Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man | Building a Modern Spider-Family Team – 18/19 Modern

Two weeks ago, I revisited the past with a Sinister Syndicate Team Build and today I’m digging into the past yet again building around those awesome Spider-People!

I mentioned two weeks ago how the Sinister Syndicate and Spider-Man Family are both big keywords for the history of Clix Fix, and the Spider-Man Family keyword goes back even further as the second article I ever wrote! What’s interesting is that over the years I have come to appreciate Pete’s villains moreso than Peter himself, at least in Heroclix. That’s probably due to the fact that back in Superior Foes of Spider-Man, we had the awesome trait called “Call In Help From The Spider-Verse” (that was just reborn with the Venom chases in Earth X) which gave the Keyword some amazing synergy. This time around, Spidey’s villains got a shared trait that simply makes them a better team to run than the Spiders on paper. However, that doesn’t mean that these kiddos shouldn’t get their due as well!

I wonder if we’ll keep having this dichotomy for every Spider-Man set; one set the Spiders are amazing, the next the Syndicate is rockin the house. Only time will tell.

Anyways, the lack of a shared trait doesn’t mean the Spider-Man Family team is bad; it just means they don’t have the same kind of firepower that the villains are bringing to the party.

I’ve had quite a lot of people comment how they’ve been anxiously waiting for this team build article since my last Syndicate post. If you didn’t read that team build, that’s okay! What you need to know is that because these team builds are focused on a Keyword rather than a specific character, it’s going to work a lot different than my normal articles. Further, unlike the Sinister Syndicate build two weeks ago, I don’t have a trait to go over that they all utilize, so this one might be a bit shorter than you’re used to. Like the SS, I’m going to aim for multiple team builds so you can gauge how you want to build, be it excluding figures that will be retiring on July 1st (which we now 100% know who will rotate), going for a bigger point build, or just using some of the newest figures to come out. Unfortunately the newest LE Spider figures from the April OP kit aren’t in the units section yet (but they have been revealed) so I’m going to skip them for the sake of ease.

Oh, before I do jump into these builds though, there is one decision we have to make.

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PRIME VS. PRIME VS. PRIME – THREE SPIDERS ENTER, ONE SPIDER LEAVES!

It’s great that the Spider-Man Family Keyword got a Prime! That gives us some nice power to combat the Sinister Syndic- what’s that? Oh, we got three Primes in Earth X? Well, that’s inconvenient for this team build. I guess we have no choice but to compare the three and figure out which one we like more.

001b Venom

A nice tie-up piece with three distinct modes within the dial. May has some surprising damage and board control for her points, and she has a nice bonus mid-dial to help her allies get around the board a bit better. May’s main problems is that her values aren’t that great for a Prime and she purely relies on Super Senses and Shape Change to keep her safe. One good hit and May will be in some trouble, and since her nature is to get in and close the gap and hold opponents there, she’ll become a target rather quickly. There’s no subtlety in this dial; she gets in the fight and stays there until either she’s KO’d or her opponent is. That’s not bad, but does she really deserve your Prime slot?

037b Spider-Man

Whether he was supposed to be Spider-Man 2099 or not, this is one hell of a dial for Miles and easily shatters what we got back in Superior Foes of Spider-Man, if you can even count that as a dial as frankly it was hot garbage. Unlike Venom, Miles gets to pick up Stealth to keep him much safer but he does lose the Shape Change. But that’s okay because the Outwit is a much better option. Miles also flat out ignores characters for movement meaning he’s never locked down whereas another Venom or Plasticity figure can stop May. He’s also much safer than most Spiders as his Super Senses is Protected: Outwit, and he gets to jump around if he succeeds. Follow this up with an ability to up his attack value to a freaking 12 and completely ruin a swarm of figures and it’s easy to see why you should pay 5 more points and run Miles (if you have him).

053b Spider-Woman

Mattie is completely different than the other Primes in that she doesn’t have a clear roll. Her wild dial with the ability to pick any power she can’t currently use that’s on her card gives her an awful lot of support. The problems I have with Spider-Woman is that support is her best roll thanks to those 10 attack values, but you’re sinking 80 points and your Prime slot for that support figure. The upside to that is Mattie does everything you need with just one figure. Perplex? Prob? Outwit? Taxi? Pulse Wave in a pinch? She can do it all, and that’s certainly worth taking into consideration. Annoyingly, Mattie brings one of the first regular team abilities to the Keyword with Mystics, which of course is uncopyable. That Mystics does help her a lot though as it gives a dial that’s much harder to chew through than it seems some teeth if you want to try and go after her. At only 5 points higher than Miles, she’s a great option since she’ll do so much on your team.

