[Outdated] Flowing Neighborhood Spider-Switch

The new Flow Like Water card has added a lot of excitement to Protection, and Spider-Man's a natural fit given his two easily playable 0-cost defense cards (Backflip) - but what happens when you combine it with an old, largely forgotten card? Enter Bait and Switch.

We've all been there. Playing Protection but drawing too many defensive cards to use in one turn. Bait and Switch gets you attacked all over again - allowing you to use those defensive cards while drawing a card from your Spider-Sense. Flow Like Water can really go crazy here.

How to play

1. Prioritize the following upgrades: Armored Vest, Flow Like Water, Nerves of Steel, and Unflappable. Mulligan hard to find these.
2. Defend, defend, defend!

Use your defensive cards wisely. If you have Bait and Switch in hand, use Desperate Defense instead of Expert Defense if you have the choice so you can ready-up to defend again on your imminent turn. Save Indomitable for when you draw Bait and Switch but have no way to be ready after the villain phase ends.

Use your defensive cards to make sure Hard to Ignore and, more importantly, Unflappable trigger once every round. Other than that? You can play defense cards for the sake of it, even if you have better ways to mitigate the damage, just for that Flow Like Water damage - but, if you can spend them on an upgrade or a hero event, that's far more value. This deck plays a lot of defensive cards to deal damage, but don't let that blind you to dealing with the board and efficient plays.

Despite the amount of defensive cards here, Jocasta should not be underestimated. The ability to reclaim and hold any defensive card is particularly good for Spider-Man given that Backflip is among the best defense cards in the game. If you can, claim it and save it for unexpected attacks that come from encounter cards or a rare drought of defense cards.

The specific combination of Protection events here is to balance cost with use. One event should be paid for with Nerves of Steel, another is hopefully 0-cost. You need to make sure you have enough resources left to Bait and Switch and defend it after the villain phase. However, feel free to replace some Side Steps or Defiance with Preemptive Strike if you know the scenario has a lot of boost icons on its encounter cards.

When to Play & Replacing Cards

This idea works at any player count but I recommend 2-3 players if only for how notable Flow Like Water damage remains while avoiding excess thwarting from Bait and Switch. This build likes to be paired with Leadership to help deal damage and deal with side-schemes, or Aggression to deal with minions. It does not like to be paired with typical Justice decks since they compete too much for thwarting.

Against minion-heavy scenarios while solo, consider dropping some defense cards and adding in Hard Knocks. Keep in mind that, while normally you might not bother, spending defensive cards on minions is a perfectly valid strategy in solo with Flow Like Water if you have the cards to spare for it.

If you find you have too many defensive cards often, consider adding Machine Man to consume leftover cards at the end of the turn or substituting one or two for Nick Fury and Ironheart. If you find you need more defensive cards, lean into ones with Mind resources for Black Cat - it's not a priority but it's better to draw cards than purely discard.

Good luck!