Greetings! Our journey through the plethora of heroes available in Marvel’s Champions LCG. We’ve reviewed the two newest releases prior to Sinister Motives, and as I have yet to receive my copy, I’m going to stay in the spirit of the Spider-verse and jump all the way back to a hero from the original core box; the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker.
Hero Summary
Spider-Man (Hero)
- Avenger. (Web-Warrior?)
- Thwart: 1. Attack: 2. Defense: 3. Hit Points: 10. Hand Size: 5.
- Spider-Sense – Interrupt: When the villain initiates an attack against you, draw 1 card.
- Comments:
- Spider-Man works great in a defensive role, ready to defend against the villain’s attacks. With 3 inherent defense, it’s easy to buff him up to take little to no damage.
- Spider-Sense has no limitation to how often it can trigger. So if you build your deck toward multiple readies on the villain stage or Defense cards that don’t require exhausting, you can be protecting your team and recovering the cards that you spend on defense.
- Note that when the villain is stunned, Spider-Sense won’t be triggered because the Stun replaces the attack, and it is therefore never initiated.
- Peter came out at the start of the game, years before the current releases expansion of Spider-People and the Web-Warrior trait. I see no reason to not house rule that trait onto him.
Peter Parker (Alter-Ego)
- Genius.
- Recover: 3. Health: 10. Hand Size: 6
- Scientist — Resource: Generate a Mental resource. (Limit once per round.)
- Comments:
- Free resources are always nice. This helps him get engine cards down on turn one, and gives him an incentive to flip down.
- Spending too much time in alter-ego is dangerous though, as his Thwart ability is lackluster.
- He does have some good cards that trigger on Alter-Ego, particularly Aunt May,
Hero Deck
Ally
- Black Cat (1)
- Hero for Hire.
- Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Energy.
- Attack: 1 Thwart: 1*. Health: 2.
- Forced Response: After you play Black Cat, discard the top 2 cards of your deck. Add each card with a printed Mental resource discarded this way to your hand.
- There is no consequential damage when Black Cat attacks.
- Comments:
- A two cost ally is always nice to see.
- Unlike most two cost, Black Cat is one that can last a long time since she doesn’t damage herself.
- She is a prime candidate for upgrades in a Spider-Man Leadership deck.
Upgrades
- Spider-Tracer (2)
- Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Energy.
- Item. Tech.
- Attach to a minion.
- Forced Interrupt: When attached minion is defeated, remove 3 threat from a scheme.
- Comments:
- One of Spider-Man’s few threat removal abilities. It is a decent value at 1 resource for 3 thwart, though it also requires another action to trigger.
- Unfortunately, it is reliant on minions. Against some villains, this will see very little use.
- On the plus side, Spider-Man does not have to be the one to defeat the minion.
- Web Shooter (2)
- Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Physical.
- Item. Tech.
- Uses (3 web counters). (Enters play with 3 counters. When those are gone, discard this card)
- Hero Resource: Exhaust Web-Shooter and remove 1 web counter from it → generate a Wildcard resource.
- Comments:
- Wildcard resources are always handy to have.
- Unlike a lot of heroes who have upgrades that generate resources, these are temporary.
- These have grown in functionality with all of the more recent mechanics that require spending particular resources to remove villain cards from the game.
- Unfortunately, they are Hero Resources, so they don’t work in conjunction with Scientist on Alter-Ego.
- Webbed Up (2)
- Cost: 4. Resource: 1 Physical.
- Condition.
- Hero form only. Attach to an enemy. Max 1 per enemy.
- Forced Interrupt: When attached enemy would attack, discard Webbed Up instead. Then, stun that enemy.
- Comments:
- Four is a hefty cost to pay for any card. But, you do get good value out of it, effectively negating two villain attacks.
- The value of the card will relate to the nastiness of the villains attacks.
- While the stun would be worthless, this is a way to prevent a Stalwart villain from attacking.
- Important to note, this also prevents Spider-Sense from triggering twice.
Supports
- Aunt May (1)
- Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Energy.
- Persona.
- Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust Aunt May → heal 4 damage from Peter Parker.
- Comment:
- This is a great card and an essential piece for any tanky Spider-Man.
