Welcome to the final installment of my stall tactics series! Let’s take a look at Web of Spider-Man’s unaligned and “legacy” stall cards. There are some good’uns! Legacy, by the way, is what I’ve been calling cards used by teams that first appeared in earlier sets. If you can think of a better name, be sure to let me know.

Plot Twists

Bad Press: This is one of the premiere stall cards in the set. Pushing back the turn on which your opponent can Savage Beatdown your sorry behind is always a good thing. Let your opponent have the initiative on the even turns; you have a lot less to worry about on turn 4 now. Of course, Bad Press also works well against stall decks¾particularly Doom decks¾where Mystical Paralysis and Reign of Terror are needed at specific times. Getting thrown off by even one turn when playing such a deck can spell . . . well . . . doom.

Crowd Control: When playing a stall deck, it won’t look too funny if you choose to put all of your characters into the support row. Unfortunately, more aggressive decks telegraph that they’re up to no good when they do that. Crowd Control works well at keeping endurance loss to a minimum, and not having to exhaust to reinforce means you can make use of your characters’ activated powers or Finishing Moves.

Pleasant Distraction: This is the best generic stall card in the set. Stall decks often have trouble wrecking the opposition’s board on their initiative, since they don’t usually have as many characters or heavy hitters in the early and mid turns. Pleasant Distraction allows the stall player to attack down the curve with each of their characters, leaving the opponent’s big guy nice and untouched. As your attacks play out, your opponent will start licking his or her chops at the prospect of swinging in with a bruiser, but then you show a little leg and blow a kiss, and your opponent forgets all about attacking. Nice. Always play it after making your attacks so your opponent doesn’t use his or her distracted guy to reinforce.

Unmasked: This is not a classic stall card, but it’s often worth playing for the peace of mind you get. Knowing that your opponent won’t be able to turn a mutual stun into a one-way victory is quite valuable. In certain match-ups, like Brotherhood or an all Spider-Man deck (by way of Scarlet Spider), it stalls out your opponent like nobody’s business.

Bamf!: Also not a classic stall card, but your friend nonetheless. When a stall deck makes attacks, it doesn’t want to lose anyone. That may seem obvious, but since stall decks often don’t attack until the later turns, early attacks may be made with a great deal of trepidation. Bamf! allows the stall deck to relax and save brainpower for the later turns.

Insignificant Threat: While most Brotherhood decks are aggressive, they still have several excellent defensive characters. When you’ve got Blob up front protecting your entire support row, your opponent may have to team attack to take him down. In such a scenario, Insignificant Threat will ruin their turn; you stun one of their attackers, and the other gets stunned running headlong into the big man.

Locations

Pier 4: This is a stall enabler for the Fantastic Four equipment deck. Being able to put both an Unstable Molecules and a Personal Force Field on a character may make it downright impossible to take out.

Latverian Embassy: Doom adds another card to its stall arsenal and furthers its mastery over plot twists with this location. It’s usually best to wait until your opponent has played a plot twist or two before you flip this card. In conjunction with Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius, your opponent won’t be able to play any plot twists from their hand or any dupes in the resource row.

Characters

There aren’t any unaligned characters in the set that play into a stall theme, but some of the legacy characters do.

Sunfire: Stall decks need a way to survive the early turns, especially against weenie decks. With Sunfire, X-Men decks no longer need to pack Flame Trap. When playing X-Men, you constantly need cards in hand to pay costs, so Sunfire’s one discard and selective targeting make it a must for any X-Men stall deck.

Wyatt Wingfoot: This little guy is a one man stalling machine! He can jump back to your hand to give a +1 DEF wherever you need it. Once he’s back in your hand, his ability to reinforce will save you from breakthrough. You’re sure to see turn 8 if you find a way to bring him back from the KO’d pile. The Fantastic Four love turn 8, now that Web of Spider-Man is here.

Silver Surfer: Silver Surfer gets the final mention here, as he is one of the best reasons to play a stall strategy. When you’ve gone through all the trouble of stalling the game out to turn 8, you’d probably like to have the initiative for the turn. Heck, you’ve earned it. The Surfer gives it to you for next to no cost and should be able to cut a swath through your opponent’s formation.

Well, hopefully by now your local hobby store has received its allotment of Web of Spider-Man cards. Or perhaps they’re just really good at stalling.

Questions or comments may be sent to mhyra@metagame.com.