No, not Lead from the Front the card, this deck is all about showing your fellow X-Men how it's done by taking the attacks head on and defending for them, while handling any situation that comes your way.

Temporary on Cyke’s upgrades last until the end of the round. This deck aims to benefit from both the hero and villain phase to maximize the great benefit of Scott’s tactics.

Priority Target is always a great tactic to slap on a minion, but the draw on your turn doesn’t always benefit Cyclops, especially if you draw into a strong ally you don’t want to chuck after using most of your resources. With the beefier minions showing up in the game, it can also be tough to secure the card draw. Why not, instead, let that minion stay alive into the villain phase, finishing them off and turning your next turn into a 7-card hero hand, potentially 8 with Unflappable?

Whittle them down with your Optic Blast, Plan B, or Allies, and then finish them off with Powerful Punch, Electrostatic Armor, Side Step or Energy Barrier. Energy Barrier is especially nice because you can deflect a damage from the villain's attack and reroute it to their lackey!

With Scott defending often, this opens up the ability to let allies go down swinging. Med Team keeps them fresh, although I would place this pretty low on the priority list for getting on the table. In multiplayer, they help you set up a wall of defense for your entire team while still letting you do what you want to do. They can always chump block when needed.

This also means this deck really likes Bishop, particularly if the minion also attacks Scott, giving him 2 counters in a single turn.

Desperate Defense is a better Not Today! for Scott. Worst case, you defend for the same amount. Second worst case, you ready and can still exhaust for the hero phase for the 2 thwart. In addition, it can be a second defense, or even help you set up the jackpot which is actually being able to use Full Blast.

Other combos include:

• Exploit Weakness boosts Powerful Punch. Between that and an Optic Blast on your turn, that's a simple 9 damage for almost no work.
• Side Step requires you to be the one potentially taking damage. This can be difficult without exhausting, however, Powerful Punch shores up that issue.
• Practiced Defense plus Energy Barrier out can negate up to 3 damage for no effort, 4 if you wanted to include a third copy and can get them all down. That, plus Side Step can result in triggering Unflappable without even needing to exhaust for attacks of up to 6(!), and sending back 3 damage/4 if Electrostatic Armor is out. You won't often get the maximum numbers but even negating 4 damage with just Side Step and Practiced Defense is pretty stellar.
• Practiced Defense and Armored Vest turn Cyclops into, effectively, a 4-defense hero while it's out.
• No tactic or not ready to deal with a surprise minion? Iceman's ability is not forced, so he can put minions like Mystique on ice while you get ready to take them down.
• Cyclops Side Stepping a minion, deleting them and getting up to 3 cards for juking them is very funny.

Quick note to remember is that Exploit Weakness only boosts "Attacks," so Side Step, Energy Barrier and the like don't benefit from it. The thorns from this deck still hurt plenty without it though.

Last notes on some ideas to tweak the deck, those who like to run less allies could sub out a few and throw in Protective Training, keeping those allies out longer. Jocasta is a phenomenal ally to put in this deck but I feel wrong not going all X-Men for Cyclops decks. Sub out your least favorite ally for her, recommendation would probably be Angel. I've found that Cyclops doesn't need much help thwarting, but you could put in Jump Flip or Not Today! for Side Step.

Thanks for checking this out!