Goodbye Erik!

If you have not watched episode 4 of X-Men 97 season 2, then don't read the rest of this writeup. Go watch all of X-Men 97, then come back and read this.

I'll tell you, I was so sad finishing out episode 4. I know it's kind of cheating, but Magneto is my favorite of the X-Men. My next thought was that I should make a deck for him. This deck is in honor of the great life Erik Magnus Lehnsherr lived.

All right, when I started building this deck I couldn't decide what aspect to use. Magneto's advantage and disadvantage is that he makes his hero cards more consistent but at the cost of making his aspect cards more inconsistent. It's hard to set up some gimmick combo if you are constantly milling your deck for your own cards. It's easy to lose a lot of copies to the discard pile and can be really hard to set up anything with aspects reliably without limiting your ability. I decided to make a deck without a gimmick. But I still couldn't figure out what aspect to use. So I just decided not to use one. And here you have this deck.

So, for a basic deck this deck works amazing. The basic concept of it is the basic cards provide you with tools. All the basic cards are good when you play them, even Haymaker, but you don't really feel bad when they get discarded from your ability or when you use them as resources for your own powerful cards. There is still some structure to this deck though. Let's break it down!

Early game

You have a few priorities in this deck for your first deck pass. Obviously, since you're playing Magneto, your highest priority is Magneto's cape. This card is so good. It's just a free ready every turn. His armor is very good as well, so make sure to get that out. This deck actually likes Asteroid M a lot. It's kind of core to the strategy. Also, make sure not to pass up on Magneto's helmet. As far as the basic cards go, make sure to play X-Mansion, Crew Quarters, and Moira MacTaggert. This sets up the one gimmick of the deck. Alter-ego healing factor engine I call it. The basic concept of it is when you're fully built out, a flip down will heal you six health and get three cards back into your deck plus two cards that are magnetic. You also get to grab a card from Moira on the way up. I undervalued Erik's survivor ability at first. I used to think it was okay, but you come to like it a lot more when you flip down more which this deck does. You can use it if you accidentally discard one of your core cards, or if you lose a fun ally and want him back soon. Also set up Deft Focus and X-gene for paying for your events.

Late game This is when the deck truly becomes a monster. Now that you've played all of your supports and upgrades, your deck solely consists of events and allies. You will fly through your deck, but each pass you'll be able to destroy and disable minions, gain tough status cards, and effortlessly get rid of those annoying attachments, all while killing the villain at a very fast rate.

Fun combos and card explanations

One might be wondering when seeing three copies of Haymaker in this deck whether I'm a good deck builder or not, because the cards trash. Kind of. This deck is so rich with like seven double resources that you just need something to do with your hand. Since I'm doing basic, there's not much stuff to vent your resources on. And three damage is not terrible, so I'll take it. It also helps you to keep up the pressure on the villain, or take out small minions. As if flipping down to alter ego was not beneficial enough, I included Mutant Education in this deck, just in case you want to get even more magnetic cards back into your deck. Legion is in here because he's a fun ally, as well as the potential combo to discard Master of magnetism to get a double kicker. Marrow has good synergy with The power in all of us, as well as providing a lot of damage and a sack, while Beak provides cheap thwarting as well as a sack. Nick Furys a good way to vent resources and he's just good, and I have fun doing the mini game that is Grant Ward.

Well, that's the deck. It's pretty efficient, there's not a lot of crazy combos, but I just wanted to make it to honor magneto. May he rest in peace.