Rogue Champions – Ghost Spider

Gwen Stacy (Alter-Ego)

• Civilian.
• Recover: 3. Health: 10. Hand Size: 6
• Action: Choose to either shuffle Ticket to the Multiverse from your discard pile into your deck or ready George Stacy. (Limit once per round.)
• Comments:
  • Her action ability here is kind of meh. It can be used to do great things but it is more situational.
  • You do not often have two cards you want to put under George Stacy at the same time, so are unlikely going to need to ready him a second time.
  • Ticket to the Multiverse is a very handy card to get cycled through your deck so that is the thing you’re going to do most often.
  • Flipping her down when your deck is starting to get low is the best time, then you can shuffle Ticket back in, draw it the next turn because your deck is small, and use it again before flipping her back up and shuffling it back into an even smaller deck.

Hero Deck

Ally

• None

Upgrades

• Ticket to the Multiverse (1)
  • Cost: 3. Resource: 2 Wildcard.
  • Item.
  • Action: Remove Ticket to the Multiverse from the game → discard your hand, shuffle your discard pile into your deck, draw up to your hand size, and ready each Ghost-Spider card you control.
  • Comments:
    • This is a tricky one to gauge. On one hand, double wildcard resource is a very powerful resource card to have in your deck. Especially since, with Gwen’s power, you can shuffle it back into your deck any time you’re on Alter-Ego, giving you multiple uses of it.
    • Once it’s played as an upgrade, its effect is very powerful, effectively giving you two turns in a row. At the right moment, this could be the difference between a win and a loss.
    • However, the downside to using the card’s action is severe. You lose access to the card for the rest of the game, which is a big deal. Additionally, it costs three resources to put the card into play. That is significant for a onetime use. Essentially, you are giving up one turn to get two turns at once later.
• Web Bracelets (2)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Physical.
  • Item. Tech.
  • Hero Response: After you resolve an “Interrupt” or “Response” ability on an event, exhaust Web-Bracelet → draw 1 card. (Max 1 per event.)
  • Comments:
    • When you play an interrupt/response, these web bracelets let you replace that card in your hand.
    • The Max 1 per Event on these cards is a new clause. Essentially, this means after you play an Interrupt/Response, you can trigger one Web Bracelet to draw a card, not both.
    • I am not a fan of this clause but I’m not sure if that’s because I played it wrong the first few times and am tainted by being annoyed at my being wrong or I find it’s an additional layer of things to pay attention to.

Supports

• George Stacy (1)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Energy.
  • Persona.
  • Events attached to George Stacy may be played as if they were in your hand.
  • Action: Exhaust George Stacy → attach 1 event from your hand facedown here (to a maximum of 3).
  • Comment:
    • Being able to store response/interrupt events you can’t use now is handy.
    • The biggest downside to George is the Obligation, which forces you to lose him, and therefore discard all of your stored events.
    • Every time I have played or seen Ghost-Spider player, the Obligation has wrecked him. In fact, in two games in a row in the campaign, I had to do it twice due to “Loose Ends” from Down to Earth modular set returning my Obligation to play. F that card.
    • That experience has soured me to the value of both him and Miles’ persona cards.

