Q: When does the villain “initiate” an attack against Spider-Man?

A: An attack is “initiated” the moment the game determines an attack will be made against a character. This includes attacks made from game steps (such as step 2 of the villain phase) and card abilities (such as an attack initiated by the “Assault” treachery).

Spider-Man’s ability resolves before any of the steps of the process detailed in the “Enemy Attacks” section are performed. -(Official FAQ)

Q: I’m playing Spider-Man, facing Ultron Stage 2. Ultron attacks me. Which happens first – Ultron’s Forced Interrupt “when Ultron attacks”, or Spider-Man’s Interrupt “when a villain initiates an attack”?

A: There is no timing difference between “attacks” and “initiates an attack” so the Forced Interrupt would take priority over the Interrupt. We used the “initiates an attack” language with Spider-man because early testers showed some confusion about when to trigger his ability, and phrasing it this way helped them to understand. -(Developer Ruling, Hall of Heroes)

A NOOB'S RANDOM THOUGHTS

Peter Parker

• Has a low recovery which is largely irrelevant due to Aunt May.
• He has an average hand size of 6.
• His Scientist ability is always welcome as it allows him to more efficiently play his 6 card hand size.
• It may also come in handy if Alter-Ego only cards are printed that require a resource.
• There might be a archetype in the future which makes use of his and Black Cat's affinity.

Spider-Man

• A THW of 1 is really bad and combined with only a situational threat removal card (Spider-Tracer) in his character card pool, Spider-Man will not be leading the charge as far as thwarting is concerned.
• This is somewhat offset by the fact that Spider-Man will spend the majority of the game in Hero Form.
• Still, without a dedicated thwarter (or in solo), Spider-Man is very vulnerable to threat (to Side Schemes in particular).
• ATK 2 is average and here and there will help out with Minion control.
• DEF 3 combined with Spider-Man’s defensive card pool is phenomenal.
• 10 HP is on the lower side of things; however it should not be a problem due to Spider-Man’s excellent defensive options.
• Spider-Sense effectively means you have a 6 card hand size in Hero Form, which is great.
• It is also not limited to once per round, which means every time the Villain initiates an attack against you, you draw a card. Might have some interesting combo potential with future cards.

Spider-Man’s card pool is focused on mitigating the Villain’s turn. He plays very much in the moment with very few cards that stick around for the long-term.

Aspect parings with Spider-Man

Aggression

• The Aggression Aspect provides effective Minion control to Spider-Man’s card pool. It also brings more (if slightly less efficient) damage dealing capabilities.

Justice

• The Justice Aspect brings cards that cover Spider-Man’s greatest weakness, thwarting. With this Aspect Spider-Man becomes a true Jack-of-all-trades, able to participate in every facet of the game.

Leadership

• The Leadership Aspect brings in multiple Ally choices that can help mitigate Spider-Man’s weaknesses while simultaneously supporting his strengths. Such across the board versatility does come with a slight cost ratio premium.

Protection

• The Protection Aspect very much doubles down on Spider-Man’s main strength, mitigating the Villain’s turn and defending his fellow teammates.

If you found this review helpful, like so that I can write more reviews :)

Spiderman gets billed as the beginner's hero of beginner's heroes in the core set, but I think he's actually a lot more interesting than that would suggest. While he is very straightforward, Spiderman offers some of the more interesting decisions I've had to make in the game so far.

As a rundown, his alter-ego, Peter Parker, offers middling healing (set at a base of 3), but shores that up with the ability to generate a science resource for free every turn. This gives him the ability to do some nice setup, especially when you combo him with the Helicarrier, effectively making one two-cost card free every turn.

Unlike several of the other heroes, you're going to want to hop out of Peter Parker pretty quickly, since 13 of his 15 special cards can only be played or used in hero form. So if you're sitting around as Peter Parker, you quickly ramp up the threat on scheme, in addition to hoarding cards in your hand that can't be used.

Once you're in as Spiderman, though, the hero becomes very powerful. Getting an extra card draw every turn helps mitigate his relatively low health (compare that to She-Hulk's 15, or Iron Man's 17, when fully upgraded). This means that you'll want to defend a lot more often to offset potential damage and allow Spiderman to stay in hero form for as long as possible. Cards like Backflip and Spidersense help you prevent damage and bad effects, as well. Overall, his high base defense gets him out of a lot of trouble, which helps with the early Rhino scenarios where the villain can pound in for upwards of 6 or 7 damage at a time.

