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White Widow is the next Series 5 card for the April 2024 Season, Thunderbolts. It is a 2-Cost, 2-Power card that reads: On Reveal: Add a Widow's Kiss to your opponent’s side of this location. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).
Strengths and Weaknesses
White Widow is the next card to arrive in Marvel Snap. She is a 2 energy, 2 power card that adds a Widow's Kiss to your opponent’s side of the board when it reveals. The Widow's Kiss is a 0 energy, 0 power card that has an Ongoing -4 power while its side of board is not full. This can potentially block a location on your opponent’s side of the board, but at the very least it inflicts -4 power. I think it’s reasonable to say this new clog card might have a major impact on the meta, so how can we use it to maximize effect?
The initial application is probably the best starting point to consider for the card. Junk decks want to do one thing, and White Widow is (on paper) the best card to do it yet. Unlike Debrii, it has a negative impact on the opponent’s side of the board if it’s not interacted with. This has the added advantage of incentivizing your opponent to fill the location to reduce the negative impacts.
Unlike Green Goblin, the floor isn’t -3 power on your side of the board if your opponent predicts the location; it simply won’t appear on the opponent’s side on the board. Unlike Black Widow, White Widow may not block a draw but you get to choose where the token is going to land. This allows you to use her as both a lockout tool and proactive disruption. However, it only adds two power on your side of the board. She is unlikely to be the game winning card, and her ability is not so good that it can fit into a wide variety of decks.
Her effect will want to be in decks that can make use of her effect to limit your opponent’s side of the board, such as Junk decks and some Bounce decks. While she could be very strong as potentially the best version of this effect, her success is tied to how well these decks do.
Which leads to what may hold the card back. Cards like Angela and Kitty Pryde can scale while easily fulfilling the condition for Widow's Kiss on the final turn. They can also be used to temporarily fill locations and make it harder to hit the initial play. This could result in White Widow having a more difficult time than it seems into these decks because they can naturally adjust to the play and defend from the downside. The fact that it fills a spot on the board at zero power when the location is filled is valuable, though, and that may be enough on its own.
The simple way to counter the Widow's Kiss is to just destroy it, which is easy enough if you’re running a deck like Destroy. This could be an easy way of combating the Junk decks early on if this card makes an impact on Day 1.
She has a strange counter in Annihilus; it could be used to send the -4 power Widow's Kiss back while also appearing in many decks that are also looking to utilize the card. Managing the tension around this card could be key to early success with White Widow this week.
The most exciting synergy that might open up the style of deck White Widow can be played in is Beast. This card curves perfectly with her to allow for two triggers before the end of Turn 4. This is a lot of disruption, and, even though the goals of the deck may remain the same, adding the flexibility of this play could add significant value to the deck and raise its ceiling. Hazmat is another card that benefits from another card on the other side of the board, so that’s another potential improvement in these decks.
The Verdict
White Widow does a lot, but she doesn’t win games by herself. The synergies exist for her to be a success in the right decks, though. Her ability could be frustrating for opponents, and it also has a high skill ceiling as players find interesting ways to block lanes or intentionally influence where their opponents choose to play.
These factors are likely to be balanced by the risk of playing a card that can end up being just two power (the opponent can play around the effect to basically negate it). Destroying the Widow's Kiss or simply filling the lane significantly lowers the power from this card. Intentionally filling lanes prior to the play is another viable counter that is just as accessible. Her long-term success depends heavily on specific archetypes, but she does seem to support some established archetypes on release. This makes her look like she is likely to make an impact this week.
Potential Score:
Darkhawk
This deck combines the best parts of Darkhawk and Sentry, and it has plenty of room to play White Widow multiple times. This has some synergy with just being frustrating and making the opponent’s plays difficult, and that is exactly what this deck wants to do. These sorts of applications may be where the card reaches some high skill ceilings since it can be used in multiple ways to impact the game. Sometimes it could be used to just lock out opponents, and sometimes it could be used as a late-game way to push power.
Hazmat
This deck uses White Widow as an efficient way to get some cards onto the other side of the board. You can hit them later with Hazmat and, of course, they just get in the way of the opponent’s plays. You have Silver Surfer and Odin as well to contest lanes on pure points.
The Sentry
This deck looks to play more into the lockdown part of the card. You have Ravonna Renslayer and Professor X supporting the Sentry package. The basic plan is to lock a lane and then overpower another one with Cannonball or Sentry.
Beast
I wouldn’t leave a weekly column without giving you something new to try! This is a Hazmat Bounce deck. The goal is to use Beast to get extra value from Hazmat and White Widow while maintaining a way to play a big Hit Monkey on Turn 6 for power. Luke Cage negates the debuffs on your own cards, too. Without the threat of Alioth, this deck may be able to drop surprising amounts of power on Turn 6 once again.
Variants
Closing Thoughts
White Widow is likely to appeal to players who like Sentry and Annihilus, and that is currently a strong archetype in the meta. I expect White Widow will make an initial impact, so be prepared for that. She seems to have potential for a high skill ceiling, and she supports some very established decks on release.
Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!
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