It's "Oops! All Leadership!" this week. A lot of Leadership decks were shared over the course of this challenge, so today we're taking a look at some of the many ways Leadership can be played.
The Long and Short of It: I'm playing through every hero using decks suggested to me by other players. Here is who I'm covering today:
Cable Leadership
Suggested By: theromeo
Created By: theromeo
Encounter: Project Wideawake
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
This was a great reminder of how strong Cable is! I took Cable (and his daughter) up against Project Wideawake, which really helped bring Cable online due to Abduction Protocols having Victory and starting in play. Mutant Mayhem was a lot of fun to play, even if it was for something as simple as getting aggressive by replaying Marrow as the X-Force target. Hope was grabbed by Project Wideawake. While thematically fun, it undercut that side of the deck. All in all, this was a quick fun game! I’d be interested in running this alongside some other X-Men and X-Force decks.
Angel Leadership
Suggested By: royal7
Created By: royal7
Encounter: Mojo + Crime + Fantasy
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: Angel's Psychic Sidekick
The encounter randomizer rolled Mojo, and that was a rough match-up! I really liked the attack/ready combo of the deck with Sidekick and extra readies from Psylocke and Ready to Rumble. Once Psylocke was out, I could generate a lot of value off the readies. I was even able to close out the game using Side-by-Side. That said, the pressure of the scenario made it hard to set up the combo. At times I felt I was fighting against Angel’s natural answers in order to set up the combo. Angel’s in-kit cards are so well tuned, that I have to specifically focus on outside things. I often feel this way with Sidekick decks, so I think it boils down to a play style preference. Sidekick offers a really neat combo, but I feel like I’m dragging the game in order to set it up. Replaying Angel reminded me of how insular his cards feel, and why I have fallen off him somewhat recently. He's still a lot of fun to play, but I default to the same old play lines with him. If you like Sidekick, I think this is absolutely worth trying out!
Psylocke Leadership
Suggested By: mougy
Created By: mougy
Encounter: Tower Defense
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: Berserker Training Camp
Psylocke is one of the heroes I haven’t played a whole lot. She definitely felt favored in this match-up. The versatility of Flurry of Blades allowed me to confuse both villains and easily keep my ability to flip down to alter-ego. I liked the concept of this deck, and I have been growing fond of ally upgrade decks where you spread the upgrades across multiple allies, rather than load up one singular ally (aka Voltron decks). I think this hit the sweet spot on ally upgrades, even without bringing a huge amount of allies along. Target Practice was surprisingly useful here. It is essentially just turning a card into two damage, but the fact that it can sit on the board until needed was helpful. Initially I was concerned about the number of low cost cards in the deck that are reliant on other cards (like Psychic Kicker and the “max 1 per ally” limit on Sidearm and Inspired). In play, I was able to easily finagle my hands to ensure there was something to play, so they weren’t the hindrance I initially thought. As a note, I did make the swap of Pete Wisdom to Cable that they suggested in their notes. This deck definitely made me wonder why I don’t play Psylocke more.
Storm Leadership
Suggested By: Stretch22
Created By: Stretch22
Encounter: Klaw
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Deck: The Lightning Legion
This was a super breezy deck. I’ve been playing a lot of Storm Leadership recently, but in a completely different play style (shameless plug to my article). It was interesting to lean into the full power of Storm and Leadership, and they were able to handle Klaw easily. I really liked the ally density for “To Me, My X-Men.” I haven’t used this card in many decks (though this is my second in this series), and I really enjoyed how easily it hit. I know Stretch22 plays a lot of Heroic (shameless plug to his channel), and I do feel like this is a deck that could meet those challenges. This reminded me that Storm is an absolute beast (not your Beast), Leadership is an absolute beast (still not your Beast), and the X-Men are… you’ve got it… absolute beasts (including your Beast).
Wasp Leadership
Suggested By: JWalton
Created By: JWalton
Encounter: Sandman
Difficulty: Standard III + Expert I
Believe it or not, Wasp is a top five hero for me, and this deck really highlighted some of the reasons why. It is incredibly strong to have extra access to incredibly powerful cards like Nick Fury, Moon Girl, and Professor X. Not to mention, you can cycle her large damage attack, Pinpoint Strike, increasing her access to damage. When I play Wasp Leadership, I don't usually cycle Fury and X back in. Instead, I cycle Make the Call and leave the two temporary allies in my discard pile for flexible access to which I want. Other than that, Moon Girl and Genius are my top targets for G.I.R.L.
I really liked the use of Goliath in this deck, especially since I haven’t used Goliath in a long time. The ability to get him on board and swinging for 5 or 10 damage with a ready led to some big tempo swings, especially against Sandman, where his 5 ATK cleaned up the sand counters I had let build up. The deck ran smooth, and I feel as good about Wasp as I ever have. Though now I have an itch to bring back out my favorite version of Wasp: Wasp Protection!
Conclusion
This was a fun run of decks, mostly because they tackled Leadership in a variety of ways. While Leadership isn't my favorite aspect, it was a blast seeing the versatility and diversity in the aspect.
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