Atomic Mass Games has just revealed five new, exciting characters for the Web Warriors affiliation in Marvel Crisis Protocol. The Web Warriors are a collection of Spider-people and their associated allies and in game they excel at picking up objectives, defensive re-rolls, high mobility, and enemy displacement. This combination of strengths has been very successful in the current meta and with the inclusion of these five new characters, I see them as a top-tier affiliation to be playing.
In this article I want to build a new Web Warriors list which includes some of the new characters and leans into their ability to brawl with other characters that these new models bring to the affiliation. The three characters I will be building around are: Spider-Man 2099, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Spider-Man Noir.
Current Lists
Looking at two recent high performing lists we see a core of Miles Morales Spider-Man, Black Cat, and Ghost-Spider. These three models are all high utility 3-threats and play into the objective game for the affiliation. Miles Morales and Black Cat can steal Extracts from an enemy model which is a VP swing for an affiliation that is already looking to score out early in the game. Miles’ leadership boosts defensive re-rolls so these already good defense models get even better.
Ghost-Spider brings a lot of utility to the team in the form of enemy displacement with her Impact Webbing and Web Line. She can use Web Line to displace each enemy model once per Turn so theoretically she could displace the entire enemy team. She also has the Life Saver superpower which can pull her allies out of a big attack. She doesn’t have the best defenses but if you feed her power she will make you regret it. Letting her activate with a full complement of power will be a disaster for your team. I’ve seen her deny an enemy team multiple VPs just be walking around and Web Lining all the models that are standing on points. Did I mention Web Line also doesn’t care about enemy model size? It’s an amazing superpower and Ghost-Spider is a great include.
Other often included Web Warriors are Spectacular Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, and Amazing Spider-Man. Spectacular and Scarlet Spider both have good enemy displacement effects. They both have a throw of an enemy character size 3 or less, they both have very similar attack suites which include elusive short move triggers and enemy model size 2 or less push. Scarlet Spider boasts the Web Whip ability which can displace an enemy model of any size while also repositioning Scarlet. Spectacular has a basic Range 3 place superpower common to this affiliation.
Overall, they are filling the role of heavy displacement of the enemy team. Spectacular has the possibility to displace 3 enemy characters in his activation and Scarlet has the ability to displace up to four. This is the best case scenario, but I’m always happy to see them displace even one enemy model to deny VPs so they can be MVPs in the affiliation.
Amazing Spider-Man is a leader of the affiliation and his leadership gives out Slow to enemy characters and if they already have Slow then you can place them Range 1 of their current position (this would give Spetacular and Scarlet another displacement effect!). I’ve seen this leadership be played to its highest effectiveness. Keeping up with an enemy Web Warrior team is already difficult but with Slow on your models it is downright impossible. The Web Warrior team will be able to run away with their Extracts and score out before you can stop them.
Starting List Building
Five new Web Warriors are coming to the game and bring much of the same toolbox and some new tricks. I want to focus on three of the characters to build around for a new Web Warriors Roster. They are: Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Man Noir. I chose these three models because I think they share a common game plan of having good defenses, good attacks, good movement, and some enemy displacement. Seeing these three characters really makes me want to lean into the Warriors part of the Web Warriors affiliation and brew a brawly team that still can grab Extracts as needed.
Since we’re leaning into the Ultimate Spider-Man model, I’m not going to be taking 3 Threat Miles Morales Spider-Man for this test list. (Eventually he’ll probably make his way back in, but lets try something new for now.) I will take Amazing Spider-Man as a leader for the affiliation, but that doesn’t mean we need to be taking him every game. A new Team Tactics card coming with the new models, Web of the Spider-Verse, is a superpower you give all of your affiliated Web Warriors models as long as you don’t have an active leadership.
