Viuda / Justicia [PzvlRPO]

Viuda / Justicia - I Too Like To Live Dangerously 2.0

Dropped: 1 Interrogation Room 1 First Aid

Added: 1 Followed 1 Spycraft

"Allow myself to introduce... myself..."

The scene in the first Avengers movie, where Black Widow is tied up and being interrogated/tortured by the KGB comes to mind when playing this deck. Widow stays undercover, thwarting the villains scheming while having the situation under control and able to turn on hero mode, even bound, and kick all sorts of butt before going back under cover and allowing her Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. allies to dole out punishment!

So a poll on the Facebook Marvel Champions group asking which identity can play best while never flipping over to Hero form. That got me thinking about how you could play Black Widow, keep her at the Blackjack table and still be highly successful. Covert Ops, her natural alter-ego ability and Safe House #29 are the keys here. Covert Ops is a huge card that can remove 4 threat and confuse the villain while you're still in alter-ego mode! Safe House let's you loop Counterintelligence indefinitely and she gets to draw a card every time you play it.

A strong hand size of 6 coupled with drawing a card for Counterintel... which plays for "free" once you get her Black Widow's Gauntlet's out... and then you tack on the cards from Espionage and she's flush with gambling winnings at the casino, and able to afford big cost cards like Nick Fury, Spider-Man, Daredevil, etc... get out the Helicarrier and now the cost effectiveness gets silly. You really don't even play most of her signature cards, you just pitch them as resources. Dropping a Grappling Hook doesn't hurt if you want to flip in for a turn to do some Dance of Death damage, but it's not needed. The only real benefit to keeping her signature cards out is to thin the deck a little in the late game and make sure you have at least 4 preps in play so Winter Soldier plays for free. That said, with your First Aid's you're not losing Bucky to the lost pile very often.

Once you're setup, the engine just crushes the scenario. You don't even use the Beat Cops to kill minions, you just have a free x3 threat clear every turn. Against Klaw, my Beat Cops finished at 13/10/9 threat on them respectively. Quake deals out massive damage over the course of the game and since you're so flush with cash, you can attack with allies, then drop fresh allies and attack with them too. Espionage is really stellar here and sets Widow up for some massive turns and triggers, you guessed it, while she's in alter-ego mode ;) Against Klaw I flipped to hero mode 2 times in 14 turns. Once to clear out some guards quicker (could easily have taken the longer approach with Quake), and the second was to just finish the game. Flipped to hero, Dance of Death for 6, Winter Soldier for 2, Daredevil for 2 and Quakefor 2, 12 damage, game over. :)

EDIT 2:

As I've played the deck more, I've found that there are points where the spider can and should come out of the shadows for a turn and deal some extra Dance of Death damage. The nice thing about the build is that you can really take a few turns of setup to protect yourself so when those moments arise. She can come out safely, do what she needs to do and drop back into the background. If you find your engine is setup, then your next steps are to make sure you get the Synth-Suit, Grappling Hook and a Widow's Bite in play. This will let you flip, hit for 8 (ATK + DoD), possibly take care of any Hero actions needed to clear attachments, etc and be fairly well protected for the villain's turn, knowing full well you are going to flip back and be afforded the safety the build provides. :)

Next up, Mutagen Formula!

CURRENT GAMES COMPLETED

Beat Expert Rhino with Running Interference with 0 threat left on the 1B main. Beat Expert Klaw with Masters of Evil with 0 threat left on the 2B main.

Beat Expert Ultron with Under Attack with 3 threat left on 2B main.

Beat Expert Risky Business with Goblin Gimmicks with 3 threat left on 2B main.

Beat Expert Kang with Master of Time with 3 threat left on 4B.