Don't be late to Gwen's party!

Gwen has decided to celebrate a party - and many preparations are needed! Friends must be invited! Luckily her father is allowing it, and is keen to help arranging the upcoming events. And yeah, a random villain or two will probably show up, but since they are not invited, it is mandatory to kick their asses out.

I am no expert, and this is a simple deck I made to try to understand how to better play in solo protection. These are notes for my own and will be far from perfect, so please be nice on your comments, I'm always willing to learn :)

Overall strategy:

Gwen will prefer to stay in hero mode, since changing into alter ego will cause the plan to advance, and intervening capabilities for her will be limited at first. The plan is to 1) make full use of allies, 2) create passive benefits when defending and 3) be a pain in the ass for the villain during its turn as much as possible. Weakness that will need to be compensated are: a structurally lower hand size and limited chances to flip and recover. There is a low count of high cost cards, as I think event-driven decks gain in flexibility when costs remain low.

Mulligan strategy:

Gwen has many potential openings. In terms of priority: Web-Bracelet helps you grow your hand while you play interruption or response cards. George Stacy definitely helps you getting the timing of events right in a cheap way. Armored Vest is a cheap, early investment that makes it easier to stay in hero mode while making it more likely to trigger the combos of Unflappable and Hard to Ignore whenever they come.

Opening the door to allies:

The holy trilogy of Across the Spider-Verse, Team-Building Exercise and Web of Life and Destiny should help bringing your spider-allies faster and cheaper, while they leave a tip in the form of an extra card when they leave. Paying for these during the first turns can be a long-term investment. Brother Voodoo is a personal choice that can be swapped with any other high-intervention ally you can find, but I specially like the fact that he may add an extra event card to your hand.

Strategy:

Early game - party preparations! Upgrades are in general cheap, which is great not to sacrifice resources to play allies early in the game to help you with the game tempo. Bringing many (cheap) upgrades into play too early is tempting, but never lose sight on how the villain plan is going. Plan B is there ideally to make use of those turns in which you have any remaining cards in your hand, which may happen. Web-Bracelet is ideal to have soon as well to capitalize on that extra card every time you interrupt.

Mid game - finish building your table and start receiving company! invest in the holy trilogy described earlier above. It should help you have at hand at least two allies at all time to help you dealing with the tempo of the game. Upgrades at the table should help you trigger passive abilities that either make damage, remove threat or give you cards when you successfully defend.

Late game - don't forget to bring your event cards! depending on how the game goes, use George Stacy to time events and play your signature event cards to create damage and intervene. Spider-Man and What Doesn't Kill Me can help you getting ready, while the latter cures you at the same time, making it a very important card in the deck.

I hope you liked it, any comments and improvements will be welcomed!