MAIN STRATEGY

EDIT: The Karma dream is dead, as I totally missed that the two big targets for her in this encounter are both Elites and can’t be targeted by Karma. Definitely exclude her from your deck if you try to run this!

The main idea with this deck, much like what tjjj used this round, was to keep the villain status locked in some way to prevent his spells from ticking down. In the VAST majority of cases, you should absolute prioritize making plays with Iron Fist, Tackle, Covert Ops or Professor X, as the added value from preventing even ONE spell from going off before the end of the game is just astronomical. Having the Milano around also makes the resource management needed for Tackle and What Doesn't Kill Me a non-issue. Thanks, Guardians!

Because of Black Widow's relatively low damage in her base deck, and because we can't rely on Attacrobatics from triggering thanks to all the stuns we're throwing out. Therefore, we definitely want some extra damage in the form of Fighting Fit. Between Endurance, The Night Nurse, What Doesn't Kill Me, and all those stuns, we shouldn't have any issue staying healthy and getting the full 5 damage from it. Try your best to prioritize getting off Fighting Fit and Dance of Death whenever possible, as failing to do so will absolutely make your games drag longer.

For preparations, we definitely want to prioritize trying to get a Grappling Hook out first and foremost. While many of the encounter cards in this deck are pretty weak, there are DEFINITELY some treacheries that can really screw you over, including the extra attacks and schemes and ESPECIALLY including Channeling Trance. After that, Espionage is a high priority as it's almost guaranteed to go off at some point with all the surge floating around. Attacrobatics is a good backup to throw out if you don't already have Grappling Hook out, and Widow's Bite should basically never be played due to the lack of minions in the deck.

CARD BREAKDOWN

Blade - Endurance Always run Bladurance. ALWAYS.

Iron Fist - This is your MVP for the round. 2 Stuns and 8 damage is literally everything you could possible want for this matchup, and getting him in the first two rounds is absolutely the key to a quick victory.

Tackle - While the value of this card is generally pretty mediocre, because we have the Milano to pay for the needed fist resource AND because stuns are at such a huge premium against Ebony Maw, this is not only worth playing, but should generally be prioritized unless you have a more efficient card for status locking the villain.

Professor X - Because we'll be consistently keeping the main scheme's threat pretty low AND stuns are abound in our deck, playing Professor X isn't always facilitated as we generally need his full value to make him worth the cost. HOWEVER, burst threat can be a pain in this scenario, and in the lack of any other status locking ability the Confuse alone can sometimes be worth playing him in this matchup. When he's good here, he's freakin great.

Covert Ops - As with Professor X, getting the full value out of this card can sometimes be a little tricky, but more status locking, burst threat removal, and the ability to play this in AE make this card situationally fantastic.

Grappling Hook - A high priority in this matchup. There are some nasty treacheries out there that can really ruin your day, and being able to just nope out on those is straight up unbelievable. Unless you plan on ending the game in the next couple of turns OR you have 2 of these out, do no get greedy and waste this on a mediocre treachery just to get 1 damage out.

Espionage - There's a lot of surge floating around this encounter, especially with the Spells in Maw's deck. Flipping over to AE also increases the chance to hit a surge by a pretty sizable margin, so keep that in mind when you're thinking about throwing out a confuse and flipping.

Attacrobatics - This is a good backup against an extra attack or scheme if you don't have a Grappling Hook out, and the extra damage is nice to boot!

Widow's Bite - Don't play this unless you have literally nothing better to do. It's situationally great if it happens to hit {{Supergiant}}, but the chances of it going off are slim.

Black Widow's Gauntlet - These are great if you can get them out early, but I'd generally avoid playing them past turn 2 (or turn 3 if you haven't seen many preps at that point). It's also generally only worth getting one of these out, in my experience.

Safe House #29 - This is actually generally not worth playing in this deck unless you can both get it out and use it on turn 1. Due to having more stuns than confuses, we're usually not going to be spending too much time in AE, which severely limits the potential value we'll get out of this card.

Fighting Fit - This is going to be a HUGE source of your damage. Staying healthy shouldn't be too hard with the rest of what's included in the deck, and you should definitely put playing this at high priority to speed up your games.

Dance of Death - Pretty much your only other big source of damage in the deck. Definitely not as efficient as Fighting Fit, but it's still good to prioritize playing this if you've got everything else under control.

Spider-Man - Always a fantastic, extremely flexible ally, but in a deck where we're itching for some extra damage, his value absolutely jumps through the roof.

Brother Voodoo - While you won't usually need a bunch of extra thwart in this scenario, some of the side schemes that can come out will definitely slow down your game plan. Between his decent burst thwarting and his ability to fish out your extremely good events, Brother Voodoo is a great play in many situations.

What Doesn't Kill Me - Easily one of the best protection cards in the game, made easier to play thanks to our access to the Milano. If this is in my hand and the boss isn't stunned, I'll generally just take the hit to the face so I can play this the next turn (remember, you can't play this unless your hero is damaged due to the arrow in the card's text).

The Night Nurse - You won't always play this, but between the synergy with Fighting Fit and the fact that there are a decent number of stuns and confuses that can go off in this encounter, her situational value is H I G H.

Winter Soldier - IF you can get him decently discounted AND you're able to play him by turn 3 or 4, his value is pretty hard to deny. That being said, even great Allies don't hold the greatest value in this deck due to the facts that we'll be trying to keep the villain stunned AND that we can pretty easily heal back up from a rogue punch to the face, meaning you'll very rarely need to defend with an ally.

Daredevil - Situationally useful if you need some extra thwarting, or just a cheap block. You could also ACTUALLY get some use out of his text ability if you've got an Attacrobatics out and the villain isn't stunned, so that's pretty neat.

Starhawk - Always a great ally to include in a green deck, but by no means a high priority play due to the previously mentioned lack of general ally value in this deck.

Nick Fury - He's not an absolute autoplay like he is in 99% of other decks due to the lack of ally defends going on, but if you don't have a stun out and/or you need to dig for your damage events, he's still freakin' fantastic.

Synth-Suit - Absolutely not worth playing in literally any situation. In all of my test games, I can count on one hand the number of times I've needed to defend with Black Widow. Do not play this card.