- If you’re protection, you want to spend as little time in Alter-Ego as possible. Being able to flip down, use May to heal 4, and then heal four again the next turn before flipping up, means you often never have to use your Recovery.
Events
- Backflip (2)
- Cost: 0. Resource: 1 Physical.
- Defense. Skill.
- Interrupt (defense): When you would take any amount of damage from an attack, prevent all of that damage
- Comment:
- Unlike Webbed Up, this defense allows your Spider-Sense to trigger. It’s best when you draw this card with Spider-Sense and can then use it.
- You do not play this card until you are about to take damage. This allows you to see how bad the hit is going to be first. If an attack you thought you could tank turns into one you can’t, thanks to unexpected extra boost cards, Backflip is ready.
- Zero cost defense cards are the best.
- Enhanced Spider-Sense (2)
- Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Mental.
- Superpower.
- Hero Interrupt: When a treachery card is revealed from the encounter deck, cancel its “When Revealed” effects.
- Comments:
- This relies on having it in your hand when a nasty treachery happens to be drawn, which makes it a random value.
- Most times you’ll wish you had it but don’t or have it but can’t use it, or decide it’s worth more as a resource to play on your turn.
- It can be used when any treachery card is revealed, not just when Spider-Man reveals them.
- Shadows of the Past is your primary target for this, though many villains have some equally nasty, or worse Treachery cards.
- Swinging Web Kick (3)
- Cost: 3. Resource: 1 Mental.
- Aerial. Attack. Superpower.
- Hero Action (attack): Deal 8 damage to an enemy.
- Comments:
- Eight damage is nice. Three cost can be hard to manage sometimes but once your engine is running, it’s worth using.
- If you use your Web Shooters to pay for this it’s great theming.
Nemesis Set
- Obligation: Eviction Notice
- Boost Icons: 2
- Give to the Peter Parker player.
- You may flip to your alter-ego form. Choose:
- Exhaust Peter Parker → remove Eviction Notice from the game.
- Discard 1 card at random from your hand. This card gains surge. Discard this obligation.
- You may flip to your alter-ego form. Choose:
- Comments:
- This isn’t the worst Obligation to get if you’re exhausted but it does suck to get it.
- Losing a card is bad enough, but surge rubs in your failure. Which is thematically very appropriate for Spider-Man.
- If you’ve already got Aunt May out, being forced to flip to Alter-Ego isn’t always a bad thing. You’ll be able to recover and you’ve presumably already defended this round so you had an extra card to discard. Plus, you’ll be able to use your free resource from Scientist before flipping back over.
- Nemesis: Vulture
- Minion. Criminal.
- Attack: 3. Scheme: 1. Health: 4.
- Boost Icons: 2
- Quickstrike.
- Comment:
- Vulture is a very mild minion. Four health ain’t bad with no special ability to contend with.
- Quickstrike with three attack can be problematic if you weren’t expecting it. You’ll need to be careful going forward that you don’t redraw him as an encounter card later when a character is weak.
- Side Scheme: Highway Robbery
- Threat 3X
- Boost Icons: 3
- Acceleration Icon
- When Revealed: Each player places a random card from their hand facedown here.
- When Defeated: Return each facedown card here to its owner’s hand.
- Comments:
- Any schemes that steal cards can be particularly disruptive. If you lose one of your key setup cards that you finally drew after going through your entire deck, you’re going to have a bad time. But odds are you’ll lose a random event you have two other copies of.
- 3 times the number of players is a lot of threat to have to clear away in order to get your cards back.
- Because you get the cards you lost back into your hand, it can be used as a card storage place, and your team defeats the scheme right when you all want to play those lost cards.
- Sweeping Swoop (2)
- Treachery
- Boost Icons: Boost Ability
- Boost: If this activation deals damage to a friendly character, stun that character.
- When Revealed: Stun your hero. If Vulture is in play, this card gains surge.
- Comments:
- Hero stuns are never fun.
- On the plus side, it doesn’t add any damage to an attack and the boost stun only triggers if you take damage.
- As extra incentive to keep Vulture out of play, you will avoid the surge from these cards.
