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Welcome to our new series of Marvel Snap guides, where we feature a Series 4 or 5 card and analyze how to use it. The goal is to give you a tutorial on how to use the card most effectively in an everchanging meta, as well as help you decide if the card is worth the tokens or if you should pick it up during a Spotlight Cache week!
We will aim to revise this guide each time it becomes featured in a Spotlight Cache. If the card becomes rebalanced or the meta has changed a lot, please let us know in the comments and we will look to update it based on demand!
Decks with Spider-Ham
Series 4 cards can be purchased for 3,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a weekly Spotlight featured card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).
Who is Spider-Ham?
Spider-Ham is the (obvious) parody of Spider-Man. He comes from earth-8311, which is filled with animal parody versions of iconic Marvel heroes and villains. While he had his own comic series for a short time, he was soon retired to a What If? style character that makes fun appearances from time to time.
His most notable media appearance is in the animated Spider-Verse films! Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse arguably brought Spider-Ham into the public eye with his adorable character and his Looney Tune-like demeanor.
How to Use Spider-Ham
Spider-Ham is a disruption card. He offers very little stats, but has a low Cost. This makes him great to play on most turns, and can fit into any curve. While you can play him on turn 1 to hit a random card, playing him on later turns increases your likelihood of targeting a late game card your opponent needed. This is because he targets the left-most card in your opponent’s hand, which is where unplayed cards often end up. At the same time, playing him too late could mean your opponent simply doesn’t care about playing the card, so it landing on the left isn’t a big deal.
A few important interactions to note: The Pig is considered a 0-Cost, 0-Power card for programming reasons. When a card is turned into a Pig, its Cost and Power are turned into a [0/0] and then modified to match the original cards Cost and Power. If a card was discounted (say from 5 to 4) and you turn it into a Pig, the Pig will now cost 4 and could be reduced down to Cost 3.
Best Synergies
Spider-Ham‘s Pig works perfectly with Shadow King. If the Pig is played, Shadow King can reset the Pig‘s Power back to the default 0-Power. This can help improve Spider-Ham’s effectiveness since you sometimes will Pig a card with a high Power.
Decks with Shadow King
If your opponent plays out the Pig to make room in their hand, you could bounce Spider-Ham with Falcon or Beast to get multiple hits! Even by simply picking up Spider-Ham, you make your opponent warry of playing the Pig as another card could be transformed.
Decks with Beast
While not synergistic, it’s worth mentioning that Spider-Ham will always hit Thanos if your opponent is playing a Thanos deck. This is because Thanos always starts in your hand, so he stays left-most and is tricky to play early. This means turning him into a Pig will prevent the Infinity Stones from powering him up.
Decks with Thanos
Meta Competitive Deck
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Spider-Ham‘s biggest usage is in Mill decks. The entire deck is built around disrupting your opponent, so Spider-Ham slides in as a perfect early game disruption to get you started. If you play Doctor Octopus and pull their Pig, you can use your Shadow King synergy to remove the Pig‘s Power!
Fun Off-Meta Deck
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Since Spider-Ham is a disruption card, a fun deck is one that utilizes that disruption multiple times. This Bounce deck lets you replay your annoying cards like Iceman and Spider-Ham for disruption. It uses the Jane Foster Mighty Thor package for a specific play line. Werewolf By Night and Sage offer a second play line that focus more on the bounce aspect of the deck.
Weaknesses and Things to Avoid
Since the Pig starts as a [0/0], your opponent’s Mobius M. Mobius can make the Pig stay at 0-Cost. Giving your opponent any card with Power a Cost of zero will often times put you at a disadvantage, even if you hit an important card.
Decks with Mobius M. Mobius
Sera actively discount your cards. If a discounted card is then turned into a Pig, it keeps the lowered Cost, and then reduces again. This interaction shouldn’t happen often, as you generally will play Spider-Ham before Sera hits the board.
Closing Thoughts
Spider-Ham is a straightforward disruption card. He doesn’t have many synergies, but his ability can easily win you games by stopping key cards from being playable. While his play rate fluctuates heavily depending on the meta, I think he is a solid card worth owning, but not required by any means.
Is Spider-Ham worth using 3K Collector’s Tokens?
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