Taunt is one of the most exciting new cards from Angel’s pack. It follows the same mold of some cards we’ve seen before like Bait and Switch and Toe to Toe, but draw 3 is by far the strongest ability of the bunch. This can enable an explosive early turn if your hero has some spare hp to soak up a hit and works especially well with heroes Spider-Man (Peter) and Drax, who draw a card when attacked. Colossus is another interesting hero who is swimming in tough statuses to block the attack and can use help with the small hero hand size. Look for opportunities like these to take advantage of Taunt since between the two resources to play it up front and any potential resources spent to block or stun the attack, you could be net down on resources. Be careful the hero you use and scenario you face (you probably don’t want Venom Goblin attacking more than he needs to be), but Taunt can be an excellent tool in the right deck and might spawn a new archetype entirely.

Multiplayer Perspective: I’ve been stuck debating how good this card is since its release. The most common arguments for it are Hero synergies (Spiderman, Spiderham, Drax) and enabling the usage of defense cards on your own turn. These are good reasons to use the card but I think this card’s true strength lies in accelerating build-out.

The perfect defense strategy revolves around flooding your board with lots of key upgrades that trigger effects on the villain’s turn (Electrostatic armor, Dauntless, Hard to Ignore). These upgrades are incredibly cheap and efficient but it can take a full deck cycle to get them all out on board. Taunt helps you hit them faster via drawing 3 cards and giving you a reason to flip down. Flipping down will give you access to even more resources accelerating build-out further. Using this play style I’d argue Taunt’s synergy extends beyond the select few hero abilities, to any hero with impactful Upgrades, Supports, and Alter-Ego abilities.