Jean and Ororo Skip Class to Sing Karaoke at the Moulin Roug

Hey sista, go sista, soul sista, go sista

After a long day of tutoring a bunch of bratty WMDs, you gotta find a way to wind down. Prof asking you to teach evening classes again? Tell him you're busy. Beast needs a substitute teacher cos he's got a date? Tell him to substitute his expectations. Cyclops made surprise plans for date night? Sorry buckaroo; you're outta luck this time.

Ladies Night at the Moulin Rouge Means Ladies Drink Free

Jean found that the best way to relax is endless drinks and karaoke with her closest besties: Ororo and Jessica. Sorry Rachel, but this is a 21+ establishment.

Phoenix offers 3 THW from turn one which is absolutely insane value. Storm can thwart up to 5, and Jessica? The sky's the limit. What's great is how they synergise so well together. Here are some pro tips to aim for those high scores:

• Storm can pile threat on a side scheme you don't care about*, which helps buff up Jessica jones
• Storm can move threat around to help you target things down. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a scheme at 4 and another at 1 and still be able to thwart them away by moving 2 with Storm, thwarting the rest, then other side scheme at 3 is the perfect target for Phoenix.
• Soul Sisters and Game Time get so much value with this setup.

Besties

Ororo can get to a sizeable 5 threat removed with a single action. Ideally, focus down the main scheme, and you actually kind of want side schemes with acceleration icons so it doesn't feel like such a waste. Thankfully, there's fairly minimal setup required: just play Storm, play Mission Training, and that's it. There are some ways to help set this up. First of all, there is Cerebro (which thankfully can search your whole deck thanks to Phoenix being psionic) and Build Support and Forge can search for it. If that's not enough, Chance Encounter is available (even from the discard, if you happen to lose her). Once she's in play with Mission Training, buy another round of drinks and some Game Time (0 ER for 5 threat removal?? Uh, yeah, please). And for the finale, the epic duet that will leave everyone in tears. An extra 8 thwart and 4 healing for 2 ER. The strongest power in the x-men universe is the power of besties.

Jessica Jones isn't much of a singer, but she can throw down drinks with the best of 'em. She also loves breaking rules, so if she can be an accomplice to your truancy, she's all for it. As Storm piles threat on side schemes, Jessica gets even more THW. You can throw an Honorary X-Men to put the second Mission Training, but this isn't a huge priority. If you can set it up, she's also a target for Game Time and X-Mansion.

Skipping Class

There's a lot of extra-curriculars that keep piling up. One Way or Another, you'll have to teach Build Support class, or Wolverine is going to ask you to Take Out the Guards. Sorry, bub. Leave a message, cos we're busy.

• One Way or Another is in there to find the most benign side scheme you can find. Why not try to find something with an acceleration icon and a terrible when defeated effect? Sounds like the perfect thing I'm just going to ignore.
• Take Out the Guards . Player side schemes are here! You can play them. You can thwart them! Or you can play this for free and offload a bunch of threat with Storm while buffing Jessica Jones' THW. Try to go for a high score of how much you will not be luring any guards away for anyone.
• Build Support. Ok, listen. Some classes are worth taking. Finish this one and find Cerebro, Command Center, Team-Building Exercise, The X-Jet, White Hot Room, or X-Mansion. It just depends on what you need, but X-Mansion is great for Storm's longevity, X-Jet and Team-Building Exercise are good ramp tools, and Command Center is good for pushing out extra damage.

Hall Monitor

Forge is mostly there to help find Cerebro, The X-Jet, or X-Mansion, but outside of that, he's a good target for Cerebro to just pitch away for extra resources. Alternatively, Cerebro is a good target for Forge if you find you don't need it. Just keep one of them cycling around and throw them out.

Cyclops is useful... sometimes, but his biggest use is coming into play, ignoring his Response, then letting him jump in front of an attack to cover your solo and losing 2 counters from Phoenix Force. If you're trying to get down to 0 so you can flip and go to 3 ATK, he's a great option. He's also a good person to prank call with Cerebro.

Extra Credit

There are a few subtleties with playing this deck. There are a lot of lines given what you've drawn, what you need to deal with, etc., so be flexible.

• Honorary X-Men, for example, can help set up Jessica Jones with her own Mission Training. It can also be played on Phoenix to allow you to use The X-Jet even in Alter-Ego form.
• Although you aren't primarily defeating side schemes, you still have to do it. Especially prioritise any with crisis symbols, so you can keep the main scheme low. When you do, you can get some value with Command Center and Skilled Investigator.
• Mutant Education seems a bit anti-thematic here, but you can assign some homework and skedaddle. With X-Mansion, you get to draw a card, and there are just so many great options: Cyclops to keep looping with Cerebro for extra resources; Phoenix Firebird, Psychic Blast, or Telekinetic Attack to deal more damage; White Hot Room, Mental Paralysis, Mind Control, Rise from the Ashes, or Telekinetic Shield for more survivability.
• Chance Encounter can grab a lot more than just an ally. It can get Cyclops to help push you into Unleashed. It can grab Cerebro, The X-Jet, or X-Mansion through Forge. It's also an easy card to throw out for an extra resource later or to help thin your deck.
• Team-Building Exercise, as always, gets a lot of value. It helps to pay for lots of allies and supports with the X-Men trait, but also a lot of events and upgrades that have the Psionic trait.
• This deck thwarts so much, way more than you likely need, but does have some difficulty with damage. Thankfully Command Center, Psimitar, and a plethora of strong Psionic Attack events are available.

Group Reservations

This deck is primarily for solo, but if you want to go sing karaoke with the whole crew, there are a few changes that you could make that would help:

• Drop Command Center, Chance Encounter, Psimitar, and Skilled Investigator. You're really not going to get much value out of them, and you shouldn't focus so much on damage anyway. Build Support is still great though! Take Out the Guards is just going for even bigger high score of definitely not doing that, but maybe you can get some value out of it.
• In their place, 1 pack more Game Time, 1 more Mission Training, and 2 more Honorary X-Men. This will ensure that you can get Storm and Jessica up and running as soon as possible, and you will have plenty of other targets for Mission Training and Honorary X-Men. If you need to drop Cerebro or X-Jet for another player, feel free to include more One Way or Another and/or opt for some First Aids to help keep everyone healthy.

Pay the Tab

And that's it! The deck doesn't just pilot itself. There are a lot of nuance, and the deckslots are very tight, so definitely experiment with different cards and strategies. Really the core is still the same though: Storm offloads threat onto a scheme you don't plan to defeat, and Phoenix either helping out with an impressive 3 THW or unleashing for an also impressive 3 ATK stat.

Special thanks to Journeyman2, man-is-obsolete, VJakson, and Schmendrix for helping to test, encouraging the process, and making suggestions.