The superpower is called Into the Spider-Verse and says “When this character attacks, defends, or dodges, after the effect is resolved, if its roll contained 1 or more Skull results, this character may Place itself within Range 1 of its current position”. I think this is a great effect that you’ll see trigger many times per game and will help you always be in the most optimal position. Since this will only go on your Web Warrior affiliated models, I’m going to build a list of 10 affiliated models and you’ll never have to worry about splash models not getting this benefit.
Ultimate Spider-Man has a strike back superpower which triggers after an attack against him is resolved. USM can advance short towards the attacker, then if he’s within Range 2 he gets to make a Swinging Strike builder attack against the enemy attacker. The builder also has the benefit of a Wild trigger to give a Slow and Push an enemy model of size 3 or less. Since USM has Stealth you will basically always be within Range 2 of the attacker after a short move and it only costs 2 power so I can see this superpower being used every time you can. I do think this type of superpower is underrated and it can Daze an enemy model in the middle of their activation, reposition your model, build power for your model, USM’s builder has displacement on it, and you could roll the Skull for the Range 1 Place from Spider-Verse TTC. The ceiling is really high on a superpower like this and I basically am here to try and high roll for big effects so USM is going to be played nearly every game for me.
There are several other strike back type superpowers in the affiliation that I think would be good inclusions. Gwenom’s strike back is only triggered when an enemy model has attacked one of your allies and the enemy is within Range 3 of Gwenom. It only costs 2 Power and lets you pick either your builder or spender attack to use (although you still have to pay the extra power for the spender). The builder is a 5 dice physical attack but if you hit the Skull for the Spider-Verse Place then you will also get a free Long advance. Her Spender is a 7 dice physical attack but heals her for damage dealt and has a Wild + Hit trigger to splash more damage to enemy characters within Range 3. She has an enemy model Throw so I think it’s highly synergistic with our current game plan.
Additionally, the original Venom has a strike back superpower for 2 Power. He can also use either his builder or spender. He’s a little more aggressive with his builder giving automatic Bleed and his innate superpower stops enemy models from modifying their defense dice. His spender also heals him up for damage dealt. His other superpowers include a size 3 terrain or enemy model Throw and an any size enemy model Pull so very good displacement. Venom’s weakness (other than his 2 dice for energy defense) has always been that he’s a medium-base model with short movement and he doesn’t have any movement tech to get him back in the fight. Hopefully, the Spider-Verse TTC will allow him to turn his Skull rolls into Range 1 places which are more effective on his medium base. His own TTC, Lethal Protector can also get him into the fray.
Spider-Man 2099 does have movement tech in the form of his Range 4 Organic Web Shot attack which on a hit allows him a short advance toward the defender. His spender will also Place him next to his target and his Web Whip superpower will displace an enemy model in addition to moving him next to the target. His spender can help deal with Size 4 enemy models and his builder heal with Healing Factor will make his effective health pool higher than the printed 7/6. He should be able to pay for a lot of his costs since he also generates power whenever he rolls a Crit.
Spider-Man Noir
Spider-Man Noir definitely is a 3 Threat brawler which is not typical of the affiliation. His builder becomes a 7 dice physical attack if you’ve already attacked the defender this Turn which will help you trigger the Wild + Hit Elusive trigger for a short advance. This pairs well with his Spender which is a Beam 4 attack which gives out Slow and Shock if it deals damage. You can start with the Spender then go to the builder and still get the benefit of the extra dice. He has a size 2 terrain throw which can be the extra damage needed to Daze an enemy model. He can also reduce any damage taken by 1 to a minimum of 0 which also boosts his effective health pool above the printed 5/5.
I think a big reason to bring Noir is his TTC which has the possibility of scoring you 2 VP. For a team which is pretty good at scoring early and often, an extra 2 VP can be an even faster clock and an alternate win condition to the scenario objectives. The TTC is played at the first Power Phase for free and keeps track of two conditions. When an enemy model within Range 3 of a non-Daze Spider-Man Noir interacts with an objective token, put 1 Evidence token on this card. You will need 3 total Evidence tokens but we’ll get to that later. The second condition is Spider-Man Noir needs to have Dazed or KO’d an enemy model this game. I think both of these conditions are things that are happening in a regular course of the game and should be pretty easy to achieve by playing regularly.
