I'm about to begin testing him in my GA SF build. I know the reason people were down on him before is he doesn't have evasion. But with the new meta, I think he can be huge.

Is Rocket Racer not that useful for SF? I've been running 4 of him until now and I know I'll be missing him a lot, especially against HAT...

I would love to be able to play RR, but usually there just simply isn't enough room.

But last night I had an epiphany.

What if the reason UDE has expected SF to do better was because of the playstyle? We've always been going for a typical curve style build, which only one of the four big decks uses. Maybe SF would win because of stall? Or weenie rush? Or whatever else they could have. Think about it. They have lots of defensive stuff, so stalling till turn 8 could be easy. On 8 you just drop Cosmic Spidey and beat their face in. Fun and Games, Spider Senses, Pleasant Distraction (Not SF's card, but it would still work) Ace Reporter, Black Cat, the list goes on. Maybe that's how SF would be good, through stall.


Just a thought. Anyone want to follow through on this?

Yeah, I think SF has potential for a stall/control deck, with the cards that you mentioned... If only SF had a card drawing engine, 4 drop Spider-Woman would work wonders, limiting the opponent's biggest drop to just team attacks... They also have Madame Web, which is similar to Ace Reporter...

BTW I'm not sure how important hand advantage is in VS yet, but maybe evasion (or Sticky Situation) + Pinned can be a good combo... When an opposing character attacks, evade (or use a Sticky) and then play Pinned before that character readies...

As for Racer, he really helps against HAT... Here's my previous build with him:

Characters (38):

4 x Rocket Racer
3 x Black Cat, Master Thief
3 x Jessica Drew <> Spider-woman
4 x Spider-Man
2 x Ricochet
3 x Puma
2 x Black Cat, Felicia Hardy
3 x Spider-Man, Alien Symbiote
2 x Firestar
1 x Daredevil, the Man Without Fear
4 x Scarlet Spider
2 x Iceman
2 x Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man
2 x Ezekiel
1 x Spider-Man, Cosmic

Plot Twists:
4 x Spider Senses
4 x No Fear!
3 x Sticky Situation
3 x Pleasant Distraction
3 x Costume Change
2 x Nice Try

Locations:
3 x Latverian Embassy (or Daily Bugle)


Having 4 1 drops and 6 2 drops helps a lot against HAT, which thrives on massive early turn damage... Racer also helps with formation, allowing you to place all of your characters in the front row whenever your opponent lacks flight... I'm really not sure as to whether Racer stays in my deck or not...

It all depends on what you would be making room for. If your deck runs smooth the way it is, keep playing it. If characters end up in the resource row too much or you don't hit him that much, drop him for some non-characters.

Here I am, still looking at SF cards and weighing their usefulness :grin: I've got a question... one of the main weakness of the SF offense is their general lack of flight and range, which makes formation tough during initiative (you'd be forced to play most of your chars on the front row) and combat tricky (you'd be forced to mow down the enemies frontline, which will be well placed by your opponent). The solution to that? Play a Going My Way? and use one of the SF's main weaknesses to surprise your enemy... With this card, your entire board can target the enemy's support row and aim for breakthrough... Can be comboed with Advance Recon and 7 Drop Spidey's exhaust ability, plus a few attack pumps, and play a few Pleasant Distractions when you're done to prevent his front row from retaliating... I think people aren't playing this card because they're only looking at the Ongoing part, but this can suddenly turn the tide for you late game...

Yeah, I like GMW?, but it only works for one turn. If the ongoing effect was everyone got F/R, then I would play it. I can't find room for it, but you are right. Shouldn't spiderman have flight and range? He can shoot webs for range and swing from them for flight. The least they could do is make him like Nightcralwer, where he can attack as though he had flight and range.

Perhaps another version of Spidey with an effect similiar to Nightcrawlers will gra ce us in the Avengers set?

GMW? is an awesome card. I can see why a lot of SF players wouldn't play it, but when you run clones it's a great addition.

I can see the usefulness of Cardiac, but his stats make me shudder. Does anyone else have trouble keeping him around?

I wish he had evasion. His effect is good against rush and stuff like that, but Spidey 3 should be your main 3 anyways.

