Roster Review: We Are Gwenom

I've now had quite a few games with my current Web Warriors roster so I thought I'd do a bit of an update.

I played around with some splash choices and I was having a good time with that, but I felt like I wanted to get to grips with what the Web Warriors pieces can do as a team - originally the intent here was to learn them and then go back with a core of solid options to build around. The trouble is that I've been having so much fun with all the spiders that I don't currently want to try out splashes; in fact, if I were to replace any of them, there are more spiders waiting in the wings I want to test!

This is going to be a briefer look into the characters than a full Powerscaling dive, mostly discussing their role in the team.

Characters

Spider-Man 2099: The big man himself. Miguel is the least used member of the squad just because, at 5 threat, he's the biggest investment. When he does hit the table, though, it is a sign things are going to get brawly.

Weirdly my closest comparison for him is Exodus. This may just be because I was last playing Brotherhood, but they fill a very similar role. Miguel's job is to get in the enemy's face as quickly as possible and dare them to hit him. With good defenses, healing factor and a wild heal he is only slightly less reliable in getting his health back than Exodus, but in exchange for that he is a lot more self-sufficient.

With Exodus I usually needed to dedicate Asteroid M to get him in position. Miguel can move, web shot, and then web whip to both displace a character and get himself set up for the beatdown on round 2. 

Miguel is basically my big fighty threat in matchups where I feel like that's going to be an inevitable factor, and in that role he excels.

Silk: Cindy is just an incredible role player. Long move and wallcrawler gets her around the board easily, she generates power with Web of the Bride, and she spends power extremely well. The Spectacular Spinning Jenny has been clutch for moving characters like Juggernaut and Sentinels who otherwise cannot be displaced by other elements in the squad. Caught in the Web means that she can get out of dodge fairly reliably if I need her running away with an extract, and her defenses are solid against everything where most others have a clear weakness. She is the 4 threat I reach for second and arguably she should be the one I reach for first.

Gwenom: This is the character I want to put on the table the most. I did a full Powerscaling on her, but I will just reiterate: Gwenom is highly mobile, a capable fighter, and discourages attacking your squishier pieces. I play her very aggressively and if my opponent is putting attacks into her because they don't want the clap back for hitting her friends I'm usually happy. I only don't bring her if I see a lot of long range energy attacks, but if I can control the matchup (and webs are good at choosing who is fighting who) I will usually risk it if there's only one threat she needs to avoid.

Venom: My big beautiful boy. I did a Powerscaling on him too. He is fun to play alongside Gwenom and Ultimate Spider-Man for a team that just keeps hitting your opponent on their turn. He is another brawling piece and an anchor that has worked his way into my squads slightly more than Miguel just by virtue of filling a similar role for a point less. He is slow, though, so if the opponent looks to be playing a heavy displacement game I will generally leave him on the bench.

Ultimate Spider-Man: I love this character. Another long mover with wallcrawler and he brings stealth on top! Ultimate Miles pairs nicely with Silk as he can put out slow and move people for her to gain power. Any time I am playing Web of the Spider-Verse I am bringing him. He can have power troubles at times, but he offers enough to justify his slot and if he can get off Mastered Venom Blast on an All Webbed Up turn he gets to feel like a budget Thor, Hero of Midgard.

Spider-Man (Miles Morales): The reason I don't play Ultimate Spider-Man all the time. Miles is still an incredible three threat, even if my most common play pattern with him is to grab an extract, sit on a home point, and try to just score 2 points every round from safety. If he needs to come out and play he can mix it up in later turns, but his leadership turns up the survivability of every other character in the roster to an enormous degree and he remains my default play option.

Spider-Man Noir: Nick Cage is a very difficult character to take down and an excellent enabler for other pieces in the crew with his beam 4 that gives out slow and shock; both increasing your offensive output, making your displacement more effective, and reducing your opponent's damage back into the squad. I still mostly play him on Struggle for the Cube specifically, where his Inured to Pain shines, but he has impressed me - most recently just standing up to a loaded Sentinel Prime and refusing to die.

Black Cat: She's Black Cat. In this roster she and Spectacular Spider-Man are there to provide the safe grab. She's obnoxious to reliably kill, highly mobile, and can stagger opponents on top of being able to steal an extract. I wouldn't say she's very exciting but she and Peter are core to the gameplan; get ahead early on points and stay there.

Spectacular Spider-Man: He and Black Cat are mainstays in my squads for the reasons discussed above. If there are an even number of objectives he is less likely to make the squad, but he's still that mobile toolkit of displacement that the squad wants. If I'm bringing him, I'm usually bringing Masked Menace as well to try and cheat extra power onto him and get his kit rolling.

Spider-Ham: The most surprising of all the new characters for me. I thought I'd be eager to get Spider-Ham out of the roster and bring in a classic Toad or Black Widow, but no! Peter Porker has consistently been a major frustration for my opponent in every game I've put him on the table. I'm usually happy to have Miles (as my leader) sit at the back, and run Ham up to contest a point against the biggest thing my opponent has to offer. Sure, they can rotate away from him, but it's surprisingly difficult to one-shot Ham, and everything about his kit is designed to annoy your opponent.

Tactics Cards

Sacrifice: With the amount of clap-backs in the squad this feels like an easy pick, and it plays into the gameplan of trying to just get ahead on points. Do remember you can't use defensive rerolls with it though.

