I run a primarily X-Men beatdown deck, with none of those characters that have the discard effect. It has beaten anything from NBH, to FF. The only deck that I am having trouble against is Doom. I found that it is best to take the turn one initiative and try to keep my opponent's smaller characters on the field, this way Wolverine: BR can rape them on turn 7 with a Flying Kick.

The characters I use are
1 drop: 4 Long Shot
2 drop: 4 Nightcrawler + 2 Cyclops
3 drop: 4 Wolverine + 2 Havok + 1 Madam Web(from SF)
4 drop: 3 Jean Grey + 2 Nightcrawler
5 drop: 3 Cyclops + 1 Wolverine
6 drop: 2 Colossus + 2 Storm
7 drop: 2 Wolverine

I also run 3 Cerebro and 2 Base of Operation to go along with Long Shot.

I feel that using The Blackbird is a complete waste, as most opponent will immediate go after the equipped character, and you have just lost 2 resource points.
Colossus is my 6 turn drop if I have the initiative, while I drop Storm when I don't, as she stalls and lets me rape with Berserker Rage one turn later.
I always save a Flying Kick just for Berserker Rage.

My Plot Twists look something like:
4 No Fear
4 Flying Kick
4 Mega-Blast
2 Acrobatic Dodge
2 Overlod
2 Relocation
2 Have a Blast!
3 Children of the Atom

I mulligan any hand that does not contain Cerebro or Base of Operation, as those two cards greatly increase the deck's consistency.

The weakest drops by far is at number 4. Yet a Logan with No Fear can pretty much take out any 4 drops my opponent has. Five drop Cyclops is insane when I have the initiative.

I only have trouble beating Doom decks because of the stupid "Mystical Paralysis on my Berserker Rage thing....."

Gotta love that picture

I've a revelation! No longer will I support the use of the Blackbird. Although its boost was great... using a 5 drop Cyclops to hit someone and not get hurt whatsoever is so much more satisfying! This is what I love about VS... there are different ways to play the same team and different keys used to win!

**In prior posts, I claimed that the 5 drops were too weak to use, in its place I substituted for more 3 drops with the Blackbird. I could not seem to gain any advantage with this strategy. I altered it, dropping the extra 3 drops and Blackbird for Cyclops and Professor X. Needless to say, they were much better. Sometimes I forget that a character's ability is worth more than its ATK/DEF value. (blame that on YGO! -lol-)

I 've been trying for 2 months & I hope I've got it

drop1 Longshot x4
drop2 Nightcrawler, KW x4
Cyclops, Slim x4
drop3 Wolverine, Logan x4
drop4 Nightcrawler, FE x4
Rogue, Power Absorption x2
drop5 Cyclops, Scott Summers x2
Professor Xavier x2
drop6 Colossus x2
Rogue, PH x2
drop7 Wolverine, BR x2

Cerebro x3
Danger Room x3

Children of the Atom x4
Fast Getaway x4
Flying Kick x4
Mega Blast x4
Combat Reflexes x4
Ka-Boom x2

The philosophy of the deck is very simply pressure. Drops 1-3 early pressure, cerebro makes I hit my drops, and help me later. Turns 4 & 5 are key. Turn 4, Danger room allow me to stay with most cards on the curve on the defensive. Offensively, using a pump if necessary. The key is to control the field, as long as possible. My 4 drops can usually stun back any drop 4, and DR helps to make that happen. Turn 5, is even better. If have inish, I want to drop Cyclops w/ a pump, no inish Prof X. I cant stop Thing HH, but I can definitely reduce your choices. Turn 6 & 7 I'm going all out to finish it, and I have been known to let a drop 3 or 4 to hang around till I can drop wolverine. I know it isn't the best deck in the world, but it's the best i could come up with.
i don't pretend to think that is deck doesn't have its weakness, but the principle is very basic and simple. Limit the number of characters you have by stunning as many as possible, as often as possible. CotA helps keeps who I need keep to keep the pressure on, and Fast Getaway is a double blade sword protecting my endurance, while feeding Colossus. Tell me what you think, except if you are krazykilroy, 'cause you play sentinels.
:laugh:

I've just removed FBS from my deck. It may just be the decks I'm facing in my area, but I can't afford exhausting 2 front row characters to Stun 1 opponent on MY attack phase. Maybe if it was a direct KO, sure. But I'd rather attack, and follow with a Finishing Move.

