Last week, I showed you the speediest of speedy Sinister Syndicate rush decks. By contractual obligation, I now present a Spider-Friends deck. It’s only fair. I haven’t seen the following deck in the PCQ lists, so perhaps players (no, not you, the other players) haven’t discovered evasion. Evasion offers the defending player the option to trade endurance for future board presence. If that sounds like a strategy you’d like to try out, read on!

Slippery Spiders

Characters
4 Rocket Racer
4 Black Cat, Master Thief
4 Jessica Drew ◊ Spider-Woman
4 Ricochet
3 Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
4 Will O’ The Wisp
3 Puma
4 Spider-Man, Alien Symbiote
4 Scarlet Spider
4 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man

Plot Twists
4 Acrobatic Dodge
4 Flying Kick
2 Last Stand
2 Nice Try!
4 Spider Senses
4 Twist of Fate

Locations
2 Daily Bugle


This is very close to a straight curve deck that intends to hit every drop. However, the deck doesn’t have the eight 1-drops that you would want to ensure a turn 1 recruit. Instead, the deck uses those four slots to play some defensive plot twists. The deck is already heavy on characters, so it’s got to scrimp somewhere.

Rocket Racer is a great 1-drop for the team and can occasionally stop some breakthrough endurance loss. Reinforcement is important in a deck that takes a lot of self-inflicted endurance loss, and unlike most 1-drops, he doesn’t become a liability in the later turns.

Black Cat, Master Thief is bound to be one of the most popular Spider-Friends, even in non-evasion decks. She can hose a Common Enemy deck by ruining the chance to play Signal Flare, Reign of Terror, and Mystical Paralysis. In this deck, she can keep the Savage Beatdowns away for a turn or two, and prevent a quick loss to a hyper-aggressive deck.

Jessica Drew ◊ Spider-Woman is an aggressive turn 2 play, and is probably the route to take if you played Rocket Racer on turn 1. If Rocket Racer can take down the opposing 2-drop, Jessica Drew ◊ Spider-Woman can survive an attack against most opposing 1-drops.

Ricochet is another character that Doom decks hate to see hit play. Everyone else hates to see his 5 DEF. He is especially valuable when your opponent starts thinking about doing something nasty to your characters. There will be no Overloads on Ricochet’s watch.

Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is the aggressive 3-drop if you’re off the Black Cat/Ricochet control plan. His 4 ATK/5 DEF stats are top notch, and his ability makes Rocket Racer a blessing to have around, as anyone will do in a pinch for a team attack.

Will O’ The Wisp is the control plan character at the 4-drop slot. If you’ve decided to hold out and wait to alpha-strike your opponent, you might as well play a 4-drop that will be of some use in the later turns. Wispy can grow a bit each turn. Even if he attacks and doesn’t get stunned, you might consider evading late in the turn just to get the +1/+1 counter. Being the only character in the deck with flight also makes him the usual 4-drop for the deck.

However, if you’re on the aggressive path, Puma is crazy good. His stats are great, evasion while attacking fits the theme, and Spider-Woman will give him +1 ATK. While it’s unlikely that you will need his boost effect, it’s not a bad idea on turn 8 if the game goes that long.

Spider-Man, Alien Symbiote is where the deck kicks into high gear and evasion’s effects are felt most by your opponent. If you’ve got the 5-drop Spider-Man in hand, you might want to avoid the 3-drop version (unless you’re also holding Scarlet Spider). The 3-drop is a survivor and you don’t want to KO your own character. So dare your opponent to come after him. By now, he or she will have seen all your defensive plot twists and will likely use some tricks to get to him. Go ahead and pile on some +1 ATK/+1 DEF counters by way of power-ups, but be sure to save a 7-drop Spider-Man (or two) for later. Use Flying Kick to make sure h