How I Would Fix Spider-Man

gotskott

Spider-Man was voted the #3 superhero of all time (behind Superman and Batman), and yet his characters in MPQ do not even come close to representing that popularity. When I first started playing, I was super-excited to get Spider-Man. I didn't quite understand the rarity system, so I thought that any day now I would be getting him. It did take a while, but finally the spider icon showed up, I was excited again. Only to be let down by the let-down that Bag-man is. I couldn't believe that this joke of a character was to be my first Spider-Man experience. And when I finally got 3* Spider-Man, I was completely underwhelmed and disappointed.

I would like to see Spider-Man taken seriously, given real powers, and actually be fun to play. These are my suggestions on how to do that.

1. Make Web Tiles Interesting
Web tiles have very little to no effect on the game. There's very little benifit of having them on the board, and no bonus or penalty for removing them. I pretty much ignore them completely. This should change.

My main thought is to have web tiles have a negative effect for removal: Whichever character makes a match that includes a web tile would be stunned for a turn. Alternatively, it could be the character who matches the color of the web tile. This would make people think twice before removing them and would introduce the possibility of needing to sacrifice a character for a turn to remove a potentially dangerous web tile build-up.

2. Make a 1* Spider-Man
When I first got Venom and before I understood that it would be a long time before I got Spider-Man, I thought the idea of web tiles going back and forth would be interesting. Spider-Man would place them in his attacks, but if he did too many, Venom would make use of them. That give and take seemed interesting. But with Venom and Spider-Man being in two very different classes, it's not. I've never seen them battle, and never seen Venom get anywhere close to using the full potential of his Devour attack.

So let's use a scaled-down version that would give Spider-Man fans to be excited about. It would also be something easy to start off with and give Venom a good face-off. My suggestion for powers is based on his costume colors and normal abilities, and does take inspiration from other versions already in the game.

Spider Punch - Spider-Man has punched out a dinosaur. Give him a quick offensive attack that scales up with covers and deals straight damage.

Web Shooters - Same basic concept as "All Tied Up" - Stuns for 1 turn. But have it increase based on the number of web tiles on the board. Level 1 - One turn. Level 2 through 5 - One turn plus one for each web tile (max = level #).

Spider Sense - Bag-Man's "Spider Sense" would work well for this 1* version. We'll play with it in the 3* version.

3. Make a 2* Spider-Ham
If you need a joke character, why not use a popular one? Instead of Bag-man, who made one minor obscure appearance? Additionally, a Spider-Ham PvE could present the same level of comedy and fun as Deadpool's. Base it off the plot of the Ultimate Spider-Man TV episode "Run Pig Run", where Loki turns Spider-Man into Spider-Ham and he has to evade the Great Hunt and get turned back into Spider-Man.

Atomic-Powered Hairdryer - Spider-Ham blasts his foes with his Aunt's invention, blowing X tiles off the board, doing damage for each, but not earning AP.

Pun-ishment - Spider-Ham turns X of his enemies into their animal version (Captain Americat, Nick Furry, Ducktor Doom, etc.) for Y turns, reducing their damage by Z%.

Vegetarian Nightmare - Spider-Ham turns Ducktor Doom's army of super vegetables against his enemies. First to arrive is a killer tomato. Second, an evil eggplant. Third, the carnivorous carrot. Fourth, the vicious lettuce. Fifth, the all-seeing potato.

(There are probably better powers than this, but I can't say I'm too familiar with Peter Porker.)

4. The Amazing 3* Spider-Man
A somewhat lazy copy of the 1*, only with added power.

Web Slinger - Spider-Man grabs a chair with his webbing and flings it at his opponent, doing damage, plus destroying tiles in the shape of a chair. Level up includes a desk, a wall, and a car.

Any-size Web - Spider-Man sprays the board with X count-down tiles that burst into webtiles. Countdown tiles would increase based on the level, e.g. level 1 would be a single four-turn countdown tiles; level 2, a four turn and a three turn; level 3, a four-turn, a three turn, and a 2 turn, etc.

Spider Sense - Spider-Man senses his opponent's attack before it lands. He twists out of the way, only incurring X% of the damage. He re-directs that X% back to the attacker.

5. Spectacular 4* Symbiote Spider-Man
Oh yes, let's combine the power of Spider-Man and Venom and make it simply viscous.

Night Shift - The symbiote takes control of a sleeping Peter Parker. Attacks a random opponent, doing damage, stealing Y of their most powerful AP, and leaving them wrapped in tendons, stunned for Z turns. Or devouring them if there are 4 websites on the board. Peter finds himself exhausted and unable to function for 3 turns.

Self-Repair - The symbiote repairs itself from damage. Places 1, 2 or 3 black countdown tiles (depending on the level) on the board that (really) heals X health and turns into a web tile. In retaliation, it stuns the attacker for 1 turn.

Mimic - The symbiote shape-shifts into one of its enemies and uses that enemy's most powerful attack against itself.

Obviously, these are practically pipe dreams, and would take a lot of work to implement even if they were to be realized. Also, would need to be fine-tuned and nerfed and buffed to make them playable. But they would be an effective starting point and making Spider-Man... amazing.

CrookedKnight

Since D3 is way more inclined to make new characters than to rework existing ones, my preferred way to fix the 3* Spider-Man is to create a 3* Venom (presumably Agent Venom) who can place web tiles either as a passive or with a non-blue and non-yellow spender. That way they can actually get some synergy going.

gotskott

Yeah, I know. Total fantasy. I was thinking, though, maybe if I wrote it down... I'd stop thinking about it.

3* Venom would be interesting.