Aerial Arms Dealer — Unusual X-Force

It's raining sidearms!

The third deck in my Unusual X-Force series! This means, while intended to be Expert-viable, it is built for fun over power (more so than most of my decks). But just why is it unusual?

Well, let me ask you this! Have you ever seen Angel flying around throwing down pistols at his friends?

I didn't think so.

An X-Force tribal deck in Protection too? Kinda weird! Not only are we reuniting Angel with Elixir, the least-popular Protection card from his precon, we're bringing along three copies of Sidearm to equip our squad of X-Force!

With healing to keep them alive, not to mention Cannonball (who the deck was initially built around) not taking consequential damage, our pistol-toting army can take down any enemy with a little air support. And they have a lot of air support here!

Overview:

• Archetype: Upgrading Allies
• Difficulty: Medium
• Play Style: Slower Than Average (for Angel)
• Recommended Player Count: Any
• Ideal Aspect Partner: Any

~ MULTIPLAYER NOTE: This is an all-rounder Protection deck that leans toward DAMAGE and will NOT often want to defend for others! ~

Mulligan Priorities:

• Techno-Organic Wings
• Team-Building Exercise
• Any upgrade-worthy ally
  • Cannonball
  • Psylocke
  • Deadpool
  • Deathlok
  • Elixir

Simple Guide to Success:

1. Prioritize playing TWO of our 3+ cost allies, put Sidearm onto them, and keep them alive forever. Point them at your enemies and watch them go!

2. You can play a third large ally if it suits you - but don't forget Angel is still Angel despite the deck, he wants to play two Aerial events (one in Angel form, one in Archangel) when possible.

3. If you do go for a third large ally, make sure one or more of your allies are Cannonball/Elixir. These make it easier to keep three allies healthy while using them all.

4. When playing Deathlok, make sure Sidearm is in your discard pile. If it's in your hand with him? Pay for him with it to put it the discard pile! The timing works.

5. Do NOT block with your 3+ cost allies unless it's an emergency! Use your defensive tools.

6. Keep your big allies alive with First Aid, Med Team and Elixir!

7. Why 3x First Aid over more Med Teams which are more efficient? I tested it a lot both ways and it comes down to tempo and flow. Playing big allies is expensive, Med Team is also expensive, and Angel wants to play Aerial events - this all means that First Aid is just so much easier for Angel to play while setting up allies and keeping the game under control.

8. You only really need to play ONE Team-Building Exercise.

9. Why no The Power of Flight? Once you have resource generators, there really aren't many targets at all that you'll ever need a double resource for. Even less when you have Avian Anatomy in hand. (Starhawk is good for it, but he's not a priority in this deck.)

10. In solo play, once you have 2+ allies with Sidearms, you're basically unstoppable. Aside from playing your Techno-Organic Wings (because they're busted-good!), at that point you can largely just go for the win. You can even just play entirely in a control style then and, between your allies and your Archangel Angel of Death ability, the villain will fall over without ever having to directly target them with an attack event.

11. Don't forget to use Cannonball first before playing/spending cards from your hand. No Aerial cards makes Cannonball very sad.

And that about does it! Thanks for reading.

Good luck and have fun!

If you would like more decks like this, the rest of the series can be found here:

• Cable "My Own Worst Frenemy" 'Pool Deck
• Domino "Honorary Psionic" Leadership Deck
• Psylocke "Chain Lightning" Aggression Deck
• Deadpool "Alivepool" Protection Deck
• X-23 "Web of Slicing Enemies" Justice Deck