Web-Warriors of the Galaxy (Expert Slayer)

"It was just like Uncle Ben said — with great card draw, comes great flexibility."

Welcome to my Star-Lord (or should that be Spider-Lord?!) deck!

At the time of posting, this deck has beaten:

• Expert Loki
• Expert Thanos (2-player)
• Expert Zola (2-player)
• Expert Mysterio
• Expert Nebula

(While I have not tested this at 4-players, Star-Lord only gets better at higher player counts.)

If you like this deck, I would really appreciate it if you gave it a ❤! Thank you so much!

Why are Star-Lord and the Web-Warriors working together?

No idea. ;)

The Basics

Why is this deck so powerful? Let me highlight just a few combos:

Knowhere + Web of Life and Destiny + SP//dr = all the cards you could ever dream of. (Star-Lord makes SP//dr a Guardian.)

Star-Lord + SP//dr + Leader of the Guardians = 6 thwart minimum per turn

SP//dr + 2x Element Gun = 7 damage minimum per turn

In other words, once you have your board setup, you can deal with almost anything before even looking at your hand. And your hand will be full of cards. You will have the flexibility to deal with anything - and to do it in style.

After that, the galaxy is yours to conquer. Many of these cards combo, with cards like Gamora, Ghost-Spider and Blaze of Glory combining with Daring Escape and Sliding Shot to end the game. Spider-Man (Otto Octavius) and an Element Gun. And Star-Lord's "What Could Go Wrong?" ability is perfect for all the 3-cost Web-Warriors and Web of Life and Destiny.

Strategy

Step 1: Web-Warriors of the Galaxy

The gist of this deck is to use your amazing non-Web-Warrior allies until your Web-Warrior cards are ready to be played. Often, your WW cards are ready at turn 1 and, with this kind of card draw? It never takes much longer.

(It’s worth noting that, while I don’t mention them a lot in the rest of this guide, your non-Web-Warrior allies remain excellent additions to the deck even when your WW cards are playable and should keep being played.)

Most of your Web-Warriors cannot be played without a Web-Warrior card in play. There are multiple ways we navigate around this - the primary way is to play Web of Life and Destiny, and this is a priority card for the deck. You can also play Spider-Man (Peter Parker) without any other Web-Warrior card under your control.

However, you can also Make the Call for any Web-Warrior in your discard pile. Make the Call has you “put that ally into play”, bypassing the actual act of playing it.

Between Make the Call, Web of Life and Destiny, and Peter Parker, that’s five cards that can bring your deck online - and each card is also amazing on its own when you don’t need to worry about enabling Web-Warriors.

Other than enabling your Web-Warrior cards, you will want to prioritize finding and playing Knowhere, Star-Lord's Helmet, Leader of the Guardians, and at least one Element Gun. The Element Gun guarantees damage and combos extremely well with Spider-Man (Otto Octavius), Leader of the Guardians gives you so much thwarting, and Knowhere + Star-Lord’s Helmet are a big part of your crazy card draw engine.

There are too many amazing upgrades/supports to play early, so prioritize and play them as you go.

1) Web of Life and Destiny 2) Leader of the Guardians 3) Element Gun 4) Knowhere 5) Star-Lord's Helmet 6) Avengers Mansion 7) Helicarrier

You’ll have to use your judgment on whether Star-Lord’s “What Could Go Wrong?” ability to help put these in play. I usually do on turn 1 to get more benefits across the span of the game - the earlier an upgrade is in play, the better - but it’s not always wise. Learning when to use it is just part of learning to play Star-Lord, but in general? The more allies you have out to block/deal with threats, the safer it is to use.

Beware of how many Advance encounter cards in the discard pile and use it sparingly if there aren’t any. Later in the game, if you have cards in hand that combo with having encounter cards in front of you, it gains a lot of value.

