Hello again, “True Believers,” and welcome to the second installment of “Jason Hager Makes a Normal Deck Weirder.” But this week, I’ve toned it down a little bit—we are going to look at a solid strategy that just hasn’t seen much tournament success: Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man. Let’s get right to it.

Coalition of Heroes

by Bloodshot

Characters
4 Dagger, Child of Light

4 Scarlet Spider ◊ Spider-Man

4 Ricochet
4 Spider-Man, Peter Parker

4 Daredevil, Matt Murdock

3 Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly

1 Iceman, Cool Customer

1 Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man

4 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man

2 Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man

Plot Twists
4 Spider Senses
4 Wild Ride
4 No Man Escapes the Manhunters
3 Nice Try!
3 Swan Dive
3 Midnight Sons
3 Savage Beatdown
2 Costume Change

We can all agree that the 7-drop Spider-Man is truly “Amazing.” He has been my favorite non–Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius card since he came out in the Spider-Man starters. I think I own around forty of them. I have four copies of him on me at all times (in my backpack for some reason), and I bought thirty issues of the comic book that has his alternate art in it. There are only a handful of characters who tie up the game in a cloud of exhaustion. This is an especially rare ability on an opponent’s initiative. Vs. System games unfold around the basic driving concept that players take turns attacking. This is why Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man and Shimmer are fair. However, the 7-drop Spider-Man crushes this basic game mechanic. Yeah, I know, it’s obvious. But when you really look at what competition the 7-drop Spider-Man has, there isn’t much. He has all these things going for him:

• He is on a reasonably exciting team (unlike Glorious Godfrey).
• He will come down on a turn that typically occurs in tournament play (unlike Imperiex).
• He is built into a deck that can utilize him during early turns, if necessary, by spreading out power-ups (comparable to the Bastion effect). The Bastion effect is one in which you get to dabble a little in each combat interaction. Let’s say your opponent plays as efficiently as he or she can, spreading the damage evenly and not wasting ATK points. Bastion is able to cause every single attack during that turn to require a combat pump. Decks only draw so many offensive tricks, and the ability to spread the love is the reason that you see Bastion attacked first by good players. This also leads to an environment of “safe” attacks, in which your opponent sacrifices efficiency in exchange for sure things, and it also lends itself to opponents having to play many more attack pumps than would normally be necessary. The Spider-Man power-ups on turn 4, 6, and 7 are comparable here, especially when you equate Spider Senses to Reconstruction Program. This situation also occurs in Kang decks, whether or not they have Lost City active.
• He’s a decently-sized 7-drop—14ATK/16DEF is respectable.
• Playing four of this 7-drop has an inherent benefit. When multiples are drawn, they can be used as inexpensive copies of Mystical Paralysis. This allows you to have a better 7-drop and to hit your 7-drop more often. You are inherently less tempted to play fewer than four copies of the card. I love this effect.
• I’ve seen over a hundred games in which this guy has hit the board and the opponent has never again successfully declared an attack. When you reread that last sentence, it’s pretty obvious that this guy is Amazing.
• He’s a fan favorite, so he will get more support in the future. Learning how to play with him and build with him now instead of later is to your benefit.

 

 

Okay, so I didn’t have to sell you on how good that 7-drop is. Let’s move on and look at other people who agree with us to the point that they had $10K Top 8 showings with this exciting 7-drop.

Steven Rosario

$10K Orlando Top 8

Characters

4 Scarlet Spider ◊ Spider-Man, Successor

2 Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

4 Ricochet

2 Julia Carpenter ◊ Spider-Woman

4 Spider-Man, Peter Parker

1 Spider-Man, Alien Symbiote

4 White Tiger

3 Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly

1 Ezekiel

4 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man

2 Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man

2 Nova

Locations

3 Avalon Space Station

Plot Twists

3 Null Time Zone

3 Unmasked

3 Flying Kick

4 No Man Escapes the Manhunters

4 Spider-Tracer

3 Reconstruction Program

4 Costume Change

Not only is this recent, but it’s also comparable to the list we are looking at. Steven went 8-2 in a very diverse field, only to lose to Titans (a very difficult matchup) in the Top 8. There are a lot of differences between his list and the one we are going to clinic today, but the theme is the same. We are working with the controllish Iceman at 6, while Steven was using the very aggressive Nova. His deck is also mono–Spider-Friends, but we are really after a Team-Up version. Speaking of which, here is Jason Scudder’s brainchild.

