Spider-Ham Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: Big Cards No More!

Many decks in Marvel Snap have their key card (or at least an important card to their game plan) as one of the most energy demanding of the build. Sera Control or Surfer, both Discard variations, Galactus, Patriot, the list goes on and on. For these decks, if the opponent knew that their most influential card was out of the picture, the game would take a bit of a dramatic turn.

Indeed, whenever you see Hela being discarded, you usually Snap. If you knew your Control opponent wouldn’t play Sera on Turn 5, you would consider Snapping. If you see Dracula and know Apocalypse isn’t available to feed it, that’s another cause for a Snap.

Let me introduce Spider-Ham to you, the next Snapping engine.

Variants

Spider-Ham

On Reveal: Transform the leftmost card in your opponent’s hand into a Pig, keeping its Power and Cost.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Spider-Ham

Variants

Pig

“oink!”

None

view card details Start a deck Decks with Pig

Strategy and Synergies

Typically, when a new card releases, we want to look at which decks we want to include it in. When it comes to Spider-Ham, I’d like to offer the opposite and instead look at the decks we can counter with it. Indeed, I believe Spider-Ham will join the likes of Shang-Chi, Enchantress, and Killmonger when the dust settles rather than being attached to a precise archetype.

We already touched on it in the introduction, but there are quite a bit of decks that should be scared about Spider-Ham joining the game.

Variants

Sera

Ongoing: Cards in your hand cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Sera

Variants

Apocalypse

When you discard this, put it back with +4 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

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Variants

Hulk

“HULK SMASH!”

Starter Card

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Variants

Ultron

On Reveal: Deploy four 1-Power Drones to each other location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Ultron

First, I’d like to mention cards that are archetype defining. Without this card available, their deck is immediately weaker, while also giving way too much information to the opponent in the process. Also, these cards should be reliably hit by Spider-Ham as they stand alone or share the slot with one other card at their cost in the deck. This means that if we play Spider-Ham the turn prior to the card’s cost, we should either hit it or find out that the opponent does not have it in hand yet.

Sera and Apocalypse are the biggest ones in the game to me as they are key to their archetypes working properly (most of the time). Whenever you hit one of these two with Spider-Ham, you should Snap on the spot (and will most likely be met with a quick Retreat in most cases).

Evolved Hulk in Lockdown and High Evolutionary and Ultron in Patriot are not game defining like the previous two cards two. Still, they give big information regarding the opponent’s points potential going into the last turn of the game. Without Hulk, you know Lockdown won’t be able to drop a big card to win the second location they need, even if it’s still 12 power. The same idea goes for Ultron, though you still have to be worried about Onslaught and maybe Doctor Doom from Patriot. But at least you’ll know they won’t flood every single location.

Let’s move on to cards that are simply good to hit, even if they do not make or break their deck.

Variants

Doctor Doom

On Reveal: Add a 5-Power DoomBot to each other location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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Variants

Death

Costs 1 less for each card destroyed this game.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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Variants

Iron Man

Ongoing: Your total Power is doubled here.

Starter Card

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Variants

Galactus

On Reveal: If you’re winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Galactus

Variants

Black Bolt

On Reveal: Discard the lowest-cost card from your opponent’s hand.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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Variants

Devil Dinosaur

Ongoing: +2 Power for each card in your hand.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Devil Dinosaur

The reason Galactus is in this second batch and not the first one is Death serving as passive protection. Indeed, whenever Death is in hand, Galactus should be safe from Spider-Ham. Otherwise, as we can see from this list, there are quite a few incredible targets to hit in the current metagame. Doctor Doom and Iron Man, for example, go from being the best standalone cards for their cost to an unplayable Pig.

Black Bolt and Devil Dinosaur often have Doctor Doom in the deck as well, hence why I didn’t include them as top targets. Nevertheless, whenever you hit either of these two, their deck should immediately look much less threatening to face.

If we look at Spider-Ham this way, we would simply see a card worth including in most decks with a flexible use of their energy. Like archetypes that are able to comfortably spend one energy on Turn 4 or 5 in order to derail the opponent’s late game. We can still consider other decks where other disruptive tools are already included, and adding another one might push the build to be even more annoying to play against.

Is Spider-Ham That Good in Bounce?

Spider Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Starter Card

2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Whenever a new On Reveal 1-Cost card releases, we are quick to imagine it joining the ranks of the Bounce archetype. After all, if we play Spider-Ham on Turn 1 or 2, we give enough time for our opponent to draw some cards until we replay it later on.

In that regard, Spider-Ham would join Iceman in annoying Bounce’s opponents. This leads to a deck that is able to both develop tons of points and also derail a lot of game plans. Considering Bounce is naturally weak to Galactus and Destroy, Spider-Ham could help tremendously in those match ups, sometimes even winning the game simply because it transformed a Galactus or a Knull.

Is It Time for Ronan the Accuser To Shine?

Ronan the Hamcuser

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Spoiler: probably not. There is a wide enough gap compared to the Devil Darkhawk build to imagine Spider-Ham pushing Ronan the Accuser as the default partner of Devil Dinosaur.

Nevertheless, if we consider Devil Darkhawk has not been a metagame contender for some time now, why not look outside the box and see if some disruption could do some work? Here, in addition to Spider-Ham derailing the opponent’s high-cost card synergies, we should also ensure they keep the card in hand for the rest of the game. With Master Mold already in the mix, there are three cards we can count on to grow Ronan the Accuser‘ s power, making it a [5/9] as a baseline.

Darkhawk probably remains the best option, but we are slowly getting there. Also, I’m curious about Crystal replacing White Queen in this deck, even if the [4/4] body feels really weak when comparing it to a [4/6] White Queen.

Electro Ramp Becomes Really Annoying

Electro Rhamp

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Compared to the previous decks, the idea here would simply be to slam Spider-Ham on Turn 1 and never look back. It might not be as good as Nebula and it might be worth fewer points than Ebony Maw, but another disruption tool in this deck might be worth it. In this list, the goal is simply to lock as much as possible from the opponent. One might argue Sandman is already enough, which makes Spider-Ham redundant in the deck.

What I’m really interested in here is the fact that Spider-Ham might reveal the card we transformed into a pig. Considering Electro Ramp has straight forward match ups, knowing what the opponent is playing on Turn 1 could lead to a lot of aggressive Snapping early in the match. It could even just make Spider-Ham good to run without Black Widow and the disruptive mindset and playing another 2-Cost card for points instead.

Closing Words

It is always difficult to give an honest assessment of a card that should see its power directly linked to the environment it exists in. If the current metagame was to stay put, with Lockjaw, Bounce, and other high potential decks in the lead, Spider-Ham seems like it wouldn’t do enough to help its deck win games, as those decks are flexible enough to play around the loss of a card while we still have to develop enough points to beat them.

However, if those decks were to reduce in popularity (after an OTA or because a deck with even more points was relied on a specific card to do so), Spider-Ham could become an interesting card to explore, and it might find use in a variety of decks.

I hope this breakdown of the card helped you make a decision on whether you want to invest in it or not. I think 3,000 Collector’s Tokens is a decent price if you enjoy a disruptive play style and already have a few ideas on where to include the card.

I’ll make sure to keep you updated on how Spider-Ham performs in the near future through the various articles on this very website. Until then, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.