Real Name: Maxwell “Max” Dillon
First Comic Book Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (February 1964)
Affiliations in Comic Books: Black Cat’s Gang, Emissaries of Evil, Fake Defenders, Frightful Four, Sinister Six, Thunderbolts

Marvel United Appearance:Marvel United: Return of the Sinister Six (July 2020)
Marvel United Team Decks: Sinister Six

Movement

BAM!

Civilians

Thugs

How Electro Plays: Electro deals more damage than the usual villain. His BAM! effect coupled with a couple of his Threat cards could deal as much as eight damage in a single turn. But it’s his ability to add Crisis Tokens that make him a nuisance. He wins if every Location has a Crisis Token, and he adds Crisis Tokens whenever he triggers Overflow. The Heroes can’t risk too many Overflow effect.

Villainous Plot: The Heroes lose if all Locations in play have a Crisis Token

Special Rules: If a Crisis Token should be placed on a Location that already has one, place the Crisis Token on the next clockwise Location instead. As long as a Location has a Crisis Token on it, Heroes cannot use its End of Turn effect.

When a Hero is KO’d, Electro doesn’t activate his BAM! Instead, he places 1 Crisis Token on that Hero’s Location.

BAM!: Deal 1 damage to each Hero in the Location opposite to Electro’s, and in both Locations adjacent to that.

Electro forces players to think differently. Most villains damage Heroes at their Location; Electro is one of the few who deals damage in a different Location. Not only that, but he also deals damage to both adjacent Locations to the Location opposite himself.  Couple his “High Voltage” Threat card and Electro may be one of the deadliest Marvel United villains.

Overflow: If a civilian or thug token can’t be added to a Location, add 1 Crisis Token to that Location.

It doesn’t matter how many tokens can’t be placed due to Overflow, Electro will add 1 Crisis Token to a Location that Overflows. That’s one small mercy.

Threats

Electro has 2 copies of 3 different Threat Cards.

High Voltage (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Constant Effect: When a Hero takes damage in this Location, they take 1 extra damage.

“High Voltage” super-charges all damage given to Heroes at its Location. I advise not beginning the game at a Location with “High Voltage” as its Threat. The game may not last long. That said, “High Voltage” is a high priority Threat for self-preservation alone.

Overpowered (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Triggered Effect (Electro finishes movement on this Location): Play another Master Plan card after resolving the current one.

“Overpowered” is yet another powerful Threat card. Essentially, it gives Electro another turn as he’ll play another Master Plan card after the current one resolves. Not only can Electro trigger more effects with an additional played card, but he also whittles through his deck which can lead to an early end game. You won’t want Electro to land on “Overpowered” too often, so it’s another high-priority Threat.

Fortunately, Electro needs to land on a Location with “Overpowered” as its Threat for the effect to trigger. Electro has three cards in his deck with “0” movement. Two of these cards will also add a Crisis Token, but more on that in the Master Plan Deck, Special Effects section.

Recharge (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Triggered Effect (Electro finishes movement on this Location): Electro gains 3 Health (may go above his starting value).

“Recharge” is yet another Threat card with a potentially devasting effect. Like “Overpowered,” Electro will need to land on a Location with “Recharge” as its Threat to trigger. Electro has less Health than several Marvel United villains, but it won’t take too many instances of “Recharge’s” effect until his Health becomes a problem.

By default, “Recharge” must be a low-priority Threat. That doesn’t mean it can’t be problematic. If you have a team with a lot of Attack, “Recharge” may not ever be that big of a threat. For teams with less Attack, you may consider clearing “Recharge” before it triggers too often.

Master Plan Deck

Movement:

Electro averages just over 2 Movement each turn. He is 50% faster than any of the core set villains. His movement varies. 1 card has a speed of 5 and another a speed of 1, but 2 cards have speeds of 2 and 5. A whopping 3 cards have speeds of 3, while 0s round out the rest of his deck. Two of the Zero Movement cards have the special effect “Blackout.”
Civilians:
Electro adds more Civilians than the villains in the core set. But he has one card that can add 4 Civilians and 4 Thugs in a single turn.

Thugs:
Electro adds the same number of Thugs, which is also higher than the villains in the core set. Again, he has one card that can add 4 Civilians and 4 Thugs in a single turn.

BAM!:
Electro has BAM! effects on slightly more than half of his cards. None of the cards with special effects have a BAM! effect, so that’s a plus.

Special Effects on Cards

1) Blackout: Place 1 Crisis Token on Electro’s Location.

“Blackout” has a simple but effective ability. Electro wins if a Crisis Token gets placed on every Location. “Blackout” helps Electro with his Villainous Plot.

2) Dematerialize: Electro can’t take any damage until each Hero has played a card to the Storyline after this Master Plan card.
“Dematerialize” only matters late game. Players can’t damage Electro until they finish their second Mission. So, you may want to delay putting Electro under pressure or making him vulnerable until after every player has had a chance to add a card to the Storyline. But if “Dematerialize” does get played after Electro can be damaged, it could delay the Heroes long enough, so they don’t win.

“Dematerialize” makes Electro an easier villain at lower player counts than higher player counts. In a two-player game, each Hero will always have a chance to play a card before Electro gets another turn. It could take two turns for the same thing to be true in a three or four-player game.

General Strategy

You need ways to mitigate Crisis Tokens. There aren’t too many characters with abilities that do this until the Marvel United X-Men releases. If you have them, use them. You may need to play with Locations that have Crisis Token discarding as their “End of Turn” ability. Unfortunately, Electro’s Special Rules negate the “End of Turn” effects of a Location if that Location has any Crisis Tokens. So, get lucky.

That doesn’t help, Kyra. Okay. You could try using two Locations with an ability that gets rid of Crisis Tokens. The core set has S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters while the Rise of the Black Panther expansion has The Great Mound. If you have access to these two Locations, use them. If you run out of options for getting rid of Crisis Tokens or never had options of getting rid of them, you must speed-run Electro.

If you’re going for speed, finish missions as quickly and as closely together as possible. Concentrate your Heroics on specific Threat cards, giving precedence to “Overpowered,” then “Recharge” (if you have ways to discard Crisis Tokens, “Recharge” would be the least important but we’re going with a speed run here), and finally “High Voltage.” If you’re playing Heroes with a lot of Attack, you can Defeat Thugs. If you have Heroics to burn with Clearing Threats, Rescue Civilians. Electro places as many Civilians as Thugs, so you shouldn’t have an issue clearing either or both missions.

After Electro becomes vulnerable to damage, let him have it. You may want to save cards that deal extra damage to single targets for Electro. But Electro’s ability to damage Heroes could make that difficult.

Again, if you have Heroes with abilities that discard Crisis Tokens, you use them. Otherwise, you could stick to the theme and play with any Hero from the Enter the Spider-Verse expansion, besides Spider-Ham. Miles can delay the villain’s turn by a card. Ghost Spider can move Threats around, handy for those “High Voltage” Threats. And Spidey’s “Great Power” and “Great Responsibility” generate a lot of tokens. Save up the Attack for your battle with Electro. If you want to go off-theme and don’t have Marvel United X-Men expansions, go with Captain America and Iron Man who generate a fair number of tokens. And Black Widow’s ability to manipulate the villain’s deck could come in handy.

Remember to time completing the first and second missions (Clear Threats, Rescue Civilians, and/or Defeat Thugs) as close together as possible to avoid the villain speeding up too soon. And Electro speeding up can be a huge problem.