Birds of a Feather
Redwing is loyal, fierce, and highly mobile. Thanks to some Tesseract-fueled shenanigans, he developed a telepathic connection with both Falcons—I truly do not know why, perhaps because of their hero name? He’s also an honorary member of the Avengers. Not too shabby for a bird of prey!
Rad Wins with Red Wings
Redwing comes with an interesting kit. He’s a 3-Cost, 4-Power card with a bamboozling effect—after moving for the first time, he adds a card from your hand to the location he just left. The catch? He can’t move on his own.
He reminds me a bit of Dracula, who also wants you to have a powerful card in hand for a big swing. But while Dracula is an independent boy, Redwing needs someone to be the wind beneath his wings.
Let’s look at some cards that could give the boost that Redwing needs.
We have a ton of options here, I wouldn’t recommend using more than two of those unless your deck is heavily invested in move cards.
My favorites from the list are Madame Web and Heimdall. Madame Web is a card I’d love to slot into all my decks simply because she adds complexity to my plays, making them unpredictable for my opponent. Heimdall, on the other hand, is an endgame surprise, he keeps stealing cubes whenever an interesting deck emerges that can take advantage of his ability. With his help, our winged friend could catch opponents off guard even more on that crucial final turn.
Of course, to maximize Redwing’s effect, you’ll also need a Big Guy in your hand. My personal favorite is the always chill Infinaut, but plenty of other cards work just as well. Dropping any Hulk would be exceptional—no matter the flavor.
A third factor to consider when using Redwing is that we need a mostly empty hand. If we’re holding too many cards, it becomes much harder to utilize his ability effectively and target a powerful card. Fortunately, some cards can help with this. Black Swan can be activated to clear out our 1-Cost cards on the final turn. Alternatively, Bullseye can achieve the same goal—but with a bit more flair and violence.
One thing that Redwin has in his favor, is the big pile of locations that could get him much higher. You might want to flutter off whenever these locations show up as the Hot Location.
The last thing I want to mention is the strange counters our birb has. Master Mold is a card that often goes unnoticed, but if you’re aiming for an all-expenses-paid flight to Infinaut and end up with a Sentinel instead, your soul will sting. Likewise, you’ll feel real pain if Redwing pulls a useless rock from your deck, courtesy of your opponent’s Korg.
Now, let me share some decks. Apologies if they seem weird—I’m winging it.
Dualgloves’ Day One Redwing Decks
Red 2: Even Redder
It's based on the tried and true Dracula Dump deck archetype but I made several changes to accommodate our bird and to make it flashier. We have a ton of lines including activating Bullseye on turn 4 to discard X-23 and get your precious 6 energy to skip into Sunspot and She Hulk’s discount. We could also play a surprise Heimdall on turn 6 that moves our bird and plays a surprising Infinaut that could swoop away your opponent’s chances of winning. It's a very weird and unpredictable deck but I might do the job.
Eagle Fang
A more tradicional Dracula Dump deck. Keep in mind that these decks are quite budget friendly to beginners since a lot of the advanced series cards could be easily replaced. You don’t need Red Hulk, just a big guy, and you don’t need Araña, Iron Fist works just as well.
Big Dumb Wing
Surtur has been such a menace that some cards that previously had 10 power had it reduced to 9 in order to avoid the synergy with the hot head. Now, Heimdall is one of his new best friends and he works greatly with Redwing. Redwing in this list will more often than not play a card that has 10 power and that is incredibly awesome. Let’s see if Surtur gets better with this addition.
Ongoing Flight
Redwing is here to win those games that Dooom 99 doesn’t show up to clog your board. A last turn Heimdall that organizes your cards into filling two locations and moves your redwing just enough to add a free Spectrum from your hand seems too good to be true. But I’ll try to live the dream.
Variant Gallery
Redwing gives you several options for a new card. We have a stunning rendition by He Tanyo, showcasing Redwing’s killer instinct. Then, there’s the always charming work of Rian Gonzales, where we even see a tiny Sam riding Redwing. Lastly, a surprise bundle variant has been datamined for April. You could skip this spotlight and simply buy the bundle when it releases in two months—though keep in mind that datamines aren’t set in stone, and this bundle may never happen or could be different when it arrives.
Verdict
I have to be honest with you all—I love the card, but it might be too narrow in scope and too janky to be truly useful. I don’t want to be a downer, but it could end up competing with Joaquín Torres for the unfortunate title of “worst of the season.” I’ll be picking it up because I love unique cards, and if you do too, you might want to follow me. But if you’re strictly looking for power, you might want to skip this one.
His spotlight isn’t that strong either, unfortunately. Zemo is probably the best card of the bunch, but he is often only used in Mill decks. Loki hasn’t had the same impact ever since he lost his identity and became just an Arishem card. Perhaps he’ll be in a better place meta-wise in the future. Unfortunately, this week’s theme seems fun but not particularly powerful. I hope I’m wrong this time and that Redwing can soar free, but I won’t hold my breath.