Gwen Hits the Griddy

picture from pinterest

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Ghost-Spider is well-known to have a fighting style based on ballet techniques; but today we will be trading in the ballet slippers for some Air Jordans as Gwen adds some hip-hop to her repertoire.

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What is the Griddy?

"The griddy is a popular break dance move in which a person repeatedly taps their heels while swinging their arms back and forth to create "ok" symbols on their eyes" -wikipedia

• The Marvel Champions Griddy involves shoring up Gwen's thwarting with Repurpose and True Grit. While Gwen typically has no issue taking no damage, Gwen's 1 THW and reliance on Phantom Flip can lead to awkward shuffles and inefficient threat removal, putting her up against the other loss condition.
• With Repurpose, Gwen always has access to THW on command. Paired with Dizzying Reflexes and Spider-Man, Gwen can become a thwarting machine
• Things get crazier in the villain phase because Repurpose boosts last until the end of the round. Since Gwen will still have 2-3 THW, after we defend we can use True Grit to instantly remove a chunk of threat...but also ready her AND draw a card off Web-Bracelet because True Grit is a response event
• If thwart isn't needed, Repurpose can boost ATK and Counter-Punch in the villain phase will deal extra damage! Counter-Punch is another response event for the purposes of Dizzying Reflexes and Web-Bracelet. Thanks to MegiDolaDyne for spreading his appreciation of Counter-Punch to me

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Video example of the Griddy

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How to Griddy

• Step 1 Gear Up
  • Energy Barrier helps hit Unflappable triggers while pinging toughs and whittling enemies down
  • Plasma Pistol allows for more control over when and how to use its charges, while smoothing out damage
  • Electrostatic Armor chips away at the villain, but is also the cheapest tech, useful for hitting lower benchmarks or readying before flipping and removing our obligation
  • Web-Bracelet might not seem like a great Repurpose target, but it is actually excellent! Don't be afraid to discard one or both to close out the game or kick off a huge turn
• Step 2 Challenge the Villain to a Dance Battle
  • Play Repurpose to boost stats
• Step 3 Jump Around and Swing Wildly
  • Ready using Dizzying Reflexes, Spider-Man, more copies of Repurpose, and Ticket to the Multiverse
• Step 4 Hit the Griddy
  • Use True Grit and Counter-Punch in the villain phase to clear board and push for damage
• Step 5 Raise the OK Up to Each Eye
  • Profit

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Stomp the Yard

• An ideal last turn would look like:
  1. Basic attack for 2
  2. Repurpose Energy Barrier etc and basic attack for 4
  3. Ghost Kick for 6 and a draw off the first Web-Bracelet if it isn't exhausted from the villain phase (don't ready yet)
  4. Repurpose the first Web-Bracelet and attack for 6
  5. Ghost Kick for 6 and a draw from the remaining bracelet
  6. Repurpose your second Web-Bracelet and attack for 8
  7. Attack with Spider-Man for 2 and a ready
  8. Basic attack for 8 again
  9. Trigger Ticket to the Multiverse to ready and basic attack for 8
  10. Play the third Ghost Kick for 6 and finally activate Dizzying Reflexes to ready
  11. Basic attack for 8
  12. If the villain is somehow still standing, Counter-Punch them for 8

This amounts to 72 damage for 13 ER from hand. From a 5 card hand, 3 cards under George Stacy, 2 cards from Web-Bracelet, 5 cards from Ticket to the Multiverse, and some luck, it is theoretically possible. Practically speaking, a smaller combo does the trick, but I'm often surprised just how much damage can be available at any given time. Every turn ask yourself "can Web-Bracelet be spared here to push damage for game?"

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Tricks and Kicks

• After you see Worried Father hit the discard or remove it from the game yourself, use George Stacy to set up our combo and make him proud
  • Only put Repurpose, True Grit, Counter-Punch, or Ghost Kick under George. We want to keep his spots open for the combo since you can't spend cards under him as resources
  • Parental Guidance can put a combo piece straight from the discard under George, setting us up for a flip back to hero

• Across the Spider-Verse (exhausting Web of Life and Destiny) is the primary way to get Spider-Man into play, bypassing his play restrictions
  • George Stacy can hold onto Across the Spider-Verse if you draw it first or if Spider-Man has health remaining
  • If Spider-Man is on his last health and you have Across the Spider-Verse, you can Repurpose something, spend his last health to ready Gwen, and then bring him back to do it again the same turn
  • Don't forget you can always spend Spider-Man to pay part of the cost of Across the Spider-Verse, bringing him back with its effect
  • Ticket to the Multiverse is another way to afford Spider-Man

• On the topic of Spider-Man , use his activations sparingly.
  • Save him for Repurpose turns
  • Don't let him die while Across the Spider-Verse is in the discard, we want to make sure that when he leaves play we can bring him right back, preferably on a Repurpose turn!

