Ghost-Spider vs. Sinister Six (Heroic Roulette)

Welcome to the Ghost-Spider entry of my Heroic Roulette game project where I tune heroes for individual scenarios and try to win on Heroic difficulty. I also require that within an expansion pack (like Sinister Motives), I use each aspect at least once. You can see my entries so far here:

Round 1: Miles vs. Sandman (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/21987/miles-vs-sandman-heroic-roulette-1.0)

Round 2: Spider-Ham vs Venom (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/22061/spider-ham-vs-venom-heroic-roulette-2.0

Round 3: Sp//dr vs Mysterio (https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/22091/sp-dr-suit-vs-mysterio-heroic-roulette-1.0

For this matchup, I paired Ghost-Spider with protection against the Sinister Six. Protection is notorious for having a hard time with thwarting, especially side schemes, so Sinister Six is the perfect scenario for this aspect since you can "thwart" simply by attacking the villains! Ghost-Spider is a good pairing because it is so hard to be in Alter Ego mode in this scenario, which I will get into shortly. Ghost-Spider is fine being in hero mode all game with Parental Guidance as her only AE card. Pirouette and Punch and Web Binding are powerful encounter card reactions that can only be played in hero form.

The Big Picture:

• This scenario is defined by the rotating carousel of villains, all of whom have negative (and sometimes disastrous) effects when attacking and damaging your hero. Moreover, many encounter cards scale in effect with more villains in play, so defeating as many as you can is key to surviving the villain phase.
• This scenario is also jam-packed with encounter cards that add threat to the main scheme, making it very difficult to enter the villain phase in AE.

Modular Set: None!

• The Guerilla Tactics set is a mod set, but the main scheme 1A suggests it is not replaceable.

Significant Encounter Cards

• 2x Advance, 2x From Every Direction, 3x Partnership of Pain: There are no fewer than 7 cards that can add significant amounts of threat to the main scheme. The latter two highlight the importance of focusing down one villain at a time to reduce the number of villains in play, and Partnership can be avoided by being in hero form. Ghost-Spider luckily has a few ways of stopping a hero-form thwart with Web Binding and Pirouette and Punch, so these are good to stash for the late game.
• High Fashion. If this card is still in the encounter deck and Electro comes out, good to take him out as quick as you can. The Kraven effect is not quite as bad usually, but if it hits a loaded George Stacy, you'll be very sad.

Card Selection

• Hard Knocks. Maybe the scenario in all of Champions where this card shines the most. Guaranteed cheap enemy to kill every turn, and tough cards are perfect against the villains' on-hit triggered abilities.
• Allies: Iron Fist is a must for how many attacks he blocks. Brother Voodoo can help us find a Response event if we don't start the turn with one in hand. War Machine is a bit of a flex but provides good all-around value. The Web-Warrior suite is present as well, as Web of Life and Destiny makes even the mediocre ones excellent inclusions.
• Assess the Situation. You've likely seen this by now if you've seen many Ghost-Spider lists, but Ticket to the Multiverse makes this card a Pot of Greed. Your Ticket turn represents a huge moment in the game and hopefully pulls you far enough ahead to see your path to victory.
• Helicarrier, Avengers Mansion. These are cards I added in my second attempt. In my first game, I felt like I was just at equilibrium with the villains and not making any progress. Having these value generators makes it easier to pull ahead in the mid- to late-game.

Game review (2nd attempt victory)

• This was a long and grindy game. I was really happy with all my allies, especially Spider-Man Noir, who gets up to 3/3 very quickly in heroic. Hard Knocks was every bit as strong as I hoped it would be. I got hit with a brutal High Fashion on the same turn both Electro and Kraven had been randomly pulled out, so it's not like I didn't play around it. Mansion and 3-card George Stacy down the drain. I'd say what let me pull ahead was Peter Parker ally + Med Team over many turns. Sure it took forever to clear the first stage of Light at the End from defeating villains, but I only had to suffer 2 villain phases with the hazard icon on stage B thanks to being so much set up by then.

Hope you enjoy my write-up. Only the dastardly Venom Goblin left to defeat in this expansion of Heroic Roulette.