From the Comics!
Peter Parker turned into the monstrous Man-Spider as a result of his unique mutation going even further beyond its original form. Instead of the spider bite just giving Peter the powers of a spider, it was turning him into one! Depending on the adaptation, Peter’s path to returning to his human form was one of his greatest struggles. Now it’s up to you to figure out how you will use this terrible power to your advantage!
In Marvel Snap
In order to understand all that this card can offer let’s take a close look at each of its parts in greater detail.
The Merge Keyword
Before we can understand Man-Spider, we need to understand what Merging in Marvel Snap means. Typically we are restricted to only 4 cards in each location. With only 3 locations that means we only have the space for 12 cards. Merge helps circumvent this by combining 2 cards together. Not only does this save you space, it has some other benefits.
What Merge does do:
- combines 2 cards together
- combines their Power together
What Merge does not do:
- reactivate abilities
On Reveal: Merge the last card you played into this.
The first part of Man-Spider’s ability is definitely easier to understand when you know what Merge does, but there’s some added nuance to it that we didn’t go over yet. An important factor of merging is which card stays “on top” of the merge. When a card says it merges into a card that means they are put “under” the card. Specifically in regards to Man-Spider that leaves him as the face card on the board.
Contrast this with classic merge archetype, Phoenix Force. What does this mean for gameplay? Well it locks you out of certain strategies. Cards like Thor and Daken have their Power doubled when they are specifically named Thor or Daken. Merging one of those into Man-Spider means that Mjolnir and Muramasa Shard won’t work.
This part of the ability also calls out the last card played. A played card is one you took from your hand and staged on the board, not one that was created from a location or other card. It also doesn’t specify that the card needs to be at the same location you play Man-Spider. It doesn’t say “here”. What this does is that it provides you a type of psuedo movement. It creates moments of unpredictability for your opponent since they won’t be able to tell where your Power output is going to land. Things like this are great snapping opportunities.
When this merges, double its Power.
This line is the single most exciting part of Man-Spider. Cards that double Power have been recently all over the metagame, so when a new card with this text comes up I believe it deserves a hard look.
To clear up a misconception about this ability, it doesn’t only happen when you use the On Reveal part. This clause indicates that Man-Spider will double ANY time it merges. Merge with Symbiote Spider-Man? Doubles. Strange Supreme? Doubles. Blob? That’s right, doubles. This opens up even more potential as you don’t have to worry about retriggering an On Reveal, there’s plenty of ways to keep the merge chains going.
Compare and Contrast
Speaking of 5-Cost cards that double their power, look no further than a Snap classic such as Black Panther. Since he doesn’t have the same restrictions on his On Reveal as Man-Spider does, Black Panther is more easily exploitable. Judging between them is going to come down to their synergies. Man-Spider can’t take advantage of Wong for multiple uses of his ability, but Black Panther doesn’t get any extra use out of Hulkbuster like Man-Spider does. Time will tell which stands out more.
Another doubler at 5-Cost is Iron Man. Instead of increasing its own Power, it increases the total Power of the location. This allows you to dodge common tech cards like Shadow King. However it opens up another avenue to be countered by stuff like Red Guardian or Enchantress, cards that Man-Spider is not going to be affected by.
Synergies
Let’s talk about Mergers. Remember that Man-Spider’s ability isn’t just when it uses its On Reveal, it’s any time it merges. This means that each one of these cards will trigger Man-Spider’s ability to double its Power.
There’s a couple small differences between the type of merge cards. Hulkbuster and SP//dr can be played after Man-Spider, while Agony has to be played before. You can set it up where you play Agony in the first lane, the big card you want to merge with Man-Spider in either the second or third lane, and then play Man-Spider on top of the Agony.
Here’s a fun little combo to create a super big card in a single lane. Playing Wasp and then Zola on the Man-Spider will create 2 separate Man-Spider’s with their On Reveals happening in order left to right. The first Man-Spider will merge with Wasp and double its Power. So you are compounding on the Power you already gained from the previous turn. Then, your second Man-Spider will trigger. Your newly merged Man-Spider and Wasp are together the last card played so now this will merge into the second Man-Spider. This card then doubles twice. Once for each Man-Spider. If you ever needed a comically large way to win 1 location this is a way to accomplish that!
Note that Wasp is needed since Man-Spider needs to merge with the last player card and Zola won’t be considered played until his ability is finished.