• Spider-Man can make a single Web-Bracelet go further. Often, this deck can get by on just a single bracelet
  • If the second bracelet does end up getting played, don't overlook it as a constant Repurpose target
  • If we don't have the means to trigger Web-Bracelet again, we can always ready Plasma Pistol to squeeze more value before a Repurpose
  • There is a mythical turn where Web-Bracelets can activate three times, once each normally and one more with Otto (or even 5-6 times with Ticket+Otto cycling), but affording Otto and three events in the same turn is a tall ask

• SP//dr provides the typical loop with Web of Life and Destiny, a consistent ping and 2 THW any turn. Unnecessary every turn, but it is important to be aware of the ability to trigger a draw to dig for combo pieces or bounce back to instantly afford a 2-cost card
  • Some games the Web-Warrior package gets set up first, and some games the tech package is set up first; these games start out differently, but eventually they'll coalesce

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• Repurpose fills a lot of holes for Gwen
  • Increases her resilience to exhaustion and status effects that would usually prevent her from using Dizzying Reflexes
  • Provides burst thwart and damage
  • Patches up the relative lack of hero phase event readies in Protection
  • Double, or even triple, Repurpose turns can be potent, typically involving sacrificing long-term set-up pieces like Electrostatic Armor and Web-Bracelet to overcome the early- or mid-game curve, or providing the KO

• True Grit is one of the few Protection thwarts that can target side schemes, this means it can thwart a hazard side scheme before being dealt the extra encounter card. At minimum, it is removing the step 1 villain phase threat and giving you a ready for 2 ER!

• Counter-Punch can stack. If you boost to 4+ ATK, play up to three copies to turn 3 ER into 12+ damage (or 1 ER with both Bracelets out). Just a reminder, Counter-Punch can only be used against the attacker

• Unflappable can draw into an immediately playable True Grit or Counter-Punch. Ditto with Web-Bracelet, but Unflappable does so without needing to play another event first

• Save Ghost Kicks for the hero phase, as they are the only worthwhile events that can trigger Dizzying Reflexes there

• Avoid playing Pirouette and Punch, Web Binding, and Phantom Flip if it can be helped. These cards are expensive in an already high cost curve
  • Web Binding prevents us from triggering Unflappable, Electrostatic Armor, and Energy Barrier and usually has a worse return than Counter-Punch or Ghost Kick. It only triggers Dizzying Reflexes if we get attacked twice and use it on the second attack, so playing it generally wastes our DEF. It is most useful against opponents Gwen already has a bad matchup with, and the requirement is hard to hit
  • Pirouette and Punch is an expensive cancel, and only for **"When Revealed"** effects. Once again, relying on it for our villain phase ready is more situational than True Grit and Counter-Punch. We would rather play more worthwhile setup pieces than this expenditure allows
  • Phantom Flip has the drawback of being only one chunk of 5 threat removal. This means overpaying on 2-4 threat side schemes and often having to choose between clearing a threatening side scheme or working on the main. True Grit gets the job done for a lower cost, while Repurpose, SP//dr, and Spider-Man are more flexible

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Gwen is coming to Fortnite, where she'll be able to Griddy to her heart's content!

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Personal Touches

• Hard to Ignore is a good card, but I found it unnecessary here
• Symbiote Suit would fit into the ready combo, helping get the pieces and adding +1 to all our basic actions and True Grit/Counter-Punch. I found it too expensive to play most times, this is a tempo deck and it cost too much tempo
• Warrior of the Great Web can help push for damage, but the boost doesn't last into the villain phase, meaning it doesn't work with Counter-Punch, and it doesn't boost thwart which is what we'll be Repurpose boosting more early game. Needing to bounce SP//dr or lose another Web-Warrior for it makes it a bit more situational. I was never lacking for damage when needed
• Adrenaline Rush and Civic Duty are in the same vein as Warrior of the Great Web
• Team-Building Exercise is a good card for any deck with the SP//dr loop, but space is an issue
• Silk is a valuable ally that we just don't have the tempo or space for

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Build Your Dance Crew

• Multiplayer tips
  • Gwen can defend for up to two players without risk of being stuck exhausted in the hero phase thanks to Repurpose
  • Gwen appreciates stat buffs from other players. In addition to her basic actions, Heroic Intuition can boost True Grit and Combat Training can boost Counter-Punch, while Leadership cards can help her with both!

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Gwen might take a little damage, for a change, without her typical defense event package, but she more than makes up for it with thwart and damage output! Go hit the griddy!

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Special Thanks

Thanks goes out to the Marvel Champions discord, where I regularly post lists from inception to completion. This list was sparked by a discussion with user sploosh and involved MegiDolaDyne, SC0E, VillainTheory, Andy N, and others