The Girl Who Played With an Axe

This deck was initially built to play around with the combination between Jarnbjorn and Dance of Death. As three separate attacks, Dance theoretically allows you to trigger Jarnbjorn off each one, if you've got enough resource to fuel it. In playing it, it also occurred to me that Jarnbjorn is also effective with "attack" header preparation cards (Attacrobatics, Counterattack and Widow's Bite). This gives you some awesome damage output in the Villain phase alone.

So, I want a high number of icons, the preparation cards Widow needs to function, and otherwise keep things cheap.

Mean Swing is in there because, hey, I'm going to want to have Jarnbjorn out, which essentially makes it itself worth 5 damage for one , and 8 total damage if I've got Combat Training out. I've played my early version of this deck through several different villains on expert now and the only one who was particularly nasty was Ultron. As a result I added in some Relentless Assaults and Tigra for a bit of minion control. It's still pretty cheap at 2 cost, and with the dominance of resources in the deck, you're pretty reliably hitting overkill on it. The icon runs a bit counter to the deck's plan, so I've left it at 2-of rather than a full 3-of.

Side note (spoiler): Relentless assault is also a great counter to Taskmaster, who can easily be at 10+ ATK and SCH and therefore needs dealing with straight away. Widow's Bite can buy you a turn if it's out at the right time, but just having a few extra tools in your toolbox for dealing with him is helpful.

Given that the deck has a high number of resources, Hulk becomes a great option, and is a fun nod to the Avengers Assemble movie. Given Black Widow's frighteningly low HP I've then chosen to reduce and icons as much as possible (I'd rather he bugger off with a than deal that extra damage to Tasha herself. Hence there's no Energy or The Power of Aggression - there's precious few Aggression cards that I could play it with, anyway, so it will largely be a dead card, is my reckoning.

I have now played her through most villains on expert, so I'm fairly confident I can call the deck as "done". As mentioned above, Ultron was a nightmare, but the rest of them were a challenge, but manageable. Overall, I don't think this deck, at least, is up there with the super powerful decks in the game, but it's definitely got some fight in it. As I'm writing this during the coronavirus lockdown of 2020, I've not been able to play it multiplayer yet, but I think if anything it will just get stronger if there's other decks out to deal with the things this one struggles with.

The Jarnbjorn/Dance of Death combo does work well if you can trigger it I've managed the full 12 damage dance of death a few times now, and it's glorious when it happens, but the little added extras on Widow's Bite, Attacrobatics and Counterattack were really where the power of the deck lies, I think. It lets Widow's Bite take out a 4 hp minion when it's played (or 5hp if you include Black Widow's response ability) - not a huge thing against Ultron, but brilliant against mutagen formula Green Goblin.

I really like her playstyle, particularly with Aggression. It feels like a bit of a mix of Iron Man and Ms. Marvel - you build up a board state like you do with Tony, but then it all goes off with some really interesting, and at times spectacular, combos like Ms Marvel.

Ms Marvel is my current favourite hero in the game - if there's a playstyle I gravitate towards it playing the big combos (there's some name for this style of play, but it comes from Magic, which I haven't played since 1995). The fact that Widow plays into this style is perfect for me.

Iron Man, however, is one of my least favourite heroes to play late game - once you've gotten the suit fully built all his turns tend to be pretty samey and even easy. With Natasha, however, the board state is largely temporary, so once you've had that big turn where all your preparations are triggering you have to build it all back up again.

When I first heard about her, and preparation cards especially, I was underwhelmed. I thought "what's the point in paying to play an upgrade that's then just going to pop like an event?" This was an deeply flawed opinion, I realise now that I've played her. Firstly, for what they do, these cards are cheaper than events. Grappling Hook for example, is similar in effect to Get Behind Me!, and has the same cost, but is much better for two reasons: (1) you don't have to take an attack, and (2) you don't have to have it in hand at exactly the right time - once it's down you can wait until you draw a treachery to trigger it. The real key to preparation cards, though, is that they're almost always triggering in the Villain phase. This adds a whole new dimension to play and allows me as a combo player to double the amount of time I am playing my combos. I don't think she's quite spectacular to overtake Ms Marvel as my favourite hero, but she's currently running a close second.

