Welcome back to Precon Recon, where today we're excited to share one of our new favorite decks, featuring Black Widow! For those who aren't familiar with our series, check out our article talking about Black Widow over here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2761650/1-2-punchboards-precon-recon-black-widow-revised

From the Shadows

Black Widow excels at operating from Alter-Ego, and that's what this deck is all about; making the villain wait while you gear up for the fight. With many villains, Covert Ops is going to be a great tool to accomplish this, but for those who are Steady or Stalwart, your endless supply of allies will do some of the legwork as well.

Opening hand priorities are a little wonky this time around, but generally speaking, the components of a solid hand are some combination of the following:

• At least 1 Prep card.
• A copy of Black Widow's Gauntlet.
• Safe House #29.
• Nick Fury and Meditation.
• Covert Ops.

You'll play Safe House #29 with your Prep card, bringing it back to your hand, then use Meditation to play Nick Fury for a cool 2 cards, thus drawing 3 cards and letting you afford to get your gauntlet in play and possibly Covert Ops.

Let's talk about Meditation briefly, while we're here. Of all the heroes in the game, Black Widow is one of the best heroes to wield it, as she spends the most time chilling in her Alter-Ego with nothing to do with her exhaust each round. Is it always an amazing option? No, Black Widow does want to pop up from time to time, and you may draw into multiple, meaning you'll have to choose whether to spend it as a normal resource or hold it for a future round. Still, this is a great way to play Nick Fury, spending 2 cards and an exhaust to draw 3 cards and deal 2 ATK or THW.

Even when you don't have Meditation on hand, you are generating a massive amount of cards to afford your friends. Between 3 copies of Espionage and 3 copies of Assess the Situation, you will find yourself flush with cards more often than not. Most of your allies still trigger when in Alter-Ego, like Hawkeye's arrows, and U.S. Agent and War Machine are here to help protect you and your buddies from attacks when you do pop out to unleash your cavalcade of Prep cards.

There's really nothing quite like it out there, and I'd highly recommend giving it a shot. Here's to hoping we get some more great SHIELD allies in the future to help bolster this deck even more. As always, let us know your thoughts down below, and we'll see you next time!