Jump Around

Multi-defense Spider-Ham protects the table by getting smacked around.

I've had a blast playing this at a player count of 3 and 4. Because of Peter Porker's high base health, high recovery, and Toon counter mechanic, he can take lots of hits, protect his friends, and then use the wild resources to play most of his remaining cards. Check it out:

• his base defense is 1, which is boring and unimpressive. But with Defensive Conditioning and Armored Vest and Endurance, he's up to Defense of 3 and Max health of 18. That's downright tanky.
• Even better, defense of 3 is NOT ENOUGH to reliably perfect defend. Which Spider Ham doesn't even want to do. Besides his basic defense, "I Can Do This All Day" can make him the target without defending, reducing (but rarely completely eliminating) incoming damage
• For attacks directed at him, Defiance. For attacks directed at others, Preemptive Strike. These take the mystery out of defending: you know exactly what you're getting hit for because you can see it on the Villain card. The boost card gets cartoon-bounced
• don't forget that you can use 'Toon counters, even in the Villain phase, to pay for "I Can Do This All Day" and/or Preemptive Strike
• All of these defense cards trigger Electrostatic Armor and Flow Like Water, ticking 2 damage back to the attacker (Dauntless unreliably makes it 3). I had Change of Fortune in one iteration, and it wouldn't be bad here, but I didn't find I was defending many minions to death... I mostly focused on catching villain activations.
• Cartoon Physics is just a great play, and Team-Building Exercise always gets put in a Spider-Ham deck because all his cards are Cartoon traited, just like him.

• because of all these attacks taken and 'Toon counters generated, setup is accelerated because you can usually play most of the remaining cards in your hand using the cash money you made defending for your friends.
• I rarely basic attack with this version of Spider-ham, so the Huge Wooden Hammer is more a "nice to have" than "must have". But Organic Webbing is going to be a must have as soon as you see it. This will allow you to thwart for 3 (helpful) or do this next thing.
• here's the Pièce de résistance: Spider ham can use a wild from a 'Toon counter to play Ready for a Fight. Flip down, recover for 7 (thanks Down Time), with more if you need from Dr. Sinclair, get a 'Toon counter for recovering (2 if you have The Daily Beagle), then flip up when the Villain tries to scheme. Jump around some more.

• Ops Room is a low-priority, but I included it here because (1) the ability to reduce incoming damage and thwart at the same time is nice and (2) I wanted at least one card that could benefit from Evaluate Threat in case someone else brought it. That said, with his easy access to a bonkers basic recovery, you probably won't miss it too much.
• In less than a month we will have a new "No-Allies" archetype for protection, and it will go really well with this deck. We don't want Peter Porker's defense to be too high, though, so I'd replace Armored Vest with Ronin for extra retaliate.
• Since his defense isn't that high, he won't want to play the cards that scale off defense (In Harms Way, Get Their Attention). Stand Alone will be great here, though, allowing him to defend for an earlier player, then free ready up when the Villain turns to Spider-Ham.

Like I started with, I've had a blast "Defending" for the table in multiplayer games, and I think you will too! Spider-Ham is such a strong character, he can run away with a multiplayer game, leaving the other players with little to do. So I've been looking for ways to flex the S-Tier heroes in ways that don't make other players feel overshadowed... being able to "Jump Around" and defend for other people lets them do the things they aim to do without the pesky Villain slowing them down.