Phoenix - Jean 'Pool

"Fools! You dare to trifle with the Phoenix?" ~Phoenix

Player Count/Type : 2-4p / Johnny
Power Level: Medium
Complexity: High
Key Cards: Mulligan, Telekinesis, Stick-To-Itiveness

"This deck utilizes several useful upgrades to spend resources on before replenishing your hand with Mulligan" ~D.M. Tip

Phoenix 'Pool Overview

Why this deck? 'Pool is my least liked and used aspect. I'm not a huge fan, like, at all. I wanted to challenge myself to make a 'Pool deck that just isn't too off-the-wall that I feel pretty good about. After several test runs, I do feel about as good as I can about this, but I'm not sure if it's just Phoenix and X-Men basic pulling all the weight here or if 'Pool is actually doing something. Either way, I had fun piloting this, so let's get to it.

Good Genes

Phoenix has some great cards in her kit to work with. She has solid stats that you can control, depending on when you unleash. Several of her cards have rare effects that can come in handy, like Mind Control and Mental Paralysis. And don't sleep on Telekinetic Shield, which has the potential to block multiple attacks. She's got solid threat control with both single target and AoE damage too.

So, in a sense, I want to build around and enhance her core cards. That's where 'Pool comes in.

A Mulligan in the Hand is Worth Two in the 'Pool

To enhance our core cards, we're going to build around static upgrades that have resource sinks and useful effects. This will let us spend resources on upgrades before using Mulligan, because doing so isn't 'playing a card' and therefore doesn't disqualify us from Mulligan.

1. Telekinesis is my favorite resource sink here because it just churns out raw damage from resources in hand or on the board. Psionic Bond and The X-Jet are huge helps for consistent triggers along with 18 other resources.
2. Stick-To-Itiveness is another solid resource sink and synergizes really well with Phoenix's 3-THW/ATK. You can throw a Symbiote Suit in the mix for even more potency.
3. Telepathy is not quite as strong as its damage counterpart, but after some testing I decided to include it to have more sink options early on and it provides additional flexibility.
4. Lastly, Blackout and Tic-Tac-Toe are cheap resource sinks to get out and also take advantage of Psionic Bond and whatever other miscellaneous resources you may have.

X-Gene Building Exercise

While it's important to get a resource sink setup early on, it's equally important to build our your resource generator. Once you do spend resources on sinks before a Mulligan, you'll then want to take advantage of that new hand as much as possible.

1. 2x TBE help us deploy all of our X-Men allies as well as all of our Psionic cards, which not only includes 6x events, but also 3x Upgrades.
2. As previously stated, The X-Jet helps pay for Telekinesis and your Metagames, but also anything else that you need.
3. X-Gene is simply on theme and reaches 8x events. Easy include.

The eXtras

Allies are super important for a low-health hero, such as Phoenix. They also provide some extra utility to deal with threats early on and maintain control of the board. If you have specific favorites sitting around, feel free to make substitutions. There's probably a good case to make for only including 3-cost+ allies because of the 'Pool resources, but I enjoy streamlining my crew as much as possible to fit in more impactful events or an early build card paired with an ally. That's more difficult to do with higher cost allies. I've got a mix of 2 and 3-costers to kind of split the difference, but your tastes may vary here.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this deck. It feels great to dish out some dmg/thwarting and pull off the perfect Mulligan into some hero events and allies. Is the juice worth the squeeze? The jury is still out on that one, but at least I was able to have fun with 'Pool.

Peace!