Peter Parker takes all roads to victory

This aggression deck takes several paths towards the goal of defeating the villain, and while it may seem to lack a little bit of focus, that is actually its main strength, as it leverages several strategies that add up to more than the sum of its parts.

I've mainly used it in Multiplayer Expert mode, and has cleared all content except for GMW, wrecking crew and Mojo Mania (since I don't own those boxes), although it also has solo wins against both Green Goblin scenarios and the core box Villains. It works for true solo, but it really does benefit from having a partner that can take care of thwarting more efficiently than Peter does. Still, it can bring some of that to the table too. Allow me to explain how to pilot this deck.

Basic strategy

This deck uses several staples of the Aggression aspect, like Honed Technique or the Ally Swarm archetypes, and takes bits and pieces from them. It does not commit 100% to any of these strategies, and while this makes it less focused and efficient at that one build than a specialized deck, this allows it to remain versatile and to adapt to all villains.

Peter Parker has fantastic economy, thanks to Spider-sense, Scientist, Quincarrier, Ingenuity and Web-Shooter. Your main priorities are to build your economy and upgrades as quickly as possible while staying alive, then once you're set up, you can focus the villain down.

Mulligan and early turns

Your main mulligan targets are Ingenuity (because if you can play it on turn 1, it's a massive acceleration, and saves you from going to Alter-ego just to play it later in the game), Aunt May (she's super important), or any attack boosting upgrade if your economy ones do not show up.

On the first few turns, you want to try to play one or two upgrades per turn, and if you ever come across them, Black Cat and Wolverine. At this point, you can ping some damage on the villain if you want/can, but generally you should prioritize defense and not losing HP until Aunt May is on the table.

It's worth noting that you can rush, and that you don't exactly need to setup for the deck to work, but to do that, you will want to play at least Honed Technique, and it's really not what the deck excels at.

Mid-game

By the time your economy is built, you can focus on all other upgrades and supports. At this point you'll have roughly 8 resources at your disposal every turn, which means you can bring your higher cost, less essential cards to bear (like Boot Camp). It's also when you can start considering to push some decent damage on the villain and get him close to the last stage.

Late game

Once you're fully set up, you can easily play two high damage events per turn, swing with Wolverine and Black cat for 7 damage, and basic attack for 4. This means that you can usually burst down the last stage of a villain in a single turn if solo, or close to that if on two players. Once you reach the late game, just focus on damage and staying alive. Everything else is secondary.

Surviving

Surviving with Peter Parker is easy. You have two copies of Backflip in your deck, which you can use after you see how much damage you take. Hulk is a 2 cost ally that can take 5 damage. You only want to attack with him as a last resort in spite of his high attack, so just use him as a wall. And finally, Peter has a stellar 3 defense that you can use from the beginning of the game. Your basic THW is 1, so you don't get much use out of it, and in the early stages of the game you rarely need to basic attack (and if you need some damage to take out a minion, your events can take care of that).

If you go down in HP and have Aunt May on the table, clear the main scheme as much as possible, if you can, confuse the Villain, then have Aunt May heal you for 4 on the turn you flip down, plus another 4 the turn you're flipping up. Endurance will give you 3 more HP as an extra buffer for particularly hard-hitting villains.

Dealing with threat

Dealing with threat is easy. Bring a Justice partner :P . All kidding aside, you've got some avenues to deal with threat, if you have to. Early in the game, you rarely need Wolverine to attack, and thus he can be clearing 1 Threat off the main scheme every turn, which is enough to keep it under control in many cases. Psylocke and Professor X both have decent/high THW values and confuse the villain, which will give you the window of opportunity to flip down to Alter-ego.

If you need to thwart right now, or you expect that to be the case soon, your best bet is to hold onto "You'll Pay for That!" and take one attack to the face. If you're lucky enough to have a minion on the board, Into the Fray can remove up to 5 threat from the main scheme, or 8 if you've played Honed Technique; add a Spider-Tracer for extra 3 threat removed, and you can usually manage emergency situations. At points it's worth keeping one of these cards in hand for a turn if you know you'll need them, but otherwise you're better off relying on your allies for Thwarting.

Using your allies

Most decks use allies for X-1 activations and a block, where X is the ally's HP. While this is the most sound strategy, you won't be doing that with everyone. Specifically:

• Black Cat takes no consequential damage, so put a Sidearm on her for constant, consistent damage that will get further amplified mid-game by boot camp.
• Wolverine can heal himself, but takes a lot of consequential damage when he attacks. In the early and mid-game, you only want him to deal with minions (especially those that have Toughness) or to thwart (as explained above). Keeping him healthy and on the table tends to be more useful than burning him. When you know you're going to push onto stage three of the villain, it's sometimes worth it to let him rest for a turn or two so you can get three consecutive activations from him in as many turns, burning him down at a point when him staying on the table isn't needed anymore.
• Sunfire will help you remove those pesky attachments that you can't be bothered to clear yourself, and if Boot camp is on the table, hit for 3 damage plus a block. Great value.
• Professor X is meant to deal with threat, and give you one free block. Put him on the table, confuse the villain, thwart for 3, get a block from him, then next turn you can flip down if you need it. Remember that if you don't need to confuse the villain, he can ready Wolverine if you really need the extra 4 damage.

Dealing damage

Your events will do the heavy lifting here. Swinging Web Kick is obviously a staple. Drop Kick is a card that you can use in the early game for a stun, but that late game will turn into 7 damage for 4 ER, which is almost on par with SWK. Toe to Toe is a great way to clear minions, and towards the end of the game it's 6 damage for 1ER if you're using it on the villain (thanks to Spider-sense). Just be careful with how much damage you take when you use it. Even if you're forced to defend, your events can allow you to push damage efficiently.

Since you're using so many events, Fluid Motion will quickly pay for itself. While most decks that use it want to pump your basic attack and push out more damage through readies, the point of Fluid Motion and Combat Training here is to bring Peter to 4 base attack, which lets him deal with most minions (including Vulture, his Nemesis) in a single hit. If minions are stronger than that, using one of your big damage events on them is no longer a waste. If you need to deal with a guard minion when you're pushing for Lethal at the late game, that's what Battle Fury is for.

Wolverine and Black cat also bring good damage to the table, but you should consider them more of a steady trickle of damage than burst at the end of the game.

42 cards? Really

Yes, but that is because I haven't really found the deck to improve if I shave stuff off. If going above 40 really bothers you, the first candidates to go are Battle Fury and Martial Prowess. The former has a very situational use (but when it comes through, it's usually in a big way) and the latter is very corner case (it helps your economy, but it's marginal) and I'm likely to cut it out of the deck once X-23 comes out and I test out Specialized training. Another card that I don't own, but that would work well in the deck is Melee, which I might replace Relentless Assault with. But again, since I don't own it, and so I haven't tested things out, I am remiss to include it in the deck.

Conclusions

So there you go, my first published deck, and one that I've tested extensively before I decided to put it out in the open. It may not be the most powerful deck out there, but it certainly is a lot of fun, and on an aspect that most people don't play Peter Parker in. Enjoy!