The Red Queen's Gambit

Pieces

Pawns - Ironheart / Mockingbird / Nick Fury / Spider-Girl / Magic Shield

Knights - King-side: Thor / Queen-side Valkyrie

Bishops - King-side: Tigra / Queen-side: Agatha Harkness

Rooks - King-side: Brawn / Queen-side: Sentry

King - Quicksilver

The Red Queen - Scarlet Witch

Openings

The first opening moves should involve placing pawns on the board to help you develop your other pieces. Remember that your pawns are expendable and the queen must survive. Crucially, you must develop your queen with Avengers Mansion / Quincarrier / Scarlet Witch's Crest / The Sorcerer Supreme. Make sure that you Assess the Situation to find the best path to a productive middle-game and don't be afraid to take a moment for some Spiritual Meditation or find help from your Superpowered Siblings to find the right pieces.

Hex Bolt is one of the best moves you can take with your queen and shows why it's such a strong piece. It can:

• (0) can directly attack your opponent's pieces
• (1) stabilise the board state
• (2) help you develop by digging for more pieces, or
• (3) cancel your opponent's moves with Stun and Confuse, and can even defend in place of a pawn with Tough

Chaos Control will save you from certain dangers like direct queen attacks with no defending pawns or to help get the most out of Hex Bolt. It, like Assess the Situation and Spiritual Meditation will be invaluable for the entire game. And finally, your queen's THW will make for a more stable opening and even into the middle game.

Middle Game

The middle game is the most important part of the game, and it will directly impact how many pieces you have moving into the endgame. Your pawns can benefit from some promotion with Boot Camp, but your main priority should be to continue developing your more permanent pieces with Boot Camp / Chaos Magic / First Aid. Remember to keep Assessing and Meditating.

Your knights, Thor and Valkyrie will jump your opponent's pieces and the keywords that might otherwise slow them down, such as Guard or Retaliate. If they have done their job and done it well, don't be afraid to sacrifice them so that they can punch through again later; you should still be winning in these exchanges.

Ideally, you'll want to fianchetto your bishops or place them on good attacking lines to help support your other pieces. Agatha Harkness will be able to see many pathways to victory and help your own pieces to help pin your opponent's, while Tigra will work extremely well at defeating hanging pawns and other minor pieces to open files for your own major pieces. Developing Tigra with Boot Camp will give her more opportunities at attacking undefended pieces.

Your rooks will have a lot of staying power at 5 HP each. They can also pull double duty with positioning a decent amount of THW or ATK depending on the lines they can attack. Develop these pieces well; don't simply castle with them and let them stay on the backline. They will benefit the most from Boot Camp and First Aid.

If you are alone or simply playing without a Quicksilver, develop your king so that you can use his lightning fast attacking lines and help supplement your queen's unique way of playing the game by removing your opponent's moves with Order and Chaos and Warp Reality, respectively. This will also empower Superpowered Siblings

If your queen has been sufficiently developed into the mid-game, she should continue to Assess the Situation / Hex Bolt / Spiritually Meditate / THW to keep the midgame stabilised. Once you have an impressive enough board state, you are ready for the endgame.

Endgame

Once in the endgame, all pieces are expendable save the queen. While your queen's THW loses value, other queen moves start to open up, such as Molecular Decay that help to ensure a swift victory. Another change in the endgame is that pawns become much more valuable than other pieces, because they have immediate value and can protect the queen; there simply is not enough time for major and minor pieces to have as much impact as they would in the early game.

Only sacrifice pieces when necessary, and you should not be developing any more. If you've lost some of your more expensive pieces, usually it's not worth it to bring them back without a little Chaos Magic involved. Attack now, quickly, and keep looking for lines and paths to claim checkmate.