The Amazing Spider-Man Protection Machine

Welcome to the protection machine. Captain America may be able to "do this all day," but this Protection Spider-Man can take numerous punches and advance his game plan while doing it.

I pretty much only play true solo. You might make different choices if playing multiplayer.

Playing this deck, you want to assemble as many parts of the protection machine on the table while also not losing control of the board. Some games you can take your time building up the machine, other games you need to be interacting with the villain and his set-up immediately, and so building your machine needs to come little by little through the game. It is useful for mulliganing to know what kind of game you are in for, whether you should look for parts to the machine or you need allies and events that interact immediately.

The "Amazing Spider-Man Protection Machine" consists of Armored Vest, Dauntless, Electrostatic Armor, 3 Hard to Ignore, and Unflappable. This puts you at DEF 4, and if you defend against the villain and take no damage, you get to draw two cards, do 2 damage (if at full health), remove three threat from the main scheme, and smile while you do so. Desperate Defense can be used if you have it to keep Spidey readied or if the attack looks like it might be too big. Backflip is just the most amazing way to use the machine, because you know you won't take any damage and you'll get all the Protection Machine goodies.

The deck has three phases. The early game, where you are trying to get permanents on the board without completely losing control of the board. The mid game, where you aim to continue to build your board but also take over control of the game. Then in the late game, when you've emptied out all those permanents, you can hit hard with multiple Swinging Web Kick or Fighting Fit cards. Sometimes the end will be almost anti-climactic, with you looking at your hand and board and realizing that you can play 2 Swinging Web Kick and a Fighting Fit to defeat a villain sitting at 20 health.

Your biggest weakness is thwarting side schemes, with a secondary weakness of being overrun by minions. Your allies need to aid in both regards. Those little buggers do a lot to help you!

I've been playing through each villain, standard first and then expert. I took on the Rise of Red Skull and Galaxy's Most Wanted villains individually, instead of the campaign format.

One quite difficult match has been Red Skull , who took 4 or so tries on standard to defeat (and I didn't even try expert). I think in a campaign I might have had more luck with Red Skull, equipped with the set up cards you acquire during the campaign, but that wasn't how I did it. I would get overrun by side schemes and minions each try, until finally I didn't. It still is a rough match up, and may warrant more allies in the deck.

Another tough fight is against the first Collector scenario and the attempt to infiltrate the museum. The three sources of "pressure" (collection, minions, and threat on the main scheme) all collaborated in my first few attempts to defeat the scenario. I was finally able to win when I was able to get a run where I didn't add multiple minions from boosts and regular encounter cards. Further attempts will be needed to see if the losses were bad luck (extra minions, an untimely "Advance") or the win was good luck.

Nebula on expert level gave me a rough time. I was finally able to win the 4th run through. Basically, it can be tough to handle the techniques flying out along with those smelly space pirates.

Ronan is terrible as a match up, but he's terrible for everyone. Maybe he doesn't throw a bunch of minions out against you; maybe you can Backflip and Webbed Up to keep a lid on his attacks.

Here's some thoughts on the cards we're running in this deck:

Black Cat mostly functions as one damage per turn, plus it thins your deck to get to your end game state. Occasionally you will thwart a side scheme. 13 targets for the forced response means you'll whiff often, so don't count on it.

Brother Voodoo is here to thwart side schemes. You should be able to get 2 activations out of him, thwarting 4 total. The comes into play ability hopefully replaces 1 that you paid for him, as you have 10 events, and as you thin your deck with permanents, the event ratio will increase.

Lockjaw is primarily here to thwart side schemes. If no side scheme concerns, just use him for other stuff. If you can, always spend him as a resource first and then play him from the discard pile. That effectively reduces his cost by 1. The double consequential damage is a bummer, but is actually probably better as a 4 health 2 ATK/2 THW than as a 2 health 2/ATK/2 THW, since various incidental damage can get thrown on him. Two-for-one turns with Lockjaw are fun as well, where you use a basic power that kills him, then replay him and do it again. Remember from one turn to the next if he's in your discard pile, too - your hand may have more options than you think.

Nick Fury is here because it does a lot for 4 resources, but its biggest and most important role is to kill off side schemes. It can clear as much as 4 threat, and provide a chump block. But if you need to damage a minion or the villain, you can do that. If nothing is pressing, you can draw 3 cards. This is expensive, but does good stuff.

Starhawk is "sort of" here to thwart side schemes. He's actually in because he seems really efficient. Costs 2 to play, and then if you allocate uses properly, he'll cost effectively 1 for future plays, or will increase your resource count by 1 on a future turn. Attack then thwart, thwart then attack, even mix a minion block in there if you know the math will work out for a return to hand. This deck doesn't chump block the villain often, but you really don't want to do that with Starhawk unless you have to.

Backflip is pretty sweet. The new defense ruling makes it so the use of Backflip means you defended, which turns on your protection machine without exhausting your hero. That might give you a chance to get some extra damage in or a thwart on a side scheme.

