5G Psionics

Marvel Champions has entered the digital age

Play cards whenever you want to

Every turn is your turn

When we first got Children of the Atom, I knew I wanted to return to Uncanny Psylocke. The original draft of this deck was almost identical to this, and it was pretty good. Just a regular, solid, Psylocke blue deck. Then I added one card and the entire thing transformed completely, and this is now my new favorite deck. Just a simple Cell Phone...it doesn't seem like much. But in this deck, it has so many amazing uses.

Lets explore a few, shall we?

How to use your smart phone:

• Boost Cable's thwart to have enough to clear a side scheme and draw a card.
• Piercing through toughs with Psylocke's Psi-Katanas on other player's turns.
• Psychic Kick anyone and activate them off turn.
• Clear Specialized Training on first player's turn so everyone benefits from linked card right away.
• A hero holds off on their activation until you clear Specialized Training, and then you call them to activate after.
• Clear New Recruits on first player's turn so everyone can play linked ally right away.
• Clear Build Support on first player's turn so everyone benefits from support card right away.
• Clear Call for Backup on first player's turn so everyone can use their ally right away.
• Activate ally from Call for Backup right away.
• Clear any side scheme on first player's turn so that everyone benefits from Mission Leader card draw.
• Get the most out of Cyclops' play response: Players who went before you can hold off on attacking with hero or ally, and you can hit them up after playing Scott for extra damage.
• Benefit from Utopia readies for player whose turn passed.
• Benefit from Professor X readies for player whose turn passed.
• Benefit from Phoenix readies for player whose turn passed.

This is not even mentioning the general, case-by-case uses it has. Such as letting someone clear a guard or patrol minion for another player, or if anyone just needs +1 to reach any attack or thwart threshold.

It goes deeper

If this wasn't enough, there's another card that takes this instant speed thing even further. Team-Building Exercise can be used as a requested action to play your allies on other players turns. This means you can do something like this: Use TBE to play Angel on another player's turn. Angel readies Psylocke. Use Psylocke to attack the villain on that same player's turn with Cell Phone. All of the allies besides Cyclops share a trait with Psylocke already, and with Children of the Atom in play, he does as well. Speaking of Scott, he is a great one for a TBE play, since you can play him on the first player's turn so that everyone gets the full damage benefit!

wdym there's other cards?!?

The basic idea here is pretty easy. Try to get CotA out right away, this is the most important card. You want Uncanny X-Force next. You can mulligan away allies and events, most of them are psionic, so you put them back into the deck with alter ego. Cerebro, TBE, Cell Phone, Utopia, Mission Leader are all nice to have, get them out whenever you can.

This deck shreds through side schemes. Everyone does great thwarting, especially with Uncanny X-Force and getting a Psychic Kicker. So you should encourage your teammates to also bring side schemes, maybe even bring a justice player with One Way or Another and a set of Skilled Investigators for everyone. If your friends bring X-men heroes or allies, that's even better.

Cable is pretty expensive, so Call for Backup is the preferred way to get him in play.

Playing your second CotA on another mutant teammate could be helpful. Especially if they have some X-Force or X-Factor characters. This would make them all count as X-men, which lets you target them with Utopia, Professor X, or Phoenix.

For Specialized Training, my preference is Combat Specialist for Psylocke, since her 3 atk with built in piercing is very nice. But you could really just take any of them. The deck is built around using your allies to thwart side schemes, and Psylocke herself is flexible enough to utilize any of the upgrades. So give the other players what really benefits them the most and then take what's left over.

gtg

If you are brave enough to play a game with 41 cards, add a 3rd cell phone. You could never have enough of em in this deck! I wouldn't change any of the allies. If you don't have 5 psioinics in the deck you ruin my double entendre, and that would make you a horrible person.

I always loved cell phone, but this is the first deck I've made where I feel it truly shines. You could totally play this solo, and it'll do great, but you lose the fun interactions. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

oh, and the irony of a bunch of psychics needing to text each other all the time is not lost on me

ttyl