By now, many Vs. System players have gotten a copy of the Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock Starter Set in their hot little hands. After playing the two decks against each other a few times, many players will be looking to incorporate the 31 new cards into their old decks. But why not try out a hybrid Spider-Friends/Sinister Syndicate team-up before scattering your new cards to the four winds?

This week’s deck uses cards only found in the preview starter (well, except for four Marvel Team-Ups).


The Eight-Legged Warriors

2 Prowler, Hobie Brown
4 Electro, Maxwell Dillon
2 Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
2 Madame Web, Cassandra Webb
2 Rhino, Alex O’Hirn
2 Kraven the Hunter, Sergei Kravinoff
2 Dr. Octopus, Otto Octavius
2 Punisher, Vigilante
2 Green Goblin, Norman Osborn
3 Daredevil, The Man Without Fear
3 Venom, Eddie Brock
1 Nova, Richard Rider
1 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man
1 Dr. Octopus, Doc Ock
2 Twist of Fate
2 Sadistic Choice
2 Spider Senses
4 No Fear
4 Crushing Blow
4 Alley-Oop!
2 Doc Ock’s Lab
2 ESU Science Lab
2 Daily Bugle
3 Jetpack
4 Marvel Team-Up


On turn 1, there's not a great chance of drawing a Prowler. Vulture is the stronger character, but for a team-up deck, you can’t rely on having another Sinister Syndicate character in your hand to make the Vulture play possible. Besides, Prowler’s ability actually does quite well in a team-up deck, as it allows you to see more cards and find the cards you need while getting rid of the cards in hand that aren’t doing much good at the moment.

The reveal requirement is also why Solo is missing from the deck. Solo is a big 2-drop, but how sad would it be to have him all locked and loaded only to find that you don’t have another Spider-Friend in hand? Electro doesn’t have such a requirement. His ability is team stamped, yes, but you can wait for later turns to use it. And what an ability it is. Most character’s activated powers don’t allow them to stun characters with a higher cost, so Electro is a rarity.

In the 3-drop slot, only Lizard gets cut from the deck. Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man fills the role of a great protector on offense and defense. His team attack ability keeps your characters face up, and his big 5 DEF will give the opposition fits and doesn’t cost you a tail and a leg like it does with Lizard.

Madame Web’s ability to look at the top of a deck is a fine way to ensure you make your mid-game drops or to get closer to a Marvel Team-Up. Once you find it, Electro; Green Goblin; Dr. Octopus, Otto Octavius; and Punisher are your new best friends with all the endurance you’ll be gaining (after teaming up, of course). You’ll need some of that endurance to keep Rhino around. His ATK is just too big to be ignored by any 3-drop, and he does just fine against most 4-drops as well.

Black Cat’s ability is definitely fun, but her stats are designed more for a discard deck that doesn’t need to bash every turn to win. Punisher, on the other hand, clears the board of unwanted opponents, clearing the way for the rest of the team. Dr. Octopus, Otto Octavius is a Crushing Blow enabler on the attack and a pain on defense. He’s one of the stronger board presences in the deck. There’s just no playing around him for the opposition. When your opponent has recruited a big DEF character, there are few 4-drops better than Kraven the Hunter for taking them down.

Daredevil is just a beating on offense. He’s one character that you should save a Jetpack for so he’ll always be ready to attack a character as big or bigger than himself and come out of it without a scratch. Green Goblin has a great power, but often times he’ll cause a lot more endurance loss by just attacking. With both flight and range, it’s a shame not to attack with him.

On turn 6, you need to be thinking about the win. I pulled two copies of Nova out of the deck, as chances are good you’ll be wanting to save character cards in hand to make use of Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man’s excellent power. Venom is more likely to improve your board position with his chance to KO a character on both the attack and defense.

Now for the big boys. Dr. Octopus, Doc Ock is the better drop if you have the initiative, while Spidey is simply awesome when you do not.

Because of characters like Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, this deck wants initiative on the even numbered turns. The big Spidey is the best 7-drop for wrecking your opponent’s attack plans, so there’s no need to have the initiative on turn 7. You’ll get to attack with most, if not all, of your characters anyway.

As for the other cuts made . . . Smoke Screen didn’t end up being necessary, as the deck tends to hit its drops, so there is rarely a spare resource point to be found. Osborn Industries was cut, as ESU Science Lab is better for card drawing. The deck needs sheer numbers of cards in hand for Electro, Green Goblin, and the big Spidey. Sinister Salvo was cut, as the deck is able to gain good board position over the opposition and isn’t trying to win early by nickel-and-diming an opponent. The range component of the card was tempting, but there are already enough cards in the deck fighting for the precious space of the resource row.

Next week, we’ll look at how the Spidey starter cards might affect the metagame. If you have some metagame predictions you’d like "on the record," email me at mhyra@metagame.com. To protect the innocent (and those with poor card analysis skills), I won’t include any names in the article.