Step 2: Card Draw Madness

Once you have Knowhere, you’re basically getting an extra card every turn due to the sheer amount of allies in this deck. You’re always playing one from hand - especially once you find SP//dr who guarantees it.

Combine Knowhere with Web of Life and Destiny, and now SP//dr is getting you one card on its way in, and one card on its way out. SP//dr then pays for itself, making her 1 damage and 2 THW basically free while also cycling your deck.

And with Leader of the Guardians in play, SP//dr becomes 1 damage/3 threat removed every single turn - again, effectively for free.

While Knowhere has to exhaust, Web of Life and Destiny does not. That means that every Web-Warrior ally that leaves play is going to draw you a card. So, while you want to ensure you have an ally to block the villain’s attack, it’s a completely valid choice to use the last hp of a Web-Warrior to attack or thwart. It also means you profit from blocking for other players more than most.

It has not been unusual for me to start the villain phase (or even the hero phase) with 4 allies on the board, and end the hero phase having played 4 fresh allies. Insane card draw, Make the Call, and Across the Spider-Verse makes this both viable and easy! (Prioritize Web-Warriors, but don’t be afraid to grab a normal ally.)

Let’s not forget Spider-Man (Otto Octavius) who also draws a card when played from hand, by readying your Element Gun. And Ghost-Spider who finds an identity-specific event too - more on her later.

Step 3: The Star-Lord Special

Once you have a bunch of allies cycling in and out, you can really start to take advantage of Star-Lord’s kit. When you can block multiple attacks, clear multiple side-schemes, or annihilate any minion in sight? Encounter cards barely matter anymore. And the more encounter cards you take, the bigger your handsize is thanks to Star-Lord’s helmet.

You’ll draw so many cards with this deck that you’ll often have an encounter card just sitting in front of you anyway. He has plenty of 3-cost cards in this deck to efficiently use his “What Could Go Wrong?” ability on, and with Leader of the Guardians prioritized, Daring Escape can get a lot of value.

What all this means is, when you want to, when you’re ready to, you can unleash some absolutely devastating Sliding Shots to annihilate the villain. And even go for big Gutsy Moves if the scheme went out of control following a previous round of multiple encounter cards.

Ghost-Spider and Blaze of Glory are also excellent additions to Star-Lord’s burst potential.

Ghost-Spider can draw you an identity-specific event from your deck, as well as just drawing a card from Web of Life and Destiny. What this means is, she can find you Sliding Shot or Daring Escape when you already have other pieces in hand to benefit it! If you have her on the board and feel like it’s time to end the game, keep her at 1 hp until you draw a few Sliding Shot/Daring Escapes to maximize the combo.

Due to how much card draw you have, it won’t be unusual to find Blaze of Glory right when you need it. Blaze of Glory gives you and all your allies +2 ATK! Combine this with Daring Escape, and Star-Lord is hitting for 4 damage multiple times. Then, add in a Sliding Shot after that, and no villain can survive when played solo - and few likely in multiplayer at this point.

You can also pull the trigger on these combos earlier if the board has gone crazy. It’s okay to take three random encounter cards to deal with three bad ones from the villain turn that you can’t shake off.

Always be ready with this~ I’ve casually drawn a hand of cards, not even thinking I’m close to winning, and then thought “Hm, I actually have some good damage cards here…” - and proceeded to do 70 damage to win out of the blue.

When things line up, villains fall down.

Card Breakdown

The term Effective Resources refers to a card's cost, plus the need to play the card itself. In essence, its printed cost plus one. I will refer to Effective Resources as 'ER' from here on as a way to value cards.

Allies

While I mention it at times for the absurd value they give, in general I have not included the increased value allies give due to Knowhere, Web of Life and Destiny, and Leader of the Guardians. All allies should be considered as potentially benefiting from them.

• Gamora - 4ER for 4 damage, draw 2 event cards, and block an attack. Gamora is insanely good value - use her mid-game for card draw and late-game to find combo-pieces to finish off the villain. She is risky in the early game as you don’t want to discard Web of Life and Destiny, though remember her response is optional!

