I have been trying to formulate a tournament winning x deck for ages now, Have not succeeded so far... here's my current x-build ... works well against most decks, only have to worry about a doomFF deck because their drops are just as consistent and they are all huge!

1 drops
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4 X Forge

2 drops
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3 x Cyclops, Slim
3 x Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner

3 drops
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4 x Wolverine, Logan

4 drops
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3 x Gambit
3 x Jean Grey

5 drops
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3 x Cyclops, Scott Summers
2 x Prof x

6 drops
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2 x Storm, Wheather Witch
2 x Rogue, Powerhouse

7 drops
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2 x Wolverine, Berseker Rage
1 x Prof X, wmpt

8 drops
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1 x Apocs
2 x Jean Grey, Pheonix Force

Plot Twists
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4 x CotA
4 x Flying kick
4 x Acrobatic Dodge
4 x Fastball Special
3 x nasty surprise
3 x Burn Rubber
2 x Savage Beatdown

Locations
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4 x cerebro

EQ
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2 x blackbirds

This may be a goofy question vcws but why no Dazzler? i would use 4 Forge if you were running more EQ. but with just the two Blackbirds Dazzler might be more help. Exhausting a reinforcer and getting breakthrough with your man is great. Dazzler is useful the whole game. Forge is good early with the extra D, but with minimal EQ I would go with at least 2 different 1 drops.

I've got a couple different decks right now, there's my tourney winning F4 deck, my X-Hood deck that has room for improvement, but performs pretty well. And then . . . my X-Men deck. Here it is, still a work in progress, though I'm sure I'm not the only one in that boat.

CHARACTERS (30)
-1 drops-
4x Dazzler
-2 drops-
4x Beast
2x Archangel
-3 drops-
4x Banshee
2x Iceman
-4 drops-
4x Jean Grey
1x Storm
-5 drops-
4x Wolverine
-6 drops-
3x Rogue
-7 drops-
2x Juggernaut

Plot Twists (20)
4x Xavier's Dream
4x Acrobatic Dodge
4x Children of the Atom
4x Finishing Move
4x Fastball Special

Equipment (4)
4x Unstable Molecules

Locations (6)
3x Xavier's School
3x Professor Xavier's Mansion

Trying to get Xavier's Dream to work. Haven't really gotten a chance to playtest this deck yet, but I think it has potential. Considering replacing Juggernaut with Mr. Sinister, but I don't think that Mr. Sinister can use his ability if he's already exhausted. Any help, including confirmation on whether or not Sinister can use his ability more than once in a turn, would be greatly appreciated. It's a terrible ability as it is, but if he can only do it once it may be the worst power in the game, especially considering his garbage stats.

X-Men work well with finishing move and fastball. I think only two people have mentioned that. IMHO the Blackbird is really difficult to pull off. If you like equipment stick with zero/one cost cards. The X-Men strength is in locations and recovery. As for control, how about Professor Xaviers Mansion. Alot of their rare 1 drop cards don't work that well unless you tailor your deck to them. Longshot works really well if you use 4 3 drop wolvie 3 5 drop wolvie 2 7 drop wolvie. Forge is a great equipment search card. DC VS has a great 1 point equipment card:Twin Firearms. Miora actually is my personal favorite. Adds to the X-Men strength:recovery. However, as a final point, IMHO if you are expecting X-Men to consistently outperform a new Brotherhood or Big Brotherhood deck, I think you have a long hard road ahead of you.

PS I hope being that the X-Men since the late 70s have been Marvel's premiere team, that the X-Men Vs is no indication how another premiere Marvel team will look: the Avengers.

Turn 5: Either you drop a charcter with 8/8 stats, or you drop a logan with 6/6 plus blackbird(8/8). But you get the added benifit of beefing up all your drops! I've had chances to either drop a 5 drop Cyc, or a 3 drop with the Blackbird, and I usually drop the bird.

In my opinion, X-Men decks are more about setting up the win later then trying to do as much damage early. I would rather team attack and Fastball Special, then do breakthrough. But i always try to save my largest charcter to attack after their big drops have been taken care of.

Some cards i want to mention; Danger Room, the plus 1 comes in very usefull, don't overlook this card.
Avalon space station, if you are going to run the discard cards, ie, dazzler, then you should try running this. It lets you discard a powerful character early, and get them back later.
Colosses, 1 in every X-man deck i would say. The X-Men 6 drops are all great, and all usefull in different situations. If you get him early, then your goal should be to fill up your K.O'd pile early. a 16/12 is nothing to laugh at. Cause I run the Blackbird, and drop it at turn 5, its usually still around. So now Colossus is 18/14, with the Danger Room, hes 19/14. this combo is easier to get then you would think.
X School, Readying your charcters again is a no brainer. And its for free. Best used for Fastball Special, or Finishing Move.

Turn 6 is the pivotal point of the game. You should have been team attacking, Fastball Specialing, Finishing moving, to get Board advantage. Or you havent and your opponent has board advantage. Nows the time to really go for life point damage. you don't have to win this turn, but this turn should set you up for it. Character choice here is crucial, i usually try to have 2 options at this point. Storms better defensivley then the other 6 drops. She is the prefered drop if your opponent has inititive( don't get me wrong, she is a great attacker too.). Rouge can either take out their 6 drop, or you try get a pumped Colossus. just depends what you have in your hand.

Well, i thought i would just drop my 5cent as i use X-Men as well. Hope it makes sense.

Wow, It's really nice to see that there are many more xmen followers out there!One thing's for sure, with the new dc expansion... there is renewed hope for the xmen!

Anyways, here's responding to some of the opinions offered.