As for Blackbird, I use it. +2+2 and Flight is incredibly useful to me. Drop it on a 2 NC early, or a 5 Cyke later.

As for X-Men style of play, I like to focus as much as possible (and I hope more X-Cards come out toward this) on making opponents discard. I run Psylocke whom I try to give Advanced Hardware. The 5 Xavier, and ofcourse the Mansion. Alot of opponents in my area play DC so they like to have the draw power from DC teams.

I'm still changing my deck on a weekly basis, but when I find something pretty stable, I'll post it here.

Being the X-Men seem good at team attacking with their lower point characters - it's mainly as they start to get into the five-drop range they have trouble keeping up from what I'm reading - what about using "resource caps" (e.g.: Neutron) to keep the game in the range of the lower resource characters? Slim and Kurt should be great in a field that doesn't start getting full of bigger characters.

I run 2x Apocalypse in my "X-Men" deck. I know it may not suit purists, but for games that do get to Turn 8, I can't allow them to go any further when playing X-Men. X-Men fear turn 9 Gamma Bomb, so Apocalypse coming out a turn sooner can prevent that.

And if purists need justifaction :) Just think of it as the X-Men doing all the ground laying, and then their big villians doing the dirty work :p

ive run two styles of x-men decks and do a good job with them both the first is pretty four drop heavy with 3 of each four drop i played. and likes the odd intiative b/c of turn 5
1 forge-search for advance hardware and blackbird
1 dazzler-exhaust support row character for counter of anti-reinforcement purposes
2-cyclops- team attack
2-nightcrawler- blackbird
3-wolverine
3-havok
4-storm-protect blackbird
4-nightcrawler
4-rogue-better then gambit in terms of stats and effect... she could be an extra dazzler of AH user if need or just a beatstick
5-2 drop and black bird
6-colossus
6-rogue
7-wolverine
7-prof x deciding between these two was pretty situational

the second build is pretty fast focuses and little guys and likes even initiative most of the character strats are still the same
1-forge
1- dazzler-sets up surprise attack
2-cyclops
2-bishop-use againsts range characters as early game offense/defense
2-archangel- punishes ranged guys in the support row and sets up surprise attack
2-nightcrawler
3-wolverine
3-havok
4-storm

on the subject of gambit... i dont think that hes that great. hes a 6/6 when there are plenty are two good 7/7 four drops with flight or flight and range, a 7/6 is flight and range and a 6/8. also his effect isnt that great for a four drop either. turn four is when most decks get started with the mean stuff. busting out gambit to deal with their little guys is...well... kinda lame. hed be better if he where a 3 drop. then you could use the mansion on him, thus making him much better

hmm... kinda off topic, kinda not but has anyone seen the possibility of Archangel? Does anyone know what drop he is, what his stats are, etc?

Hopefully, he can fill a hole at 4 or 5 ;) (although Gambit/NC and Cyke/ProfX are doing a good job right now!)

5 drop Cyclops is great. I take odd initiative because of him and Berserker Rage. I use 4 Mega Blast, 4 Flying Kick and go to work with Cyclops on turn 5. Fear the no stunning. You can't Overload him. I'm thinking of fitting in a couple of Savage Beatdown, but I've got Finishing Move, Nasty Surprise and Overload in there. Acrobatic Dodge as well.

Finishing Move is a great card. Even if they play Sentinels or Brotherhood where they can cycle back out their characters from the KO pile you are still forcing them to make that recruitment again. Brotherhood is hurt by this more than Sentinels especially if it is just Wild Vomit, but it can hurt when you apply it against the Mark IV. With Nasty Surprise in there you can pull out Finishing Move even on defense.