- The Vulture’s Plans (1)
- Boost Icons: 2.
- Treachery.
- When Revealed: Discard 1 card at random from each player’s hand. Place 1 threat on the main scheme for each different resource type discarded this way.
- Comments:
- This one sucks to draw. Everyone in the team loses a card.
- The added threat could be up to four, which isn’t nothing but is likely only 2-3.
- This is a treachery it’s worth playing a treachery cancel card to stop, such as Enhanced Spider-Sense. Then you’re only losing that card, instead of a random one and your teammates are unaffected.
Sample Decks
- Allies
- None
- Events
- 2x Desperate Defense
- 2x Preemptive Strike
- 2x Side Step
- Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
- Supports
- None
- Upgrades
- 1x Armored Vest
- 1x Dauntless
- 1x Electrostatic Armor
- 2x Energy Barrier
- 1x Flow Like Water
- 3x Hard to Ignore
- 3x Indomitable
- 1x Nerves of Steel
- 1x Unflappable
This is a very old school and standard defender deck. Its primary focus is on building up a suite of upgrades to keep the hero safe. Spider-Man works especially well for these kind of decks because he has built in strong defense and a card draw when he does. This lets him start strong and get better. The bulk of his Protection kit adds in benefits when he defends, primarily retaliatory damage but also some threat removal with Hard to Ignore. Dealing five damage back at your attack as a regular occurrence is not an unreasonable event.
The biggest downside to this build is it can get a little boring. Once you get the deck built up, on his turn, you won’t have a lot to do. You might ready, thanks to several ways to ready yourself after defending or not need to actually exhaust to mitigate damage, so there’s always straight attacking. But your only event that’s useful to play on your turn is Swinging Web Kick.
- Allies
- Daredevil
- Events
- 2x Clear the Area
- 2x For Justice!
- 2x Making an Entrance
- 2x Multitasking
- 2x One Way or Another
- 2x Stealth Strike
- 2x Turn the Tide
- Resources
- Energy
- Genius
- Strength
- Determination
- Supports
- None
- Upgrades
- 2x Followed
- 1x Heroic Intuition
- 1x Justice Served
- 1x Sense of Justice
- 1x Skilled Investigator
- 1x Under Surveillance
This is an older version of Peter Parker. More seasoned and cautious. He’s not jumping in front of every bad guy but taking his time and watching for his moment. This deck leans into Spider-Tracer as a concept and enhances it with a bunch of cards that do multiple things, with the goal of cascading chains of events. Spider-Tracer, Followed, Daredevil, Stealth Strike, Turn the Tide all can do damage and thwart. With multiple ones played and in play, you can clear several side-schemes and delete several minions in one go. That will take some set up, but even without that golden event happening, just the inherent two for one of all of them play into Spider-Man’s trying to do it all schtick.
- Allies
- Yondu
- Squirrel Girl
- Stinger
- Events
- None
- Resources
- 2x Band Together
- Innovation
- Supports
- 2x Command Team
- 1x Mighty Avengers
- 2x Target Practice
- 1x Team Training
- Upgrades
- 1x Comms Implant
- 2x Honorary Avengers
- 2x Inspired
- 1x Laser Blaster
- 2x Power Gloves
- 2x Reinforced Suits
- 2x Sidearm
- 2x Sky Cycle
This leadership deck takes advantage of Black Cat’s ability to attack without taking consequential damage. With Inspired, Sidearm, and Mighty Avengers she can get up to 4 damage. Then with Power Gloves she get’s a bonus damage to any target she wants. Sky Cycle doubles that each round and when you have Command Team out, that gets doubled again. Yondu comes into the picture with the same idea but on steroids. He gets all the same upgrades, but also gets Laser Blaster which adds another damage and Overkill and he has built in Ranged. Of course, both of these heroes require you play Honorary Avenger on them before several upgrades will apply. This makes your deck a very order intensive build-up deck. Fortunately, Spider-Man himself can hang in there without a lot of build up.
Your biggest problem is going to be threat, as Spider-Man isn’t great at thwarting. But once you’re built up, Spider-Tracer will help and be able to be played frequently, as your deck will shrink to mostly just your hero cards.
Wayne Basta
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