Note to the admins of MarvelCDB: The title of the card in the screenshot is "Dark Designs" (plural) but the title of the card on MarvelCDB is "Dark Design" (singular). Feel free to remove this review if this has been fixed.

If SP//dr is set up, she can deal with 4- or 6-health enemies no problem (basic attack with Web-Fluid Compressor for 4, ready with Host Spider, basic attack again for 2). But if she's not set up, then M.O.R.B.I.U.S. is going to sting, because playing anything that can deal with M.O.R.B.I.U.S. is likely to cost at least 2, meaning SP//dr will take at least 2 damage; but then again, she has 14 HP so that's not too bad.

Some rules notes to keep in mind:

• Paying for cards by spending other cards does count as generating resources, so it's not just using Sync Ratio that will cause M.O.R.B.I.U.S. to hurt you.
• M.O.R.B.I.U.S. says "after the engaged hero," so it only damages the engaged player if they are in hero form. If you play something in alter ego form then M.O.R.B.I.U.S. won't hurt you.

The problems with this card are that 1) it has a trait restriction but doesn't do anything special, 2) it can only hit the main scheme. So to me, it's almost always going to lose to For Justice! from the core set (or Lay Down the Law, especially for me because I like to play heroes that change form a lot). Sure, at its ceiling it can remove 5 threat for 2 resources, but if the villain has stage 3 then that means you're playing on Expert (unless they come out with a villain with more than 3 stages), and on Expert you're going to want flexible threat removal that can hit side schemes and not just the main scheme, or something with bonus effects and not just plain threat removal. So I don't think I will ever play this card.

A lot of heroes have an attack that's 4 damage for 2 resources, and any attack that gets this rate is good in my book. This does it better at 5 damage, plus it powers up Spider-Woman so it's especially good if you didn't choose Aggression for one of your two aspects.

But the reason I'm posting this review is because I just noticed that this card quotes Wolverine in its flavor text! Could it be that this and Quicksilver's Avalanche nemesis minion were the only references to the X-Men in the entire game before Mutant Genesis? (Not counting Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch themselves, or the X-Factor cards Multiple Man or Warlock.)

(Also note to the admins: as of this writing, the flavor text of this card is currently not showing on MarvelCDB.)

If you happen to be facing a villain with a lot of treachery cards, like Thanos—-this ally can potentially shut down a villain’s entire encounter phase for 1 turn(assuming you drew 2 treachery cards and took 2 damage to Negasonic both times). It’s not a forced interrupt so it lets you choose how much treachery you’re willing to tolerate. That extra encounter card is not worth it though if you’re not setup first, but then again at 4 cost you wouldn’t be playing her otherwise.

You can avoid chump blocking with her since playing the Pool’ aspect means you’re going to have access to health regeneration and then can ready with the upgrade Sticktoitivness. Just defend, heal the 2 damage(assuming you take any if you have a hero with a naturally high defense), ready up and then you’re good to go. It’s an interesting pseudo-protection strategy.

Side Note: In fact, I had great success implementing it with heroes who have access to the aerial keyword, like Thor. With the player side-scheme Superpower Specialization and Soaring Acrobatics you can get +2 basic defense without ever having to “go green” which is pretty amazing actually. Imagine running Limitless Stamina(x3), in a deck with +2 defense and an upgrade that also lets you ready. At that point you’ll never have to flip down and just be punishing the competition then after turn.