He also has good damage potential, with a decent base attack of 2, and kicks that let him dish out 8 damage at a time. This can make a huge difference when soloing. Moreover, he has one of my favorite allies in the whole game: Black Cat. She can grab you a few free cards when she comes out, and then she gets to attack for free, unlike the other allies in the game's base set.

Overall, Spiderman is an excellent hero to start deckbuilding with, but it will take more experience to really unlock his potential. Timing when you choose to defend is a critical decision point, especially when soloing. In a team game, he gets even better, since the other hero can draw away some of the heat when things get tight. Spiderman has tons of potential for new and experienced players, alike.

This review is more into the deckbuilding part of the game.

I think that Francois and greycatgames have done a great job of explaining the traits and weaknesses of Spider-Man, you should read their reviews as well. I hope that this review gives you more archetypes and ideas about what can Spiderman lean into.

Peter Parker (Alter Ego)

• Traits: Genius trait gives use of some pretty good cards such as Ingenuity, Moon Girl, the two cards can enter any Spiderman deck and give very good options. They combo even better between them because of the Scientist capacity and archetype, which i will explain later.
• Alter Ego capacity: Scientist generates a resource, that together with the Black Cat response creates a whole archetype around resources:
  • Neutral. Genius, and Moon Girl are staples. With Moon Girl, you can draw 2-3 cards very easily, Ingenuity, Enhanced Awareness and Quincarrier help you play for those . Legion is an ally that can really help if you struggle with thwarting, something that we will get into.
  • Aggression. Honed Technique with No Quarter, Melee or Toe to Toe its pretty good. I'll talk more about Toe to Toe on the Aggression aspect. DO NOT PAIR WITH Hulk for other than blocking, he will disappear because of the forced response.
  • Justice. Eros and Sense of Justice benefit from Scientist to get on the table, and the icons can make For Justice!, Crisis Averted, Multitasking and Lay Down the Law highly efficient use of resources in hero form. You may pair Lay Down the Law with Sonic Rifle if you plan on flipping into Alter Ego often to get use of Scientist, but remember to use the rifle on Hero form.
  • Leadership. R&D Facility (), for alter ego, Push Ahead () for hero form, this combo is pretty unknown and easy to play as Peter Parker and is a fun way to play Spider-Man stat wise with Morale Boost, Teamwork. Ready Spider-Man with Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Inspiring Presence and low cost allies. Worth mention to Clarity of Purpose that you can pay with Peter Parker's resource and heal later with Inspiring Presence, Aunt May or United We Stand.
  • Protection. Black Widow, Warlock and Protector benefit from and Scientist to keep her attacking or thwarting, Second Wind is great as you can lessen the cost with Scientist (Not only hero action so you can play it on alter ego), the downside is that Spider-Man doesn't need that much healing, can still be very useful for multiplayer.
  • Pool: Pool aspect doesn't lean into any resource type but if you play a heavy resource deck keep that in mind to get benefit from Rock, Paper, Scissors, Tic-Tac-Toe. Self Confidence Self-Repair and Self-Preservation are really good alternatives for Spider-Man because of his high healing output.
• Health: Peter Parker has 10 health, but with his recovery + his defense he has one if not the best durability of any hero on the game: Aunt May, still one of the best recovery options in the game, if you need a bit more margin you can add Endurance which help with his low health threshold or Crew Quarters . I would NOT recommend Down Time because you don't wanna use your hero action to recover, and Spider-Man deals a really good job at keeping himself alive.