• Ghost-Spider-Spider - 4ER for 4 damage, 1 identity-specific event card, and block an attack. Gwen here really is the Gamora of the Web-Warriors and works in largely the same way. With Web of Life and Destiny, she draws just as many cards as Gamora and doesn’t make you discard from your deck. She is a great early-game play with Make the Call to bring your Web-Warriors online, and a great play in the late-game to end the villain by finding your Sliding Shots etc.

• Mockingbird - 4 ER for 2 damage or 2 thwarting, and two attacks blocked. She is an incredible card in general, but especially for flimsy Star-Lord whose defense is his biggest weakness. Prioritize her early-game to give you some breathing room to set up. (With Leader of the Guardians, she can do 4 thwarting and block two attacks. To be clear, this is 7ER of value for 4ER by the conventional valuing of effects!)

• Nick Fury - It’s Nick Fury. If you’re playing this game, you already know how good he is. He’ll find your set up cards, he’ll find your game-ending cards, he’ll make you tea, do your chores, and still have time to thwart and block the villain’s next attack. 5ER for 2 thwarting, 3 cards drawn, and a block.

• Nova Prime - 5ER for 6 damage or 4 thwarting, a block, and a minion defeated. He gets a bad reputation but is almost playable even without his ability to instantly defeat a minion. One of his biggest downsides is his cost, but this deck can afford him. Despite this, he is still the worst ally in this deck. Play him when there’s a minion to defeat or you’ve nothing better in hand.

• Rocket Raccoon - 4 ER for 12 damage. Or 4ER for 8 damage and a block. Or even 4ER for 4 thwarting and a block. All of these are fine uses of Rocket. Due to his 2 THW and crazy ability to add +3 damage against a minion, Rocket is one of my favourite allies in the game. He absolutely destroys minions but his thwarting is good enough to use if that’s what you need - he covers everything. Bonus points on thwarting with, you guessed it, Leader of the Guardians.

• SP//dr - 3ER for infinite card draw, damage and thwarting~ That’s exaggerating, but only a little. Once you play her, you attack - then, next turn, thwart. Then she’ll come back to your hand. Then you play her again. Then you profit. After turn 1, you should get an attack and thwart out of her every single turn. As mentioned in the write-up, she guarantees one card from Knowhere and always triggers Web of Life and Destiny. She is insanely good and her value is crazy as well as consistent. You can even block with her in a pinch and just Make the Call to restart the madness.

• Spider-Man (Hobie Brown) - 4ER for 2 THW, a block, and 0-9 damage. Hobie is the second-least valuable ally in the deck but earns his slot through Web of Life and Destiny and Leader of the Guardians, and really helps put the villain range of a huge Star-Lord combo. He’s never a bad play, but prioritize your other allies first.

• Spider-Man (Otto Octavius) - 3ER for 1 thwarting, 1 card draw, a readied Element gun, and a block. He’s cheap, he has a lot of benefits, just remember he has to be played from hand to be worthwhile! You can also use him to attack when you’re aiming to end the game, drawing you another card immediately through Web of Life and Destiny.

• Spider-Man (Peter Parker) - 4ER for 4 damage or 4 thwarting and a block. He doesn’t need a Web-Warrior to be in play, so he can enable your whole deck until you find Web of Life and Destiny. More than that, his readying effect is still useful for burst damage/thwarting. SP//dr loves being readied - you can thwart with her, bounce her back to hand, play her, attack, ready her with Spider-Man, thwart, bounce her back to hand, play her again, attack. It’s as silly as it sounds.

Events

• Across the Spider-Verse - 3ER for a Web-Warrior ally. Since three of your five WW allies are 4ER, using this to play one is like a Make the Call with a discount of one. Which means it’s very good. Have it exhaust your Web of Life and Destiny for no consequence whatsoever. (Feel free to use this multiple times too, you can choose yourself as a player. Just exhaust an ally and feed it two more resources. Great if you have a resource-heavy hand.)

