Hopefully, you weren’t mislead by the title of this week’s column—I won't be exploring the worst characters printed in the new set. Rather, we’ll be taking a stroll through the dank underbelly of Peter Parker’s New York. A New York teeming with mad scientists, alien symbiotes, arachnid-stomping mechs, clones, old flying men, and gangsters in desperate need of cutting out the carbs. As loath as I am to admit it, New York has really taken a turn for the worse since Giuliani’s time.

You only have two viable options when drafting with Web of Spider-Man. You are either with or against the set’s namesake. When playing Sealed Pack, you can simply use the very best cards you have, but draft is another story. You have to pick the best card each time with an eye toward a synergistic and powerful deck. With at least four other players in your draft picking Sinister Syndicate, how can you draft Spidey’s greatest foes and know that you’re going to have the best deck at the table?

We have spent the last two weeks looking through the available plot twists and seeing how they apply in Sealed Pack play. If you haven’t read those articles, let me sum them up simply by saying that your draft will be won or lost on the quality of your plot twists. We introduced the concepts of jumping the curve and stealing the initiative.

The first is when you are able to stun more characters of your opponents' than they can of yours. This is usually accomplished by using a plot twist in concert with a smaller character to ambush an opponent’s most recent play. You then send your most recent play after last turn’s smaller guy. Stealing the initiative describes a situation where your opponent is going first, and a defensive plot twist or power-up on your side of the table makes him or her waste an attack without stunning your big guy.

Plot twists that help you accomplish either of these goals are priority one when drafting any set, including Web of Spider-Man. Sooner or later you have to choose a side and pick some characters, although you may already have chosen sides when picking your plot twists, since a number of very powerful plot twists are specific to the two affiliations.

One of the things I have always emphasized when drafting Vs. is the need to pay careful attention to your character curve. That is especially true of Sinister Syndicate. There are some critical cards you want to get at all of the drops, with special attention paid to the first three turns. If you draft those spots correctly, you can end up with a devastating play sequence that is almost impossible for an opponent to recover from. It’s powerful enough that you may want to draft it very aggressively, forgoing all but the very best plot twists to pick up the key pieces.

One-Drops

For me, there is only one 1-drop in Syndicate. I love the old man, Vulture, Adrian Toomes. I’ve seen whole games predicated entirely on playing him on turn 1. If an opponent has a slow draw, the swing between your two life totals can be absurd and insurmountable. There are plenty of things for a dedicated Syndicate deck to do with your surplus endurance, which we will get to shortly. A curvy Syndicate deck in draft often feels like a Constructed Brotherhood deck, and the characters themselves have abilities that allow you to jump curves and swipe initiatives without the assistance of any plot twists (but that doesn’t mean you don’t draft them). The whole package begins with this innocuous, senior discount–taking, brittle boned, old man.

Speed Demon, James Sanders and Chameleon, Dmitri Smerdyakov are not the 1-drops you’re looking for. Speed Demon has an okay ability that allows you to reinforce twice in a turn, and Chameleon can be useful if you have loyalty issues in a multi-affiliation deck, but neither is worth anything other than a second-time-around-the-table pick.

Two-Drops

Hammerhead, Gangster is the card I look for immediately after drafting Vulture. His 3 ATK is ahead of the curve for his cost and can knock out many 3-drops, and the one-two punch of Hammerhead and Vulture is part of the Brotherhood-like feeling I described earlier. Hammerhead bashes into the 2-drop, and then Vulture attacks directly for a 4 point swing in both players’ endurance totals. If your opponent does not make a play until turn 3 and you have the initiative, assuming you can stun the opposing 3-drop with your own, you will have attacked your opponent for at least 18 points of endurance loss while you sit pretty at 60 endurance. Good luck coming back from that.

Silvermane, Silvio Manfredi is a decent 2-drop who can take out 3-drops and even the occasional 4-drop with a little twist of the plot. He is an ideal curve jumper, as his attack always hugs the curve. His usefulness drops sharply around turn 5 when your opponent is playing 9 ATK/9 DEF characters, but he has the added benefit of being a 14 ATK character on turn 7 with boost. You get quite a bit from Silvio considering how late you can get him - he’s typically a middle or even late pick.

Beetle, Abner Jenkins is the least exciting of the commons available at this recruit cost. He is the opposite of Silvermane, as his defense goes up every turn. He’s okay and you can round out your 2-slot with him if you must, but if you’re not seeing the other two guys at this cost, you might not be the only Syndicate drafter on your side of the table.

