no one got no love for the xmen? oi... anyways, i wanted to start a discussion concerning one of marvel's greatest superhero groups- the XMen! ok, please do not do the following:

- XMEN suxors! NBH pwnz you!!!!!!!
- XMen sux! Doom pwnz you!!!!!!!!
- my FF tech will pwn you!!!!!

Ok, we get it... XMen are not the best team right now... most people mix XMen with something else... yeah, ok. But I wanna talk with those that use a pure XMen deck.. I wanna know your strategy... what do you do to counter the XMen's main weakness? What do you think the main weakness is? Y'know, stuff like that.

IMO weakness: The main weakness for the XMen is their 5 drop. They are abysmally weak here, stat wise. Effect-wise, their abilities are a bit sub-par. At this point in the game, a weakness like this is why not too many people play a pure XMen or even play any XMen for that matter.

my strategy: I really like how the XMen have this great synergy about them. Nightcrawler:Fuzzy Elf gives the ability of flight and range to anyone for a small payment of 3 endurance! Cyclops:Slim give team attacking XMen +2/+2!!! Dazzler stuns a support row character (ha! take that, Punisher/Puppet Master/any other annoying character that sits in the back row) Forge searches for equipment, Gambit flat out STUNS characters (3 or less, but hey, that's a good effect!) [by the way, for those that do not know, Dazzler, Forge, and Gambit all require a discard to activate the effect] Like I said above, the XMen's greatest weakness is in their 5 drop. So what I like to do is "play around" it. What I mean by that is using a Wolverine:Logan or Banshee equipped with the Blackbird on turn 5. All my XMen get a boost and with Cyke on the field, teams attackers get another boost! If that's not an option, I can always try to use Jean Grey and use Protective Force Field to make her a defensive powerhouse (11 def for a 4 drop? hehe...)

So yeah, that's a bit of my strategy. I've played against Doom and FF and won a good amount. What do y'all think? C'mon, fans of the homo superior ... time to represent!

Actually, I find the 4 drop area to be weaker than the 5 drop area. I'm always aiming to get Cyclops out on turn 5. Its just the way I play it. Turn 4, we have relatively useless characters unless you're going for certain goals.

5 drop also has Wolverine... and that version's ability is quite excellent, IMO. There are some decks where that card really shines *cough* Xavier's Dream.

The 4-drops aren't bad... the problem with the 5-drop Cyke is that you would have to KO your 2-drop Slim. They should have had at least one 5-drop 9A9D in there. And there should have been more team synergy like Gotham Knights and Teen Titans has (and like Slim).

The xmen's greatest strength is their teamwork ... i personally use 4 team tactics in my xemen deck. Another strength they have is to recover more than any other team.

Weakness: hell their stats compared to other marvel vs cards. But the introduction of DC is a very good sign... you'll start seeing decks that don't require the best stats per resource ratio to be successful.

My suggestion is this recover stunned characters on your opponents initiative round as often as possible. Xavier Mansion is a mad schway card as well as overpowered for disruption. team attack as often as possible. Use team tactics on scott summers or kurt wagner. And prof X is the better 7 drop against most decks. Wolverine is the better against NBH and Sentinel decks.

Just my opinion

Yay! I got some responses! Woo-hoo! *ahem* sorry...

Latuki Joe- I was wondering, you mentioned that the 4 drop is weaker to you, and that with the way you play XM, it's the 5 drop Cyke you're looking for, but that's how you play them. I was just wondering- how do you play XM?

I also agree that Wolvie's 5 drop ability is mighty nice, it pales in comparisson to the great stats of his 3 drop version and the ability on his 7 drop. Cyke's 5 drop effect is nice, but his 2 drop effect is better. Maybe it's me being narrow minded, but i'd rather have the 2 drop cyke and the 3 drop wolvie out.

I do agree on what you said about the 4 drops being weak if you have no goal for them. I like using Nightcrawler's ability to disrupt my opponent's backfield *unless i've got the blackbird out by then, but yeah...*

erick-Well, I dunno about a 9/9... shoulda had different characters at that drop. Like say... Cannonball or another Iceman and give them real good abilities. It could've been like AI where the stats are lower than average, but the effects are brutal! Seriously, it's so hard saying goodbye to early versions of Wolvie and Cyke after they've been kicking lots of butt. Bah... but I digress...

valstania-I agree on their weaknesses, sort of. The XM 2 drops have great effects... atk bonuses (well, except Beast... but his effect is great too!) and almost all XM decks do not need to look much further at the 3 drop than Wolvie. His stats are amazing at the lower levels... but so is Havok! With an atk boost, he can take out 5 drops... with the Blackbird out, he's eliminating 6 drops! That's way schway!

