Let me introduce you to the Hand of the Spider, Araña. Teenager Anya Corazon is the last in a 900-year-old line of hunters. After being taunted into a late-night fight against a bully, Anya accidentally stumbles into a battle between The Spider Society and the Wasps. After being fatally stabbed by a member of the Wasps, Miguel Leger of the Spider Society bonds with her, healing her and triggering the dormant powers she carried within to slowly activate, visibly manifesting as a spider-like tattoo on her right arm. Araña is born. Araña possesses superhuman strength, is an excellent mechanic, and has exceptional fighting prowess. Let's see what she does in Marvel Snap.
What Does She Do?
Araña's text reads, Activate: Give the next card you play +2 Power and move it to the right. She is a move enabler card like Ghost-Spider and Iron Fist. However, she has a slight wrinkle. She is the second activate card added to the game, meaning that although she enables a move, the player can choose when that move happens. It could happen the next or last turn, depending on when you want the move to occur. While this increases her flexibility over the other move enablers, she will require more thoughtful planning to maximize her potential. The other cool aspect is that she gives the card +2 power, meaning she works a little like Forge by buffing cards. This indicates that she will be helpful in other decks, not just dedicated move decks, as a small general utility buff card.
Activate Sequencing
As the second card in Marvel Snap with the activate mechanic, there are some questions about how she functions. So, let's get some mechanic questions out of the way. Activate is an ability triggered by the owner of an activate card. This ability can be used whenever they want during the setup portion of their turn and will trigger in placement order. For example, if my turn order is Vulture, activate Araña, Ghost Spider. Vulture will reveal, then Ghost Spider will reveal moving Vulture, and Araña will then move Ghost-spider. However, If I do things correctly, activate Araña first, then play Vulture, then Ghost Spider. Vulture will reveal, gain +2 from Araña, move to the right, then Ghost Spider will reveal and move Vulture wherever Ghost Spider is. Activate abilities happen after On-reveals but before another card is revealed, so in the case of Araña, the next card will have its On-reveal happen, and then it will move. Also, given the wording of Araña, I assume that the card being moved gets the +2 first and then moves to the right. That means If I activate Araña and play Human Torch. Torch will gain +2, then move to the right, doubling his power up to 8 in one move. These interactions can be slightly confusing, but they take some practice, so test them out, and don’t be afraid to mess up the sequencing when learning. Lastly, if you play Araña and use her activate, she will not be able to activate again if she is bounced back to the hand and replayed.
Card Synergies
Araña, as a move enabler, naturally pairs well with the move cards in the game. Being able to play Araña out and then choose when to move is a great boost to the consistency of any move deck because it relies less on drawing your enablers at the correct time instead of holding cards like Ghost Spider and Iron Fist till you have something to move. Araña can sit on the board till you want to activate her.
These are the other move enablers that will work well with Araña. All have relatively low costs, meaning they can be played around each other. However, the sequencing is important for these cards. Activate Araña before your move card, not before your other move enabler.
While Kraven has fallen off with other cards scaling much higher and faster, it is still a useful 2-cost card that can fit in a deck if you need something in that slot.
These two move enablers are passive and have further steps rather than just an on-reveal. However, they have the biggest high roll potential when using Araña to move cards into either a Madame Web lane or a Hercules lane and double up the power of a Dagger, Vulture, or Human Torch.
Counters
As with any new release, there will be a lot of players trying to counter Araña for the first few days that she is in the game. Here are a few cards that should be on your radar when playing with and against Araña.
With any new one-cost card, they always have to worry about Killmonger. It is important to note that if Araña is destroyed before her activation goes off, it will not trigger. So if you don’t have priority and on the turn you activate Araña, if your opponent plays killmonger and destroys her. Her activate ability will not trigger.
This is the same Idea as Killmonger. Although it doesn’t destroy Araña, it just removes her text. If Red Guardian hits Araña before her activate goes off, she will not trigger. Priority will matter a lot during those turns, so be watchful.
While not a direct counter, Shadow King negates any of the benefits Araña creates from her ability and is an excellent counter to the move cards likely to be paired with Araña.
