A Baker's Dozen of Recursion (March '25 Update)

A Baker's Dozen of Recursion

This is an updated version of my August 2023 deck with the same name

Changes:

• Colossus >> Triage (cheaper plus healing)
• Maria Hill >> Kid Omega (fun "enters play" Response)
• Wolverine >> Shark-Girl (cheaper and performs well in this deck)
• Blindfold >> Beast and I added Energy, Genius, and Strength
• Angel >> Forge and I added Utopia
• I altered this description text when it mentioned cards I removed.

A baker's dozen is 13 (although I've found several different meanings for why "the 13th loaf" was baked), and this deck employs the "magic number" of THREE baker's dozens (13 allies, events, and upgrades). But also, and more importantly, this is a recursion deck!

See it in action here against Expert Project Wideawake.

The Goal

The goal of this deck is to continuously recur Phoenix for her "enters play" Response, and with this in mind it's loaded with ways to get her into play:

• Pixie digs her out of the discard pile.
• "To Me, My X-Men!" will get you two "enters" (one from it and one when you play her again next turn), although if it doesn't hit her you get value out of almost all other X-Men allies it hits.
• Make the Call puts her into play from the discard pile
• Sneak Attack can get her in, but you typically use it on other allies.
• Call for Backup will find her and put her into play
• Rapid Response "saves" her from defeat and puts her back into play, and since it's a Tactic upgrade you can search your deck for one with Scott's Constant Training action.

While you can return any Cyclops card to hand when she enters play (Full Blast is a juicy target, as is Ruby Quartz Visor if it gets discarded), the primary target is usually Tactical Brilliance for two reasons:

• There's always threat somewhere, and playing this frees up your allies to attack.
• Tactical Brilliance lets your return a Tactic card in your discard pile to your hand, and there are two targets to consider when playing it:
  • Any of the Cyclops upgrades lets you avoid "wasting" damage from your Optic Blast attack or Ricochet Beam.
  • As previously mentioned, Rapid Response is also a Tactic card! So if you have what you need in hand, you can use it to grab that Rapid Response which just saved Phoenix, even if you can't play it back this turn.

A quick note about Psychic Rapport

I usually don't use the team-up cards in true solo because it's rare to have the event in hand while the team-up ally is in play. I like Psychic Rapport here though because this deck wants to continuously replay Phoenix, meaning you have a pretty good chance of drawing it while she's in play.

Piloting and Endgame

Don't be afraid to use Full Blast as a resource while pinging away at the villain's first stage with Optic Blast and getting the board under control. As long as it's not in danger of being shuffled back into your deck it can sit there and wait for the "right time".

The "right time" depends on the villain and which minions are coming out, and your ability to get Full Blast back to hand before it gets shuffled.

• If you can knock the last 11 of the villain's stage, that's the "right time"!
• If you can overkill a Tough minion and knock the villain stage out at the same time, that's the "right time"!
• If you can knock out the villain's first stage without it and then play it against the second stage, that's your time.

Just make sure you're going to get it back before you shuffle though. I like to play it and get a Phoenix Response immediately afterword, but that takes some timing and setup. Having it and a couple allies in the second stage is an easy win most of the time.

Resource Generators

Three resource generators:

• Ruby Quartz Visor can only pay for Optic Blast, but it give the blast Piercing and Ranged!
• Clarity of Purpose is a cheap generator with a not-too-terrible cost.

The X-Men allies

I'm happy to hit any of the X-Men allies with "To Me, My X-Men!" for their ability and an activation. The two that only trigger when you play them "from your hand" are fine too (Pixie and Sunfire), because they come back to hand after drawing up to hand size. I can play them next turn for only 2.

The only ally it kind of sucks to hit is Armor. Yes she'll come back to hand to play next turn, but she only has 1 THW and 1 ATK.

There are several allies you might be happy to just sneak in: Beast, Dazzler, Polaris, Professor X, Psylocke, Triage and sometimes Phoenix (under the right circumstances).

Mulligans

• Feel free to mulligan a Cyclops card because if you pull Phoenix she can get it back.
• Keep Call for Backup, especially if your have Tactical Brilliance. I like to pay for Call for Backup with one of my Tactic Upgrades and clear it with Tactical Brilliance which brings the upgrade back to hand. Clearing it finds Phoenix and puts her into play, which returns Tactical Brilliance to hand.
• ALWAYS keep Tactical Brilliance because it's part of the recursion engine, and it sucks when you don't have it!
• You don't necessarily need Rapid Response right away. Scott can find one in your deck with Constant Training, and you can get one back with Tactical Brilliance.
• I also don't mind keeping "To Me, My X-Men!" if I didn't draw any in my opening hand,

Testing

I tested this deck through the Mutant Genesis campaign and the only villain I really struggled with (really struggled with!) was Magneto, who took me 3 tries. I chose the Defender role for access to Justice and the Defender campaign upgrades. I always took Chance Encounter as my upgrade, and Turn the Tide as my event.

I then TORE through NeXt Evolution and it REALLY shines there with the Campaign Environments you earn! I like to choose the Campaign Player Side Schemes in this order:

• Assemble the Team
• Mission Prep
  • These two alone add MAJOR consistency to your deck!
• Gear Up
  • This adds a needed double-resource!
• Establish Safehouse
  • Nice for an extra draw or some healing when you have to flip down (handy when you have to exhaust to clear your obligation)
• Prepare Defenses