Hunt//ng C#rds

SP//dr is perhaps the most challenging hero to pilot (pun fully intended) that Marvel Champions has released yet. With hand sizes of 3 in Hero form, and 4 in Alter-Ego, this is a hero that has very limited options. I believe that for this hero, the strategy on how to play SP//dr will be more important than the deck list - this isn't a hero who you can just rely on a good deck for... you'll need a solid plan of attack here.

I'm going to be very interested to see other strategies develop for SP//dr over time, but I think the best way to be able to deal with such limited hand sizes will be to use Maintenance ability nearly every turn in order to draw 2 cards. This means we would now have a hero with a hand size of 5/6, but it comes at two pretty big costs in that we'll have to flip to Alter-Ego every turn, and we'll need to exhaust our suit.

Exhausting our suit every turn is a big issue, as now we don't have access to 2 ATK/THW/DEF anymore, so our first goal is to add cards that allow us to ready our suit. With the upgrades available, we want to be able to use the +2 bonuses from Psychic Link, Speed-Metal Alloy and Web-Fluid Compressor, so we need a way to get ready. The three best ways to do this are to use Spider-Man (Peter Parker), the Host Spider and Limitless Stamina. All of these will allow us to ready our suit, which gives us the ability to perform a basic action while on Hero side, but also exhaust our suit while in Alter-Ego for more cards.

Getting the Host Spider out using All Systems Go! should be a priority the first time you see one of those cards. If you come across Spider-Man and can play him, hopefully you can use some of the Wild resources available through Sync Ratio. Then, we'll use 3x First Aidto try and keep him alive as long as possible.

Being in Justice also gives us access to One Way or Another, which can help with card draw. But it also gives us the possibility to use Chance Encounter to go find Spider-Man (if you haven't come across him yet) when we beat the side scheme. If Spider-Man (Peter Parker) is already in play, then it's a great play to pull Spider-Man (Otto Octavius) who needs to be put into our hand first for his kicker. When you play him from hand though, you can then ready an Upgrade, preferably the Host-Spider during the early game. This will also draw us a card, which is the biggest goal of this deck, but also give us another resource or ready of the SP//dr suit.

Another new card combination that will be fun to use here is Overwatch, which you can play on the Main Scheme, and then when you remove threat from this scheme, you can then also remove equivalent threat from another scheme. As Overwatch isn't a Forced Interrupt, it can sit there until you are ready for it, hopefully with a big thwart powered by Heroic Intuition, Psychic Link and also Making an Entrance. With all of these combined, you could be removing 7 threat from a scheme, and then using Overwatch, removing 7 threat from a side scheme you just pulled as well for a pretty amazing combo when you also play One Way or Another! This makes One Way or Another a pretty viable play at higher player counts, when the threat scales based on players.

I think for most decks, the end-game strategy is probably the same... ready the SP//dr suit as often as possible for attacks, and get VEN#m out after paying with all the Interfaces. This is where First Aid comes in handy again, as you can keep healing your 5 ATK/THW ally. At this point, you may also not need to flip to Alter-Ego as much anymore either as you're looking to end the game at this point.

Final cards included in this deck are intended to help with card draw like Avengers Mansion and Skilled Investigator. Depending on the game (villain and player count), you may want to consider Justice Served, Sonic Rifle and Under Surveillance as alternates.

Looking forward to seeing what else the community comes up with for this very unique hero! Love to hear your thoughts and comments below.

Until next time Champions...