• Blaze of Glory - This card exists in this deck purely to end the game, though it can get you out of a pinch. Since each ally only gains Guardian from Star-Lord’s ability while he’s in hero form, you can use this to give yourself and allies a huge damage/thwart bonus, then go alter-ego. If you do this, it will only damage Rocket Raccoon and Gamora who are naturally Guardians.

• 3x Daring Escape - A risky card to start with, but better than people give it credit for. Useful with Leader of the Guardians if you need 3 thwarting to clear a side scheme or to save the main scheme. It’s better when used with Blaze of Glory, and best used to end the game. It’s 1ER for 2 damage or 2 thwarting and an encounter card. An encounter card is worth roughly -3 resources (this varies greatly but is generally a good benchmark), so Daring Escape with caution.

• 2x Gutsy Move - -3 ER for 2 thwarting. A terrible card without encounter cards in front of you, that becomes tolerable with one encounter card and good with two. Don’t take encounter cards just to boost this unless you don’t have any other way to save the main scheme/remove a hazard symbol side scheme.

• 3x Make the Call - 0ER for having any ally from your discard pile available. Or even your friends’ discard piles. If you play much of Marvel Champions, you know how good this card is. Use this on any Web-Warrior to enable bypass their need to have Web-Warrior in play, and now you can play all your Web-Warriors! Need a minion taken down? Call Rocket Raccoon. Lost your SP//dr chain combo? Call her back. Looking for combo pieces? Nick’s your man. Overall good value? Ghost-Spider’s ready. This card is the key to every lock.

• 3x Sliding Shot - 4ER for 5 damage. Like Gutsy Move, the damage here is poor on its own and really needs encounter cards to make it worthwhile. It’s okay without encounter cards in a pinch if you don’t have efficient damage on the board and want to clear a minion. Otherwise? Use this late game after gathering some encounter cards to destroy the villain. The more encounter cards, the merrier.

Resources

Here we use the standard, basic resource cards and The Power in All of Us. Most of the deck is comprised of basic cards, and The Power in All of Us really helps us ramp up with Avengers Mansion/Helicarrier and is excellent for playing Spider-Man (Peter Parker) from hand.

Supports

• Avengers Mansion - Again, a classic card that is very, very good. Try to play this with at least one double resource card if you can - but don’t prioritize it over cards like Knowhere and Web of Life and Destiny, which will draw 1 or more cards a turn too but cost much less.

• Bad Boy - 4ER for a block, two cards, and the ability to use your REC without the villain scheming. It’s a little slow on tempo but don’t let this card’s reputation get in the way of how useful it is. Some games, you’ll never play it. In others, it will save you from losing and let you bounce back into the game.

• Helicarrier - Much like Avengers Mansion, this is an amazing card to help you power-up but shouldn’t be prioritized over other set up pieces.

• Knowhere - A main component of this deck you’ll trigger every round. It’s like Avengers Mansion for us, but cheaper and it expands our ally limit.

• Web of Life and Destiny - This is our most valuable card. It both enables us to play our cards and draws us a ridiculous amount of cards. Is it worth playing for 4ER when a Web-Warrior hero would get it for 1ER? Yes. Yes, it is. Prioritize this and bask in glorious card draw.

Upgrades

• Clarity of Purpose - 1 damage taken for 1 resource is an excellent trade. It’s not as good as Avengers Mansion or Helicarrier on the board, but it’s cheaper to get going. Play this to get a resource generator out alongside your top-priority cards. If I don’t play this in the early game, or on a quiet mid-game turn, I won’t play it at all and that’s okay. Alternatively, this can be great to play on another player in multiplayer if you are at a point where your card draw engine is online and it’s not necessary.