1st off, I use forge over the preferred dazzler mainly and actually only because of the black bird.... hehe, in which the use of it has also become highly critisised by many! Admittedly, this compromise has lost me some games, but it has also turned the game round in my favor on other occasions.

I agree that matching the consistency of a TNB is extremely difficult, but usually given a good hand... the xmen has a good chance of winning...

Anyways, my main strategy is to play the best drop available each turn. when the right dop doesnot arrive, voila... the blackbird... the key cards for me are the CoTAs and fastballs, also not to forget Cerebro!

As for other things mention(eg collussus,finishing move), they are all good stuff to use.... really, the problem is that the xmen can't hold their own sometimes. Still, I really insist on experimenting with every possible permutation to produce an excellent xmen deck! so pliz.... keep the ideas rolling!

hehe... i never imagined that so many responses would come out! woo-hoo! -does truffle shuffle- oh, uh, hehe

yeah, i use blackbird because i really dun like the 5 drops... any of them. i do not care much for the 4 drops either... so, i figured "okay, what's better on turn 4- gambit or a 2drop bishop with blackbird? how about on turn 5- cyke [and lose slim] or banshee with a blackbird?" so i thought about it.... and after much careful thought [and a bit 'o craziness] i figured that bishop w/ a blackbird is very viable, considering most characters have range. i cannot think of a team that does not have a character with range, especially early in the game... maybe GK but that might be it.

I used to not be a believer in the Blackbird, but I've become sold on it's power. I find that on turns five and 7 particularly, when my rush would otherwise be in trouble, it often swings the game. And sure it stuns easily, but it requires your opponent's immediate attention, which often gives me a lot of control on turns when I don't have initiative. I've had some success with the deck, which I'll list below, in the conceited belief that you might care. ;)

Also note, I'm heavily metagamed against doom control, because I'm tired of losing to a specific deck. YMMV.

3 Dazzler
2 Longshot
4 Cyclops (2)
2 Nightcrawler (2)
4 Psylocke
4 Wolverine (3)
1 Banshee
4 Gambit
2 Rogue (4)
1 Nightcrawler (4)
4 Professors (5)
2 Rogue (6)
1 Professor (7)

4 Danger Rooms
2 Professor X's Mansion

1 Savage Beatdown
4 No Fear
3 Children of the Atom
3 Fastball Special
2 Nasty Surprise
4 Flying kick

3 Blackbird

Why Forge?

Ok, Forge is easily teh best 1 Drop X-Men and one of the best 1 Drops in the game. But this is as long as you run SOME equipment. If he is attacked, let your opponent load up those power-ups... and then activate him to go find an equipment card. he returns to your hand nullifying the attack, wasting all their power up cards, and gaining you the equipment card you went for.

I am not sure, but since the cost only states to Activate and Discard, the effect is independent of this. I think you can use it even if your deck has NO equipment, and he still goes to your hand and gives your deck a shuffle. This also brings cards you mulliganed back up into your deck, or with Night Vision/Base of Operations moves that 7 Drop sitting on top back into the deeper portions of your deck.

Forge is the Shizzle.

O.K. I see the value. I guess it's just my style of play. I go for Dazzler because someone has to go back there eventually and they are bait. She also works well for a Press the Attack (if you play that) situation. I run more of her in my X/Doom build, but for more obvious reasons. I might try running the Blackbird again to see if I can make it work. We shall see.

I'm surprised that there's no love for Collosus. With Dazzler, Gambit, Jean grey, X-Corp, Children of the Atom etc it's really easy to pump your KO pile with X-Men characters. And 16 atk Collosus mized with blind sided can do some nice damage on turn 6.

I tend to prefer Nightcrawler turn 2 and Cyclops turn 5 because with team tactics you can get two attacks off against tougher characters with no retribution and you get breakthrough damage.

Dude Collosus rocks, 16 atk turn 6. Well right when marvel packs came out i made a stable x men deck, but i just remade my x men deck yesterday and it works really well, i still need 2 more cerebros thow. Anyways i like x-men and how ever said they are in the basement are wrong. the brother hood are going down.

as for the location skipping, it is part of the metagame strategy personally. as too many people play relocation, i don't play locations. there are plot twists that i would rather use, and every card that i prevent my opponent from playing is almost as good as making them discard a card they could have( the logic here being that if you are playing with cards you cannot use, then you will eventually draw them when you needed something else.)

and none of the locations really do enough that i miss them, the same is true for the equipment. i tried to play with it and found that i like dropping a character even more :laugh:

seriously, you cannot play it on your 1-2 drops, as you don't have the points for it nor do you want to lose it to a flame trap, right?

you can't play it turn 3 as that should be gambit coming out, and if your opponent is playing gambit and you are not, then your black bird is definitely gone now.

turn 5 you really should have cyclops out, as that whole no stun attacker thing is pretty big, and throw in a team tactics...cyke is wrecking house. turn 6 you want rogue, and can't afford not to.

turn 7 you still want a 7 drop...so the bird i only good on 7 drop reed....:(

That;s why Dual Sidearms becomes useful You have 4 cards that you can use as plot twists, swarm characters, discard characters or equipment. Dual Sidearms won't wreck your curve, but it will help out.

Then again, in a Collosus X-Men deck, and heck in most x-men decks, your four extram cards ought to be discardable characters,

Another thought, if running a Colossus deck. How about using Total Anarchy? It all but ensures that you get your 5 KO'd characters and would make you the bain of rush and swarm decks. I figure the key to Total Anarchy is to have it work for you as well as against your opponent. And in an even initiative X-Men deck it does just that.