Final Verdict: For the sake of the strength of the teams, I have to disregard value and rarity and say that Miles is the clear winner of the bunch, but Spider-Woman is fresh on his heels. It depends on what your team needs as Spider-Woman is honestly a fantastic pick. Miles wins simply because he has so much going on in that 75-point package and he’s a pain to go up against. Mattie will be good, but she won’t provide the anxiety that Miles will. Venom is just not worth the points. Why go for her when you can have either of the other primes for 5 or 10 points less? If you don’t own either Miles or Mattie, than May is still an okay option; she’s just not wowing me for a Prime.

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Let’s dive into the teams and I’ll discuss each figure as usual. First up, we’re going to utilize just figures that will stay Modern passed rotation this year.

300 Point Modern Spider-Man Family Team (Surviving Rotation This Year) – 18/19 Modern

• EAX037a Spider-Man | 90 Points
• EAX037b Spider-Man | 75 Points
• EAX018 Ezekiel Sims | 50 Points
• EAX015 Spider-Man | 30 Points
• SWB040 Spiderling | 30 Points
• AIG015e Spider-Mobile | 5 Points
• EAXS004 Octopus Arms | 10 Points (not in units section at time of writing)
• EAXS006 Venom Symbiote | 4 Points (not in units section at time of writing)
• WKMVID-018 Cyclops | 3 Points
• XXSXID-003 Leech | 3 Points
• Sideline: XXS052e Cyclops, XXS024 Leech
• Spider-Man Family Theme Team: +5
• Build Total: 300 Points

Let’s start things off with the 100% must-play figure in every Spider-Family theme team, just like how we had Doctor Octopus in the last article! The Rare Spider-Man from Earth X is just insanely good for his points and gives the Super Rare from Superior Foes of Spider-Man a run for his money. This is a highly intense dial with tons of maneuverability and top-dial Probability Control which is incredibly rare for Peter to have. He’s got his signature weapon with the Web-Shooters, but they’re easily the worst equipment in the set (while still being good in the right setting). Peter starts things off with a fantastic ranged mode, swaps over to a brutal melee attacker, and ends his dial as a nice Hypersonic Speed harassment figure. But the main reason why Spider-Man is an auto include on any Spider-Family team moving forward is his amazing trait:

PROTECT MY FAMILY: FREE: If no other friendly character has activated this trait this turn, choose an opposing character that attacked a friendly character with the Spider-Man Family keyword since your last turn. Place Spider-Man such that he can make a close attack targeting the chosen character, then do so.

Yep, it’s essentially colossal retaliation for Spider-Man Family characters, but without the weakness of having a colossal character with only 1 click of health. Keep in mind that Peter is friendly to himself, so he can easily activate this trait if he was attacked. 6 clicks might be a little light for 90 points, but this trait and the addition of Probability Control makes him the best Spider-Man post rotation, and probably top 3 of all-time. Oh yeah, the realms has a mistake; this dude has a printed 4 range, not 0!

Next up is Miles which I talked about up above. He’ll provide Outwit to pair nicely with Peter’s Prob to give us two figures that can dive in together and take care of pretty much anything. Miles will be your up-close-and-personal figure while Peter does the run-and-gun game for as long as he can. It’s a little risky having only two attackers with these two, but there’s so much control and counterplay with both of these guys that I think we’ll be okay. After all, Miles can Quake everyone away making them immobile and unable to engage in melee combat while Peter gets to dash away after attacking. Melee teams are going to hate this duo.

Ezekiel Sims is in my opinion another must-have figure on Spider-Man Family teams. Another figure with top-dial Probability Control is nice, but some of you might look at this dial and think “why am I paying 50 points for this?” and you would be right to question it. However, Ezekiel brings yet another powerful trait to our team that relies once again on the Spider-Man Family Keyword:

PROTECTOR OF THE SPIDER TOTEM: Barrier. Barrier as FREE, but only to place one marker adjacent to a friendly character with the Spider-Man Family keyword.

