Spiders of Future Past?!

 

I always have difficulty when a game says that there will be a huge update in the near future. This is what caused me to drop Malifaux until 4th edition was live, and the announcement some time ago that we are going to see a huge update to Marvel Crisis Protocol to rebalance health on the vast majority of characters, and give some of the older roster some much needed love, had a similar impact on my motivation to get in games.

I'm fully prepared to admit this is a personal hurdle; every game that is living is in a constant state of flux, but knowing that I am not playing the version of the game that the designers intend me to be playing inside 2-3 months is something that makes me want to set it down until they are ready to show me what they've got. 

 So I did, I've been looking at Warcrow with a couple of friends of mine - we should get our first proper game in of that next week and I'm very excited - but... we do have a glimpse of what is to come in the recent challenger update which includes all the crises that will be legal on the 12th June.

I think the new crises look very interesting. I also think a lot of them are not going to be pleasant for my poor Spiders, who will be entering a meta which looks pretty aggressive to them. My first instinct was to look back at my Mystique roster; I think she adores the Source extracts. Or maybe it's time to look at the X-Men, who I've never really explored in depth and have a lot of play into the secure crises...

I do love that - to me at least - it looks like the Mutants themed crisis pack is going to reinvigorate the X-Men, Brotherhood and - of course - Sentinel rosters. But for now I want to keep my Web run active. Partly because my health has meant I haven't been able to get out and about and play them face to face nearly as much as I'd hoped this year thus far, and partly because I think there's still a lot to explore within this team that I haven't even begun to touch.

It is my expectation that Miles Morales - the original leader version - will probably get some touches to his leadership and/or kit, because that has been implied in the past. I've also played almost entirely Miles thus far because he's good and comfortable. So, with the caveat that this will probably receive some shaking up when we know where all the chips land after the rebalancing, I'm thinking it is time to go Full Spiderverse.

I also stubbornly do not want to drop Gwenom from the roster, because Gwenom's miniature is one of my absolute faves. So, currently, this is what I'm thinking:

Characters
Spider-Man 2099
Silk
Gwenom
Ultimate Spider-Man
Scarlet Spider
Spider-Woman
Spectacular Spider-Man
Black Cat
Spider-Noir
Spider-Ham

Team Tactics
All Webbed Up
Masked Menace
Aunt May's Wheat Cakes
Spider-Tracker
Brief Reprieve
Web of the Spider-Verse
The Cat and The Spider
Spider-Sleuth
Sacrifice
Brace for Impact

Crises
Ship Security Breached in Royal Rescue
Inhumans Deploy Advanced Weaponry
Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan
Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe
Suprise Assault! Mutant Homes Destroyed

Infinity Formula Goes Missing
Strike Team Secures Shield Relay
X-Men Infilitrate Secret Weapons Facility
Power Overload! Factory Goes Up in Flames
Wedding Party Targeted in Terrible Attack

It hurts to lose so many of the great Web Warrior 3 threats, but I think everything here has a purpose. Spider-Man 2099 and Scarlet Spider make a great team on Wedding Party where they can brawl and Web Whip their way to victory.

Ultimate Spider-Man and Gwenom work alongside Sacrifice to get up to two attacks on an opponent's turn - USM has the mobility that Venom lacks and isn't so weak to energy attacks, which I feel are needed right now. If Venom gets a big rework in the balance patch, maybe he sneaks back in, but for now I think USM is likely to hold the spot.

Spider-Woman and Spider-Noir both bring ways to 'cheat' extra VPs outside the math of the crises through interrogate and Spider-Sleuth. Black Cat also allows a little of this but she's primarily there to enable the safe grab with Spectacular Spider-Man because I want to run Spider-Man 2099 in my 5 slot over Amazing Spider-Man. Safe grabs are much less required, but I don't think you're ever sad to have Black Cat and Spectacular Spider-Man on their own merits so it is a relatively easy include, even if Black Cat stocks are down with the source crises and (I think?) no more extracts you can stack on one character at all.

Spider-Ham has consistently impressed me as a 2 threat who can be far more annoying than you would expect, and his ability to put out Shock is a lot more relevant in a world where so many crises keep you hemmed in close and brawling. Which just leaves Silk, who is an all-around great character who can slot in basically anywhere and feel good about it.

In terms of crises it is a little sad that the only 'new' extracts I'm running are Suprise Assault and Ship Security. I'm only including Surprise Assault because I think it is the least worst option; it does give Spider-Noir a good chance of powering up his case as quickly as possible. Ship Security gives a nice high threat value and rewards interacting which helps with the power issues I'm expecting.

Infinity Formula remains one of the best Web Warrior crises in my opinion, and I don't think that's too controversial. I did consider putting Sinister Syndicate in, but I don't think I'm running enough 2s and 3s to maximise coverage. The rest of the secures look pretty exciting though; Shield Relay offers some defensive rerolls that I will miss not playing Miles, Weapons Facility feels like they have a lot of ways to stay out of coverage (I think the Spider-Verse leadership helps a lot here) and it scores fast if we can move people into coverage so that is exciting. Power Overload is also a fast scoring objective which spreads people out a lot, and Wedding Party I have my Whip-based plan.

So on paper, before knowing all the context it'll be playing in, this is where I'm thinking of starting over come June. I'll be excited to see how it plays out in practice, and hopefully by then I'll be in a spot where I can play more regularly too!

HONK!