Spider-Man - Overwhelm & Enhance [Leadership]

This deck all started with a dream. A dream of making Black Cat as swole as humanly possible. To totally abuse her lack of consequential damage. And sure, Iron Man and Ronin helped.

This deck is certainly not SS-Tier overpowered. It has some weaknesses (Retaliate) and some risks. Namely, if you draw a ton of upgrades in the first two turns but no allies, or vice versa. This deck also struggles against scenarios that move super fast. It requires time to build up its board since it's literally all about the upgrades.

But, on the plus side - this deck absolutely wins any long drawn-out engagements. It's totally all about the mid-game with these allies and their upgrades. We also leverage ally-healing to keep them around.

Resources

• Peter Parker is a great, straight-forward, resource generator. In any scenario that gives you room to use Alter-Ego form, I'd recommend you do so. Works well with Web-Shooter & Ant-Man.
• Spider-Man's Spider-Sense: Hey, our identity is capable of generating resources on both sides. How nifty!
• Iron Man: Effectively generates a free resource for each upgrade attached. That applies to Inspired, Power Gloves, Reinforced Suit, and Sky Cycle. If you get all 4 on him, that's 4 resources effectively generated.
• Web-Shooter: You spend 2 resources to generate 3-over-time. Simple, straight-forward, and useful.

Priorities

1. Aunt May: Always the #1 priority. The amount of sustainability she provides is nuts.
2. Web-Shooter: Consistent resource gain. There's almost never a reason not to play one.
3. Your first ally: You need AT LEAST 1 ally out ASAP; otherwise, half of your deck is dead to you. Giant-Man and Black Cat can often be the worser of the five; Giant-Man being very expensive and Black-Cat requiring Honorary Avenger to be useful - however, you take what you can get.
4. Honorary Avenger: Getting this on Black Cat.
5. Team Training: Get this out as early as possible. If you draw this during mid-to-late game, it's probably too late. Not worth running 2-of though.
6. Ally Upgrades: The main strategy of this deck. We want our allies to be big and around for a long time. Inspired and Power Gloves are universally great on all our prospective allies. Reinforced Suit is best on anyone besides Black Cat. If possible, get Giant-Man down to 1 life before adding Reinforced Suit to him; big value. Sky Cycle is largely JUST for Black Cat, although it's decent for Iron Man as well.
7. United We Stand: This card is really strong, especially in expert mode. Use it as often as you can without stepping on the toes of our other priorities. Remember: It can only be used in Hero form and it can also heal Spider-Man.

Strategies

• Defend, Defend, Defend, Defend. If you can stay in Hero form, you definitely want to. Some scenarios are more lenient than others, but Alter-Ego always brings the inherent risk that the game instantly ends to no fault of your own.
  • Backflip is your friend. This allows you to stay in Hero form longer and thus reduce the amount of threat pressured to the Main Scheme.
  • Spidey's other stats are negligible anyway.
  • His Spider-Sense ability effectively makes your hand-size 6. Sometimes higher, when double or triple attacked.
• Black Cat is your main squeeze. You want her out, followed by an Honorary Avenger. Once that's attached, you want Power Gloves, Inspired, and Sky Cycle. This allows for 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 damage every turn for the remainder of the game.
  • I've had many games in which Black Cat gets drawn way too late and I already have three upgraded allies in play; that's fine. If needed, you can Make the Call to get her back on board. The earlier you get her out, the better.
• Ant-Man is a fantastic card, especially for Thwarting. He has a veritable cost, which means you can fit him into any kind of hand you're holding. Thanks to cards like Honorary Avenger, Team Training and Reinforced Suit; even a 1-cost Ant-Man can still stick around for a very long time.
  • Peter Parker's ability can generate the 1 resource required to play a 1 HP Ant-Man.
  • Perfect for Make the Call.
• Speaking of Make the Call; this will almost always be resource-fodder, but will be available as needed (when you don't have 3 allies out).
• Upgrade early and often. In some games, I don't even use my allies until they get Inspired or Power Gloves on them first (to preserve HP).
• Generally, if possible, don't do the following: Defend with allies or have allies attack enemies with Retaliate.

Achievements

• Expert Kang (The Conqueror) [First Try]
• Expert Zola [Third Try]
• Expert Absorbing Man [First Try]
• Expert Taskmaster w/ Anachronauts [First Try]
• Expert Red Skull [First Try]
• Expert Crossbones w/ Doomsday Chair & Master of Time [Second Try]
• Expert Breakout [First Try]
• Expert Norman Osborn [First Try]

Scenario Strategies

• Kang: This scenario is actually pretty reasonable here. Play it cautiously, deal with obligations ASAP, but consistently build up your board until you overwhelm the villain.
• Zola: Play around Advance and Mind Ray. This scenario puts a TON of threat and damage pressure on you, so be very mindful of the odds that the villain may double scheme.
  • Try to use your Allies strictly for clearing out Minions since Zola has Retaliate.
  • Once you're confident that Mind Ray/Advance won't be drawn as encounter cards, take some time to R&R in Alter-Ego (Aunt May is a super high-priority must in this scenario).
  • Bust Black Cat out of Hydra Prison only when you can truly afford to play her. Otherwise, don't rush it. Unfortunately Spider-Man can't break her out on his own. A turn 1 drop of Ant-Man with 1 resource can free her with your help.
• Absorbing Man: Lol, just sit back and relax my dude. You can probably take a nap.
• Taskmaster: Depending on your board-state, you can spend either a lot of time in Hero form or Alter-Ego form.
  • This scenario rewards you for being in Alter-Ego form, but be mindful of potential double-schemes via Advance.
  • Many of both Spidey's and our Leadership cards require Hero form, so keep that in mind.
  • All Leadership decks should generally appreciate the Captive heroes in this scenario, thanks to Make the Call. Be sure to bust them out of captivity and keep spamming them for easy efficiency. They aren't worth upgrading if you can avoid it (although White Tiger & Elektra can be built-up for some value). Don't use Rapid Response on them unless absolutely necessary.
• Red Skull: Depending on your luck, this scenario will either take a long time or a very long time.
  • If Red Skull gets Red Skull's Right Hook out, you'll start to have problems - best to remove it ASAP.
  • The constant flow of Side-Schemes and Minions will keep your allies busy, but should also mean you're not at huge risk of being suddenly surprised by anything.
  • Prison Camps should pull out either Giant-Man or Iron Man. Big value.
  • As with most decks, I recommend clearing Side-Schemes ASAP. Some minions can be afforded to stick around a bit, as necessary.
  • If you're unlucky, double-scheming and double-attacking may be common, but fortunately the Main Schemes have a fairly high threshold and we have lots of ways to mitigate damage. Just take your time, build your board, and then eventually get ahead.
• Crossbones: This is one of those scenarios where you'll have to stay in Hero form for effectively the entire game. This is a fairly straight-forward scenario.
  • Ensure you're constantly mitigating damage.
  • Remove Energy Shield ASAP.
• Wrecking Crew: This one can be both easy or rough depending on your luck.
  • Thunderball and Piledriver are your priority targets.
  • Bulldozer is a pretty good villain to keep active. Wrecker is secondary.
  • I believe United We Stand is useless in this scenario since the villains don't have a stage number and therefore the value is NULL.
• Risky Business: One of the easiest scenarios in the game due to fairly weak encounter cards and the ability to let the player decide if the villain gets to meaningfully activate or not.
  • Just ensure that Norman never gets to scheme and this scenario should be fairly easy.
  • Defend any time Green Goblin attacks you; only use allies to defend when absolutely necessary.