While he is not played often, to be thorough, I am putting him here as a general counter to move ideas because he reduces the power of a card moving to his location. However, with the way that move cards scale, this is less effective than most people would like.
Misconceptions
When some people see Araña, they believe she will work like Forge, so you can use cards like Brood and Mister Sinister. However, On-Reveals happen before she activates, so her power will not be translated to Brood or Mister Sinister. However, we can use her to move a Brood out of a lane and then use Symbiote Spiderman to retrigger your moved Brood. This seems less consistent than current options in the game, although it does lead to some fun and interesting play lines.
JFSnap' Day One Araña Decks
I like to Move it Move it
Let's start with some pure move-bounce ideas. Araña is well-positioned in this type of deck as a low-cost move enabler by giving yet another option to use when trying to maximize your scalers. I believe Black Swan is being changed during the patch on Tuesday, but I think that will make her better as a card you can play out and then activate on the turn. You also play a Falcon to re-use your enablers. Also, she and Araña can help you create an explosive turn 6 with Human Torch and Taskmaster. This deck is a little glass cannon, though, and wants to burst out power and go tall regardless of what your opponent is doing.
I play for all 3
This deck has the same basic concept as the previous deck, but instead of using Taskmaster and Black Swan to get your power out on the last turn, it just tries to play for all three with The Living Tribunal after creating some massive power with all of the small move enablers and Hercules putting in work.
Pesticide
As mentioned above, Araña is a decent 1-cost utility buff card that can be used as you wish. So playing her as a potential buff to Deadpool or other Destroy cards like Wolverine and X-23 sounds pretty useful. Also, because she is an activate, you can easily play her out, turn one, and wait until you get those cards in your hand. I don’t think this is her best spot, but it is one that people will try her in.
Shang This
Due to the nature of Activate and how Activate is sequenced, Araña is in a great position to team up with Shuri, Black Panther, and Nimrod to create some huge card combos. Moving any of the cards out of the Shuri lane after they have doubled their power makes it much easier for Zola to destroy the correct card, for example, instead of playing Shuri into Nimrod into Zola and risking a 50/50. I can activate Araña and move the Nimrod to an empty lane guaranteeing Zola will hit the card that I want. These combos can sometimes be telegraphed, so watch out for potential Shang-Chi and Alioth.
Taskmaster nerf?
This takes the Shuri Kitty idea and uses some new tools to help boost some points. Before, adding power using Forge and Shuri while trying to sequence other cards was always challenging. Araña helps smooth this out a little bit. Because you have the agency for when she uses her ability, it is possible to both Forge and Araña on the same turn. It's even possible to Forge, Araña, and Hulkbuster a Kitty Pryde all on the same turn. I think there is a lot more to the Forge, Shuri Araña idea that needs to be explored, and this is just a start.
Arana Brood Does Work?
Wait, I thought you said this doesn’t work? I did, and how sequencing works won’t work how people want it to. However, Araña does open up the opportunity to do some fun things with Symbiote Spiderman and Brood, which is why this is here. I think it will be a fun deck to try out and see how it goes. She also allows you to Forge and Araña a Sebestaion Shaw all in the same turn, which is an excellent idea. This probably needs some fine-tuning, but it should make for some interesting play lines.
Conclusion and Spotlight Cache
Araña is being released alongside Ms. Marvel and Sage. Both are really good cards, although nonessential to most archetypes in the meta at the moment. However, with lockdown making a comeback, Ms. Marvel's usefulness is on the rise, and if you are a fan of Bounce, Sage is a really good finisher who can produce a lot of power. If you are missing even one of these and want Araña or enjoy moving at all, it is a good idea to use your keys. Also, this is subjective, but I think both spotlight variants are great for these cards. If you want Araña, I don't think you will be disappointed to use your keys if you end up with some variants. As for Araña herself, most cards are not worth 6k tokens, but if you are a big move fan, I would go ahead and grab her. She will add a lot to the move archetype as another enabler and be a fun card to play with in other builds outside of move. She has a lot of untapped potential, and there are many potential combos because her ability and the sequencing of that ability lead to interesting interactions, so if you are a big fan of deck-building challenges, I would grab her. Let me know what you plan to do with Araña if you pick her up in the comments below.