Then come the 4 and 5 drops. The stats here are pretty low. Gambit's pretty good and so is Nightcrawler. If you can survive these two rounds, then at the 6 drop there's Storm, Rogue and Colossus, with the ladies having the better ability. And if it ever gets this far, there's the Prof and Wolvie. Either one can finish the game! Personally, I like using Xavier more because he can be unbelievably annoying. ;)

Hey all. I wanted to put in another thought. For me dazzzler is wicked crucial to have on the board. The X-Men usually have to pump to do BEL unless it is the early rounds. I like having Dazzler around to take out reinforcementfrom support row. Combined with Gambit, Muir Island, CoTA, and Howlett= Colossus throwing the Gesichteschlager (Face punch in German) on someone round six. I know Valstania plays with this, but does anyone else use Cerebro? I am thinking of throwing it in but I haven't decided yet. Everytime I play cards that cycle through the deck (i.e. Reed Richards) I end up shooting myslef in the foot.

in my deck i use 4 fastball and i mostly use it all the time when i have a chance then i do finishing move.Also i like doing a team atk with 5 drop cyclops and nightcrawler 2 drop cause nobody gets stunned. Also the 4 drops are bad but i think gambit is really good because even though my oppoment has a better 4 drop i kill there 3 drop or lower and that makes the 4th turn much better for me also the 5 drops are weak but all there efeects are really good IMO and the 6 drops are really good and i think 7 drop wolverine is one of the best 7 drops.

Wolvie is a pretty good 7drop
he's game changing against sentinels and TNB
but against BB and Bumper Cars he's severely outclassed
i think he's still usually better than Prof. X
but it's a metagame choice

yeah, FS and FM work good in Xmen decks
w/ all their recovery and team attack cards
keeping your characters on the table is easy and helpful
and getting rid of your opponents characters is even better

i've always liked Colossus the best
but each 6 drop has its own useful abilities
Colossus-consistently high attack (in right deck)
Storm-control and stalling power
Rogue- Field control

all good, but different effects for different types of decks

bTw, i'm not a fan of Blackbird at all
a 2 cost equipment is never worth it
maybe if your making a weenie Xmen deck w/ Slim
but i don't think those decks perform very well against others

Yeah, i haven't hazarded a build with Blackbird in there either, although the thought proposed in this thread is a good one. I you want to beef turn four or five drop a lower cost character and throw in a blackbird. I just hate doing it because I don't want him to stun. You definitely want the attack when you drop it.

I've found that trying to play X-Men with a beat-down mentality doesn't work. X-Men is all about dis-ruption and control. I spread my drops out so I never have to replace a guy. Here's a summary of my preffered drop strat:

1 = Longshot
2 = Nightcrawler / Slim
3 = Logan
4 = Jean Gray
5 = Cyclops / Xavier
6 = Powerhouse
7 = Berserker / WMPT

I try and cycle my deck a lot with Night Vision /Cerebro / Jean Gray / Lognshot. I play Finishing Moves / Nasty Surpises / COTA / and 4 Mansions. Most decks don't have a response for multiple cards being ran from there hand from turn 4 - 7.
No hand means little/no options.

Jean Gray and Prof. X (5) are highly under-rated X-men chars IMO. With Nightvision out Jean Gray's effect is really good. If your opponent is top-decking on a late turn (5 or 6) where you have initiative just drop Prof. X now they have to decide ... Do I put out a guy or do I put down a resource. COTA is up there as one of the most powerful cards in the game, it MAKES the Mansion activate on turn 4.

my xmen build uses this format:

turn 1: longshot/ dazzler
2: nightcrawler/bishop ( love the sentinels players face when they see him !)
3: wolverine/ psylocke (just in case you can't get wolvie)
4: gambit ( weaker stats than many 4 drops, but the fact that he can pick his stun and control the table for a bit)
5: cyclops (i love the 'don't stun me effects)
6: rogue/ storm (depending on who has the initiative)
7: professor x ( bigger than wolverine and makes feral rage your best friend, since he can target a chracter that has already been exhausted :) )

fastball special and press the attack round out the swinging, and no locations as they are crutches IMO.
beatdowns and team tactics on cyclops or nightcrawler help hold the field, and cota help maintain character advantage. i love the xmen more than any other team just because of cota and fastball special ( ie: all the benefits of a team attack with non of the drawbacks !)

I have seen many people ignoring the locations. is Danger Room really all that bad? Yeah, it only adds one...but why not because it's a free pump. Alot of times it comes down to that one point and I usually feel better having that covered.

I personally use the X locations -- extra health, extra exhausting power, extra pump, extra drawing power and disruption? Hell ya! The only thing im up in the air about is playing blackbird unless its gooing to be on james howlett its worthless.

as for characters i play:
1 = dazzler/sometimes kitty
2 = nightcrawler/ archangel very sweet abilities
3 = banshee (for board control) / logan
4 = gambit/ nightcrawler / rogue
5 = prox x/ cyclops
6 = one of each rogue, colossus, storm! (depending on the situation)
7 = pref prof x over wolverine
8 = phoenix force (if it ever gets that far)

I play xmen to adapt to the deck im playing. lots of disruption against doom, lotsa swarm against FF, board control against brotherhood, etc...

my 2 cents (and 1/2)!

its all about the plot twists with the xmen during turns 5-6 i use 3 from the shadows 3 nasty surprise and 4 surprise attacks just to survive for those 2 turns omg then on turn 7 i own them with profesor x or wolverine and in the unlikely case where the game goes to turn 8 jean grey will pown

the weakness with x-men is low atk and discard. i think xavier's dream sux, if you think you'll make it to turn 9 just play an onslaught, it always means game