Depends on which format. I know this is a Modern SF thread, but Modern is gone as of the end of this month so I'm back to leaning towards a Golden build at this point. I hate having to put Cardiac in the deck, but he seems to be the only one that can ward off Hounds lock. Other than that I still think Ric is the primary 3 drop for GA. As I said, if there's no Hounds or FF 1-drop with a Flamethrower for Cardiac to stun then he hits the resource row for Mattie fuel.

I took a different approach in building my Spider Deck. I shy away from the spidey clones strategy thereby freeing additional deck space taken by Scarlet Spider, Costume Change and extra spidermans. I try to curve to turn 7 and win at the latest by that turn, becuase the modern meta is not much of a late game strategy. Here's the current deck that im testing on.

4 Dusk (can be used on turn 5 w Prodigy)
2 Jessica Drew
4 Spidey
1 Cardiac
1 Prodigy
4 Puma
2 BlackCat (4)
4 Human Torch (flight & range)
1 Daredevil
3 Mattie (flight & range, extra draw, can be big)
1 Nova (in case of asmodeus, i have alternate 6 drop )
2 Amazing Spider
1 Ezekiel

4 Spider Senses
4 Sticky Situation
4 No Fear
2 Crime and Punishment
2 Spider-Tracer
2 Twist of Fate
1 Going My Way

2 Daily Bugle
2 Mojoverse (reliable + 1 /+1 on your attacks)
2 Dracula's Castle (reliable + 1 DEF on opp's initiative)

4 Jetpack

I have much success againts HAT, MK, UW and Spider. I have limited testing against Xstatix.

The basic strategy is to control your opponent initiative by limiting their options (ex Tracer) or making their attack fail (Senses, Sticky, D's Castle). Then retaliate. I want my lower drops (3 or less) to have range (to ba able to attack from the back) and the higher drops to have flight (to force breakthrough). Or atleast draw 'going my way' for surprise retaliation when my opponent thinks i cannot attack back.

Daily bugle makes sure i can use my needed plot twist atleast twice. As you can see I have limited access to the rares but still the deck works as is. I might change the Twists to Nice Try to counter pleasant distractions & KO's, and Wills for Puma. BlackCat is very good, if your not againts UW, especially if combined with Sticky. Let me know your comments on this and I'll try to explain why i chose the particular cards for this deck, since as you can see, this is very different from what common spidey decks are.

Twist of Fate are almost necessary due to SF's lack of a tutor.

Nice Try! is definately needed. Also thworts Savage/Nasty + Overload. Very handy thing to have considering Marvel Modern is about to be thrown out the window.

I like the Jetpacks, and they were in my builds for the longest time, but it got tough trying to find room for them.

I always am meaning to play around with Daily Bugle... Good stuff.

I'd run Puma over Blact Cat at 4 anyway just because of his defense. Also because he's an 8/8 when Jessica's hanging out.

At 5 drop if you're not going to use Spidey, I'd recommend bumping up Daredevil, or adding some Firestars in there. Really depends on your meta though.

Which 4 drop to run has always been tough for me... 4 drop Black Cat's stats may be inferior to Will's, Puma's, and Julia's, but Black Cat can be searched for using Costume Change (thus giving you extra mileage out of that card, allowing you to look for drops 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 if you have the right card in hand)... Her ability also works well with Sticky Situation and deters team attackers (ability triggers for each team attacker)...

Julia is also another option to consider, she's got average stats and has Evasion, which means she can get all those benefits that Jessica, Dusk and Ricochet provide... What's key is her ability though, it's costly but it can prevent a lot of possible breakthrough damage and can even stop your opponent from attacking altogether with a few Pleasant D's or if you're against a team up deck and your opponent doesn't have his team up effect in play yet...

As everyone knows, Puma and Will aren't pushovers... Will gets bigger every time he recovers, and with his evasion you can stun him voluntarily just to make him grow... Puma has above curve defense and his boost helps a lot if you miss your 7 drop...

Argh, decisions, decisions :ermm:

Your 4 all depends on the deck you're playing.

For Evasion, Will and Julia.

For beatdown, Will and Puma

For stall, Julia and probably Rogue PM to copy Puppet Master.

For control, Black Cat and Julia

Just my opinion.