Bait and Switch is (correction: was) here for if the main scheme starts getting too much threat. This will happen early if you don't get your copies of Hard to Ignore down quick. This combos well with Backflip, as well as your whole protection machine. Also, Spider-Man gets a draw for the attack, so this replaces itself in your hand. This would be great if it could remove threat from a side scheme, but as is, just one copy in the deck. UPDATE: Now no copies in the deck. I nearly never played it. Swapped it out for The Night Nurse.

Desperate Defense has a few important uses. One is if you know there's a big villain attack coming in, perhaps a few extra boost cards dealt or something of that nature. Another is if you'd like your hero to be ready on your turn, this almost guarantees an untouched defense. In the end game, when your deck is thin, you can likely play this nearly every turn with two copies in the deck, though you may rather play Backflip.

Enhanced Spider-Sense is great! It lets you shrug off treacheries that you don't want to deal with. Is is also a superpower trait card, which means Deft Focus can pay for it. This card alone makes Vulture appearances quite rare.

Fighting Fit is here for your end game, when you've thinned out the deck and just intend to pump out damage. It isn't quite as efficient as Swinging Web Kick but 2 for 5 damage on the villain is nothing to sneeze at.

Swinging Web Kick is your chief damage dealing (apart from the protection machine, that is). Being a superpower means Deft Focus can help reduce the cost. Also can handle beefy minions who are causing trouble. You're going to be using one of these per turn in the end game (or more!).

Energy, Genius, and Strength are all here to help pay for supports early, allies mid game (and really throughout), and attacks in the end game.

Aunt May is a good emergency button. If you've taken too much damage, one flip to alter-ego means 8 damage healed (4 when you flip, 4 the next turn). However, you won't go alter ego too often. Still, playing Aunt May thins the deck, which is good.

Avengers Mansion draws cards, which is slightly better than making a resource. This is pricey, though. Getting it down as early in the game as possible is good. If you haven't played it by the late game, you probably don't want to bother.

Helicarrier and Quincarrier are essentially the same: 3 cost, then they pay one cost for you each turn. Get them down as early as you can.

The Night Nurse is a late addition to the deck list, replacing Bait and Switch. It is in here for a couple of reasons. First, obviously is to take care of stun and confused conditions. I have had occasions where I had to play a Swinging Web Kick to clear a stun. That's excessive and unfortunate. But the other good thing it brings is the ability to heal small amounts of damage while still in hero form. Sometimes you get knocked down just below 10, and Fighting Fit and Dauntless get turned off. The Night Nurse can turn them back on.

Armored Vest gets us into the protection machine. This increases Spidey's 3 defense to 4, which is sufficient for a great many attacks to be defended with no damage getting through. Get this down ASAP.

Dauntless is part of how you drip and dribble damage to the villain when you use the protection machine. With the help of Honorary Avenger, Endurance, and Aunt May, the goal is to always be at or above 10 HP, which means you retaliate 1. Also can do some damage to minion attacks as able.

Deft Focus pays for 2 cards - Enhanced Spider-Sense and Swinging Web Kick. However, in the end game you will want to use a Swinging Web Kick each turn, and thinning your deck by getting this into play will help you get there.

Electrostatic Armor is part of the protection machine. When you defend, you get a damage in on the attacker. This gets triggered when Backflip makes you a defender as well. The damage slowly chips away at the opposition.

Endurance is helpful for absorbing small amounts of damage that sneak through without your HP slipping below your starting 10, which keeps Fighting Fit and Dauntless online. Also thins out your deck.

Hard to Ignore goes a long way to keeping the main scheme under control. Once you have one of these down, if you can get a clean defend in a round, you get to remove the one threat that gets added to the main scheme. Two or more and you can start to clear the scheme off completely. Also is a permanent that thins out your deck.

Honorary Avenger doesn't do much, but it raises your HP over your starting total and thins out your deck.

Spider-Tracer allows you to get threat off a scheme, which is really good if there are side schemes causing trouble. It does require a minion to cooperate, but it can be useful. Honestly, you'll spend these as resources often, though.

Target Acquired is in here in response to Galaxy's Most Wanted. It also is a permanent until you want to use it, so you can get it out of your deck in the first pass.

Unflappable is part of the protection machine. This one allows you to draw a card on a clean defense. Combined with Spidey's spider sense, you'll often get 7 card hands.

Web-Shooter is a means to get extra resources to play all those cards. You can pay one turn it is paid forward for future turns. Also, until you use the 3 uses, these are on the table. Sometimes I'll just leave them sitting on 1 resource so they don't go back in the deck.

Webbed Up can be played in a pinch, but because you want to use the protection machine, these will mostly be spent as resources. Sometimes toward the late game, you'll throw a Webbed Up on the villain to get your board in good shape for a massive turn to end the game.

Last five in

The Night Nurse

Desperate Defense #2

Hard to Ignore #3

Target Acquired

Deft Focus

Potential Additions to think about

Energy Barrier

Clea

Fighting Fit #2

Spider-Man (that would be some crazy mind-bending stuff - two Spider-Mans!)

Black Widow

Bait and Switch