We already laid out that Noir is a good brawling model and his attacks are above average for a 3 Threat and make it more likely he will get the Daze or KO. The enemy interacting 3 times within Range of Noir may be the difficult condition, so lets discuss how to make that happen. There are scenarios with lots of Extracts in a very small area of the board (e.g. U.S. Senators) and there are Secure objectives with interact clauses (Deadline to Destruction, Intrusions, Riots, and all the pay-to-flip Secures).
If Noir meets both of the conditions in the Clean-Up phase then you score 2 VP and discard the card. The fail states for this card are if you cannot get Noir to Daze or KO an enemy model in the course of the game, if the enemy model is not interacting with objectives, or if Noir himself is getting Dazed and KO’d. The first fail state seems possible but unlikely if you can get Noir to target an average enemy model. His spender followed by an empowered builder followed by a Throw will do an average of ~6-7 damage to an enemy model with 3-4 physical defense. The second fail state implies your opponent is not scoring since they are not interacting, or they’re in a situation where now they’re conflicted on interacting since they stand to gain 1 VP but you stand to gain 2 VP. Finally, the third fail-state is mitigated by Noir’s Inured to Pain superpower which reduces damage taken. I think if you see the right combination of scenarios and think your opponent is bringing a model that Noir can take down, the card is worth taking. For all of these reasons, I’m excited to bring Noir to the table.
The rest of the list
So far we have a roster of Venom, Gwenom, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, and Amazing Spider-Man. I think we can easily fill in the other spots with Web Warrior mainstays who will always be welcome on the table. The remaining four characters I’m bringing are: Scarlet Spider, Spectacular Spider-Man, Black Cat, and Ghost-Spider. These remaining four just bring a lot of utility and lots of additional 3 Threats for list-building.
ASM has a leadership on his card I’m happy to play, but I think I’m going to lean into the Spider-Verse TTC for now. I’m going to bring some other Web Warrior TTC all-stars like All Webbed Up to enhance my brawling plans even more, Masked Menace which will reward my damage with additional power, and Spider-Tracker which can get a low health allied model out of Range of an enemy models coming at them. Spider-Sleuth TTC will be coming with Noir and the new Brief Reprieve TTC is attached to Ultimate Spider-Man for extra healing or removing a pesky special condition. Spider-Man 2099’s TTC Great Power can enhance his attacks but I’m not sure it’s good enough for a TTC spot. Lets try it out and see it in action. Finally, my two Restricted cards will be Brace for Impact and Fall Back. I think they are going to be generically good cards I will always be happy to take.
My Secure Crises are Deadline to Destruction, M’Kraan Crystal Gets Heroes Home!, and Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park. My Extract Crises are Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan, Scientific Samples Found in Discovered Universe, and Mutant Extremists Target U.S. Senators! I chose Crises with lots of interaction, lots of Extracts available for scoring, and shapes that I think Web Warriors would be able to rotate between easily and continue the game plan of brawling and kicking enemy characters off of points. I’m not locked in to these Crises so with some practice I can see them changing.
I’m very excited for the new models to come to the game. Although I didn’t discuss them here, I do think Silk and Spider-Ham have possible competitive roles. If you’re looking for a place to play in the Western Pennsylvania area, come out to my home shop the Fabricator’s Forge outside Pittsburgh PA. We’re holding our Appalachian Cup tournament and Las Vegas Open Qualifier on September 27th. And if you’re looking to pick up some Web Warriors for yourself, go shop Marvel Crisis Protocol in the Frontline Gaming online store! Wishing you the best for all your Marvel teams and hopefully Spider-Man Noir finally cracks that big case.