I want to shout out a few of the stars of the deck from my playthroughs so far:

Covert Ops: such a good card! 4 threat removal for 3 isn't terrible economy to begin with, but add in confuse and, critically, that you can play it in alter-ego, it really sings. This has pulled me out of holes on several occasions when I've been on low HP and the main scheme was about to pop.

Synth-Suit: this was super-useful against pretty much every villain I've put her up against so far (with the exception of Klaw, but I think that's the peculiarity of his attacking and how well Attacrobatics can deal with it). It lets you defend for 3, then you trigger Attacrobatics to cancel the boost card and deal it back, or Counterattack to deal back some of the overspill damage on a big hit, then you stand back up so you can still act or defend again if needed. Against big hitting villains, I think this is the card you Mulligan for!

Winter Soldier: Okay, a 2 THW, 2 ATK 4 HP ally for 4 cost is solid, but without a cool ability is also pretty uninteresting. But on so many occasions I was able to bring him out for free, and then he's basically 8 Thwart, or 6 Thwart and an attack cancelled. I've even used him to chip in a couple of damage here and there when needed.

Hulk: Hulk in a deck that feels like it's 90% physical resources is just golden. Let him attack, it's what he wants to do! If he decides to just bounce off on you looking for Betty (what I always imagine drawing a represents), just keep calm and carry on - you probably got some solid mileage for 2 cost, so just live with it. Most games he seems to deal 13 damage then bugger off to find Betty (which is my head-canon for what a represents), and in all the games played I only once had him go on his general rampage ().

Jarnbjorn: okay, so it's kind of the point of the deck, but it did not disappoint, and actually proved more useful than I suspected, as I have alluded to earlier. Several of her preparations in this deck are attacks: Counterattack, Attacrobatics, Widow's Bite. When you can trigger Jarnbjorn off one of these it is just so much win. Not only are you dealing the damage from the preparation, and then another 2 from Jarnbjorn, you also get an extra point from Black Widow's response ability! Add to that to that you're making these attacks in the enemy phase so you've got your full hand to scalp icons from, it's a really nice bit of combo play. Having an Enhanced Physique in play is also a nice way of making sure you can trigger Jarnbjorn at least once without issue.

Down Time and Endurance are really good cards for Natasha - 9hp is tiny, so being able to bulk yourself up a bit and recover quickly is a great help. In conjunction with Covert Ops and Safe House #29 there's a lot of mileage in spending a turn in alter-ego mode to both recover and build your board of preparations back up.

Finally, let's have a look at the tweaks I've made to the deck as I've played it:

Espionage and Target Acquired these basic preparations are decent, but they don't trigger that often, so I've gradually reduced the number of them in the deck as I've played. Espionage is definitely the better of the two, but in the end I've reduced them both to 1-ofs.

Relentless Assault Discussed heavily above, but adding in a couple of these has really helped the deck deal with minions.

Tigra is there largely as anti-ultron tech. If you're the sort of player who likes a sideboard, I'd swap her out for other villains., but I prefer to create a deck for all-comers.

Avengers Mansion I experimented with adding this in and I just really struggle to afford it. This is not the deck that has the luxury of being able to pay that sort of investment.

Mockingbird was a fairly early addition, after losing my first game to Rhino. I figured with 9hp, the breathing room a bit of stun supplies is well worth it.

I find I hardly ever play Combat Training. I know the synergy with Mean Swing is decent, but I am close to cutting it from the deck. I have manged to get it out once and it did make a difference, but it so often gets thrown for resources I wonder about just cutting it entirely.