Marvel Champions LCG Session Report: SP//dr vs. Rhino Solo Test

(For those that haven't read/watched these reports before, I take heroes from the Marvel Champions LCG and test them out against the first scenario: Rhino. I do this with just the one hero, using the pre-constructed deck that you buy off the shelf.)

Last time, I mentioned that I will be bopping back and forth between the new heroes and the ones I've never gotten around to. So let's start off with one of the latest ones as of this writting: SP//dr. First off, I have to say I hate the way this is spelled. I get that it's thematic and from a different universe, but when writing it out it's just so weird to type. Plus, me spell check just *loves* it every time I type it.

Peni for your thoughts

I've read my share of Marvel Comics, but I'm not a diehard Spidey fan. Like many people, my first exposure to Peni Parker was in the very excellent Into the Spider-Verse animated movie. Looking at her hero cards - yes cards plural - was a bit of a shock. Since Peni's "gimmick" is that she pilots a spider Mecha, she has her own card and there's a separate card for the SP//dr Suit. At first, I was confused by this - why not just have Peni Parker have the alter ego side and have the suit be the hero side?

Once I started playing the deck, I understood how beneficial it was having these two cards separate. The SP//dr suit works by having several "interface" cards. Each of these cards is powerful enough on its own, like giving +2 to attack or thwarting, but you can also exhaust them instead to use the cards for resources. Several of the other SP//dr cards, like "Web-Trap", give extra bonuses if you paid for them using this ability. So by having Peni be a separate card, you almost always get a free resource for this ability.

"Wait a minute," you might be thinking, "That's a pretty powerful ability." You'd be correct on that. They've balanced this by giving SP//dr a very limited card draw. In alter ego, you are only drawing 4 cards, 3 in hero form. Granted, you can get 2 more in alter ego, but then if you flip to hero you lose the chance to exhaust Peni to get that free resource.

Many Many Minions

So how did the Rhino playthrough go? Well, I've always thought of the Rhino scenario as one where you don't end up encountering a lot of minions. For decks like Thor, this means that you don't get to fully see how the deck plays out. Well, this playthrough definitely changed that opinion. The probabilities stacked against me to where I saw practically *every* minion that is in the scenario. Luckily, they were mostly one at a time, and not all at once. Still, in solo mode it gets pretty worrying since you don't have a partner to help take out the minion and/or heal you for the damage they deal.

Fortunately, in the SP//dr deck I had some allies to help out with that. In true "Into the Spider-Verse", I had Nick Cage um Spider-Man Noir out on the field early to help take out some threat and minions. Noir gets extra powerful the longer you leave him on the field, as every time you have a treachery encounter card he gets an extra power added to his attack/thwart.

Guess what *isnt* a treachery card? Minions.

Yeah, I didn't really get to maximize Noir's ability that much. He did give me some time to build up my "kit" of interface cards in the beginning. By the time he was off the field, I was in a much better position to take care of myself. "Web-Fluid Compressor" and a +2 to attack will really help with that. Being able to hit Rhino for 4 attack at a time is pretty nice. Speaking of allies, the next one to hit the field was VEN#m (ugh, again with the names...). I made sure to have 4 interface cards free to pay for this one, so having 5 THW/5 ATK for awhile was another helpful bit.

A Superior Finish

The last ally I had was Spider-Man himself...or rather the Superior Spider-Man, Otto Octavius. I really didn't get a chance to use Otto that much, as paired with the "All Systems Go!" card and a couple of other cards in the SP//dr kit, I was able to use "Web-Fluid Compressor" *several* times in one turn to finish off stage 2 Rhino and win the scenario. Sure, I finished with only 4 health left, but only because I knew that I was able to take care of Rhino that turn and didn't worry about recovering.

Where do they place?

I love this hero, so much that I'm making her my #3 hero so far. I'm discovering a pattern for me, and that's that I really enjoy the tech heroes that have a bunch of cards in front of them. They take a couple of turns to get setup, but once everything is good to go, they start pummeling. The way that her +2 interface cards work allows you to easily use any aspect with her and be pretty effective. The built-in kit was for Protection, but I'd be curious how a Leadership deck with a bunch of other spider allies would work. Or, honestly, a big "HULK SMASH" style of aggression deck could be pretty awesome as well.

Hmm. Maybe jumping back and forth wasn't a good idea....now I want to do both a Sinister Motives AND a Galaxies Most Wanted campaign. So many options to choose from, and we haven't even gotten the X-Men box yet!!

Did you know who SP//dr was before Into the Spider-Verse? Are you excited for Mutants? Let me know in the comments.

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