Barrier is already a rare power in this Keyword, so that’s a great option to have to help protect our spiders while they’re resting or help them move into position, but Ezekiel cranks this up a notch. He has the ability to place a piece of blocking terrain for free as long as it’s next to a Spider-Man Family character (and within the normal range of Barrier). That’s some fantastic protection! And honestly, his dial isn’t that bad. If you push him and get him to his third click, he’s a pretty efficient tie-up piece.

Dubbed “Fat Spider-Man”, Earth X Spidey makes the list as a great support figure at 30 points. He brings the PD team ability to our force which everyone will be able to pick up, meaning our rare Spidey is going to make some easy hits with his Running Shot thanks to all the defense lowering. But Earth X Pete is no slouch either. he can easily dash in and pickup one of our spiders if they’re hurt or just need to rest for a while and then push to heal them up the following turn, all while Ezekiel throws up a wall to protect them more. I like that he has his movement power through his entire dial and can push into some Perplex to give him more utility. Just be careful because his defenses are not great.

As the last figure on the team, Spiderling brings a silver bullet to our force in slaying colossal retaliators after they do their thing. Anna-May will have to keep within 4 squares of her family in order for her anti-retaliation power to work but that’s not too difficult to do since these types of teams like to stay together. Spiderling also has the phenomenal ability to give you a once-per-turn re-roll on any friendly Spider-Man Family figure within her range, which is… literally everyone on the team. This will most likely make Spiderling a primary target which is fine since she’s only 30 points. She’s no slouch either; 10 Charge and 10-attach with Precision Strike is quite good at this cost.

It’s tough to fill a theme team like this when you have 25 points left over, so I went with a combination of terrain, equipment, and 2 ID cards.

If you’re gonna go with terrain on a Spider-Man team, why not use the buggy? Mainly this is a nice way to give our team a little more protection on the approach while also clogging pathways on the map, and with a +5 to map roll, you have a good chance at picking something outdoors that will have some choke points.

For equipment, I went with the combo of the Venom Symbiote and the Octopus Arms. The arms turn Miles into an even deadlier figure and gives him some scary single-target damage potential which our team is missing quite a bit of. The Venom Symbiote can go on either Spider-Man (remember he can equip and KO the web-shooters during the game) to give him some more protection, or you can use it to beef up Ezekial to make him a bit scarier, Fat Peter to make him a little safer, or Spiderling to make her truly annoying to deal with.

With 6 points remaining, two Student ID cards was the best option. I went with Leech because anyone on the team can call him in, and even though Miles already has Outwit, calling in Leech to Outwit a grouping of enemies and having Miles come in and Quake them all can be brutal. Cyclops was the other pick as we have 5 characters with the PD team ability and we’re desperately lacking ranged damage as Spiders aren’t adept in this regard. He can be our ace in the hole that we call in against a big baddie.

This team doesn’t do anything unique; it’s just about utilizing our points the best way we can and getting a good amount of control and support for our figures. Aside from Miles, it’s also pretty cheap to build, and he isn’t even that bad anymore.

Next up, let’s see what we can do with all of the Spiders in Modern, regardless of the coming rotation.

300 Modern Spider-Man Family Team (Disregarding Rotation) – 18/19 Modern

• WI039 Peter the Hunter | 90 Points
• EAX037a Spider-Man | 90 Points
• SFSM062 Spider Punk | 75 Points
• SFSM048 Frog-Man | 35 Points
• EAXS004 Octopus Arms | 10 Points (not in units section at time of writing)
• Spider-Man Family Theme Team: +4
• Build Total: 300 Points

This team is a lot simpler than the last team, but it has a ton of aggression. I knew I wanted a big hitter from the past as Spider-Man Family had some great figures in the lsat 3 years, mainly Superior Spider-Man, the Super Rare “Handstand” Spider-Man, the Spider-Verse chases, Cosmic Spider-Man, and Peter the Hunter. The problem is that this Keyword doesn’t have a lot of low-cost figures that you can use, so if you opt for something big like Superior Spider-Man, it greatly hinders whatever else you can put on the team. Also, these figures have already shown their age with their values, and the rule changes did hurt figures like Superior Spider-Man and Cosmic Spider-Man.

So I went with Peter the Hunter. I’ve written about Peter the Hunter before, and you can find my old team build about him here. Not only do you get tons of value out of Peter thanks to his pogs which feature Flurry, Ranged Combat Expert, Outwit, and a Charge/Blades piece, you also get a figure that can become immortal if he can KO characters of 50 points or more. That’s not too difficult to accomplish with his Blades and Exploit Weakness. I wanted to build around Peter the Hunter and make him the purpose of the team.

