Powerscaling: Gwenom

 

I love Gwenom.

Just in terms of the miniature itself I think it is one of the most dynamic and fun in Marvel Crisis Protocol. The character's lore is fun and I live in hope that one day we'll get Carnage Queen so that all the many Peter Parkers can be utterly horrified at having to beat up Mary Jane. She's just a delight.

But in Crisis Protocol she's always been a bit overshadowed by Ghost Spider, who is a very potent three threat and a pillar of the Web Warriors. Since you can't take both, is there really a case to be made to include Gwenom?

Time to make my case!

 
 
 

Gwenom has a very similar core attack to that of her counterpart; if she advanced or placed she gets to advance again, if she is attacking the same target she gets full rerolls. This is a little worse in terms of average damage than the +3 dice that Ghost Spider gets, however if she is running under Miles leadership and can reroll skulls and she's hitting on an All Webbed Up turn it starts to look a lot more appealing; if she has the power she can use Maximum Gwenom for a 9 die attack that heals her for damage dealt, followed by a 7 die attack with full rerolls, which will take a significant chunk out of anything in the game.

The main advantage she has over her counterpart is that she is hitting at range 3 rather than range 2, which gives her the ability to reach out and touch a huge amount of the table and then run away again, and she herself is hardier - albeit the 2 energy defense does hurt, the rerolls help a lot - again, especially if you are running under Miles leadership and can avoid letting yourself be skull-locked. Maximum Gwenom's ability to heal her back up after taking a heavy punch can be absolutely clutch - I have had games where I've lived the dream and the opponent needed to do 12 damage to even daze her, and then still had to work through the back side to take her out, which can be punishing if she isn't holding an extract so doing so only removes her secure scoring potential.

Gwenom also makes very good use of both other leaderships currently available to Web Warriors as well. Under Amazing Spider-Man, the ability to slow a character and then throw them with Dark Rage is huge - displacement that is longer than a character's movement is worse than a stagger under most circumstances. With Web of the Spider-Verse she becomes able to get both aspects of her Symbiote Spider-Technique if she rolls a skull on the first hit, and range 3 gives her a wider range of targets to make that likely.

Life Saver and Pick on Someone Your Own Size also share a similar design space; both encourage the opponent to pick on Gwen before they go after the rest of your team. Life Saver is, of course, incredible, and has a level of reliability to it which Gwenom's does not. However, it is not without its downsides. Most notably, if you're using it to try and save someone who is standing on a point, they are likely to no longer be standing on that point and if they have already activated that is costing you precious victory points.

Gwenom's version, though, doesn't move the model you are trying to protect at all. It also plays very nicely into a gameplan with Ultimate Spider-Man or (maybe more controversially) Venom, where you can potentially trigger multiple retaliation attacks in your opponent's turn - having a character dazed or KO'd during their own activation can be disastrous, and this is a playstyle that Web Warriors can now lean into with some consistency. Bring in cards like Sacrifice or Lethal Protector, and it can be a real question as to whether your opponent wants to risk attacking at certain points of the game at all.

I think this all plays very nicely into a more aggressive Web Warriors plan than the standard. Rather than trying to grab extracts, rotate around the secures and deny your opponent a fight, Gwenom is good at mixing it up in a brawl. With characters like Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Noir too, there's plenty of scope for a team which maintains a solid amount of speed and displacement, but has the brawling potential to mix it up in a fight as well.

I will admit that with several releases now making potent energy attacks quite common, you may want to think twice before making Gwenom your primary gameplan. She particularly hates gunlines that she has to walk in front of and then get shot to death. 

Nor do I think she has the splash potential of a lot of premier four threats - the best spot for her outside Web Warriors is probably Midnight Sons where she can bump to get both effects on her builder, but I was never particularly convinced by that as she generally needs the power to fuel the rest of her kit. 

But I still think that if you are building for that more flexible, brawl-capable Spider Squad you should think hard about whether you can find a spot her. She combines the full mobility of Ghost-spider with more punching power, a more violent throw instead of a simple web-line, and more tankiness. I think you'll find that the kit comes together to be much more than the sum of its parts when you're building a team which can pivot to use all the parts of it as needed... so long as you can avoid the obvious weaknesses.

Overall I think I would give her a solid S for Symbiote Affiliation Coming Soon? Go on AMG you know it's time to give them their time in the sun.

HONK!