Leading S.H.I.E.L.D. while playing poker

The latest S.H.I.E.L.D. archetype is, in my opinion, a love letter to some heroes, including Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, and of course our beloved Black Widow.

The Gist

This is my S.H.I.E.L.D. variation of the renowned deck "Playing Poker with Natasha Romanoff" by IlEmperatore. The idea is to remain in Alter Ego form and play your S.H.I.E.L.D. allies to destroy the villain while remaining completely safe. You'll notice that a few cards have Hero form interaction, such as Field Agent, most Black Widow's preparations, as well as Dance of Death. Thus ideally, you'll only flip to Hero form to finish off the villain, or to take advantage of tempo.

This deck plays very smoothly.

Early Game

Your Goal: Setting up your base combos as quickly as possible

• As usual with Poker Natasha, you'll want to setup your baseline combo of 2*Black Widow's Gauntlet, Safe House #29, and Counterintelligence to prevent threat from getting out of hand.
• Lay down your S.H.I.E.L.D. supports to use with Homeland Intervention and Global Logistics, thus ensuring a total control of the game. These cards require you to exhaust S.H.I.E.L.D. cards, which include Natasha Romanoff (since you'll be staying in Alter Ego form for most of the game), Field Agent, Helicarrier, or the many S.H.I.E.L.D. allies this deck features. Note that Safe House #29 can also serve this purpose, depending on your current needs.
• One key card is of course Sky-Destroyer, which will allow you to deal decent damage almost every turn. Helicarrier will also help your economy, as well as flexibility, since you can also exhaust it to use Homeland Intervention and Global Logistics.
• Under Surveillance can give you some breathing space, especially if you're playing solo.

Mid Game

Your goal: Stabilizing the game and rendering the villain as harmless as a puppy.

• Use Meditation to play your big allies: Agent 13, Dum Dum Dugan, War Machine, or Nick Fury. These will usually gain you a lot of tempo, allowing you to quickly rise ahead and stabilise the game for you, rendering most villains harmless.
• Continuous use of Global Logistics will ensure you control the game completely. You'll be surprised how often it'll allow you to avoid Shadow of the Past and other nasty shennanigans.
• If you can spare it, playing your mostly-useless Black Widow preparations (Attacrobatics, Widow's Bite, Grappling Hook, which can only be used while in Hero form) will thin your deck to allow the key cards to come so often that you won't even mind the extra encounter card coming from cycling your deck quickly. Also, they might come in handy on the few turns you'll flip to Hero form (see Late Game).

Late Game

Your Goal: Killing the villain. What else?

You can slowly chip away the villain's Hp with Sky-Destroyer and your allies, or you can setup an insanely fun finish. If you wish to do so, lay down your preparations and best allies (Agent 13, Dum Dum Dugan and War Machine coome to mind), stun the villain with Mockingbird to be completely safe, and flip to Hero form for a huge round (or two) involving Dance of Death, exhausting your long-lasting S.H.I.E.L.D. supports to boost Dum Dum Dugan.

Sinister Motives Campaign

This deck is even more insane while playing the Sinister Motives campaign. First, you'll gain a permanent S.H.I.E.L.D. Upgrade as early as at the end of the first scenario. It doesn't even matter which one you pick, or if your choices are underwhelming (mine were), because it's a permanent S.H.I.E.L.D. card you can exhaust to fuel Global Logistics and Homeland Intervention. Later in the campaign, adding Command Team to your deck will be a great asset, especially in combination with Agent 13.

I hope you'll love it as much as I do! Feel free to drop any comments below, I'm very keen on having any feedback/suggested improvements.