Scarlet Witch (2021)
This is a review of Scarlet Witch's pre-constructed deck, mostly through the lens of solo play. It is in no way an exhaustive review or commentary on the meta game. Rather, it is my thoughts and experience of the pack as a relatively new player.
Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
Alter-Ego form - Wanda Maximoff has a hand size of 6, 10 hit points, and a recovery of 3. Pretty average overall. Wanda's ability Superpowered Siblings allows her to discard two cards to draw two new ones (or three if Pietro is in play). Though not my favorite alter-ego ability, it works well with Wanda as she is all about cards that allow her to use the Villain's encounter deck to her advantage, so cycling her for a better hand is useful. This ability gets better when the Pietro ally is in play, or in a multiplayer game with Quicksilver.
Hero form - Scarlet Witch has a hand size of 5, 2 thwart, 1 attack, and 2 defense. Her ability Chaos Control, which once per phase allows her to draw a different encounter card when boost icons are counted. This is a great ability for both offense and defense. Scarlet Witch is all about chaos and running through the encounter deck to power herself up and avoid consequences. Offensively she can use boost icons to power attacks, and potentially getting a better draw can be huge. The same is true defensively. There were plenty of times where I when from a boost of 3, to a 0 or 1, using chaos control, lessening the damage done.
Favorite Hero Cards:
Like all other hero packs, Scarlet Witch comes with 15 signature hero cards. Scarlet Witch's deck includes big hits and many ways to avoid various effects of cards. I won't go in depth into all of them, but here are some of my favorites.
Chaos Magic - Chaos Magic is probably the coolest card to play, it's a shame her deck only has one. This 0 cost event allows you to play a card by discarding encounter cards equal to the cards cost. This is a great way to get out expensive cards and still be able to play other cards the same turn.
Scarlet Witch's Crest - Scarlet Witch's Crest is a 2 cost upgrade that allows her to increase or decrease boost icons by one. This pairs well with Wiccan and Molecular Decay offensively and Magic Shield defensively as it allows you to control the outcomes a bit.
Molecular Decay - Molecular Decay is Wanda's big attack card. Costing 3, it deals 5 damage, plus 1 per boost icon of the top two cards of the encounter deck. With Scarlet Witch's Crest ready in play, it will do at least 6, but best case scenario, can do up to 13.
Aspect Cards:
Scarlet Witch's hero pack comes with 6 new Justice cards, which is an important aspect for solo as she doesn't have very good thwarting cards in her hero cards.
Turn the Tide - Turn the Tide is one of the most helpful cards in this set. It is a 0 cost response event. After your hero thwarts, if all scheme was removed, it deals 3 damage to an enemy. Once, beefing Wanda's thwart a bit, it basically guaranteed threat removed and 3 damage for free.
Swift Retribution - Swift Retribution is a 1 cost event that allows the villain to scheme and then deals them 4 damage. This can be a great combo if played when threat is at 0 and in conjunction with Turn the Tide. Basically, you can let the villain scheme, deal 4 damage, then remove it and deal 3 more, for a total resource cost of 1.
Wiccan - Wiccan is a great 2 cost ally. He has 3 hit points, and 1's for attack and thwart. His ability is after Wiccan thwarts the top encounter card is discarded and he does damage according to the boost. This ability gives him some good damage potential, especially when paired with Scarlet Witch's Crest, though at the least, he is usually doing 1 thwart, 1 attack each turn.
Speed - Speed is a 4 cost ally with 4 health, 1 attack, 2 thwart, and an ability that allows you to ready him after he takes a thwart action. With the specifics of the thwart action, it makes Speed a worse version of the Quicksilver ally though he can be helpful to thwart a total of 8 over 2 turns if necessary.
Crisis Averted - Crisis Averted is a 3 cost event that allows you to remove 6 threat, and ignore crisis icons if you paid using a mental resource. This can be a pricy card, especially considering some of Scarlet Witch's more priority cards, but in a pinch, this one can be huge.
Multitasking - Multitasking is a 1 cost event that removes 2 threat from a scheme, and 2 from a different theme if you paid with a mental resource. this is cheap enough that it can be helpful, especially, to set up Turn the Tide, or deal with side schemes.
Tips from a beginner:
Get Scarlet Witch's Crest in play as soon as possible. You will be running through the encounter deck, so being able to manipulate boost counts a bit, is really helpful.
Get Agatha Harkness in play. Getting an extra card is huge, and she lets you potentially stack the bottom of your deck a bit.
Lean into Scarlet Witch's play style. Don't be afraid to discard encounter cards, that's part of playing her well, in my opinion.
This requires no deck building skills, but if you have the Doctor Strange hero pack, add in The Sorcerer Supreme. It's an easy add and will give Scarlet Witch a hand size of 6 while in hero form.
Feel:
Scarlet Witch's hero pack definitely feels like Scarlet Witch, though that might not be everyone's favorite play style. She is all about chaos, discarding encounter cards to hopefully power herself up. She puts off her problems until later hoping to win before those problems catch up with her, creating a potential time bomb for herself. She can be pretty swingy, but is super strong when things go right. I had a great sequence against Wrecking Crew, using her Justice attack cards. First I used Swift Retribution which activated Wrecker's side scheme, brought threat back to 3 and dealt 4 damage. With threat at 3, I could Turn the Tide, removing the 3 with a basic thwart, dealing another 3 damage, ultimately doing 7 for 1 cost (though I did follow up with Molecular Decay which did another 6, so a total of 13 for a cost of 4).
Final thoughts and recommendation:
Scarlet Witch is a very different play style than many of the other heroes, but her play style will definitely hit or miss with people. So far I have enjoyed my games with her. As I've mentioned, she can be pretty swingy, but I like the big turns she can provide. With Wanda, the game basically becomes a race against the villain, requiring big hits and a constant pace. If you enjoy high risk, high reward plays, Scarlet Witch might be for you.
Purchase Scarlet Witch hero pack: https://amzn.to/3dbmFFk