Spider-Menaces Steal Exotic Produce!: Wakandan Herbs and The Amazing Spider-Man

Dear Readers,

Today I bring you an idea that will up your game and create havoc for those unaware of the Spider-Plan: Wakandan Herbs. The scenario is essentially a big game of capture the flag where you and your opponent are racing back as quickly as possible to score 4 points a turn. This is major and can end games in all the quickness. While I think that Miles Morales’ leadership is still better than Peter Parkers (I was hoping that if your attacks did damage then it would slow the enemy, but don’t make the rules!)I do still think that The Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) has some major legs. While I don’t play him nearly enough, I love this character to death, and I have found him to be a major menace on a scenario that not a lot of people have a great game plan for: Mystic Wakandan Herbs.

So, why does ASM have an edge here that others don’t? His extreme mobility and survivability make him a ridiculous menace. To be honest, if you take him and Miles together, you are going to have a tank that is so hard to take down that it is almost not even worth your time.

Why ASM may be the ultimate Wakandan Herbs Carrier

For 5 threat you are getting a character that has a medium base, long movement, 4/4/3 defense and the ability to re-roll any number of dice in his defense or dodge rolls. In addition, he can Witty Banter away enemy attack effects/success to make killing your team much harder to do. I cannot stress enough how far a long Move + R3 place is on a character with a medium base. For context, the last time I played ASM on this map I was able to get ASM back onto my home base with the assistance of Ghost-Spider on Turn 2. This was through a Mystique Deception turn mind you. Now, in all fairness, a lot went right that game. I was able to Momentum onto the point turn 1 with a good amount of power and got a Web Swing from there. However, this still proves that you will be able to get a long move, a web swing (cause you have nothing better to do than to attack and get 1 power) and possibly get Life Savered towards your point by Ghost-Spider into turn 2 and survive. This does not take into account the sheer survivability of ASM. To give some perspective on the survivability of Peter Parker, against the average Dice 5 physical or energy attack he has a 55.06% (thank you Assemble) of taking a whopping 0 damage. At Dice 6 43.25%. This does not take into account Witty Banter or Re-rolls from Great Responsibility. Peter is so hard to take down, I have literally had games where people intentionally ignore him because it's just wasted activations otherwise. ASM is the best runner for this scenario because of his survivability and mobility. He is capable of rerolling Skulls in his reroll with Great Responsibility, force your opponent to reroll a success with Witty Banter, and have a R3 place for 2 is in and of itself reason enough for ASM’s placement as the top dog, but add in he can potentially get farther movement through Momentum and can add to the offense through his spender in a meaningful way makes ASM’s stock raise even higher.

The Path to Victory

Anyone who has played a game of Capture the Flag knows that offense isn’t the only path to victory, but a good defense is also necessary for victory. Remember, for this scenario the holder of the Herb will be immune to Stagger and Slow, can only move once per turn, and gains an additional attack dice. This means just double moving back is a no go, and makes it to where most characters will have to take a couple of turns to return to home base. Some tactics we will want to employ are letting our opponent have priority, utilize the spider agility as much as possible, and proper placement of models. It is near essential that you control the flow of priority on this map since it is an all or nothing scenario. You are either scoring 4 points a turn or you are scoring nothing. This means a single Web Line, Web Kick, or good ole fashioned shanking will ruin the tempo of the game for your opponent. You will have to judge when to move your objective holder based on where your opponent is on the board, but being able to control the flow of priority means you will always have an option (as long as all is going to plan) of removing your opponent’s ability to score. But, as Web Warriors, we have some pretty awesome people in our rosters (and some that would fit in merrily with our Webbed crew of misfit spiders) that make for great team compositions for Wakandan Herb play. For victory, you will need the following roles: Runner, Supporter, Defender. Remember, it’s a giant game of capture the flag, and we capture wonderfully.