A card many others might not have thought of right away is Gwenpool. She’s a 4-Cost card which curves nicely into Man-Spider. Man-Spider himself is also a great target for the buffs Gwenpool provides since he will naturally double them. Gwenpool is just example of the “handbuff” cards that work well with Man-Spider, but is probably the best one.
Counters
As Man-Spider strategies involve increased Power, this means that its greatest weakness will be Shadow King. It doesn’t matter how many times you double up on your Man-Spider’s trigger if it is all wiped away from a simple 3-Cost play. If you are looking to counter Man-Spider this way the main thing to remember is that he has that tricky pseudo movement. Don’t try to match that trickiness, just aim your Shadow King for after Man-Spider has merged.
The classic On Reveal counter is back but unfortunately he’s not going to be as sure fire as usual. You can’t just play down Cosmo in the lane with the enemy big cards, as Man-Spider can merge something from any lane. Cosmo will still shut down Man-Spider but you’ll have to predict where they are playing Man-Spider itself not necessarily what they want to merge it with.
Future Cards
Looking ahead in the datamines show us a couple cards that look absolutely amazing for Man-Spider. Fastball Special allows us to leverage your insanely high power potential and throw it at an enemy card! Now why would you want to destroy your own Man-Spider, isn’t the Power good enough on your side of the board? There’s a couple reasons why you’d want to do this.
The first would be to keep Power off your side of the board. Fastball Special destroys your card but afflicts the same amount of Power onto an enemy. This means you are free and clear of cards like Shang-Chi.
The other reason is to get Man-Spider primed for revival. This goes arm in arm with the next new card Adamantium Infusion. Not only does this revive Man-Spider into a new lane if you choose, but it doubles Man-Spider’s Power. I haven’t even said the best part, it MERGES, so Man-Spider will double again.
Now we need to temper our excitement because datamines can change and these cards are still a month away, but it shows that Man-Spider has some exciting days still ahead of him.
August’s Day 1 Decks
Creedence Clearwater Revival
This deck was provided by Discord member Arcin. Here we are going all in on resurrecting Man-Spider. Kid Omega is a great way to not destroy Man-Spider but keep the value from its large Power. Agony and Phoenix Force each have synergy with merging into Man-Spider, allowing for extra triggers of its doubling. This is exactly the type of deck I was thinking of when I saw the upcoming card Adamantium Infusion.
bullseye_qwerty Man-Negative
This deck came from X follower bullseye_qwerty. It’s their spin on Mister Negative featuring Man-Spider. Since he’s a 5/1 that makes him a great target for Mister Negative. When affected, Man-Spider will become a 1/5. Not only does that give you a bigger base Power to double, but it means you can play it alongside another card right away for the merge. You can sneak this into a final turn play rather than need multiple turns to set it up!
stuff_things3 Man-Spider Electro Ramp
Our final deck today comes from X user stuff_things3. They have given us a version of Electro Ramp. A part of Man-Spider that we haven’t talked about yet is that since the merged card goes into Man-Spider, any bad abilities they may have, disappears completely. In this case we are taking advantage of Electro’s extra energy while getting rid of their restriction of only playing 1 card per turn. When merged with Man-Spider we end up with a 12 Power card. Not too shabby for providing an extra max energy each turn.
Thanks again to those who provided decklists for today’s article. If you want one of your decks featured in a Snap.Fan article, stay tuned to my X for future opportunities!
Final Thoughts
Man-Spider is a Series 5 card launching Tuesday in the Seasonal Series 5 Pack for 5000 tokens and the weekly Spotlight for 6000. It’s also being released through the Super Premium Season Pass, letting you get it without spending any tokens!
Let me know what you think about Man-Spider. Tell me about any synergies I’ve missed or Man-Spider decks you are excited about down below!
Introducing Snapcheck!
Have you ever wondered what the community thought of new upcoming cards? Find yourself analyzing cards and often nailing your predictions? Well now you can put your money where your mouth is.
Snapcheck is a new article series where we give YOU the community a platform to share your thoughts, predictions, and feelings about the latest season’s new cards.
Simply post below your ratings of any (or all) of the new cards on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest, 10 the highest) and a few short sentences explaining your rating.
Example: Deafening Chord 10/10
- How can they print a 1 cost Red Guardian? That’s so broken
Later this week I’ll be posting not only an average score of a card’s rating, but as many comments as I can find. I’ll be soliciting responses from all over. Think of Snapcheck like Rotten Tomatoes but for Snap cards. Let’s see together what we the community think of the new cards before they release!