Re: The Book of Nick Fury (MCU) - Breathing
Would an attack-y power track better if it felt more contingency flavored?
I think Nick Fury getting in the mix feels thematically right, but I imagine that more in a "Cap is down, this chump from the other team thinks he can fight me, but I've got an ace up my sleeve" context versus a sort of more proactive "rolling out alongside Cap with a Cap-friendly power" thing.
Yes! Thank you for articulating what I was trying to get at so well.
The one factional thing to watch out for is that Black Widow has the Contingency market fairly covered, so figuring out how exactly to do that could be challenging.
Black Widow and Wolverine both can recover Order Markers, yes, but both only recover the ones from the destroyed figure. The issue I've run into with Black Widow, and why she's not a go-to draft for me personally, is that I have noticed more often than not her ability leads to disappointment on my end.
Here's why:
AVENGERS CONTINGENCY
At the start of the game, you may choose 1 other Unique Hero you control and place a white Avenger Marker on its card. When a Unique Hero you control that is an Agent or that has an Avenger Marker on its card is destroyed by an enemy figure, you may immediately remove any unrevealed Order Markers from that card and place them on this card. For the rest of the round, after revealing an Order Marker on this card, before taking a turn with Black Widow, you may take a turn with one other Unique Hero you control that is an Agent or that has an Avenger Marker on its card, and you may not take any additional turns with other figures you control.
She can only recover Order Markers from the destroyed figure. So if the enemy kills someone with 1 Order Marker(possibly already revealed/used), or no Order Markers, that power will ultimately not trigger.
Then the 2nd part of that, it's a limited time boost, reliant on the Order Markers being on her card to capitalize. So if you lost a figure that didn't have the Markers, if Widow doesn't have Markers already, you're SOL on any sort of retaliation advantage for them destroying that figure. Even if that figure or she did have the Markers, it's also reliant on when the figure was destroyed to determine how much she can capitalize on that loss, by which turn it happened on since it only lasts 0-3 more turns.
Now, compare that to:
RALLY OUTSIDERS
When a Unique Hero you control is destroyed by an enemy figure, you may immediately place any unrevealed Order Markers on any of your Army Cards on this card. For the remainder of the round, after revealing a numbered Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with Geo-Force, you may immediately choose and take a turn with up to two other Unique Interloper Heroes you control.
Geo can take all OMs in this situation, guaranteeing you the bonus. The bonus lasts the same length of time, so they are equal in that risk. The bonus nets you 2 additional turns instead of 1.
I've found it hard to capitalize when using Widow, thus I haven't felt like she's worth taking for that power. She's got solid offensive power, so that's definitely where she shines, and I've had good success there, but I don't find her Contingency + Bonding to be a shining aspect of the design.
Wolverine's is similarly limited, but his avoids the bonding false hopes in favor of him just dealing out some more punishment on the spot if you kill his buddies.
All this is to say, I don't think that market is monopolized in the faction as of yet. Not only that, Fury would help Widow, as he can guarantee any Markers go to her to make best use of her power, as well as a restructuring that could see Cap get a revealed OM in a pinch if you wanted to use that turn elsewhere in a heated pivotal moment.
As for not seeing it as a Pep Talk thematically. Here's how I see it:
A figure you control is destroyed. People are down and defeated. He moves OMs around. That gets that person back into the fight, or puts the emphasis on your strongest option if the Marker wasn't on them before, to maximize retaliation. For the Avenger Marker bit, let's say you didn't have enough Markers in your army, maybe a team game or something. Someone gets taken out, Fury recruits someone else with that Marker, talking them into standing up for the fallen. Or he just takes the Marker for himself, and uses it to burn to make the team better through his words, using the fallen person(their marker to represent them) as his driving factor much like Coulson's demise with his bloody Cap cards in the first movie. That was my logic there.