TLDR;

The following decklist contains a lot of nuance and I went a bit overboard for those who are as nerdy as I am, or bored in the office! Here’s the quick hits for the Champions player:

• Boot Camp and good economy, drop big allies, each with good matchups
• Hulk generates tons of damage and value
• Sp//dr loops with Web of Life and Destiny and dances with pigs around Hulk
• Huge Wooden Hammer, Hand Cannons, Symbiote Suit, and Combat Training hits for 10 w/overkill (a Hulk Smash! of value)
• Allies chump when we don’t have Cartoon Physics, while Ham takes pings for resources
• Flip to recover to 15 or 25 boosted health using Endurance, Down Time, and Symbiote Suit, generating 4 bankable resources per flip
• Combos and puns abound as you read on!!

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Hulk Smashes His Piggy Bank

It’s snout immediately obvious that Hulk isn’t more than a gimmick for Ham, that it wouldn’t be like putting lipstick on a pig. But reader, this is no sham!

But before we continue frankfurther, some testimonials from other guinea pigs who tested and contributed:

MegiDolaDyne: “This is the pig of the litter”

Fernafalej: “This deck is the other white meat”

Igorbone: “I can’t count how many times Hulk has saved my bacon”

Nick Jonas: “Marvel Champions really needed someone to ‘throw some bacon on it’”

**

“Bangers and Smash!”

**

First, I need to credit Jimmydm90 for this incredible header that almost was the title of the whole deck (and arguably should be).

Red is our pigment of choice for aspect cards. Spider-Ham has excellent thwart and excellent sustenance sustain. His one weakness in kit, is that he is a bit ham-strung for damage. His only damage squealing cards are the one-of, minion-locked Hogwashed, the occasional 4 ATK from Huge Wooden Hammer, and his Swinging Wb Pig confuse punch that he doesn’t want to waste.

Hulk fixes this by swine-ing for 3 (4 with Boot Camp), and then pulled-porking an to hit everything for 1, including Spider-Ham, giving us a toon counter. Hulk can do this three times, dealing 15 damage and ending up resource neutral. He can even pull two and two (22 for 1 ER) or three and one (23 for 2 ER). We are running 19 (non-Hulk) , 9 , and 3 to enable this. Only 8 in our deck, and 4 are board-state cards.

Sp//dr is 2 THW/1 ATK on a stick (or bbq kebab). She is boosted by Boot Camp and can be played every turn, triggering Web of Life and Destiny in the process. When you lack other options, she is always a good toon counter dump or Team-Building Exercise target, making her resource neutral when combined with Web. 2 damage and 2 thwart and turning a toon counter into a card every turn is amazing value. One niche interaction, is that from full health, she doesn't mind being hit by Hulk so she can use her 2-THW right away. This allows a turn where she can be played multiple times, drawing you a card one turn earlier than she would otherwise. If she has already taken damage though, remember to return her to your hand before attacking with Hulk. These two form the core of the deck, dancing porka waltz around each other.

Ghost-Spider searches us the one-of Hogwashed, when it’s relevant, or Ham It Up when we have counters stacked. We can even chump her and search "I Don't Think So!" to shut down a whole villain phase (credit to MegiDolaDyne for bringing this combo to my attention). With Team-Building Exercise and Web of Life and Destiny, she is 1ER for 9 ATK or 6 and a block.

Sharing Hulk’s pig-pen, are all the best allies with an symbol, most deal 4x3 damage thanks to Boot Camp. Thor boar-rows a toon counter to clear the board. Valkyrie is another “12-damage” ally with a negligible kicker for a toon counter. Snowguard is a great use of spare counters, coming in for 9-THW, or yet again 4-ATK “this time with overkill!” Wasp is an excellent counter dump, often coming in with a full 3-hp and 4-ATK, or turning a toon counter into a block. Sentry’s high health and stats come in ham-dy. The encounter card is mitigated well, often giving us a chance at a toon counter to keep slinging buff allies.

