Always Ready to Flow Like Water

Ghost-Spider is an awesome hero to play when you draw just the right set of Defense events, and proceed to block everything that the villain tries to throw at you while benefitting from it in numerous ways. But what happens when you start your own turn with all those Defense events in your hand?

Enter: Taunt. Angel's pack gifted us tank fans one of the most thematic cards in the game for our playstyle, allowing heroes that don't mind taking an extra hit to the face in exchange for cycling through 3 additional cards. The real value, though, comes from the fact that Taunt forces a villain attack on the player turn, allowing Defense events and their kickers to trigger early. With two Web-Bracelets, Taunting and then playing a Defense against the attack that it triggers draws you 5 cards - a whole new hand (6 if you used Defensive Energy)!

This allows me to run the huge toolbox of Defense events without ever feeling bricked, and they all contribute to her arsenal in different ways: Jump Flip and Not Today! give her some much-needed threat management, Side Step and Preemptive Strike add to her damage potential (along with Electrostatic Armor and Flow Like Water), while Never Back Down can even stun the villain for a turn. Stunning is usually something you wouldn't want to do in a deck like this, as you need to take attacks to get value off your cards, but in a multiplayer game this lets you blank the villain's attack on another player's turn. It can also go well with Taunt, essentially drawing you the 3 cards for free without having to rely on your Web-Bracelets/Unflappable being up. The ratios can be tweaked to your liking here. Some may question the omission of Defiance, but simply blocking damage isn't worth it when you can take advantage of all of these other effects instead (and with Nerves of Steel, all of these events are free anyway).

I also included a small Web-Warrior package: Web of Life and Destiny is too good to ignore on any Web-Warrior hero, as is Across the Spider-Verse. As far as the Allies themselves, Gwen usually wants to take hits herself, so we don't need to rely on them for chumping; instead, Peter Parker Spider-Man gives Gwen even more readies and holds a solid statline, Spider-UK can do 2-3 damage per block to help deal with minions that pop up, and Otto Octavius Spider-Man works wonderfully with Web-Bracelet and Web of Life and Destiny.

Now, you might have noticed this deck is 41 cards. That's because I've included a couple of flex spots depending on the matchup:

Angel's Aerie - Ghost-Spider defends every turn, period. Sometimes two or three times per round with Taunt in the deck. Her REC is also terrible, especially because you don't want to waste an action to do it, as none of her hero events can trigger in Alter-Ego. Luckily, Angel's pad means that we should never need to! Might be unnecessary against villains with lower damage counts, but even one or two big hits slipping past your defenses can leave you vulnerable, as there is zero healing in this deck outside of this card.

Containment Strategy - Again, Ghost-Spider defends constantly, often taking no damage while doing so. Her THW is also lackluster (though Phantom Flip and Not Today! help some). Similar to the Aerie, this might be unnecessary against villains with few side schemes.

Unflappable/Nerves of Steel/Defensive Energy - These all do essentially the same thing: Unflappable is incredible value, but Ghost-Spider doesn't always perfect defend; often times 1 or 2 damage can slip through. Nerves of Steel is always worth 1 resource, though, as long as it's paying for a Defense, and it's always on top of that, enabling the kickers for Jump Flip and Side Step. Defensive Energy is always a card draw, but it takes up a spot in your hand as opposed to being an upgrade. I think all three have roughly equal value in this deck, so it comes down to preference on if any of them should be cut.

Here is gameplay vs. Expert Crossbones, and here's my blog post discussing Ghost-Spider.