Runner - A runner specializes in grabbing the flag and making it back to homebase with your prize. These characters need to move quickly and be able to take a hit reliably. Moving long is not always enough, as the sooner you start scoring, the sooner you win the game. Of course ASM is our go-to runner for this scenario as he moves quickly, has a self-displace, and having additional attack dice in his builder actually gives him a potential for one big super move turn if everything works out in your favor. (Create an image below that shows this). Other great runners include:

• Black Cat - Long move, stealth, doesn’t allow for enemies to modify their dice, and has a self-displace. Plus, if you plan on using the shotgun runner approach, you now have the ability to steal enemy Herbs and really annoy them by keeping the points all to yourself. I mean, you aren’t scoring an additional 4, but then again, neither is your opponent.
• Black Panther - Long move, self-throw, great defensive spread/abilities. I mean, what else do you really want from a runner? Plus, you get to tell people you are the king and possibly have Game of Thrones memeable moments.
• Quicksilver - Long Move, an advance in his attack [which, if you’re lucky, can proc multiple times], and his ability Can’t Catch Me allow him some serious mobility. Now, for the crazy part. Like Black Cat, if Quicksilver isn’t your main Herb carrier, you now are able to have both Herbs. While this won’t necessarily score you more points, it will make it a nightmare for your opponent to pin down this speedster and get their own points.
• Ms. Marvel - Embiggen shenanigans ensue, and bonus points for utilizing A Better Tomorrow to super-size your opponent’s frustration.
• Magik - Limbo Step is a pretty great ability to have as it is a conditional Bump in the Night that allows between R1-3 based on the amount of power spent. The other nice thing about Magik in Web Warriors for Herbs is that she is able to better nullify incoming Mystic attacks, which have always plagued Web Warriors as our Spider Sense users (minus ASM) are unable to reroll their defenses from them.
• Juggernaut - Large Base. Move gives power. Able to push himself away. Wash, rinse, repeat. Something something nothing stops the Juggernaut. Something something stupid racoons always getting in my way. But, if you can somehow field him and ASM together, you have a duo who are going to be stupid hard to prevent from getting back to their side of the field. Juggernaut does one additional thing that ASM doesn’t though. With an Herb, and since he can only move once anyway with it, he will be hitting an enemy for 9 dice with a push. If you have an enemy foolish enough to attack someone within R3 of Juggernaut, he now gets to move 3 times with his large base and still get 2 attacks. Shellhead has legs and you need to be afraid of him.
• Ghost Rider - Stupid Ghost Rider and his Long Hell on Wheels ability. It may take away his movement due to the ability allowing him to advance and not being tied to an attack, but who cares. WRONG, YOU CAN TOTALLY MOVE AND THEN HELL ON WHEELS! CONGRATS ON HAVING NO FRIENDS AFTER THIS MOVE! … Ok, this was harsh. You will still have Ghost Rider….You are on a large base moving long and medium on your bike while singing Hell’s Bells and jamming on the Ghuistar (that is, of course, a Ghost Guitar). The worst/best part about this is how easy it is to get all the power you will ever need to pull this off every turn depending on the aggression of your opponent. Also, while running an Herb, he is immune to pretty every status in the game. I hate Ghost Rider. There. I said it. Burn me in the comment section you cowards.

Support - A support player picks up and holds the team together and will generally live in the mid field lane. In this instance, our best Support player will be Ghost-Spider. Ghost-Spider allows for some very interesting mid-field plays that will get ASM or your other runners back to base much quicker than would normally be possible. Ghost-Spider does this by being able to Life Saver your runner closer to her, which is going to happen because our opponent naturally does not want your runner getting too far towards your goal. The best upside is her cost though. At 3 threat she pretty much fits in everywhere and can do her job efficiently, which is not something that can be said about some of the suggestions I have for the other supports who start at 4 and then just up from there. The problem with Ghost-Spider is that I cannot show you a game plan on where to place her. By her nature, Ghost-Spider is a reactionary and fluid piece. You have to place her where she is going to make the biggest impact and stay alive at the same time. Your supporters will generally find themselves transitioning mid game once your own Runner is hunkering down on your end of the field and will then find themselves utilizing your final activation to tell your opponent that they don’t deserve points this round by displacing your opponent. Generally, you do not want to actually hit them, as this will give them the ability to better retaliate. Unless…you know, you’re into that sort of thing and then who am I to judge? This comes through practice, but it's totally worth it. Some of our other supports we can field include:

