Psy-Kickin It

Cable doesn't come with a signature ally in his kit so he can't have a sidekick right? Right?!

Wrong, we're going to give him sidekicks! Technically psy-kicks but they end up being just as valuable as a sidekick.

We're going to do this through a combination of some classic leadership cards, Psychic Kicker and Mission Planning.

Mission planning needs a side scheme in the victory display to work. Hey Cable loves those and he gets the ability to start with one in play every game!

Psychic Kicker requires him to have the psionic trait which his Technovirus Purge side scheme gives him once its in the victory display.

The idea here is getting a side scheme in the victory display asap so we can utilize mission planning and then technovirus purge so we can utilize psychic kicker dealing out massive amounts of damage or clear a ton of threat. I like to start with either Technovirus or Build Support turn one. Build is the easier clear and we can either get Graymalkin into play so that we have that extra resource every turn not to mention multiple times if we clear side schemes or Professor so that we can search for a player side scheme each turn in AE.

Lock and Load is another good option as you can clear it easily turn one and put either his Plasma Rifle or Psimitar into play. Psimitar is great once we have our psionic trait as playing psychic kicker which is 0 cost will still trigger it and deal 2 damage to an enemy.

This is all normal for Cable, how does this lead to sidekicks? The combination or psychic kicker with mission planning means we can have allies attack/thwart multiple times in a turn and not take any consequential!

Which allies fit the bill for this?

X-23 is the main damage dealer and it gets wild when we have our setup in place. She has 3 base attack and can ready after defeating an enemy. Note that this does not have a limit. With cards like Inspired boosting her attack or Leadership Skill. With both out she's up to 5 and a psychic kicker pushes her to 7 attack. I have had a turn look like this:

2 minions in play and the villain at 5 health, One minion at 3 health and the other at 5. Inspired attached to X-23 and leadership skill in play. Play mission planning to avoid consequential, defeat the 3 health minion. Ready x-23 use a counter from leadership to defeat 2nd minion and ready again. Attack villain removing a counter and dealing 5 damage which defeats the villain stage and readies her again. Attack knocking the villains tough off, use psychic kicker to ready and attack villain for 7. Then Command Team readies her again and we deal another 4 damage to the villain. All together defeated 2 minions and dealt 16 damage to the villain!

Deathlok is another great psy-kick as he can grab inspired from the discard pile putting him up to 3/3 stats. Buffed up to 5 from psychic kicker or 6 with leadership skill out.

Deadpool is another solid option as mission planning delays the acceleration tokens from piling up and provides solid thwart/ attack with his 2/2 stats.

The rest of the allies are not necessarily psy-kicks but provide some really solid value:

Domino seems like a weird one but the idea is that she can put a psychic kicker or mission planning from hand back on top if we're unable to play them that turn. This allows us to preserve our key cards for when we really need them.

Professor X needs no introduction but he can confuse a villain to allow for safe flips. His 3 thwart is great because he can clear any of our PSS with the exception of technovirus or just keep the main scheme down.

Cyclops provides really solid stats and his when enter play ability pairs well with our strategy. Target a beefy minion to clear them quicker or target the villain for a final push to take them out.

Black Panther seems out of place but i love this guy. He can grab psychic kicker or mission planning from discard for us. Have a mission planning in hand? Play him to grab a psychic kicker from discard and set up for a big turn your next turn or this turn if the resources work out.

The last PSS are Render Medical Aid which allows us to heal our allies as well as ourself if we need to. This is great is we don't have a mission planning and our allies take some consequential damage. We can heal them right back up to do it again next turn.

Then we have Call for Backup which allows us to grab an ally and put them into play once we clear it. This is great if you need to flip down, grab Prof and get the confuse. Or grab X-23 after we have our setup in place to start decimating the villain.

Mission Leader lets us draw a card when a side scheme is defeated. This does not have to be cable who defeats it either, so one of our allies clearing one will still generate the card draw.

Other card considerations:

Sidearm which can be attached to an ally and gives them ranged. I really like swapping this in for scenarios where the villain has retaliate like Unus, Venom or Sabertooth.

Beast is a classic leadership ally but i hardly played him when i had him in the deck as the other heroes synergized with the deck strategy more.

Hope Summers can grab superpower cards from the deck which is nice but Cable's superpowers are on the expensive side so they typically ended up staying in hand for next turn or being a resource.

Rally the Troops heals allies but render medical aid provided more flexibility and allows you to heal yourself if need be.

I have tested this deck against a variety of villains and had a lot of success with it, I'd love to hear any feedback or experiences with it!