The Quip-tacular Spider-Man

Spider-Man was always my guy. It's a story that's nearly 40 years old now but my mum loves to tell how I went in for a Tonsilectomy as a kid and when I came round the nurses asked me what I wanted... water, orange juice, toast? What do you like? In my post-anaesthesia haze I replied "Spider-Man".

So it's kind of been bugging me that I've never had a Spider-Man deck that I really enjoyed. I don't get on with all the super-passive Protection decks but this one does just enough about being proactive that I don't mind it so much, and as a result I'm finally getting to be Spider-Man in Marvel Champions and I'm loving it. I really feel like the annoying quip-tacular Spider-Man, keeping the villain's focus on me while I peck him down, and although I've tried Spider-Man decks a few times this is the first one I've felt comfortable in.

The key difference for me is that this deck is still capable of doing stuff on your turn even though Spidy is exhausted, so I still feel like I'm actually part of the game in the hero phase. There's two main reasons why this is - the first is a bank of durable heroes in Black Cat, Warlock and Luke Cage who stick around in play a long time, almost like having my own version of Ant-Man's Army of Ants. Spidey may be exhausted but I can get stuff done with allies who aren't just passing through the play area for a turn or two. The second thing I like is the addition of Hard Knocks, which I think really complement's Spidey's arsenal. You're no longer burning Swinging Web Kicks on the first half-decent sized minion that lands in play so you can save them for the villain, and you're also picking up Tough statuses that can help you defend the villain phase better - you could take a villain attack on the chin with Tough then defend to protect a teammate and still trigger all your Hard To Ignore and Unflappable stuff.

I've got both Electrostatic Armour and Dauntless in. Dauntless may be a little bit 'win more' but I've found that since adding Hard Knocks in I've been able to control minions and incoming damage better to the point where I can keep fully healed for a significant amount of time, plus Aunt May is the perfect card for giving Peter a warming broth to get back on his feet if he ever does take a beating. Once you've got your upgrades set up it's almost like taking 3 or 4 actions at once when you defend - you're preventing damage, you're dealing damage, you're thwarting the main scheme and you're even drawing cards!

I've been playing this two-handed and that may be the sweetest spot for this deck - it would probably struggle with Side Schemes and dealing damage if you tried to go solo, and while Spidey is really good at covering for a friend (Hard Knocks tough, or Preemptive Strike) he wouldn't be able to do the job for a whole four man team in the same way. It's a start, though...

THWIPP!