• Thanos (Mind and Space Gem) - While this combo is a whopping 8 points, the mad titan brings something to the table that not many other models bring: utility. Thanos can be your runner (Space Gem allows him a portal and a medium move on a medium base, which isn’t bad, and he has invulnerability on a bulky spread). He can be your defender with displaces and hard hitting punches that throw. But I put him in the support slot because I feel he works better in the middle of the map. He can move your characters R2 twice, which really adds up after your character has already moved. He flushes enemy models away from your runner or back into your defender. He no afraid of anyone with his glorious golden invulnerable armor. He no run from fight. He no know how to grammar. But, he is a Titan so that doesn’t matter. However, he runs into one problem. Due to his expensive nature you are going to run into the problem of additional models. At 15 you will be able to run Miles, Thanos, and Venom which will really strangle you on a map that so heavily relies on activations.
• Venom - Venom plays both a Supporter and the Defender role while he is in the midfield. Being able to pull medium and throw medium means that while Venom has power your enemy’s Runner is going to have a real hard time getting anywhere.
• Omega Red - Venom light with no throw. Does most of the things Venom does with the added bonus of also having -1 to damage.
• Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange - I really like Strange in the support slot. He has a fairly long support move (R3 is no joke on some characters), he is fairly defensible, especially in with rerolls and against energy attacks, and he has a nice punch.

 

Defender - The defender role stays back on point and prevents enemies from getting to your Herb through size, displacement, or straight up murder (the ultimate CC). Remember, you have an effective circle for most Runners to get through before they are gone. Your Defender should make sure that you are not seeing anyone leave that arena without paying a dear price for their indiscretion. In Web Warriors, we don’t really have a great Defender. Venom plays the part….sort of. He doesn’t hit hard enough to really say he is defending the point, but he is very, very sticky. As was said earlier, if you are in R4 of Venom and he has 5 power, there is no escape. Some out of affiliation murder hobos to consider include:

• Magneto - Magneto is on a nice Medium base, but he does something else: he generates terrain that can be used to help block out enemies. However, his ability to throw all the terrain and reroll his failed dice and push people makes him an ideal Defender for the point. It will be hard for your enemy to get through Magneto once he has set up and he is capable of taking out 3 or 4 characters a turn depending on the terrain set-up. Be careful when using him and keep your bloodlust in check.
• Beast - Good sized base? Check. Throw? Check. The nice thing he also has is the ability to chase his enemy down on a wild roll. Normally, this is a massive hindrance. But if your one job is to keep beating the hell out of your enemy and prevent them from getting to base then you need to stick to them like glue. Ambush into Baser Instincts makes it hard for your enemy to get anywhere on the board without being severely punished for their efforts.
• Captain America Sam Wilson - He doesn’t deal a lot of damage. He doesn’t have size. But he does have the ability to push up to 4 characters away a turn. Or, double push 2 characters. Either way, Sam Wilson plays a great game of keep away and pairs very nicely with some of our other Webheads in defending the point.
• Doctor Voodoo - Another medium base. But, the good Doctor does something that many thought only too much whiskey could do. He can make your enemy’s little runner impotent. Forcing their start player to drop the ball is enough to make any person mad. But then smacking his other enemies with his big stick to prove his superiority and then tossing them away means he defends the point pretty well.
• Hulk - Hulk is on a large base. Hulk can get onto the point pretty early. Hulk can push on his ridiculous 7 dice builder. HULK jumps on puny enemy. HULK SMASH PUNY RUN MAN! HULK STRONGEST DEFEND…sorry. I got a bit carried away there. But, if you have the points and you like green, Hulk does his job well in killing enemies and preventing them from getting too far away. Plus, he is able to reroll his defense dice with Puny Banner and Stagger his enemies.

