Black Widow doesn’t have a lot of luck in either the MCU or in MTG. Despite debuting in Iron Man 2 in 2010, Black Widow didn’t get her own solo movie until 11 years later in 2021. In Magic: the Gathering, she has also received the most underwhelming legendary creature of any Marvel character: Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff.
Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff is a two mana 2/2… You might be expecting me to continue there, but nope, that’s it. This version of Black Widow is literally a red copy of Grizzly Bears. Yikes!
Fortunately, you’re not going to open Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff in a booster pack. She’s included in the Marvel Super Heroes Beginner Box, a tutorial product designed to introduce new players to the game. It has deliberately simple variants of several popular Marvel characters that convey the game’s rules slowly and digestibility. They aren’t the best MTG cards in the set, and they aren’t designed to be.
Being part of an introductory bundle isn’t an issue in and of itself. The problem is that most of the other heroes in the Beginner Box at least get some kind of ability to set them apart. Hawkeye’s card has vigilance, Hulk gets trample, and Quicksilver gets haste.
The only other legendary character in the box with no rules text at all is Happy Hogan, Dauntless Driver, who is a 2/1 for a single red mana. Happy Hogan at least gets the dignity of being a colorshifted Savannah Lions, which is a significantly more efficiently costed card than Grizzly Bears. He also still trades with Black Widow in combat despite costing half as much mana as her, and being a chauffeur rather than a Soviet super spy.
Are there any other Marvel characters that you feel got done dirty in this crossover? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord server.
Source: Wargamer
