We are going to take a look at the X-Men Faction Supporting Characters and Plot Twists; and how they can help support various strategies and how useful they are. In this article we may also be able to see areas that X-Men could improve on.

Let's dive right into the list of X-Men cards.I am going to do a mini card by card review and the purpose each card can serve in a deck.

X-Men Faction

The Marvel Battles Set: X-Men Faction

• Deadpool (MC Level 1)
• Deadpool (MC Level 2)
• Professor X (MC Level 1)
• Professor X (MC Level 2)
• Storm (MC Level 1)
• Storm (MC Level 2)
• Wolverine (MC Level 1)
• Wolverine (MC Level 2)

• Iceman
• Magik
• Cyclops
• Hope Summers
• Namor
• Deadpool
• Gambit
• Beast
• Storm
• Cable
• Wolverine
• Colossus
• Emma Frost
• Professor X

• Squad Tactics
• Uncanny Defense
• X-Factor

• School For Gifted Youngsters

Iceman

Iceman's Freeze ability is a staple in this game. It can be looked at as sort of a proactive defensive plot twist. You play it proactively to help protect you the next turn. Depending on the circumstances, this ability can be more or less useful than many of the plot twists on there.

In addition to having Freeze for a very low recruitment cost, this character is well... a supporting character. You could consider it an equivalent in some sense to an Open Fire to help team attack with an X-Men Main Character. Iceman also has he ability to range attack or range team attack. There is a reason why Iceman SC is the #1 played X-Men SC currently.

Magik

Magik is a 3 ATK SC for 1 which for aggressive X-Men Main Characters or when team attacking with other X-Men Supporting Characters, could be viewed as a +3 attack plot twist in a way that has board presence.

Magik's super power is often overlooked and usually considered not to be that great due to the effect that is not only costly but could set you back in tempo. As more appear triggers come into the game, perhaps Magik will find a home but it doesn't look too likely. It can be used to help level Storm MC up but Storm really would rather have another low cost card that has a relevant ability to affect the board.

Cyclops

A low cost character with Leader is a rare thing in VS2PCG at this point, but the fact that he only has 1 health and only 2 attack really hinder the playability of this card. If he had 3 attack or 2 health he would be played quite a bit more.

His super power isn't often needed early game but can be fairly relevant depending on the deck and situation. More often than not Battle Tactics proves to be too expensive for a situational ability. Storm MC could have used a supporting character with a more aggressive super power in this slot to be viable to build her mono.

Hope Summers

A great card with a lot of potential. Copying other face up X-Men super powers is super powerful, literally. While she always excelled when she has been able to copy super powers such as Iceman's Freeze, she has seen more play due to the fact equipment came out. Equipment gives the character the power so equipping any other X-Men also gives her the power and that is when she has really proven to shine.

Namor

Namor is a great card that often is used to take out annoying supporting characters in your opponents back row while being able to live to tell the tale with Flying and Invade. Having two health, this character stays out there to keep the aggression up.

Deadpool

A solid drop that can help team attack with any MC. Not that while he can team attack with another MC, other non affiliated team members cannot also be involved in the attack.

His ability to come back out of the KO pile is flavorful pairs well if he is in play and Hope Summers is in the KO pile because she can use his ability to come out into play. It is fairly expensive for what you get but in a pinch it can be very relevant to get him or Hope Summers back on the table.

Gambit

His attack is pretty high for a 3 cost character which is great for an aggressive strategy.

His super power is situational but can be good in those situations. A lot of people don't like the fact that it costs a and a higher cost card from your hand just to get a stun and not a KO. This ability will rapidly deplete your hand size and since it is so aggressive means it will be more likely to be used in an aggressive deck; aggressive decks are known to already run out of cards quick and are known to have mostly lower drop characters meaning if you draw Gambit late, his ability could be completely unusable.

Beast

Beast got boat loads of flak when the core set came out because he nearly never can stay unstunned to trigger Genious due to his ranged vulnerability. It is a bit of an awkward design because you would ideally want Beast in the front to take advantage of ferocious but at the same time like to keep him protected in the back row to protect him to get a Genius trigger. I guess that is why they made Uncanny Defense, though that doesn't see much play at the moment.

Storm

Storm has great stats for her cost. Her super power is also pretty good. If you have read my Wolverine - Mono X-Men, it explains how Storm's ability is dependent on the meta . If Dagger is being played then her ability isn't very good. It is also more efficient in a Mono X-Men deck to play loyal soldiers instead as it can be played with only 1 card slot to get the effect rather than a location and a supporting character.

Cable

A way for the X-Men team to take a large character down regardless of size. It is X-Men's only real way to deal with a large counter stacking character or a big late game threat other than team attacking or activating Colossus. Cables stats are lacking in the ability to do anything else other than to be used for his ability which is the huge negative about this card, especially if you are playing Wolverine because you don't have any other on team option for a 5 drop.

Wolverine

A solid 5 drop with Berserker and possible self healing. He is often overshadowed by other 5 drops in other factions even though on paper he is great. Other 5 drops usually have more synergy with a deck or people just run punisher as the meta shifted towards more multi health characters to deal with such as Miss America.

