Aunt May Is An Absolute Unit

Motivation Spider-Man is my favorite hero, but I almost never played him because his deck just felt bad to me. Now that the game is older, and there are more cards to choose from I decided to go back and make him fun, and very very good!

Card Choice

Spider-Man's hero kit has big strengths, but also big, and I mean BIG weaknesses. I built this deck to cover his weakness and enable his strengths.

Weakness 1: Thwarting? Never heard of her.

Spider-Man has almost no ability to thwart. He has only 1 base thwart, and his thwart card Spider-Tracer is horrid. If there isn't a minion out then he doesn't have a thwart card at all. When there are minions out it's a great card, but sadly, about 80% of the time you get this card in your hand it's nothing more than a resource.

Weakness 2: Awkward Cost Curve

Spider-Man's only 2 cost card is his signature ally Black Cat. Everything else is 0 and 1 cost, or 3 and 4 cost. There are 3 copies of Swinging Web Kick and 2 copies of Webbed Up. What often happens is you'll draw 2 of these 5 cards in the same hand. You would have to have a hand size of 9 to play these without double resources. (4 cards for Swinging Web Kick and 5 cards for Webbed Up) So unless you have a hand graced to you by Stan Lee himself you'll have to get rid of one of your most powerful cards.

Strengths

Enough being mean to the bug. Let's talk about what he's good at.

Strength 1: Survivability

Spider-Man has a chunky 3 DEF stat, which he doesn't even have to use sometimes because of the even better option Backflip which cancels all damage. Even more impressive though is Aunt May. She is perhaps the best support per cost in the entire game. Her card says that you can exhaust her and heal 4, but don't let that fool you. It's actually 8, because every time you flip into alter-ego you will be able to do it twice before going back to hero form. She is an Absolute Unit. But even with that being true, most of the time Spider-Man can't let Aunt May heal him because if you go into alter-ego you'll lose to the main scheme. (More on that later.... I fixed it)

Strength 2: Damage

As I mentioned earlier Spider-Man has access to 3 copies of Swinging Web Kick a 3 for 8 damage card. In single player 2 of these on there own will completely one shot a villain. Also his signature ally Black Cat doesn't take consequential damage for attacking. 1 damage adds up. While I am reserving the Absolute Unit title for our dear old Aunt May, I feel comfortable giving Black Cat the lesser, but still respectable title of Unit. Spider-Man's 2 ATK stat isn't too shabby either.

Strength 3: Control

Enhanced Spider-Sense can cancel encounter cards and Webbed Up cancels not one, but 2 attacks. Meaning, that if you can afford them, you can skip almost 2 full turns of the villain with just 2 cards. Turns out precognition and being sticky are good powers.

Strength 4: Economy

Web-Shooter is a great card. 1 cost for 3 resources! (but really its 2 effective resources for 3 because you must include the resource you lose out on from the card itself when accounting for card value) With 2 copies of these in his deck he can afford some expensive cards. In alter-ego mode Peter can generate a mental resource in addition to having 6 hand size. So on turn 1 you will start out with a minimum of 7 resources to work with. This allows you to play Avengers Mansion on the first turn if you draw it. If you don't get it at the right time, it still serves as a mental resource for For Justice!. In hero mode, every time the villain initiates an attack against you you get to draw a card. Spider-Man actually has a better economy than most heroes, and I think that can often go overlooked.

Now Dig On This:

The Deck

When I talk about having 4 strengths and two weaknesses it seems kind of weird that I didn't used to play Spider-Man much. But that's because his thwarting weakness is so bad that without the proper deck you don't have access to your alter-ego ability, or the Absolute Unit Aunt May. Based on how his kit functions Spider-Man is optimal as a flipping hero. Not every turn, but every couple of turns you can flip into alter-ego mode, heal to full, get your extra mental resource, and then get back into the fight.

Enabling Optimal Play:

In order for Spider-Man to fully realize his kit I created a confusion build. The Inspiration for this came from Upside the Head. This allows Spider-Man to use his average basic attack to get a confuse, and sometimes even a stun. The rest of the confusion package is Professor X, the Nick Fury of thwarting, and Dazzler. They also provide an ample amount of THW to keep the main scheme under control. So, the general strategy is to flip into hero mode, attack the villain, take a hit or two, confuse the villain and use your allies and For Justice! (Web-Shooter always enables the 4 THW), flip down, get carried by the Absolute Unit Aunt May, and repeat.

Consistency: The NeXt Evolution box added player side schemes that fundamentally change deck building. Build Support can search Aunt May out of the deck and enable this entire strategy. Also, if Aunt May is already in play it can search for the more expensive Helicarrier. This means that in the majority of your games you will be able to find Aunt May before you run out of health. Also, Helicarrier helps mitigate the awkward cost curve I mentioned earlier, meaning you won't have to throw away your best cards anymore. The final target is Beat Cop, removing 1 threat helps mitigate Spider-Man's thwarting weakness, and in a pinch you can discard it to defeat a strong minion. By the end of the game Beat Cop will have removed 10 or more threat for 3 cost! The Spider-Man Miles Morales card is another great ally. He is high tempo and allows Peter to dish out damage or thwart in a big burst to deal with whatever the villain throws at you.

Ancillary Cards: Another great thing about this strategy is that because of Spider-Man's survivability, you don't need to use your allies as chump blockers most of the time. You can get the full value out of their attack and thwart stats. That's why I included Bishop. Normally Bishop doesn't get full value because most heroes need to use their allies as a shield at some point. But Spider-Man can get full value from him and allow Bishop to do up to 12 damage! I included Plan B because it is thematic, but it also helps to mitigate one of Spider-Man's weaknesses. You will often end up with 1 or 2 cards left over in your hand at the end of a turn, so you can pitch one to Plan B to get some extra damage. Under Surveillance is there to mitigate the thwarting weakness and provide an extra turn for you to get your optimal setup. Endurance is added to the deck because The Absolute Unit Aunt May often over heals you. So if you have extra hit points, her healing isn't wasted.

The Suit

There is one final card I haven't mentioned. Symbiote Suit. It's thematic, Spider-Man can afford it, and if you play it correctly it is actually very strong! It is generally not going to be good to use it in the beginning of the game. Instead wait until the end where it will function as a 10 health heal and a burst of damage to finish out the game. Even if you aren't playing it, it is still a wild resource which will make For Justice! more consistent and aid with removing villain attachments.

Triumphs:

• Expert Sinister Six
• Expert Magog

Editing The Deck:

Obviously if the villain is stalwart then this deck needs to be edited. I would suggest removing Upside the Head, Dazzler, and Professor X in exchange for strong allies and extra copies of Beat Cop.

Some Cards to Consider Adding:

• Ironheart
• Deadpool
• Multitasking
• Quincarrier
• Daredevil
• Spider-Woman
• Venom

I don't think having the deck be 42 cards is bad for Spider-Man, but if you just absolutely want to have a 40 card deck I would suggest cutting Bishop and Dazzler since they aren't 100% necessary for the deck to function properly and they aren't Spider themed.

I hope you enjoy the deck! And of course feel free to make any edits you'd like to suit your own play style.