Garden of Betrayal

"Each betrayal begins with trust." - Martin Luther

Let's face it, Nebula's never been the most stable of the Guardians. You've always had to watch your back around her, else you might find a knife in there. But now she's taking it to a whole new level. Her so-called allies? They mean nothing in the face of her (cutthroat) ambitions.

"Nobly" sacrificing her own allies does a few really neat things for Nebula. Not only is it a lot of healing for a hero who can really use some extra health, as a Guardian she gets access to allies with very high printed HP like Groot and Martinex (don't forget to make yourself an Honorary Guardian so you can play these cards in Alter-Ego). Plus, the tough also has extra value as a way to keep Unyielding Persistence on the table for an extra turn or two if she wants. We can supplement this by adding a few key non-Guardian allies to throw under the bus: U.S. Agent has very high health for his cost, and most importantly, the equally traitorous Grant Ward has a respectable 3 while also costing 0.

This deck has a lot of ways to deal with Grant's traitorous tendencies; we can use Command Teams to get through his health faster, before either sacrificing him and bringing him back with a 0 cost Make the Call, or defeating him with consequential damage to send him to the Med Lab, where he can live to betray us another day. Wide Stance can make sure that we draw a non-treachery card, at least at lower player counts. And if a treachery card does show up while he's around, Nebula's Ship gives us a guaranteed wild resource to keep him placated.

Since we're playing as Nebula, Grant's not the only ally who we have to worry will betray us before we betray them. An untimely Shadow of the Past can cause Gamora to turn on her sister before she's outlived her usefulness. The nerve of her! Luckily, we can plan around this by pre-empting her pre-emptive betrayal, using Face the Past. Once she's out of the set-aside area and in the villain discard pile, Shadow of the Past can't summon her anymore, and we can safely give her a Comms Implant and leave her in play to enable Daughters of Thanos, at least until the encounter deck reshuffles. Note that this only works on Standard 1, since Standard 3's Pursued by the Past and Expert 2's Seek and Destroy will grab your nemesis from anywhere, not just the set-aside area. So for those settings you're just going to have to stay vigilant.

Do whatever it takes to survive in this uneasy new cloak and dagger world of spies and secrets we find ourselves living in. Watch your back, and hope that your allies aren't watching theirs.

(Special thanks to Fernafalej from Discord, who inspired me to build this)