Sharpshooting with Blades & 'Nades

Firepower!!!

Until I saw Firepower the idea of including Sharpshooter with Nightcrawler seemed as likely as finding Wolverine in a bubble bath.

However, 1 copy of Firepower can deal 3 instances of 3 damage with ranged.

So...

• Directed Force adds +2 to each instance
• Warrior Skill and/or Aggressive Energy add +1 to each instance (or +2 with both)
• Sharpshooter adds +1 to each instance (or +2 if you discard a double)

That is a total of 3/3/3 - 9/9/9 damage from Firepower’s measly 1 cost, which you can pay for with his Prehensile Tail if you don't have an Aggressive Energy!

Why Nightcrawler?

Well for one I'm incredibly biased... But he can focus on A LOT OF DAMAGE while not having to worry about defense too much, and he has Kurt's Cutlasses. If you add 1-2 Pulse Grenades and Jarnbjorn (once you have his Prehensile Tail), you control 3-4 weapon upgrades with no downside to exhausting.

Also, one of the biggest complaints about Nightcrawler has been his difficulty dealing with minions, particularly the beefier variety. One copy of Firepower does a fantastic job of clearing the board or pushing damage on the villain, whichever you need to focus on.

What happens if you don't have Firepower?

Well...

• 3 copies of Fusillade is an additional way to make great use of exhausting your weapon upgrades.
• 'Port and Punch is also a great target for Aggressive Energy and/or Warrior Skill as it has 1-4 instances of 3 damage that can each be increased.
• AND there are 15 and 3 resources as well as The X-Jet to help you trigger Jarnbjorn.
• Finally, you can always trigger 1 or 2 of your Pulse Grenades (after using Firepower in a turn) if you're making a final push, or you're in a tight spot.

It is also important to note, that since Firepower only costs 1 resource, you can typically do more with your turn after playing it.

Details

Player Count

This deck has been tested in 1 and 2 player counts so far, to great results, but I'm sure it could be even better if it can focus on damage more in higher player counts.

Complexity

This is a low complexity Nightcrawler build. It still has interesting Bamf! decisions. But that can differ greatly from deck to deck.

In this deck I like to use up the Bamf!s on the villain each turn making great use of Tally Ho whenever possible. That way I can THW or ATK on my turn, or be ready to DEF again for another villain or minion activation.

That's a lot of damage!

Generally it is by turn 2 or 3 that you can get at least 2, if not 3 of your weapons out. Once you have 2 out it is relatively easy to get 2 instances of 3-5 damage. Once all three are out I have dealt 26 SPLIT-ABLE DAMAGE multiple times in a single game all for a max total cost of of 4 effective resources...

Allies

Nightcrawler doesn't typically need a lot of allies. However we do have a few select allies in this deck.

* Daytripper is always great to deal a little extra damage and get an additional access to a Bamf!

* Professor X does what Professor X does...

* Synch however, adds a great level of flexibility. If you need a little extra ATK or THW that's great, but where I use him most is for DEF and REC. This really depends on the villain you're facing though. If they're hitting extra hard, that +1 DEF can really come in handy and/or the +1 REC if/when you need to flip down.

While you're typically trying to cycle [Daytripper](/card/48002) and [Professor X](/card/32019), [Synch](/card/47018) can just hang out on the table doing his thing. This also allows him to provide an emergency chump block if you know an extra rough hit is coming.

Face the Past?

Lastly, a lot of people tend to be surprised to see Face the Past with Nightcrawler due to Azazel's quickstrike. But... That's actually the reason I've started running Face the Past in all of my Nightcrawler decks.

I would rather know when I'm going to deal with Azazel than have it come out of nowhere AND get a a benefit for it.

Also, by pulling Azazel out early, if I do get Shadow of the Past, it doesn't actually put him in play because he's not in the set-aside area anymore. It is important to note that Standard III would still grab him.

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I've had a blast with this deck and I hope you do too!