The presence of decks in the Minehead $10K tournament dependent on cards exclusive to Web of Spider-Man was a factor that many players all over the world wondered about. Would the newest decks even see play?

Despite their newness, such decks did see some use over the course of the event. Syndicate Rush made an appearance for several players, with Tombstone, Vulture, and Hammerhead. Sentinel Curve was used by Steven Paxton, replete with the cards that have proven popular in North America for that particular deck type. Other than that though, Web of Spider-Man was basically unrepresented.

The two major decks missing were the obvious ones: Spider-Friends Evasion and the new up-and-comer Aerial Supremacy. Though Aerial Supremacy’s presence or lack of presence wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the environment, the missing Spider-Friends proved to be a big factor. The only Spider-Friends that saw significant play were in a mixed Brotherhood/Spider-Friends deck.

An environment without Spider-Friends is, for the most part, an environment without evasion. Syndicate Rush splashes a bit of evasion, mostly in the form of Mysterio, but other than that there was virtually no evasion on the scene in the Minehead $10K tournament. A near-total lack of evasion really affects play in both obvious and subtle ways, so let’s look at those for a moment.

The main difference that a lack of evasion makes is the alteration of utility from some plot twists. Any sort of offensive boost played during the attack step becomes far more valuable, so attack-bonus cards like Savage Beatdown and Flying Kick, as well as power-ups, go up in value. Because evasion can reset attackers but rob them of their attack-step effects, such effects have received a check and balance in most metagames since the release of Web of Spider-Man.

However, without Spider-Friends those cards and strategies continue unchecked, stopped only by Overload (which thus goes up in value) and a handful of cards that don’t see much competitive play (think Swift Escape, Forge, and similar characters that can interrupt an attack). Blind Sided also goes up in value, and that was one card that saw advantageous play from several players running it throughout the day. Blind Sided becomes more viable in an environment where its targets can’t be destroyed and its effectiveness reduced.

The same can be said for Burn Rubber. With the strong deck presence of Doom decks, Burn Rubber saw some serious play over the course of the tournament. It was more valuable here, where players were more likely to attempt to press through damage by spending cards in hand, than it would normally be in most North American tournaments. Doom gained some advantage as a result of this, with several games being partially decided by where cards were spent and how Burn Rubber effectively negated them.

The resulting environment is one that rewards and encourages large amounts of aggression in most matchups when a player holds initiative, with Doom being the one possible exception. Brotherhood, Syndicate, and Wild Vomit all had notable presences in Minehead, and these decks performed with an advantage that they wouldn’t necessarily have had in a different metagame—albeit a Wild Vomit deck running attack bonus cards is rare and possibly ill-thought-out.

However, these decks provided the targets for Overload that the dominant deck choices (Doom variants and Teen Titans) didn’t often give. It could also be argued that because decks with a strong early game were an overt force, players might be more ready for them. In truth, that was an issue more related to the individual than suitable for generalization.

The more subtle differences in this metagame have more to do with tactics than with strategy, deck construction, or card selection. Small characters become more of a potential liability—players have a better chance of hammering through a lot of breakthrough in the mid or late game on a lower drop than they would in other metagames.

The result is twofold. First, conservative play is somewhat more valuable on turns when a player doesn’t hold initiative. Protecting those low drops is more important than usual. Second, you might see fewer players recovering low-cost characters with beneficial effects in the mid- and late game, strictly based off of the potential for those characters to act as a gateway to putting a serious hurt on their controller. For some players, that type of decision will be the norm, but it was the players who wouldn’t normally make such decisions that felt the impact of the lack of Spider-Friends in the Minehead $10K tournament.