Jason Scudder

Wizard World Chicago $10K Finalist

Characters
4 Alfred Pennyworth
3 Tim Drake ◊ Robin, The Boy Wonder
3 Spoiler, Robin
3 Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle, Bird of Prey
4 Cassandra Cain ◊ Batgirl, Martial Artist
2 Will ’O The Wisp
1 Batman, Caped Crusader
2 Daredevil, The Man Without Fear
1 Lady Shiva, Sandra Woosan
1 Dick Grayson ◊ Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven
1 Iceman, Cool Customer
1 Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly
4 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man
1 Azrael, Knightfall
1 Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man
2 Apocalypse

Plot Twists
4 Bat-Signal
3 Nasty Surprise
3 Detective Work
4 Fizzle
1 Have a Blast!
1 Flame Trap
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Millennium

While Jason doesn’t have our taste for Midnight Sons, he is sporting the Cool Customer, like our list. Jason does have flexibility that our list does not, in the form of that resourceful butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred adds a toolbox element to the deck, but this version is really based on Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle, Bird of Prey. Her purpose is to net you card advantage in such quantity that when turn 7 finally comes, there is no way your opponent will attack ever again. Scudder also plays a Daredevil at 5, but a different one than ours (Daredevil, The Man without Fear). Now that we have access to the Avengers set, I think we can all agree that White Tiger is probably a better choice than both of those blind lawyers.

There is one similarity between these two successful Spider-Man decks: the ability to prevent plot twists from wrecking you on key turns (likely turn 5 or 6). Scudder uses Fizzle, and Rosario uses Null Time Zone, but the idea is the same: stop the shenanigans and go into turn 7 with enough endurance to feel comfortable.

Okay, now on to what we are going to do. We have Vs. System’s most powerful Team-Up, Midnight Sons. With great Team-Up power comes great responsibility. We can use any affiliated character in the entire game here, a fact that shouldn’t be overlooked. And while we sample the buffet of forbidden pleasures, we also need to make sure we can actually flip the Midnight Sons. Here are the problems I see with the deck that I’d like to fix:

1. Play Dagger or bust. If you don’t recruit this light child, you are in major trouble. With the current list configuration, the only Marvel Knight without loyalty in the deck is Dagger. But don’t we have Wild Ride to fetch her? Personally, I’d rather be using my Wild Rides to stay on curve and avoid having to under-drop on turn 3, 4, or 5 just to get a Marvel Knights character down. This also means that we need a Marvel Knight at most drops so that a naked Wild Ride can actually accomplish this.
2. End the game already. Have you ever seen a Cosmic Spider-Man attack initiative fail against Bastion/Magneto? I have. Also, time is precious here, and you can’t exhaust characters with Amazing forever. You’re likely to be in the hole (endurance-wise) by the time turn 7 comes around, and the clock will weigh heavily on your back.
   
   (On a major strategic side note to those tournament players out there, you need to be ready for rounds to begin. It behooves you to sit down before your opponent. You should always try to sit on the side of the table that gives you an easy view of the round clock, because it helps you know when to relax or speed up. Manage your time effectively. You either need to sit down before your opponent or check how much time is left when your opponent has priority.)
   
   If the game goes to turn 8, you need to do enough damage on that critical turn to catch up with the difference in endurance totals. Will Cosmic Spider-Man always accomplish this? It’s a strange problem, but it has a “strange” answer.
3. We need plot twist denial. There are a few cards that are just too good against our strategy. Press the Attack and Teen Titans Go! need to be called the most often, but there will be some more interesting situations where Savage Beatdown and No Man Escapes the Manhunters should be called. (Yep, you heard me right . . . No Man).
4. We need to figure out exactly what we are doing with our own plot twists. Are we lovers or fighters? Aggressive or defensive twists? The original list has only aggressive twists, while the deck we are playing just wants to survive until turn 7. Will those supposed attacks up the chain be enough to get us there?
5. Let’s at least consider the Pandora’s Box that Midnight Sons opens.
   