For a secondary attacker, I went with the rare Spider-man again from Earth X over “Handstand” Spidey for two reasons: 1) his retaliation will allow him to teleport into the fight if he needs to and offers more threat (taking heat off of Peter), and 2) he has Probability Control top-dial. Sure, Handstand Spidey has Perplex, but Prob is a better power, and the rare Spidey is 10 points cheaper which means we can add a piece of equipment. This is also a team that will benefit from those web shooters. Since he can double target Incap figures or give them immobile, he’s extremely good at locking down the field for Peter the Hunter to get into the fight and get a chance at some damage. Handstand Spidey can’t do that, so the utility alone gives the rare the edge.

Next up is arguably the most efficient damage dealer with this Keyword; Spider-Punk. This guy is still nuts even after power creep. Super Senses/Shape Change will keep him relatively safe and the Charge/Flurry/Precision Strike is scary since he can now break through any reducers twice in one turn for just 75 points. Spider-Punk also moves into Pulse Wave with only a 4 range, so he’s a secret play that can turn the tide quickly in our favor. But what I really like about him is that he also pulls in the old Call In Help trait that allows us to potentially bring Peter the Hunter into the fight. Lastly, he has the Spider’s Web trait which is yet another mechanic for us to stick our targets in place. Too bad he can only apply this to one hit target.

Frog-Man is our only support on the team, and if you’ve never seen or played this guy, he is stupid good. He gives us pseudo-Sidestep for any of our team members (which will help Peter the Hunter get to the equipment on our team for free), and can also knock enemy characters back 2 squares for free without making an attack or roll of any kind. His dial is also annoyingly long and tough for just 35 points. I love that if he manages to KO an enemy character with knock back damage he tokens all his opponents within 4 squares of where the original target was before biting the big one. He’s some secret tech that a lot of players have probably forgotten about.

With 10 points remaining, I again went with the Octopus arms as they give Peter the Hunter more reach and more consistent damage. Now he can choose whether he goes for 3 penetrating damage from Exploit, risks it with Blades+Exploit, or just goes for a steady 6 damage from Flurry (or even KO two weakened figures to rack up more trophy tokens). The Giant Reach: 2 is super helpful since he’s kind of slow too.

Again, this team isn’t the most efficient due to the lack of low-cost support figures with the Keyword that are worth running, but it’s hyper-aggressive and on the right map they can be a terror to play against. Although I do honestly like the first team better.

Just like with the Syndicate, for our final team with this Keyword, I’m upping things to 400 points and including anyone that’s still Modern, just like the last team.

400 Point Modern Spider-Man Family Team (Disregarding Rotation)

• SFSM049 Spider-Man | 100 Points
• EAX037a Spider-Man | 90 Points
• EAX037b Spider-Man | 75 Points
• SWB018 Spider-Man | 70 Points
• SWB040 Spiderling | 30 Points
• SFSM019 Mary Jane | 25 points
• SFSMS101 Symbiote | 6 Points
• EAXS006 Venom Symbiote | 4 Points (not in units section at time of writing)
• Spider-Man Family Theme Team: +6
• Build Total: 400 Points

I have a confession to make; I decided to just have some stupid amounts of fun with this team rather than trying to make it the best it could be. Let me share my idea with you!

I may not like Mary Jane all that much (although she’s much better in the comics than the Sam Rami films), but she has one kick-ass trait for a Spider-Man team:

ONE MOMENT IN TIME: Adjacent friendly characters named Spider-Man modify their attack value by +1 and can use the the Carry ability, but only to carry Mary Jane.

Unlike most Spider-Man Family figures, she specifically buffs characters named Spider-Man by giving them a free +1 to attack, and she has Perplex to boot. So my idea is basically either move Mary Jane so that she can see someone, Perplex their defense down, then GO TO TOWN with all these freakin’ Spider-Man’s.

