Black Widow - Total Control (Legacy) [J]

This deck is part of Project Post-con: building a ready to use deck for each existing hero, just using the available card copies of buying each pack once. This does not only enable fast pick-and-play, but it also makes each deck feel unique, as not everyone is using the same powerhouse cards. Each deck is intended to be fun and usable in expert mode, but none will be the absolute strongest possible due to the card limitations. Looking for other decks? Search for the Post-con tag.

Project Post-con builds: V1, V2 (see comments)

Black Widow has board control unlike any other character. That is why, after a long time of tinkering, I went with justice above protection, due to the great preparation control justice offers. Natasha can make villain turns pass by as a small breeze, that is, as long as you keep your head in the poker game. She has so many reactive upgrades on the table that a slightly higher attention span is needed that for any other deck. But oh my, she is so worth that effort.

RESOURCES

Natasha has already decent card draw and resource generation from her alter-ego ability, gauntlets and safe house. With a lot of cheap preparations, her resource management therefor becomes quite easy and you always feel you have a lot of options. Besides the three basic resources, The Power of Justice is there to pay for her more expensive justice cards.

The most critical part of this deck is finding the right balance between flipping to alter-ego for card draw/fetching preparations from the discard and staying in hero mode to activate her strongest preparations.

ALLIES

• Her signature ally Winter Soldier synergises so well with her gimmick. With the large amount of preparations in this deck, you will never pay anything to play him. Looking forward to the new justice card spoiled in Vision's deck to fish him out in the future.
• Agent Coulson is almost synonymous with a justice Black Widow deck, as fetching the wanted preparations is key.
• Quake is great, as you will be spending a lot of time in alter-ego anyway. Any minion on the field that is not knocked out from her Widow's Bite, has a large chance not surviving their first scheming.
• Nick Fury finally is just a very good ally. He fits in so well thematically, that I had to include him.

UPGRADES

Oh boy are there a lot, but don't forget, most of these (preparations) won't stick around too long.

• in the encounter phase, Grappling Hook gives amazing control over the board state and is always my go-to card to fetch back from the discard. Spycraft works slightly less well, but the total of 5 treachery counters ensures you rarely have to worry about encounter phase again (unless the villain has horrible side schemes/attachments). Because also minion are crippled with Widow's Bite.
• But also in the villain activation phase you won't have to worry anymore, as long as you have Attacrobatics to cancel the boost icons and Target Acquired to cancel boost abilities. The damage on the former is also nice, as it helps her play some offence as well.
• And then there is off-course threat litigation, the job of any justice hero, which she smoothly hinders via Counterintelligence
• Her final preparation, Espionage, is a bit situational, but often helps in the long run to get more preparations onto the field.

Besides the preparations, she also has more permanent upgrades that help her out:

• Synth-Suit changes play so much, as when you equip it, defending suddenly encouraged each round at least once.
• Black Widow's Gauntlets are so useful, as they allow a free preparation each turn.
• Skilled Investigator is so strong for gaining additional card draw.
• Heroic Intuition is a default for each Justice character with decent THW.
• Under Surveillance gives additional control on the main scheme.

SUPPORT

• Safe House #29 is probably Black Widows main reason to go back to alter-ego, as it let's you fish your favourite preparations back up, allowing consistent preparation use each round. Grappling Hook typically takes priority for me here, unless the specific situation calls for anything else.
• Quincarrier fills the final need for any resource, further opening hand options.
• Interrogation Room is a cheap additional threat removal, combined with the more expensive Beat Cops. The latter also allows dealing with any heavy minion in a pinch.

EVENTS

This deck only contains a very limited amount of events:

• Covert Ops allows for easy flipping to alter-ego through confusion, which Natasha likes.
• Dance of Death is a very versatile attack, just watch out not to hit multiple retaliates.
• Stealth Strike adds some additional attack to the pool.

In conclusion, Black Widow allows for total board control, keeping the villain from building any momentum. She is definitely my favourite hero thus far.