   

Here is the raw list that I came up with:

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

by Jason Hager

73 Card Monstrosity

3 Micro-Chip

2 Scarlet Spider ◊ Spider-Man, Successor

4 Ricochet

1 Cardiac

1 Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

1 Brother Voodoo
4 Spider-Man, Peter Parker

1 Cloak, Child of Darkness

4 White Tiger

1 Spider-Man, Alien Symbiote

1 Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff

4 Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly

1 Koriand’r ◊ Starfire

1 Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man

4 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man

1 Ezekiel

1 Dr. Strange, Stephen Strange

1 Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch

1 Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man

Plot Twists (28)
4 Spider Senses
4 Wild Ride
4 Null Time Zone
2 Nice Try!
2 Spider-Tracer
4 Midnight Sons
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Costume Change

This deck is eerily close to one we tested in our shop a couple of months ago. Heath Baker, friend, faithful playtester, Pro Circuit regular, and resident socialite, is the one who built something very similar. My experience playing against Heath gave me some insight on how this archetype works.

We have shifted the strategy to include some of Rosario’s and some of Scudder’s. Jason Scudder ran Alfred, and Micro-Chip is the closest thing we’ve got. He adds some flexibility to our draws and lets everything fall into place. Rosario played a nearly full Spider-Man package (drops 3–8, excluding 6). We have the luxury of being able to make it the full package, increasing the value of Costume Change significantly.

One major shift in focus is the win condition. No longer do you need to make attacks that may or may not succeed (Kang City anyone?). Dr. Strange gives you the answer you need to make up ground. You get to exhaust what you can, take your lumps, and swing for 40 or so to the opponent’s face. Halfway through testing, we realized this wouldn’t entirely work, because so many decks now play No Man Escapes the Manhunters. When you boost Strange on the opponent’s initiative, you are risking having your own guys moved out and successfully attacked (supposing you can’t web them up with 7-drop Spidey). On your initiative, you are risking having your opponent move out his or her own guys, effectively creating a wall of Magneto, Master of Magnetism that you can’t get through without a ridiculous team-attack (30+ ATK required?) because of Bastion.

Here is the deck breakdown:

1-Drops

Your 1-drops are Dagger, Child of Light and Micro-Chip. While playing four Daggers makes total sense here, because we have lots of things to team-up if we get the chance, the Chips are what I’d like to talk about. We have three targets here—Spider-Tracer, Null Time Zone (or the NuTZ, as it’s now being called), and of course, Wild Ride. In the games where you naturally draw Chip on an early turn along with a copy of Wild Ride, you have effectively drawn two Wild Rides. You are sacrificing either your first or second turn (the turns during which you are most likely to recruit him) to ensure that you hit an additional drop on curve. His presence also most likely allows you to have the required Marvel Knights character in play to flip Midnight Sons on an early turn, allowing you to curve out with Spider-Friends at your convenience.

While some people may not like playing three to four copies of Micro-Chip in a deck like this, you would be nuts not to include at least one. Not including one copy (like the original decklist) denies you the opportunity to play a turn 1 Ride for Chip and start the Midnight Sons engine without using up your precious Wild Ride. Consider the alternative: You have an opening hand of Midnight Sons, Wild Ride, Avalon Space Station, and the 7-drop Spider-Man, but no Micro-Chip in your deck. Are you going to Wild Ride on turn 1 for Dagger? Use her on turn 2 to start teaming up? This draw in the original decklist forces you to Wild Ride for Dagger. Who else are you going to Ride for? Daredevil? The man with loyalty? Now that you’ve used Wild Ride to fetch Dagger, what is Wild Ride really netting you here? You’ve just used your flexible search card to enable the rest of your deck, instead of using it to curve out nicely. A single copy of Linus Lieberman will solve this frequent problem. When you aren’t sure what you should Ride for in the early game (turns 1 to 3) because your hand hasn’t developed over the course of many draw steps, don’t worry—Micro-Chip will let you “go into the tank” a turn or two longer as you contemplate your most effective search options. Plus, there are situations in which you should under-drop to get an additional use out of your Spider-Tracer or Null Time Zone.

