Have I mentioned I really love Spider-Man?
It’s not something I keep secret, but I’m not sure if it’s come up in my time writing for Snap.Fan. One reason I’ve never written about him is because the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler was (of course) firmly part of the game from the get-go. Gameplay rework aside, there’s never been a great enough occasion to write about ol’ Petey Parker, which bums me out because I really would love to—
holy heck what the %$#@ is that
Alright— so they took possibly the greatest costume change in comics history and made it a card.
Secret Wars #8, art Mike Zeck, inks John Beatty
That’s sick.
And this bears many implications— from the entire new keyword to the potential for ‘retrains’ of existing cards for characters under new phases/aliases. So we’ve got a lot to talk about. But I also want to do a quick primer for Symbiote Spider-Man for anybody not in the know! So for all the Snap-players-turned-Marvel-neophytes, let’s play catch-up real quick.
Let’s Do This One Last Time
Art by Ron Frenz
Man gets bitten by a radioactive spider. Man receives spider-ish superpowers and independently suffers a great personal tragedy. Man proceeds to become a renowned costumed crimefighter and suffers a series of further personal tragedies throughout.
Man gets spirited away by an otherworldly cosmic power to fight a bunch of bad guys. Man suffers a wardrobe malfunction, receives a spiffy new black costume. Man learns the costume makes him a better crimefighter, man keeps the look. Man then learns the costume is a living alien, reconsiders his attachment, and has a nasty break-up with the costume that results in the creation of the most iconic villain of the 90’s.
But we might be talking more about that guy later.
And now that we’re caught up, let’s see exactly what this new costume can do.
The Amazing Spider-Man #252, line art Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding, colors Glynis Wein
This Is Something Else!
So it should be noted that this ability really makes the most sense for the Symbiote, specifically: a living being that attaches to an existing creature, assimilating and empowering its capabilities. Even with the suit, Spidey himself never really gobbled or copied his enemies powers, himself. But ol’ Peter Parker is obviously the marquis, crowd-pleasing name was the marketing move here, and there’s a certain gameplay appeal to letting you live out the story of that classic symbiote encounter: letting it merge with one of your weaker cards to become something… better.
The Amazing Spider-Man #258, pencils Ron Frenz, inks Josef Rubinstein, colors Bob Sharon
And we’ve got to talk about that Merge! Because it’s a funky little mechanic that’s attached to the new one: Activate. Now there’s a whole Season video about exactly how Activate works, but the skinny of it is that
- The card must have been played onto the board already
- It will resolve in order alongside your other cards played.
Now, with Symbiote Spider-Man as our first Activate example, we can see some important caveats to consider.
He won’t do anything on turn 6.
Activate cards must be played on a previous turn, meaning that you’ll need to plan ahead if you want his effect to be ready when you need it.
He’ll resolve alongside whatever order you play your other cards in.
His specific targeting parameters (lowest-Cost card, in this case) can be manipulated; in the same turn, you can Activate him before you play more lower-Cost cards at his location in order to target the card you want to Merge with.
Activate is a one-time deal.
This is important— you cannot Activate a card twice. Ever. Bouncing included. (Which makes sense; Snap has always tracked card changes from zone to zone.) This also means that Symbiote Spider-Man won’t copy Activate effects. Or, more precisely, he’ll copy them, but he’ll have already Activated to do so— and because he’s still the same card, you won’t be able to Activate him again with his new text.
He’ll ‘refresh’ other abilities.
Because of Symbiote Spider-Man’s status as a new body that just revealed by the end of his effect, any effect that is ‘used up’ on the target card (i.e., Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Nightcrawler, Spider-Man 2099) will be renewed on Symbiote Spider-Man.
He can be disrupted by an opponent with priority.
The downside of resolve-order Activation is that your cards still flip based on priority. This means that if your opponent is winning, they have the opportunity to disrupt you. If Symbiote Spidey hasn’t activated and he gets Red Guardian’d, he will fizzle. Similarly, his target may change if your opponent plays a card like White Widow, Debrii, or even Polaris.
These are mechanical considerations that I’m sure will become second-nature as Activate becomes a regular part of the game, but for now it’s important to keep in mind for deck building purposes.
The Amazing Spider-Man #258, pencils Ron Frenz, inks Josef Rubinstein, colors Bob Sharon
Symbiotic Synergies
We have some comparison points we can use to gauge where Symbiote Spidey might land. At his worst, he’ll play like a time-delayed Absorbing-Man: while Symbiote Spidey won’t activate immediately On-Reveal, he’ll copy and retrigger any On-Reveals from the card he merges with. It’s important to consider that this will be able to be done on-demand at any point during your turn.
By contrast, Symbiote Spidey won’t directly benefit from copying an Ongoing effect— unlike, say, Mystique, he won’t be actually doubling up anything, just replacing that effect with the same effect.