I was using Danger Room, but it wasn't doing the best for me so I decided to remove it in favor of more offensive plot twists. Plus there seems to be more location hate out there that I don't want to deal with. Cerebro I would consider using if I had more than one. I don't really like missing plot twists when I'm drawing though and my curve ends up being pretty smooth overall.

4 drop is the only place where X-Men lag. I usually use some Nightcrawler Fuzzy Elfs in there and Storm because her ability to remove flight comes in very handy. The drop really depends on who you are playing against. If you want to go on the offensive then use Fuzzy Elf to give your guys flight and range. If you want to hold back flyers then use Storm.

With Overload in there I don't really fear the Brotherhood decks. New Brotherhood will try to overpower Feral Rage on you in which case you Overload. There aren't any locations in the deck for him to Kaboom and no ongoing plot twists either that he can Foil (or Have a Blast in both cases). So NBH has to rely on Genosha and not dropping anything to keep their resources down.

With BBH Quicksilver Speed Demon will need powering up to take out your Cyclops 5 drop without getting smashed, Acrobatic Dodge or Nasty Surprise usually keeps him from doing that either by preventing the stun or stunning him back. Lasting out to turn 7 can be hazardous though because Magneto 7 can be a pain to deal with. Hope you have the odd initiative and a power up for Berserker Rage.

Sentinels, well if you have odd initiative all you have to do is last till turn 7 and they are done as soon as Berserker Rage hits the board. With Overload in there for overpowered Mark IVs it usually works out that you can hit that goal. Unless they work Nimrod in there or Master Mold or Bastion they get hammered on. Storm 4 drop takes out flying making them come at you head on instead of from behind. They end up having to team up which means no breakthrough. Bishop works well against them and is a worthwhile drop just about anytime in the game.

FF and Doom I haven't had as much experience with, but I fear that they are the decks weak point. FF has a smooth curve with Signal Flare and Doom can get whatever he wants with Boris and Faces. I'll have to get back to these after playing more against them.

The line up looks something like this (numbers might be slightly off as I don't have the deck in front of me). I refuse to use any 1 cost characters as I don't like any of them for this deck. Longshot won't help my curve much and no equipment for Forge and I don't want to discard so forget Dazzler. Shadowcat just doesn't do anything really useful.

2 Cost - Cyclops - 2
2 Cost - Bishop - 2
2 Cost - Nightcrawler - 4
3 Cost - Wolverine - 4
3 Cost - Banshee - 4
4 Cost - Storm - 4
4 Cost - Nightcrawler - 3
5 Cost - Cyclops - 4
6 Cost - Rogue - 4
7 Cost - Wolverine - 4
8 Cost - Apocalypse - 1
Acrobatic Dodge - 4
Flying Kick - 4
Mega Blast - 4
Finishing Move - 4
Nasty Surprise - 4
Overload - 4

A couple of things about that.

I minimize turn 2 Cyclops in favor of a couple of Bishop and making sure I have 4 Nightcrawler because turn 5 Cyclops is a must so 2 Cyclops goes away.

Turn 6 Rogue is a killer that must be dealt with by the opponent or if you have even initiative she can do some damage. I don't really work with Colossus because I don't intend to have five x-men cards in the ko pile to power him up. If that happens I've probably lost anyway.

3 drop Wolverine is a must. Banshee is something of an afterthought. He can be good at times with his ability and his flying and range can be useful as well, but overall it's the lesser of two other evils. Havok, eh, I really don't want to have an exhausted character on the board on turn 3. I'll have to try him out though, but the idea doesn't thrill me. Psylocke, discard ability doesn't really do anything for me above and beyond what Banshee's flying and range give me.

"The only deck that I am having trouble against is Doom. " = I have trouble with 80% of the tournament decks out there :)

X-Men = Discard, that's it. Everything else they have are "red-herrings". Play to their strength and they can compete every single team in the Meta-game today.