2-Drops

Your 2-drop is really only there to enable Costume Change and because he is naturally larger than Hounds of Ahab. If you are heavy on search cards but not endurance, you can always Wild Ride for one copy and then Costume Change it away, saving 4 endurance. This isn’t advised, as the real reason I included it in the deck is to have a fifth and sixth Scarlet Spider to draw. I don’t plan on winning early combat fights, and the pure aggressive powerhouse that is Scarlet Spider, Successor isn’t going to help me out in that endeavor. His ability is crappy; the only reason he’s in the deck is because of his name. That being said, these two teams don’t really offer any better option for this drop. Shang Chi? Dusk? The interaction with Costume Change is what I’m going with.

3-Drops

Ricochet can’t be Terra’d. That’s enough for me—next? Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man isn’t fully represented, because your desired 4-drop is also Spider-Man, and you may not have your copy of Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly yet. Brother Voodoo is next on the chopping block. He functions as the on-curve Marvel Knights character that will enable Midnight Sons without being too awful.

The options we have are Daredevil, Protector of Hell’s Kitchen; Elektra, Elektra Natchios; and Stick. Brother Voodoo at least gives you the chance to turn an awful draw into a mediocre draw. The other 3-drop I’m including right now is Cardiac, Elias Wirtham. While Cardiac isn’t great in curve matchups, he more than pays his bus fare in the off-curve matches. He stuns Hank Hall ◊ Hawk perpetually. He also gets Tom Thumb and his equipment out of your business. I generally like characters that can easily and freely deal with characters a single drop below them on defense, and Cardiac is no exception. Against decks that don’t have flight, like Kang City, you may even see Cardiac recovering characters (likely Dagger or Chip) at the cost of a small amount of breakthrough. This is true especially when people think you’re just going to bounce Dagger or use Chip. Put them in the front row in front of Cardiac. Your opponent will announce an attack on your 1-drop, hoping to get you to bounce. Because of this, you won’t see any aggressive pumps. Just let your drop stun. Next, your opponent may go after Cardiac, and you can reinforce the attack and recover the 1-drop, losing no one on the turn. Many people forget that Cardiac does more than just stun Hounds. Cardiac also deals with Shimmer.

4-Drops

Spider-Man, Peter Parker is the gentleman that really makes Costume Change shine. He is the other Spider-Man drop that is worth including four of. He single-handedly beats Xavier’s Dream into the ground, gets you out of Hounds lock, stops Finishing Move shenanigans, and powers-up easily when attacked down by Garth or Nimrod to force a mutual stun (or a counter removal).

Remember that he has evasion and that Ricochet will help protect him. This is especially true for those turns where you Null Time Zone and name Savage Beatdown and Ricochet prevents Peter from being targeted by No Man Escapes the Manhunters.

The alternative drop here is Cloak, Child of Darkness, and he may be a controversial one. Getting away from the chance that your opponent under-drops on turn 4 and you are able to create an exhausted/drop equilibrium, he is still an impressive off-initiative play on turn 4. He allows Roy Harper, Arsenal not to enter attack steps unless your opponent bends over backward with Press the Attack. He is weak against No Man Escapes the Manhunters, but since he negates a drop lower than him, your opponents aren’t going to have many other great attack-up-the-chain options at their disposal. Sure, you don’t have a 4-drop wall on the field (like Peter Parker can be), but the extra damage you prevent by exhausting an opposing 3-drop is comparable to the extra damage you take because you have a concealed 4-drop. This is especially efficient if you are willing to evade either your 3- or 4-drop on your opponent’s turn 4 initiative. You really need to try Cloak out to warm up to him; he is still a point of contention in the ranks at our card shop, and not everyone agrees with his usefulness. However, I like him, so I’m adding him.