Spider-Man (Hero Form)

• Traits:
  • Avenger, The best neutral Avenger options for Spider-Man are Quincarrier, Team-Building Exercise to play other Avenger cards like Avengers Mansion, Avengers Tower or Avenger Allies. Ill talk more about this on the Aspect part.
  • Web-Warrior: Another trait that Spider-Man has access is Web-Warrior, using Warrior of the Great Web, if you want to lean into this archetype i recommend 3 copies of Warrior of the Great Web so you can get this on the table as fast as possible.
• Stats:
  • THW: Weakest stat of Spider-Man, below average so you shouldn't look into thwart with the hero action, look into events or allies to deal with that, you can still thwart with your hero if there isn't anything better but you should look for other options. As for Spiderman cards, the only option we have is Spider-Tracer, which is dependent on minions, if you want to go that route, you can use Looking for Trouble, Angela or "Come Get Me, Bub!" to get those minions on Aggression and Protection, but keep in mind that Spider-Man is not a good minion slayer, making that you would need other cards to support this type of build, other minion attachments like Marked, Gatekeeper, Pinned Down and Under Control are great for this.
  • ATK: We are getting better, 2 ATK for a basic activation is good and to get big chunks of damage we have Swinging Web Kick, you need to deal with those middle-grounds minions that have 3-7 health, and doesn't feel good using 4 ER (Efective Resources) to deal with that, to deal with this you would need to play events or allies like Black Cat, if you get a Semi-boss minion, you can make use of Webbed Up or Swinging Web Kick to deal with them.
  • DEF: This is by far the best basic part of Spider-Man, with 3 DEF Spider-Man is one of the best characters in all Marvel Champions at keeping himself alive, making one of the best uses of Defiance denying most Villains even in Expert, at early game, you should almost always be defending if you don't have Backflip or other Defence events, even more if you have Armored Vest, will prevent most damage, and keep you healthy enough to get some table and tempo. With 2+ players, Spiderman on Protection will always be one of the best I defend the whole team heroes, even more with Webbed Up, this makes him a really good ally user as well, because thanks as not needing allies to stay healthy most of the time, you can get the full value of the thwart or attack of the ally.
• Hero capacity: Spider-Sense let's you draw cards each time that the villain attacks you so stun cards aren't that effective on Spider-Man, meaning you will draw less and dealing less actions overall, initially, i thought that this made Webbed Up one of the worst cards of Spider-Man pool because this makes Webbed Up essentially a 5 cost card, after playing on Standard II and Expert II with Spider-Man, I've changed my view, because with Spider-Man high economy, it is still really valuable to stop a heavy hitting villain, furthermore, when is used to Stalwart and Steady it's the only way to deny their attack.
  • Some cards that trigger this capacity are Taunt, Get in Front of Me!, Bait and Switch, Toe to Toe and Get Behind Me! making all this cards essentially 0 cost cards, getting full value if you can deal with the villain attack, making them worse on the hardest scenarios but super useful and high efficient on lower difficulty villains, as "the villain attacks you" part is easier to deal with.
  • As stated before, you can easily survive this attacks with your amazing DEF, Aunt May, chump blocks or events like Backflip or Defiance.

To sum up, Spider-Man main weakness are:

• Threat Removal. With for Main and Secondary Schemes.
• Middle Ground Minions. The 3-5 health minions are tough for Spider-Man, as they usually also come with a response that makes them worse for him.

On this section I will highlight some of the archetypes.

Tribals:

• Web-Warrior. As mentioned before, you can easily make an ally swarm of Web-Warrior traited allies, my only tip is to focus on Spiderman Weaknesses. Many decks i've seen make the Ghost-Spider - Backflip / Swinging Web Kick combo, the SP//DR combo, focusing on the high card draw that you get with this, don't misunderstand, they are powerful, but from my experience, even if you get turns with 10 cards (feasible on spider-man with Avengers Mansion, Nick Fury, Moon Girl and Web of Life and Destiny) if you can't get more allies on the table or deal with the trouble with tempo, you will still lose, cards like Spider-Man (Hobbie Brown), Spider-Man (Pavitr), Spider-Man, Spider-UK had been real MVPs of my games, because they have helped me to deal with this weaknesses.
• Avenger. With the same idea of Web-warrior and cards like Team-Building Exercise, Quincarrier, Avengers Tower and Avengers Mansion as well as a bunch of allies with the Avenger trait. Would like to mention:
  • Captain America and Kaluu that gives you control like Ghost-Spider, Stinger is always good for Leadership.
  • Hulk to defend, Sentry and She-Hulk to help with thwart on Aggression and Boot Camp, one of my favourites.
  • Justice is more limited into Avengers but they are really good Quake, Speed, Wiccan.
  • Protection only features Brother Voodoo and Jocasta but they give you so much control over your deck, Backflip / Swinging Web Kick. You can still fit War Machine into any avengers deck as well.
• Other Ally Swarms: Spider-Man pairs really well with allies because they do what Spider-Man cant do well, THW and low amounts of DMG. Spiderman can pretty much stay alive without the help of chump blocking, so you should try allies that can THW for 2 or have some kind of response: Moon Girl, Nick Fury, Professor X, Ironheart and Spider-Man are some neutral examples that help Spider-Man cover those weaknesses. (Watch out that stun cards like Mockingbird will not benefit you that much because you don't draw a card)
  • Other archetypes that spiderman can play well are S.H.I.E.L.D or a non tribal Ally swarm (Maybe X-men but we'll see)

