Spider-Man V Rhino inspired by GetUpandGame! PerfectMatchUp

Hi welcome to the first of a series of decks I plan to build directly influenced by the amazing Get Up and Game! Perfect Match-Up series found here: https://youtu.be/1I2q3sT6FoA Please check out the channel and the video since I thought it was an amazing gift to the community and it inspired me to start playing Champions more regularly.

My goal with this series is to create a unique deck inspired by each challenge match-up in the video using all the suggested cards plus some of my own to create a deck that any player can use to check out the challenge. If you’re missing some cards from a deck please ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to find replacements from your collection so that you can have fun too! Hopefully I can build a deck that can beat the villain on both standard and expert. I’ll try to document any tweaks I made while playing the deck too.

Thankfully we’re starting off easy with Rhino Vs Spider-Man (Protection). I played this match up 4 times. I won my first game on standard and then lost my first game on expert. I swapped out a couple cards and this is the final deck which defeated expert Rhino two times in a row without much issue(obviously Rhinos 7 threat threshold means you can sometimes just have a real bad draw that knocks you out instantly but I think the deck will win most of the time)

The set up here is fairly simple. Because you don’t really ever want Rhino to scheme, we will probably only stay as Peter Parker for the very first turn and then stay as Spider-Man the rest of the game. Since most of our defense events are useless in the opening hand, I’d recommend trying to mulligan for an Ally and/or 2-3 upgrades that you can lay down on the very first turn.

Let’s look the allies and upgrades first:

Jocasta / Brother Voodoo : If you're playing on standard getting an ally in your opening hand is less important but they will be a huge help in expert since taking out the Breakin and Takin side scheme will be a the most important step to your success. Playing down either of these allies along with Spider-Man will get you the three THW needed to clear the side scheme. If you have Jocasta, hopefully you can pay for an upgrade with a defensive event so that you can then immediately pass it to her for the opening round against Rhino. If you have Brother Voodoo then you will almost always get to draw an extra event which you can use to play down some more upgrades.

As far as upgrades, I would say to prioritize defense over offense since you want to stabilize the game state for more consistent victories.

Armored Vest will get you to 4 Defense. This should help prevent you taking most damage from Rhino when paired with your defense events.

You definitely want to try and get at least 1 copy of Hard to Ignore out early so that you can stop the 1 threat added to the main scheme automatically each round. A second copy will put you on the offensive, removing more threat than is naturally added.

Unflappable will help you replace the defensive events you use after being attacked and Nerves of Steel will help you pay for your events.

On offense we have Flow Like Water that will rack up extra points of damage for your events and Electrostatic Armor will deal damage every time you defend.

For events you have:

Desperate Defense to block big attacks and ready Spiderman so he can either defend again or attack and thwart as needed. If side schemes are out or the threat is building because of an advance, you can use Not Today! for a big defense and remove some threat. This was the card I added to the deck after my loss, removing some of my damaging events because I wanted to make sure I could remove threat from multiple side schemes if necessary. Jump Flip can also prevent damage and remove threat but remember that you have to take damage to use it. In a pinch it may be worth taking a hit to the face in order to remove threat.

Powerful Punch that can be used to stop a minion before they start and Counter-Punch to retaliate with some more damage after being attacked. Preemptive Strike can also protect you from big boosts and push that damage back on Rhino.

When it comes to Spider-Man's built in kit, I want to caution the use of Webbed Up. Most of your damage and threat removal comes from defending so if you dont allow Rhino to attack, it can be especially difficult to remove threat efficiently. Similarly Aunt May is probably not needed since you will most likely never flip down.

One final tip: Don't forget to draw your cards! Spiderman gets one every time the villain initiates an attack against him. You get this one right away so you might draw exactly the defense event you need. You get to draw a card after you spend Defensive Energy on a defense event and you get another card if you successfully defend against an attack without taking damage and exhaust Unflappable.