5-Drops

Cloak Makes White Tiger a lot better, preventing 3-drop/4-drop safe team-attacks. White Tiger will have invulnerability pretty often. This won’t seem like a big deal during the mid-game, but when time is called, you will be very appreciative. The Tiger is naturally larger than Garth and Nimrod (his major competition), but watch out for power-ups. White Tiger fights are some of the most effective fights on which to use Spider Senses. This is especially true if you’ve Null Time Zoned Savage Beatdown for the turn. Spider-Man, Alien Symbiote again fulfills the Costume Change curve. He is another good defensive character to play Spider Senses on, since you can sometimes also power-up out of the attack (in the form of +1 ATK / +1 DEF counters).

Now, on to a weird choice: Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff. She does a couple of things. First, she is your only defense against combo decks. Granted, she doesn’t do that very well, but she’s a big body that is easy to search for if necessary and may catch your opponent off guard. Second, and more importantly, she is a Brotherhood character, and we are playing four Avalon Space Stations. If you happen to draw her early, you can net cards for all of your various discard outlets this way. Also, one of your Midnight Sons almost always ends up calling Brotherhood, so she’s effectively already on the team. Besides, I forgive her for the House of M stuff—it was Pietro’s fault.

6-Drops

Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man, check. Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly, check. Koriand’r ◊ Starfire, check? I don’t suggest her for everyone, but she may just surprise you. Let’s be honest . . . some of us players get no respect from across the table, and that makes us dangerous. Imagine it’s turn 6, and your opponent leaves Bastion in the back row. Play Midnight Sons naming Titans, and your opponent will be left filling out the match slip. However, Starfire’s not easy to play. You have to have enough characters in your yard (which Dagger will help with), the initiative has to be just right, your opponent has to get stuck in a rhythm of formation (which is incredibly easy to do), and your opponent has to underestimate you. On offense, she’s just about as good as any other option you have on turn 6, and you can always just ditch her to Avalon Space Station if your opponent figures out your plans.

We have tested out Koriand’r in a lot of decks at our shop, and in order to use her effectively, we have to keep her secret from our opponent before she’s used. Even then, she will only be a surprise in the very first game of testing, but she is perfectly suited for a tournament environment of one-game matches. Be careful when you shuffle your deck—always keep the face of your cards hidden from your opponent’s eyes. When your opponent shuffles your deck, watch his or her eyes carefully (insist on eye-to-eye contact the entire time with a friendly conversational stare). Why do you think the higher level tournament players who play Titans run Koriand’r? It isn’t for her good looks. Even in top level play, players forget. She will win you games you have no business winning.

7-Drops

Well, 7-drop Spidey, obv. Ezekiel is the alternate 7-drop here, but he is significantly better on turn 8 when it’s your opponent’s initiative. This will give you a chance to play Micro-Chip (or Dagger) and Ezekiel, drawing you between four and six cards and fueling another full turn of 7-drop Spidey web splatters. The worst case scenario is that you just discard Ezekiel to exhaust 7-drop Magneto.

Dr. Strange, Stephen Strange is the major addition to the deck, but he can be considered almost exclusively the deck’s 8- or 9-drop. However, on the turn you boost Dr. Strange, you really need to Null Time Zone and name No Man Escapes the Manhunters to prevent unwieldy road blocks from cropping up in your path to direct-breakthrough-endurance-loss-ville.

8-Drops

Spider-Man, Cosmic Spider-Man fills in the Costume Change slot, provides a win condition with an obscenely large character with a useful effect, and also gives Spidey-7 a way to exhaust 8-drops. One copy, I’m sold. Now, I’m just getting cute with Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch here, but he doesn’t seem too bad. If you get to turn 8 against Titans, he’s insane. Against Sentinels, it’s similar—you are only left with Mags and Bastion to exhaust. While I’m not entirely sold on Ghost Rider, he may be worth testing. Is he just “game over” against a ton of decks? I imagine so.

Some Thoughts on the Characters