• 2x Element Gun - Great card. 4ER can be a bit costly, but the ability to convert a resource into 3 damage is amazingly efficient. Piercing is just the icing on the cake and comes in handy more often than you expect it too. Have at least one of these out to be extremely consistent at clearing out minions.

• Endurance - I primarily used this card as a 3 hp heal when I am low health, or otherwise just if I have spare resources and no threats to clear. Getting extra hp with Star-Lord isn’t a priority. With that said, I’ve played it in every single game with this deck.

• Jet Boots - This card is a trap. It’s rarely worth its cost - with so many allies ready to block, including Mockingbird who can stop two attacks with her stun included, you don’t ever really need this. I’ll play it only if I have little else to do and want to thin my deck, and actually use it perhaps once or twice per game.

• Leader of the Guardians - This card is insanely powerful. If you’re running a lot of allies, you’re getting a LOT of value. Even Star-Lord benefits from it - just remember it stops working on most allies when you go alter-ego. The amount of value this adds is tremendous across the coarse of a game.

• Star-Lord's Helmet - A great card that really comes in useful. It basically means your hero ability, “What Could Go Wrong?” becomes a discount of 3 and a delayed card draw, rewards you for going through your deck, and starts to help you build up huge hands in the late game when you’re going all out.

Alternative Cards

Should you wish to tweak the deck, there are some great options and there’s definitely room to explore. Spider-Man (Hobie Brown) and Clarity of Purpose are the least important cards, in my opinion, and thus the ones best swapped if necessary. Mockingbird should be swapped out too if you are up against a Steady or Stalwart villain.

• Blaze of Glory - It’s a good card, and more of a good thing is a very good thing. Taking more of this card is better in multiplayer than solo, especially with someone else playing Justice, where it’s safe to go alter-ego to have you and your allies dodge its damage afterwards. It goes from a tool to end games, to a tool you can use at almost any point.

• C.I.T.T. - Without Leader of the Guardians, this card isn’t great - but with it, it turns 2 resources into 3 thwarting when used on yourself. It can also grab you some burst potential from allies like Rocket to defeat minions, or card draw/cycling from SP//dr and Gamora. And it does a lot more when combined with Blaze of Glory.

• Maria Hill Hill - 3 ER, for 2 thwarting, 1 card, and a block. She is about as effective as Nick Fury in solo, which is to say excellent, but in multiplayer she is surely the single best ally in the game.

• Regroup - If Maria Hill is the most powerful ally, Regroup is surely the most powerful Support card. 2ER to return an ally to hand when they are defeated isn’t great, but 2ER to return two allies to hand? That’s good, and why on 2-4 player this card is absolutely ridiculous. It’s not unusual for 4-5 allies to get defeated by attacks with this card in play, giving all players repeat access to the best allies in the game. Personally, I only recommend this if you are a) playing multiplayer and b) struggling to win.

• Scarlet Spider - While poorly costed on its own, it's efficient through Across the Spider-Verse. Unfortunately, in my testing, it never really did anything for me - even despite Star-Lord farming encounter cards, giving it many treacheries to trigger off. Still, it’s possible someone else may get better results! It’s worth considering.

• Spider-Man - He doesn't have the Web-Warrior tag, but 4 ATK or 3 THW (4 with Leader of the Guardians) is notable burst damage/thwarting as far as allies go. Solid card for most situations.

• Team Training - With this card, your allies go a lot further but your card draw slows down due to Web of Life and Destiny needing your WW allies to leave play. It’s still powerful and, should you go for it, I definitely recommend The Triskelion too.

• The Triskelion - I included this in early versions of the deck but never ran into the ally limit. Still, a more conservative playstyle/lower difficulty could have this happen, and in which case this card is a great choice! It can also work well with the aforementioned Team Training - or if you have healing effects from other players such as Adam Warlock or a player with Med Team.

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  Thank you for reading and good luck if you play the deck! If you do, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.