Colossus

His appear power is great (cannon ball special essentially) and his stats are pretty good though the 1 health is a large detriment and is why this character doesn't see a ton of play except in Wolverine decks. There are better alternatives most of the time unless you are sticking on team specifically.

His super power can definitely help him pack a punch when needed but often if you are that high up on the curve, most people will want to use the for an Adam Warlock or Thanos coming up right after him in a possible curve.

Emma Frost

She isn't used very much but her effect can have a powerful impact on the game. I know there are "mill" type decks out there with her but they haven't really caught on overall. She used to be used sometimes in Thanos decks when the game first came out, but since then she has been sitting in peoples card boxes unused.

Professor X

The top of the curve for the X-Men has a strong ability but outside of that, his stats aren't very good and he doesn't stack up against most other 7 drops that well due to the reliance on his ability to make him decent.

Squad Tactics

A great plot twist for team attacking which can be sort of a smaller Loyal Soldiers. One of the problems with this card is that there isn't a solid curve or 2 health characters that can stay on the board together and keep on team attacking. Some powerful drops can be taken down with lower cost characters and without being able to stick around on the board for several turns, team attacking can be difficult at later stages in the game. Combining this with an X-Men MC and other off faction team attacks does work pretty well.

Uncanny Defense

This plot twist is an awkward defensive plot twist because while it can greatly help you in situations, it could also effectively do nothing as well. Most people prefer to have predictable overall solid cards rather than ones that can be situational in their decks.

X-Factor

X-Factor is a great card. Readying a character is so powerful. There is a small caveat with using this card with X-Men however, a lot of the X-Men supporting characters have low defense which often means you can be stunned while attacking rendering X-Factor useless. Using it on your Main Character like Wolverine or using a X-Men Main Character with other large off team supporting characters is a more reasonable option.

Looking At The Overall Picture

Now that we have looked at all of the Main Characters this past week and a half and now all of the Supporting Characters and Plot Twists with this article, how does the sum of all these parts stack up?

X-Men Ranged Curve

X-Men Faction: Ranged Curve

• Iceman
• Cyclops
• Hope Summers
• Deadpool
• Cable
• Emma Frost
• Professor X

While not a super important factor for a lot of decks, a curve of ranged characters can make a team work very well together with team attacks. A curve of "1,2,2,3,5,6,7" seems pretty good just looking at the numbers but you also have to examine the playability of those cards. Hope only has Range if another face-up X-Men character has ranged but since we are talking about ranged team attacks we can add her in there.

Cyclops is okay but 1 health and only 2 attack drag him down quite a bit so there is one 2 drop kind of taken off the list. Cable works better as a solo attacker and using his ability usually. Emma Frost isn't played much and either is Professor X. Cutting those from the list you will just have a curve of 1,2,3 only and all of those are 1 health characters that aren't likely going to stick around for long.

If they had a good 4 cost range in there I could see it being more relevant, but even then overall the X-Men faction doesn't have a great way of protecting them either. With that said, let's move onto characters with Flight.

X-Men Flight Curve

X-Men Faction: Flight Curve

• Hope Summers
• Namor
• Storm
• Colossus

Now a flying curve can be nice, but isn't required by any means. Just having characters with flying is pretty big. This is where X-Men fall flat. Again, Hope only has flying if a X-Men Supporting Character already out has flying. The only ones that naturally have flying are Namor and Storm Supporting Character. If you are running Storm MC, then you only have Namor. That is pretty pathetic in my opinion.

Colossus does give flying for a turn so that is something but overall it is hard to function without flying and without a very strong range curve.

The Alien and The Company factions have been able to do it but that is because of the power level of those cards overall and collectively were designed to work really well without it, though the Alien faction has their own version in leap.

Let's take a step back here, three of the four X-Men Main Characters are pretty aggressive, yet the supporting characters lack flying pretty much. That is a hard pill to swallow. Flying can be very offensive in this game and play defense just as well. One thing that would help this faction is having more flying characters because most of the X-Men supporting characters have only 1 health. They need protection yet they can't get it without going to other factions. Speaking of characters with 1 health, let's check up on how the multi health character curve looks.

X-Men Multi-Health Curve

X-Men Faction: Multiple Health Curve

• Namor
• Beast
• Wolverine
• Emma Frost

We have 2, 4, 5 and 6 drops only for multi health X-Men Supporting Characters. If we get a 3 drop multi health in the Legacy Set, it would greatly help the faction as Emma Frost isn't currently a character you are dying to play on curve in most decks.

Wrapping up

The X-Men faction definitely isn't the most cohesive faction as we have seen. It has some issues with its curve and issues of a decent number of cards that are pretty niche and only playable a certain way if at all. There are still some great cards in there and X-Men can still be a great choice to work in your deck but it lacks in being a strong cohesive all in one faction package.

Thank you for taking to go through this long and thorough mini review. It sets me up for the next article which will be the finale of this weeks look into the X-Men faction.