**

Spinning Charlotte's Web

**

Spider-Ham might just be one of the best heroes in the game, a real blue ribbon pig. The short of it is, he gets extra for doing nothing. Just by playing the game, Ham is exchanging damage for resources. All of the hundreds of game effects that deal ping damage, are resources planted in our field for us to sow at our leisure. You can farm low attack minions, retaliate, Weakened-effects ad pigfinitum. I’ve started player phases with 4, 5, 6 extra resources. The most common ratio I’ve had is 5 damage dealt and 3 toon counters gained. That’s incredible for not needing any investment or set up whatsoever.

Spider-Ham just can’t lose the game. He has incredible thwarting potential, damage mitigation, and the more the villain tries to win the richer we get. We get proportionately stronger the more hits we take.

Cartoon Physics is hams down our best card. I mean it is really the pig’s pajamas. It reduces all damage taken from a single source down to 1, ensuring a toon counter. But here is where things get going:

• an upgrade, so we don’t have to draw into it

• not max 1, so we can have both copies at a time

• get to see the boost cards before deciding

No matter what the villain does, Cartoon Physics just doesn’t care. Venom can have 10 boost cards, Ronan the Accuser might have Fanaticism, Thanos can pull a 4-boost; none of these matter. We laugh at overkill and piercing. The villain can add as many attachments as they’d like and we still only take 1 damage and gain a toon counter. Boost effects that deal damage, that are the bane of chump-blocking, just give us an extra counter. Indirect damage effects, you guessed it, counter. You can think of a thousand cards across any scenario that are now: “this encounter card is actually good for Spider-Ham.” The villain might huff and puff, but they’ll never blow our house in. Not by the hairs on our chinny chin chin!

So yeah, you can see why we can let Hulk go hogwild.

Organic Webbing is our next important card, giving us the vaunted 3-THW but coming with a built in ready. Thwarting for 6 per turn, makes me as happy as a pig in mud.

Captain Americat is crazy good here. Besides just being a 3 ER 2/3/2 ally in this deck, he crucially gets us a third use of Cartoon Physics each deck cycle. My second favorite target for this effect is "I Don't Think So!", a full encounter cancel that is not restricted by type of card and blocks all effects (including surge).

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This Little Piggy Ran All the Way Home

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Spider-Ham loves to flip, go home, and have a rest in his hammock. Every flip, we get 4 bankable resources to use when we return to hero, 2 from REC and 2 from The Daily Beagle. Ready to Rumble is a free ready, a cheap board card that we can invest a counter into to keep until needed. Swinging Web Kick and his naturally fantastic thwart, make this a cinch.

Damaging Ham is like catching a greased pig, but he does baby-back rack it up. Fortunately, we have a beefy porky 5 REC, boosted to 7 with Down Time, and 15 hp thanks to Endurance. We can be down to 1 health, and still double REC to full. When Ham recovers, his bacon gets cured. You could say he gets treated with the best oinkment.

But let me just propound the virtues of The Daily Beagle for a bit. On face, it is more expensive than most alter-ego supports and only gets 2 resources, not even any card draw. 3 ER for 2 resources is a slow exchange rate, some might say. But nay, ixnay on the heresay hambre. Sorry, I haven’t brushed up on my pig Latin in awhile. Beagle gets us 2 resources, we can save for any time we want! Usually, a draw/resource ability is only usable immediately, the draw must be playable right away or is likely discarded at the end of phase, a resource must be spent for a cost or fades. But toon counters are piggy bankable and smooth out all future turns. To piggyback off that last oink, I believe a toon counter is worth more than 1 resource.

**

All Pigs are Created Equal, But Some Pigs are More Equal than Others

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A toon counter is wild; meeting all kickers/costs/attachments, can be spent in the villain phase; can be spent in the hero phase; can be used right away or stored a la Assess the Situation. A single flip to AE is like playing 4 Assess the Situations that can be spread out on any future turn! All 4 legs counters are friends.