Indomitable: Originally I was running Brace for Impact, but I've found the spiders are good enough at dodging terrain throws that what I really want is to stop displacement. The roster is trying to play as fast a game as possible and just refusing to get off a point can be clutch.

All Webbed Up: I haven't played a game without this and I don't think I will whilst it is an option. The game is usually four rounds long, and being able to amp up your damage this much for 1/4th of the game is excellent even before the impact of the slow. In mirrors it is often less useful because of Aunt May's Wheat Cakes, but even there getting it for one activation is enough to justify it in my opinion.

Web of the Spider-Verse: I'm still playing Miles' leadership most of the time, but the ability to pivot into this is excellent. This is mostly a consideration for me where I expect a lot of enemy displacement, where the range one places can help repair that, or where I think the opponent will have too easy a time hunting down Miles and removing him. Or where I really want Ultimate Spider-Man (into condition teams or on Cubes, mostly)

Brief Reprieve: If I'm bringing Ultimate Spider-Man I am bringing this as well; just an excellent answer to conditions that might otherwise hamper you and the 1 point heal is always welcome.

Lethal Protector: This is a must-take with Venom in my opinion, and part of the reason he is in consideration for the chopping block. If I took Venom out I could slot in one of the other excellent three threat pieces or maybe Scarlet Spider and also bring in Spider-Tracker, which feels like sacrilege to lack at present.

Aunt May's Wheat Cakes: A necessity in the mirror in my opinion, and an excellent card for Cubes where you can pair it up with Brief Reprieve to negate two rounds of cube damage.

Great Power: I am currently torn between Instant Recovery and Great Power - Instant Recovery makes him much harder to take down in one activation, but Great Power gives him far easier access to 2099 Sends Its Regards if the opponent is just trying to ignore him. At the moment I'm running Great Power because it is more exciting, and nobody else can benefit from Instant Recovery. If I had a second healing factor character in the roster that might take precedence, but for now this is the more fun option.

Masked Menace: This is a huge enabler for basically the entire roster. If Silk has the power for it, she can get free Caught in the Webs after her Spider Strike and Spectacular Spinning Jenny so long as she gets one damage and the opponent has slow. Peter can use his throw to chuck one character into another and if they both take damage he gets a two power refund (as can all the other characters with throws). This just makes everything run more smoothly and I'm usually looking to put this out and build momentum with it round 2.

The Cat and The Spider: If there's a center extract I can get to with this I am usually bringing Black Cat and Peter. It's that simple. Even if it doesn't work out immediately, there's usually another point in the game where it can come in handy.

What's wild to me is that there's still so many incredible tactics cards, both for the specific characters and for Web Warriors in general, which could easily fight for these slots. Sometimes I build a roster and I have trouble filling out the ten; with Web Warriors it feels like I'm struggling to cut it down to ten.

Crises

Struggle for the Cube Continues: It's an extract with an irregular number that I have a lot of great tech for.

The Montesi Formula Found: 18 is a fun threat value for this team and again, safe grab is online.

Inhumans Deploy Advanced Weaponry: I like the threat value. There's an argument this should be Spider-Infected, but personally I dislike that crisis because  it makes it harder for my team to reliably choose their matchups.

Deadly Legacy Virus Cured: Irregular number of extracts and the chance (however slim) that we can assemble the virus with our extract steals make this attractive.

Jailbreak Leads to Mass Mutant Escape: This is the least worst option in my mind. Alien Ship could be okay but I don't like my team getting exploded. I want my team running away so Scientific Samples is bad. Terrigen hurts my spiders on two levels (poison AND 'slow'), Hammers helps my opponent more than me, I think there are teams who can play Senators better than I can, and Skrulls risks dragging my character into the danger zone. Jailbreak lets me play wide, maintain agency over where my characters are (within the middle of the board where we can brawl) and it doesn't actively hurt my team. Needing to pay one power over and over to pick them up each round is annoying, but so long as it isn't also a pay to flip secure we're mostly fine. 

Deadline to Destruction: Being softened up by the secure is annoying, but the shape is nice and it isn't a pay to flip.

Infinity Formula Goes Missing: Probably my favourite secure to play with the team. Masked Menace feels less needed here, we love the extra power and our displacement game is strong.

Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0:  Similar to Infinity Formula, we can make great use of the effect and we're both mobile and good at displacement. It helps I've been playing the game since the start so I've played both these crises a lot at this point.

Lockdown! Security Systems Stymie Breakout: 18 is a great value and we can move around comfortably. There is an argument that this should be Wedding Party because this can be relatively slow scoring, but I've found Wedding Party can favour big brawling teams a lot more than this.

Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate: A classic. Other webs teams can build wider, but even with this roster our characters love a spread out crisis where we can dance around and just try to score 3 points over our opponent every round.

So that's my current roster! As mentioned I think there's a ton of different ways I could take it; leaning harder into one leadership or the other might be better. I miss Amazing Spider-Man and would like to get some games in with him and the new characters who can enable slow, and there's definitely a Ghost-Spider shaped hole (though I am having enough fun with Gwenom that I don't really feel it much). But as a player who generally enjoys playing less common splash choices, it has been really interesting to just put a squad that is all affiliated on the table... now that I think about it, the only non-affiliated character in my Brotherhood roster was Rhino, too, so maybe I'm just starting to appreciate the synergies within the affiliations more at this point?

I hope this was an interesting read, I'll be back with more soon!

HONK!