Is it ironic that I love the Spider heroes but hate actual spiders? Like, they’re by far the best characters Marvel has to offer: Peter Parker himself, Miles Morales, and Gwen Stacy have awesome narratives and incredible villains behind them. They can visit my home anytime – real spiders, not so much. As a Marvel Snap fan, you can imagine my excitement when I learned this month’s season pass, “Spider-Versus,” ties into the animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and this guide will break down the best Ghost-Spider deck strategy and weaknesses.
If you pick up the Spider-Versus premium season pass for $9.99, you’ll earn your usual whack of tokens and gold over the course of 50 levels, along with some awesome Spider-themed variants and cardbacks. Meanwhile, as a 2-cost, 3-power card, Ghost-Spider has a powerful effect that, on its surface, might not seem that great: “On Reveal: The last card you played moves here.”
Let’s take a look at a couple of decks Gwen Stacy’s alter ego might find herself in during the web-slinging season.
Strategy and Weaknesses for Ghost-Spider Decks in Marvel Snap
Much like how M.O.D.O.K gave discard decks some consistency, Ghost-Spider looks like she’ll provide some much needed utility to move-based decks, which have typically performed poorly over Marvel Snap’s lifespan. Whether or not they become a meta force to be reckoned with remains to be seen — personally, I think they’ll be fun but get stomped by High Evolutionary — here’s what to expect in the early days of Spider-Versus:
- Human Torch
- Iron Fist
- Dagger
- Kraven
- Ghost Spider
- Cloak
- Doctor Strange
- Multiple Man
- Hulkbuster
- Vulture
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man
- Heimdall
One of the biggest weaknesses of move decks was their rather predictable play path. Heimdall will shift everything to the left; therefore, the rightmost lane will be an easy win for your opponent. Ghost-Spider shakes things up by allowing you another way to move your cards such as Vulture and Human Torch to more advantageous positions. A turn 6 Ghost-Spider, into Doctor Strange, into a discounted Miles Morales: Spider-Man has the chance to be a massive swing.
However, this deck still suffers against control cards like Professor X, which is a rather popular inclusion at the moment, and the ever-present Cosmo that can block your On Reveal effects.
Ghost-Spider will shine much better as a utility card in Marvel Snap deck strategy. Because she pulls the last card you played, it can easily bring your last-played minion out of a location you’re losing, or it can help a Darkhawk or Devil Dinosaur dodge an oncoming Enchantress. Packaged together with Miles Morales, she might find herself slotted into many different decks. Currently, plenty of Marvel Snap streamers and hardcore players theorize she will fit well in a bounce deck with Hit-Monkey and Beast; however, it remains to be seen how such a deck will turn out.
Personally, I’m looking forward to including her in the recently nerfed, but still consistently powerful, Stature deck as a way to activate Miles Morales, protect Darkhawk, and surprise opponents by web-swinging power into another lane. Here’s the list I’ll run:
- Korg
- Zabu
- Ghost-Spider
- Jeff
- Polaris
- Darkhawk
- Shang-Chi
- Enchantress
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man
- Rockslide
- Stature
- Black Bolt
Much like its original form, this deck looks to have a massive turn 6 by playing Black Bolt on turn 5 and moving Jeff if possible. This will allow you to play Stature, Miles Morales, and Darkhawk on the final turn while disrupting your opponent’s play. If you don’t have Jeff, who still costs 6000 credits, switching in either a Nightcrawler or Nebula will work just fine.
As for weaknesses, Ghost-Spider won’t be a meta-heavy, game-winning card you have to prepare for by altering your deck, like how many players used Luke Cage when High Evolutionary first released. If you’re playing against a movement-based deck that’s obviously running her, stopping her with a Cosmo is the best way to go, or predicting where your opponent wants to move a Vulture to in order to Shang-Chi it. If it’s not a movement-based deck, just be aware of Ghost-Spider’s effect when you’re playing counter cards such as Enchantress and Shang-Chi – she can quickly web-sling a sure-fire victory away from you.
That’s all you need to know for the beginning of the Spider-Versus season. Ghost-Spider won’t be a meta-defining card in Marvel Snap deck strategy, sure, but she still has a powerful and incredibly useful effect that can be utilized in just about every deck. Good luck out there against the Spider heroine!