It’s hard to describe how easy counters add up. I found myself running out of things to spend them on, with an ever-growing trough of slop to pig out on. Just slapping down max Wasp and other chunky allies with the occasional cheap board card is routine. This made me feel comfortable with cutting Genius, something I’d usually never do. Even one turn of not spending them all can Snowball into turns of 7, 8, 9 counters. And we’d all side with Snowball over comrade Napoleon right?

This accumulation makes Ham It Up a real powerhouse, 1 ER for 2,3,4 threat is already amazing, but 1ER for 5,6,7 is broken. Just try Overwatch in a Justice deck with a 7 toon counter Ham It Up. You’ll feel like a pigpocket with how easy it is to get rich and steal squeal threat or health from the villain.

**

Pork Knuckle Knock-Out

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With so many reliable readies and the potential for overkill on basic attacks, with Huge Wooden Hammer, it makes sense to buff our attack. With Huge Wooden Hammer, Combat Training, Symbiote Suit, and x2 Hand Cannons, we can punch for 10 w/overkill. Essentially, Ham gets Hulk Smash. Symbiote Suit in particular is great to give us 10 extra hit points of tankiness, extra Thwart, extra Attack, and an extra card to be able to spend counters on. The encounter card just gives us an extra chance to get a counter! Hitting a wild with Hulk isn't the worst outcome either. I’ll usually slap it down late game after a full heal to 25 health, then flip to hero and tank while rushing the villain. This deck can easily have a surprise 20-30 damage on board with Boot Camp-boosted allies, Swinging Wb Pigs, and two basic attacks.

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Miscellaneous Cuts of Meat

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-Petulant Pig is 1 ER and an attack for 4 resources. The draw is particularly important to give us something to spend our money on. You can even use a chump if necessary or set up a great "You'll Pay for That!" play, a card that is often hitting for max value in this deck.

-Battle Fury is another great way to get a toon counter. Queue up minions with allies, overkill with Ham, ready and gain a counter, then spend that counter to ready with Organic Webbing. 1 ER for 3 THW is value.

-Team-Building Exercise hits 12 of our cards, making Cartoon Physics free, reducing our build cards to 1-cost, playing Captain Americat for 2ER or Swinging Web Pig for 2-cost, and looping Sp//dr and Ghost-Spider.

**

World War Hulk Pigs

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• Play Aggressively! This is an aggression deck after all. Throw caution to the wind as you rack up toon counters by taking as much damage as possible and then converting them into big allies

-REC first turn to get a counter. Basic actions are not covered by the game state rule, so this actually works!

• Timing Hulk is important, use your other allies before him or use him and then play another ally

• Try to get a Cartoon Physics into the discard before you play Captain Americat. Likewise, get both in for the reshuffle at the end of the deck

• Timing Ham It Up can be tricky, but using Hulk/Captain Americat/Battle Fury beforehand, can really squeeze some extra value. Both Ham It Up and "You'll Pay for That!" are great to have on the turn you flip up from Peter Porker, as you’ll likely have a bunch of counters, a bunch of health, and a bunch of threat to remove

• You can check the boost icons before deciding whether you want to use "You'll Pay for That!" or Cartoon Physics! 3-4 is a sweet spot for the former, 5+ is great for the latter. "You'll Pay for That!" can also defeat a hazard side scheme, before you get the bonus card, very useful for Red Skull.

• My first win against solo expert Venom Goblin (without swapping out Goblin Gear) was with this deck. Spammed the indirect damage scheme for counters. Every scenario has something like this to rack up counters, so you don’t always need to take hits to the face and can still chump block for benefit. Figure out what those are and track them in the deck to see if you want to tank or chump

• "I Really Want a Hot Dog!" is a surprisingly easy and straightforward obligation. Option 1 is essentially pay 2 counters (1 to unexhaust and 1 for the effect). Option 2 is just pay 1 counter (1 to unexhaust after clearing the stun). Always take option 2 to keep this in the deck and provide free flips.