He also merges similar Hulkbuster or Phoenix Force, meaning that any effect that scales with base power will be especially augmented by Symbiote Spider-Man’s respectable 4/6 statline. Importantly, unlike those two, the final card will be Symbiote Spider-Man and his 4-Cost body alongside whatever new text there is. He’ll double like crazy, but he won’t Bounce easily— nor will he fold to Killmonger.
Let’s think like goopy alien symbiont for a second and theory craft some hosts.
Quiksilvur’s Day One Symbiote Spider-Man Decks
Hooked On Phoenix
The third similarity mentioned above— the one to fellow Merge cards Hulkbuster and Phoenix Force— makes me go back to a classic card-gaming adage: redundancy is good. Phoenix Force is a deck that has historically been forced to retreat any time it doesn’t draw its combo: even with the back-up plan of Shuri-Nimrod, the deck’s pieces just need to be played at the right time for any of it to function. It’s a list ripe for redundancy, and Symbiote Spider-Man manages to synergize with both the main gameplan (merging with Multiple Man/Human Torch to scale their effects with power) and the backup plan (doubling Nimrod with Shuri to multiply him on turn 6). Here, Symbiote Spidey can either be a synergy point similar to Hulkbuster or a second Shuri OR Nimrod, which is a level of flexibility the deck has never had before. (There’s an interesting line where you Symbiote Spider-Man on 4, Shuri on 5 and then Activate Symbiote Spidey, and then get a 4x Power card on turn 6.) New lines might make this deck a more robust, less linear archetype!
The Amazing Spider-Man #800, pencils Stuart Immonen, inks Wade Von Grawbadger, colors Marte Gracia
Cosmic Horror
Symbiote Spider-Man also offers a new opportunity to spring Galactus on unsuspecting opponents, which is always a blast. (For you, anyway.) Curving out Symbiote Spider-Man into Galactus + Activate Symbiote Spider-Man on turn 6 will let you ‘double tap’ Galactus— fizzling the first proc but then activating big G with a whopping 11 Power. Symbiote Spider-Man will also be able to merge with Wolverine, Nimrod, or X-23 for a much larger body to regenerate post-Galactus. Like above, it’s a level of flexibility that this relatively linear combo deck has never had before, so it may be worth exploring this archetype to see if Symbiote Spider-Man brings out more than just a gimmick.
The Amazing Spider-Man #800, pencils Humberto Ramos, inks Victor Olazaba, colors Edgar Delgado
Back in Black
The final list is a bit of a throwback to the low CL days— when On-Reveals and gumption were all that you needed to win. But there’s a shiny new coat of black living paint on this list— Symbiote Spider-Man’s ability to not only duplicate On-Reveals but control exactly where and when he does might prove potent alongside low-cost effects like Hazmat or Ironheart. Simply Activating Symbiote Spidey on Black Panther is also just a less disruptable version of the Wong combo, and we’re still packing Zola for that classic finisher. Namora is another potent On-Reveal that Symbiote Spidey synergizes with; not only can he copy her effect, he can also Merge with a card on the same turn ahead of her On-Reveal, guaranteeing he’ll be alone in time to receive her buff. Food for thought!
The Amazing Spider-Man #252, line art Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding, colors Glynis Wein
Clothes Make The Man
Somewhat surprisingly, Symbiote Spider-Man is only launching with two variants— the suit’s iconic debut issue Secret Wars #8 as I’ve just used in this article (great minds and all), and an imposing InHyuk Lee variant that’s packing some real menace. Between the two, both fans of the comics and fans of a web-slinging MENACE will likely be satisfied, but I’d be very surprised if we don’t get new Symbiote Spider-Man variants soon; even discounting the McFarlane Symbiote variant that the OG Spider-Man card already has, the Symbiote Suit has had no shortage of covers and artist takes over the years. Plus, unlike Phoenix Force and Hulkbuster, Symbiote Spider-Man will remain on the board, meaning any variant will be there for all to see for more than a split second: a big draw for many folks! The costume really just is that good.
The Amazing Spider-Man #252, line art Ron Frenz and Brett Breeding, colors Glynis Wein
Verdict
Symbiote Spider-Man is launching with a lot of buzz behind him: it’s everyone’s favorite wallcrawler returned to the game in a slick iconic costume, headlining the season theme and rocking the brand-new keyword. And while there’s precedent for exciting, open-ended designs like this to not immediately find their footing (looking at you, Absorbing Man) I think the generous base stats and truly flexible effect will make this Season Pass card worth getting. The Pass is always worth it for players looking to spend even a maximum of $10 on the game, but Symbiote Spider-Man looks to be a promising start to Activate’s new reign in Snap.
And if you think you’ll wait and see, or if the Symbiote’s not the card for you…
The Amazing Spider-Man #258, pencils Ron Frenz, inks Josef Rubinstein, colors Bob Sharon
Well I’m sure things will work out fine, right?