Three-Drops

So you have all this spare endurance lying around from your Vulture attacks and don’t know what to do with it. Might I suggest picking up Rhino, Alex O’Hirn? There is no 3-drop you want more than this juggernaut. Not only is he going to bash through other 3-drops, but he can jump a couple of curves at the 4- and even 5-drop, clearing the way for your plays on those turns to bully around smaller past plays. I would pick this card up over all but the choicest plot twists and try to fill out my curve around him with the top picks in the other slots. One or two solid plot twists, or even a couple of power-ups, and Rhino is going to run roughshod over your opponent’s board for the next few turns.

My next favorite guy in the 3 slot is the son of every comic fan’s favorite yellow journalist, J. Jonah Jameson. While his daughter made some unfortunate film choices, his son was a famous astronaut who came back from space a lycanthrope. I really like this card in draft, as well. Syndicate is a pretty deep affiliation and Man-Wolf, John Jameson, while not up to the standard of Rhino, is an excellent card that is useful on turns 3 through 5. He’s just a big guy if you attack first on turn 3, but if your initiative is on the evens, he jumps almost any curve your opponent can play on turn 4. Even with the most modest ATK-enhancing plot twists, he takes 'em all down. Played on turn 5, he can bash in for 11. He’s a solid middle pick that can give you a lot of value.

Boomerang, Fred Meyers and Lizard, Dr. Curt Connors are fine filler cards that you can pick up late. Like Beetle, if they are the only Syndicate characters you’re seeing at that cost, you should know there’s something going on.

Four-Drops

I have gone back and forth on the two best cards at this recruit cost, and decided that the top billing has to go to movie star Dr. Octopus, Otto Octavius. His stats are a notch above most other common 4-drops and he has two useful abilities. He exhausts a guy and bashes while giving your opponent fits during formation. If you don’t have the initiative, he can reinforce any defender without regard to your formation. If you have some early pick Crushing Blows, he becomes devastating.

Both Jackal, Dr. Miles Warren and Shocker, Herman Shultz are decent curve fillers with reasonable statistics but not much to recommend them as early picks. Again, if these are the only 4-drops you see for Syndicate, there is probably a better gang being formed down the block. Hopefully your plot twists will carry you through.

Five-Drops

Your 5-drops in this affiliation are not as solid as the previous four turns. Hopefully, you can open Morbius or Carnage. Otherwise the best option is Green Goblin, Norman Osborn. He has solid stats, flight and range, and a decent ability. I compared his ability to Robot Destroyer in a previous column, but that’s unfair to automatons since you can only use Norm’s tricks during your combat step. Still, a solid body that you can pick up mid-pack.

Scorpion, MacDonald Gargan is okay curve filler with a randomly useful ability. I wish Hydro-Man, Morris Bench did not have the stats of a 4-drop, because his ability is ridiculous. No matter how good it is, I don’t want to play a 4-drop on turn 5, even if he will recover for free every turn. I’ll play either of these guys if push came to not having a 5-drop, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick either. They should be there late if you need them.

Six-Drops

The 6-drop you want is in the rare slot, and if you see Sandman, William Baker, grab him. They don’t come much better than 14 ATK/14 DEF at that recruit cost. Even with the initiative, your opponent will be hard pressed to find a way around him. He loses his six counters if he’s stunned, so make a point of picking up defensive plot twists—if you can keep him at full strength for two turns, I can’t imagine you losing.

Unfortunately he is rare, so you can’t count on seeing him. You can expect to see Hobgoblin, however, who is very handy if your curve tops out at 6. He’s big enough to take out most anything, and with flight and range, he can get into those hard to reach corners. He also has a glass jaw of 10 DEF, which is just fine if you’re trying to keep your opponent off of their 7-drop. Of course, if you’re looking to reach Green Goblin, Altered Ego resources, you will have to be prudent with Mr. Kingsley.

Kaine, Imperfect Clone has to get past twice as many players to make its way into your deck. He is actually better in a Spider-Friends deck than in a Syndicate gang. If he’s there in the first third of the pack you should probably grab him. It’s unlikely he will go much farther, and there are only the two common 6-drops in your affiliation. The same is true of the uncommon Venom, Eddie Brock.

Seven-Drops

I already wrote about Green Goblin, Altered Ego in the preview for the card. You saw that there are ways to gain endurance besides Adrian Toomes (Morbius, for example), and you have also seen that Toomes is simply the best Sealed Pack 1-drop in print so far. I have been happy with this guy, and he is your only common option above the 6-spot.

To my mind and experience, the characters you want to prioritize with your early picks are the best cards at the first three spots in the curve after your plot twists. There is a deck contained within Vulture, Hammerhead, and Rhino that borders on constructed quality. If you have solid plot twists, it barley matters what your drops are on the later turns . . . other than being sure you make them all. With the help of good twists, you should be able to finish off what you started on your first three turns.