Aerial Supremacy is cool. It’s really, really hard to attack, and once you think you have it pinned down, it pops something defensive or recovery-oriented and flies off into the sunset . . . and then flies back next round to kick your butt. With Bamf! There’s nothing you can do about it.

The outlook for the deck is sketchy. Currently, X-Men builds are all over the place, and it seems like the decks that are seeing the most serious testing don’t make flapping noises . . . not counting Blob when he runs. The deck itself looks good and seems to have a lot of potential. It seems able to not just reliably beat, but pummel into submission, the current known defensive curve with multiple copies of Aerial Supremacy.

If you haven’t seen a build of the deck yet, check out the one played at the Mexico City $10K by Gabriel Romos Mora.

Characters
2 Banshee
2 Forge
4 Rogue, Powerhouse
3 John Proudstar ◊ Thunderbird
2 Storm, Weather Witch
4 Archangel, Angel of Death
4 Wolverine, Logan
4 Archangel, Warren Worthington III
2 Storm, Ororo Munroe
4 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner

Plot Twists
4 Aerial Supremacy
3 Children of the Atom
2 Ultimate Sacrifice
4 Bamf!
4 Acrobatic Dodge
4 Flying Kick

Locations
2 Cerebro
2 Danger Room
2 Madripoor

Equipment
2 The Blackbird

That’s pretty much what the deck should look like, give or take a few pluses or minuses on certain cards depending on personal tastes. The once-laughable Forge actually provides multiple services to the deck, not only being an invincible lightning rod for plot twist-powered attacks, but providing all important access to The Blackbird.

Many builds of this deck don’t run The Blackbird. It’s expensive, and it can be viewed as a risky investment when considering its potential drawbacks. But I really think The Blackbird is an essential part of this deck, and Mora demonstrates why by including non-flying characters like John Proudstar. Proudstar’s synergy in this deck is great, but Proudstar’s main problem is his defensive weakness and vulnerability due to his effect. In Aerial Supremacy, the addition of The Blackbird gives him flight. The Supremacies then beef up his defense to the point that he suddenly becomes very difficult to stun on the attack.

Banshee exhausts threats, Rogue dishes out pain (especially when she follows the turn 5 recruit of Archangel, Angel of Death), and Logan is just a curve-breaking beatstick who becomes even nastier with the aid of the Aerial Supremacy / The Blackbird combo. Nightcrawler is a cheap, quick, convenient attacker to have around, Storm provides some advantageous synergy and control, and Archangel smacks people. Hard. He’s also in the “gets a nice bit of security from an Aerial Supremacy or two” club.

Beyond that, two Danger Room and two Madripoor seem almost to be a staple of the deck model no matter what other decisions one makes. Those +1 bonuses really add up in this deck, lending brutal defense and very helpful offense on an ongoing basis.

This is quite a good build of an Aerial Supremacy deck. If you’ve had some Bamf!s and Ultimate Sacrifices sitting around, this could be a great way to get those copies of Forge and The Blackbird out of the dusty party of your trade binder and back into the game. Though Aerial Supremacy likely won’t have much of an impact at Gen Con So Cal, it’s a deck with a huge amount of untold potential that could really be felt in months to come.