Routes to Run

There are three lanes you can run your Herb back through to get home. The quickest route is straight through to the other side, or you can take two branching side routes to get where you are going. Depending on the map, you can effectively cut off a route for your opponent by placing a model near that side to threaten the enemy. This can be through displacement, theft, or forced drops. Your supporter will ideally sit in the middle route to prevent to much additional scoring by your opponent and to help your runner move quicker. However, you can also use other characters in your squad to force different routes from being taken by the enemy just by their presence while they are holding points. Good characters for this include Quicksilver (Can I Borrow That), Enchantress and Black Cat (Theft), Miles (forced drops) and Thanos (displacement + good ole fashioned murder).

The Miles Conundrum

As you see here, Miles isn’t really anywhere in my scenarios. His kick requires a wild, so you can’t count on him to knock people back towards your point. His Spider Sense is good, but Marked for Death will end your world. So, what’s a spider to do? I recommend keeping him on a back point and racking up those VPs every turn. The nice thing about Miles is that if you need to shift him you can. He prevents an entire lane of traffic for your opponent as they may be afraid to get too close to being Venom Blasted and thus losing their Herb. This better allows you to plan for where your opponent’s carrier will run (hopefully into the loving embrace of your supporter, which, if Ghost-Spider, may mean you can get at least one push back to your base with Impact Webbing).

Final Thoughts and Review

As you have seen, your roles in this scenario require you to make some serious decisions. The core we are looking at, at a minimum, is 9 (Miles, Ghost-Spider, Black Cat) to 11 (Miles, Ghost-Spider, ASM). From there, you really have to look at what you think is going to suit your opponent more. If they are playing a bit more wide, you may need to play more defenders to thin the numbers or consistently push the enemy back to your side of the field if they have taken the objective. If your opponent is going a bit defensive oriented then you will want to run more runners. At the current, I have not found a true need for more than one support character in the midfield as Ghost-Spider is able to assist in movement and in removing people from point. However, this does not mean that there is no reason to not take another support.

The final variable that we need to look at is cost. I personally think that ASM is the best runner we have. He does everything you could ever want a runner to do. But you will also notice that I have give other options for running and some of the defenders I recommend are quite pricey (Thanos at 8, Magneto and Hulk at 6, etc). This is where true choices come into play and experience on the scenario is key. If you notice your opponent doesn’t have any particularly fast characters, then Thanos or Magneto can play well. If you feel like you will not be able to out-activate the opposition at 14, then a core of Miles, ASM, and Ghost-Spider won’t work for you and you will instead need to bulk up the numbers of your roster to Miles, Black Cat, Ghost Spider, Moon Knight (for defending and bonking), and Toad. I love this scenario because it, more than any other scenario in my opinion, requires you to be flexible in how you build your squad. A friend of mine has said that you can lose on Turn 0 with this scenario, and I agree with him wholeheartedly (and you should check him out over here if you want to git gud at Brotherhood and stuff). This scenario is punishing against the wrong lists, so I always recommend having a plan to play against it in your roster building.

Remember, if you can hit home base within Turn 2 and hold 2 objectives, you will be able to score 14 points by turn 3. Keeping your opponent from even one turn of scoring their home base means that you have made a difference that is nearly impossible to make-up. It is imperative that you keep tempo on this scenario. I like Wakandan Herbs because, from my experience, not a lot of people have a gameplan for it. However, if you practice the pathing for the scenario and your laning it is an incredibly fun, fast paced scenario that I recommend to anyone playing ASM.

Till next time Webslingers.