• There is a bit of a push-your-pork mechanism with The Green Gobbler as he can strip your toon counters, ammo counters, pym counters, and shift counters; defeating Wasp and turning Snowguard into a 1-ATK chump. Be careful when you have a lot of counters and haven’t seen Shadow of the Past yet. Keep him in mind for Mysterio and Kang as well! Old Grudge, Kang's Wrath, and Seek and Destroy are cards you need to bear in mind. Defeat Nefarious Trap first to trigger an attack from Gobbler to get back a toon counter, then hit him with a 4-ATK ally. Gobbler Glider can sometimes be a complete whiff if no minion is out. "Feast on This!" adds another few cards to the deck that exchange 2 damage for 1 toon counter. The confuse is easily cleared with Ham It Up, or by using that toon counter to thwart and ready.

• Frozen and Stolen Memories are silver bullets to this deck. Toon counters can’t be spent in alter-ego, making us bad at meeting mental requirements in alter-ego obligations/attachments in solo. Keep these in mind and use the wilds in the deck when they come up.

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Pork Choptions:

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• Spider-Ham gets aerial after he readies, which is useful for Pitchback and Dive Bomb. Pitchback’s requirement was hard to meet early game, where thwarting twice was preferable and without Honed Technique, I’ll play Dive Bomb when pigs fly.

• Get Over Here! and Fluid Motion make a neat multiplayer idea, where you don’t need to use your thwart as much. Engage a low attack minion that was on another player to farm it for counters and boost your attack with FM. Drop Kick can stun the villain for someone else, and Surprise Attack is great after a flip. Jarnbjorn combos off all of the attacks.

• Bug and Energy Spear, are great cards and a 4 ATK self-healing Bug is great, but the tempo of this deck is so fast that this was even too slow. We aren’t basic attacking reliably enough for the heal (but might make the cut in the Fluid Motion deck). Marvel Boy does this a little cheaper and faster though if you want to include him as Boot Camp turns him into a 3-ATK with piercing and ranged. Spider-Girl and Throg are useful allies with , but her stun is partially detrimental to getting counters, as most minions have low damage we want to farm, and his tough is underutilized when we aren’t chumping. Minions are defeated so quickly, he usually doesn’t have time to become tough, and we always have Thor to fill that role.

• Moment of Triumph was initially tested, but ended up never played. Using REC is preferable to gain a toon counter.

• A more risk averse player may put Sentry, Symbiote Suit, Wasp, and Snowguard on the chopping block, but they all serve purposes in various scenarios. Sentry and Snowguard provide additional thwarting, Symbiote Suit is a panic button when flipping is not an option, and Wasp is a great counter dump or block. There aren’t any other cards with the right icon that would improve the core of the deck, but swapping in the 2-cost Aggression allies doesn’t hurt.

• "You'll Pay for That!" is excellent against Red Skull and Venom Goblin (essentially letting you pick the scheme the glider counter is on every turn). I was running a full play set at one point, and I recommend it for these two scenarios. I love the novelty of a deck putting an off-meat card to use!

Any of the basic Web Warriors are excellent, but many don’t have the right icon. That deck is most broken in leadership though with Clarity of Purpose giving a resource + toon counter for 1 damage and Make the Call being the best toon counter sink there is. Spider-Man can ready Clarity of Purpose for 4 resources that turn!

Just look at my Spider-Verse Swarm deck https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/18096/spider-verse-swarm-1.0 and make the following changes:

-3 Meditation

-1 Gamora

-1 Kaluu

-1 Ironheart

-1 Helicarrier

-1 Rapid Response

=

+1 Spider-Man

+1 Ready to Rumble

+1 Down Time

+1 Endurance

+1 Peni Parker

+1 Clarity of Purpose

+1 Team-Building Exercise

+1 Symbiote Suit

Jimmydm90 said to call Ham-Leadership “That’ll Blue Pig, That’ll Blue.” Can’t argue with great content like that!