Events

• Ghost Kick (3)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Physical.
  • Attack
  • Hero Response (attack): After Ghost-Spider uses a basic power, deal 6 damage to an enemy. (Max 1 per basic power use.)
  • Comment:
    • This allows Ghost-Spider to do two things at once. Something plus damage.
    • Additionally, it will also ready Ghost-Spider by triggering Dizzying Reflexes.
    • It has a similar limitation of Max 1 per trigger as Web-Bracelets but this one doesn’t bother me as much. This feels like a balance thing, you can’t nest a bunch of damage off one trigger.
    • You could play one of these, using three of your five cards in hand, ready Ghost-Spider, draw a new card with Web-Bracelet, and then activate her again and play a second one on the second activation because you now have three cards in hand again.
• Parental Guidance (1)
  • Cost: 0. Resource: 1 Energy.
  • Alter-Ego Action:
    • If George Stacy is in play, attach 1 event from your hand or discard pile facedown to George Stacy.
    • If George Stacy is not in play, search your deck and discard pile for him and add him to your hand. (Shuffle.)
  • Comments:
    • Another way to get George Stacy into play. Since the card costs zero, you can trade it for George.
    • Alternatively, you can put a total of three cards under George in one go. Using his action, readying him with Gwen’s AE action, and then playing this card.
    • You would only ever do that if you had to remain AE to heal and couldn’t use any of your hand.
• Phantom Flip (3)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Energy.
  • Thwart.
  • Hero Response (thwart): After Ghost-Spider uses a basic power, remove 5 threat from a scheme. (Max 1 per basic power use.)
  • Comments:
    • The counter-point to Ghost Kick but for threat removal.
    • While you can’t play two Phantom Flips or Ghost Kicks off of one basic power use, you can play one of each.
    • This is your primary means of threat removal since Ghost-Spider only has one thwart natively.
• Pirouette and Punch (2)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Mental.
  • Skill.
  • Hero Interrupt: When a card is revealed from the encounter deck, deal damage to the villain equal to 1 more than the boost icons on that card. Cancel that card’s “When Revealed” effects.
  • Comment:
    • This is a great way to avoid the worst Treachery cards. That it does extra damage to the villain is great.
    • This does not cancel everything that happens when a villain card is revealed. Minions and Side Schemes will still go into play, though they might have a When Revealed effect negated. Even Treachery cards might Surge or something as a separate clause to When Revealed.
• Web Binding (2)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Mental.
  • Superpower.
  • Requirement (Mental). (While paying for this card, spend the listed resources.)
  • Hero Interrupt: When an enemy would activate, cancel that activation. If a minion’s activation was cancelled this way, deal 4 damage to that minion.
  • Comment:
    • This is a unique ability, outright canceling an activation. That shuts down a lot of villain effects which can be particularly nasty.
    • Side rant: A lot of new recent cards that come out have this new resource requirement. There has long been bonuses to spending a certain resource with a card making that an effective requirement. But this new trend is annoying because you’re not getting anything for it. Especially for two and one cost cards. For two cost cards, unless you have the correct double resource, you can’t use the other double resource card to play it. For one cost, you can’t use something like Helicarrier to reduce the cost because you still have to spend that specific resource.

Nemesis Set

• Obligation: Worried Father
  • Boost Icons: 2
  • Give to the Gwen Stacy player.
  • Search your deck, hand, discard pile, and play area for George Stacy and set him aside. Attach this obligation to him.
  • Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust Gwen Stacy and remove this obligation from the game → add George Stacy to your hand.
  • Comments:
    • On one hand, this is a nice change of pace in Obligation design. Instead of affecting Ghost-Spider directly, forcing her to flip and exhausting her, you lose a valuable card
    • You can deal with the loss of this card at your leisure and you get the card back into your hand when you do. You will have to pay to replay it however, and you lose any cards stored under him.
    • Despite it being a nice change, this card has soured me on even using George Stacy. If you don’t plan to play him, then this Obligation is like a free Encounter card. When you have time and can afford it, you can resolve it but that has rarely happened.
• Nemesis: Lizard
  • Brute. Creature.
  • Attack: 3. Scheme: 1. Health: 5.
  • Boost Icons: 2
  • Forced Interrupt: When the villain phase begins, heal 1 damage from The Lizard.
  • Comment:
    • If you don’t take Lizard down in one round, and have the side scheme out, he’s going to keep healing.
    • You don’t kill this guy from a thousand cuts.
• Side Scheme: Regenerative Research
  • Threat 5
  • Boost Icons: 3
  • Forced Interrupt: When the villain phase begins, heal 1 damage from each enemy.
  • Comments:
    • This is a cool side scheme. Healing the villain and all minions can be an annoying, but not daunting effect.
    • It’s not too hard to remove (and in fact has can be dealt with by Ghost-Spider’s Phantom Flip) making it a distraction that you have to balance against. You can ignore it but do so for to long and you’ve undone a lot of damage.
• Experimental Injection (1)
  • Treachery
  • Boost Icons: 0
  • Attach to the minion with the most remaining hit points. If you cannot, this card gains surge.
  • Attached minion gains the Creature trait and gets +4 hit points.
  • Comments:
    • Extra hitpoints to the minion who already has the most is a tough break.
    • You don’t want to play Gwen with a villain who likes to buff allies. Or maybe you do if you enjoy a challenge.
    • Creature currently doesn’t do anything that I can recall, but that might change.
• In Cold Blood (2)
  • Treachery.
  • Boost Icons: 1.
  • When Revealed: The Lizard attacks you. You cannot play events until after that attack resolves. If no attack was made this way, this card gains surge.
  • Comments:
    • This is a solid counter to Ghost-Spider. She can’t play interrupt/response events in order to deal with his attack.