Aspects archetypes and some ideas:

• Aggression:

  • Swing More: Your main focus is to deal damage with Swinging Web Kick as much as posible, this combos well with Deft Focus, Ingenuity and Martial Prowess, you can get benefit of cards like Toe to Toe to draw a card as well. Looking for Trouble pairs well with Chase Them Down / Into the Fray / Spider-Tracer to get some threat out. You should try to stay as long as possible in hero form to deal with threat.
  • Swing More Deck
  • Berserk Spider: Counterattack with "You'll Pay for That!" and Endurance is another great combo to deal with both threat and damage, the downside is that you'll need to recover more often, one of the best recovery options in aggression for Spider-Man is Toe to Toe / Into the Fray + Moment of Triumph on a low health minion to heal a big chunk of health.
  • Berserk Deck
  • Combat Training, Press the Advantage, One by One and Relentless Assault can help dealing those small amounts of damage to clear minions.

• Leadership:

  • Voltron: My favorite archetype for Spider-Man as it benefits from Black Cat non consecuential damage, pair it with Yondu, Ronin, Iron Man and upgrades like Honorary Avenger, Power Gloves and Reinforced Suit.
  • Voltron Black Cat Deck.
  • I've Got Stats Baby: Earlier I talk about a archetype based on stat boost and R&D Facility and Push Ahead, Go All Out.
  • Stat Boost Deck.
  • Tribals: You can go tribal as i stated before with Avengers Tower / Web of Life and Destiny.
  • Avenger Tribal Example.
  • Web-Warrior Tribal (Worse than other aspects imo)
  • Quick Response: Decks based on Rapid Response are pretty much overpowered for any hero and really strong, just pack a bunch of Response: allies like Maria Hill Nick Fury, Beast and Professor X and you will be fine.
  • Example Rapid Response.

• Protection:

  • Perfect Defense: The best archetype for protection spidy, as you usually want to defend, you can get benefits if you try to reach a perfect defense (The enemy not damaging you) with cards like Unflappable. Electrostatic Armor, Flow Like Water, Hard to Ignore and Nerves of Steel to pay for events like Desperate Defense, Never Back Down or Side Step and Jump Flip to prevent some damage with benefits.
  • Example Perfect Defense.
  • Tribal Web Warriors: Some protection web warriors like Silk are really good and you can benefit a lot from them.
  • Web-Warrior Deck: Perfected 2.0.
  • Bait and Switch: It's a card that seems made for Spider-Man, you get to draw a card + 4 THW and the drawback can be avoided most of the time. Key card and staple in my Protection Spider-Man decks.
  • Mockingbird, Webbed Up, Iron Fist, Professor X and Warrior of the Great Web + Thwip! Thwip! can get use of status conditions, meanwhile Spider-Tingle / Enhanced Spider-Sense and Black Widow can get rid of treacheries and make a good support build for Multiplayer, you can even add Return the Favor to benefit in Solo.

• Justice:

  • As stated before Justice is all about events, For Justice! and Clear the Area are staples, or Crisis Interdiction for multiplayer, Sense of Justice is a no brainer here and Under Surveillance helps to get some breath if you need to.
  • Justice Events-Focus Deck.
  • Web warriors are really strong in justice as well, as they help with DMG and THW, while you care about surviving.
  • Web-Justice Deck

If you found this helpful, give me a Like so i can write more reviews, i really appreciate it.