Our first Spidey is Handstand Spidey. Why would we leave off the greatness on every team? This guy is still just amazing even though he was horribly depowered from the rules rework in 2017. Now Peter just has 18 Super Senses that’s no longer protected from Outwit to keep him safe, but that’s okay because with proper placement, this guy still pulls so much damage. Okay, yes, he can’t use an object with Hypersonic Speed anymore either, so that hurts, but he’s still very efficient. Another Perplex up front, the Spider’s Web trait to keep people locked down, and some seriously amazing back-end clicks that can decimate even the biggest foe. This Spider-Man still feels the most like Spidey from the comics when you play him, and with the addition of Mary Jane, he’ll feel a little more worth those 100 points when he’s rocking a 12 (or even 13) attack value.

We covered both the Rare Spider-Man (twice!) and Miles before, so there’s no sense in doubling up again. Basically, they’ll both get the bonuses from Mary Jane, and the Rare Spidey and his ability to move two squares after hitting with an attack will allow us to reposition Mary Jane a lot easier since any Spider-Man can carry her. Oh yeah, and his retaliation is going to feel a lot better with so many modifiers!

For my last Spider-Man, I went with the Battleworld Baron Peter Parker, even though I said I would never use him. 2 turns to sit around and wait is brutal, but in this case it’s honestly not that bad. With a +6 to map roll, you can pick something outdoors to favor all your improved movement (except on this guy? What the heck?), and with some good protection from ranged attacks. In the meantime, you can equip your other guys while you wait for the Baron to come out to play. Baron Spidey is incredibly efficient once he does come out of hiding and brings another source of Outwit, Leadership which we could really use, and yet another Perplex. I love his end-dial Support clicks too. He’s not perfect, but at 70 points he’s not bad either, and it’ll help that he now has a 12 attack thanks to MJ.

I figured Spiderling was too good to leave out, especially now that we’re dealing with bigger threats. Super Senses is going to be needed to survive those big swings in 400-point matches, and the anti-retaliation will be nice as well.

With just 10 points remaining, I figured I could go with the Octopus Arms yet again since they’re pretty much the best equipment for melee teams, but I decided to be ultra annoying instead; TWO Venom Symbiotes. Yep, for a little while longer, you can run the older model at 6 points as well as the new equipment for 4 points which both give the same bonus. My advice would be to throw one on Handstand Spidey (probably the older one since he can really use the +1 to stats chance), and the newer one on Miles. Now we have some stupid roll-out capabilities and defenses. Three Perplexes, Shape Change on two figures, Rerolling on Super Senses on anyone except Mary Jane, Probability Control, AND Theme Team Probability Control. That’s an awful lot to get through to actually hit one of our guys.

This team is pretty silly, but it can get out of hand with the right positioning, and that will be the key. You’ll need to prioritize how you move your Spiders in so that Mary Jane can keep repositioning for free so that they all get that +1 to attack. I would go in this order in a perfect setting: Rare Spider-Man for Running Shot + 2 square movement after -> Miles Morales with Quake -> Handstand Spidey to knock them towards Baron Spidey and MJ -> Baron Spidey with the finisher. You can swap that out if you’d like but I think you have the best odds of having her adjacent for all attacks in that scenario.

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To be fair, I don’t feel as strong about these builds as I did with the Sinister Syndicate, and I also don’t feel like I could keep building teams around them. Unlike the SS, it seems like a few pieces are must-haves on the teams (like Rare Spider-Man), yet they cost so much more, so your options are limited. There’s still some great figures I didn’t even get to use; Venom, Space Knight (!), Venom Spider-Man (who can call in Venom, Space Knight), the Spider Mobile, Super Rare Spider-Woman, Spider-Woman Prime (she just never pulled the weight that Miles did), LE Scarlet Spider, the list goes on and on. There’s a lot of good candidates for this Keyword, but I found it a little difficult to build an efficient team that didn’t recycle elements without sacrificing a lot of power.

I feel like the 400-point team could be built much differently, so I recommend that value if you want to experiment. If you have that fancy Venom Spider-Man chase, pair him up with Venom, Space Knight and maybe Fat Spider-Man to give everyone PD. That’s a good start.

What are your thoughts on these teams? Do you like what I’ve put together? What is your ideal Spider-Man Family team both with the new rotation coming and without? Let me know in the comments section!

Next week will probably be a revisit of my Top Budget Pieces After Rotation since we now know for sure what’s leaving this July, but I might save that for Clix Fix since it originally ran here. We’ll see. I’m sure there’s some other stuff I can write about in the meantime if I go that route.

Heck, what do you guys want to see? I’m always open to suggestions!

See you all next week on Two Clicks From KO!