TEAM REGISTRATION: WIDOW

I had the opportunity to play basically this list at Multiverse of Madness event in Milton Keynes this past weekend.

This is a Repurpose deck that aims to make use of Return the Favor and Grappling Hook to trigger Synth-Suit during your turn for multiple readies.

One of Black Widow's main strengths is being able to deal with oncoming threats. The nature of preparation cards is proactive reactivity. This strength however falls short when there are threats already on the board that need to be dealt with, or when the board is flooded with side schemes, which did happen at the event. Repurpose is a means of transforming the reactive preparations and giving them a proactive function, allowing Black Widow a better time to deal with existing problems.

Practiced Plan can be triggered off Repurpose to add the discarded Tech Prep back to your hand, if need be.

Espionage for the draw as we can hunt for surges with Return the Favor, and also double up as an alternative prep to trigger Synth-Suit on our turn.

Some of the enemy leaders will be tough to bring down. Therefore we are enlisting in some unscrupulous reinforcements. Dangerous recruits in the form of Venom to help bring these vigilantes to justice. Even if a treachery is cancelled with Grappling Hook, Venom can still trigger. Venom also synergises with Return the Favor for even more damage.

Ready for a Fight allows us to make good use of Alter-Ego stuff while preventing the villain from scheming.

Once set-up you have 3 resource generators for prep cards (2 Black Widow's Gauntlet cards and Jemma Simmons) and 3 cards that can search out prep cards (Safe House #29, Practiced Plan and Leo Fitz). Most of these cards essentially cost 2ER, so it is very easy to get this engine online.

This then creates a virtually endless loop where you can prepare 2-3 prep cards without utilising any of the resources in your hand. Better still, you profit due to Natasha Romanoff's Mission Prep ability.

This means your hand can be used for the following (in loose order of priority):

1. Playing even moar prep cards
2. Repurpose / Return the Favor shenanigans
3. Playing high costing allies / upgrades / events

You will also have a defence stat of 4 thanks to Synth-Suit and Symbiote Suit and with Attacrobatics cancelling boost icons, you should be able to make good use of Unflappable. You should basically always defend at least once during the villain phase, and then the rest of your activations go toward what needs solving.

A personal change I want to try making to this list is dropping Return the Favor for Counter-Punch. You lose the extra ready on your turn as well as the added synergy with Venom and Espionage.

However, because Repurpose boosts the stat until the end of the round, if you boost her attack stat up, you can then carry that over to the villain phase, and nail an enemy with a Counter-Punch, but it does rely on luck in drawing into it, or holding onto it on a previous turn. This does however make up for the lost ready, as you are technically getting an extra use out of her boosted stats.

Plus I like the thematic idea of being Ready for a Fight and then landing a Counter-Punch.