Tangled in the threads of the Spider-Verse
I've had a premonition of the future, and Marvel Snap's newest card will become one of the best in the game! Madame Web can supercharge move payoff strategies or make your deck flexible and hard to predict.
Who is Madame Web?
Cassandra Webb was born with the neurological disorder Myasthenia Gravis, which left her blind and eventually paralyzed. However, as a mutant, she has another powerful type of sight, future sight!
She has precognitive abilities that allow her to sense future events and grants her with a degree of clairvoyance.
She easily discovers that Spider-Man's secret identity is Peter Parker, and she often calls whatever random phone he happens to be near to direct him to where he needs to go.
From her intricate web-like life support system, Madame Web helps Spider-Man and other characters save the innocent or thwart villainous plans.
Key Synergies
Madame Web is a boon to move scalers like Dagger and Vulture. If you recall, both cards received buffs early in the year—it's entirely possible that these will be reverted if they become too strong with Madame Web. Dagger, in particular, looks like a strong partner, as she's already been seeing success in clog-style decks. Human Torch can reach numbers massive enough to see play with Living Tribunal. Could Human Torch be part of the reason Taskmaster was nerfed to a 6-Cost card? Phoenix Force having an inexpensive move enabler that can be played out early could be a game-changer.
Cards that benefit from having other cards played into their lane can also abuse Madame Web. You can play more cards into those lanes than you normally would be able to since you can use Madame Web’s ability to shift them out of the lane later. Using cards like Jeff and Silk in these types of packages has been popular in the past—Madame Web grants any card the ability to move.
Madame Web could also bring about a resurgence of lockdown strategies. Being able to move a larger card into a lane with Goose or a flooded location is powerful. Also, the last change to Professor X means he now has explicit synergy with movement. She also helps you get into hard-to-reach locations that appear naturally.
What to watch out for
Madame Web will be a powerful card, but there are some effective counters to worry about. In particular, Red Guardian seems like he'll be quite effective as a counter, and I expect his play rate to rise when she is released. Shadow King and Shang Chi are also counters to big scaling movers (Human Torch, Dagger, Vulture), but you may be able to dodge those with some skill (and luck!).
Scosco's Day One Madame Web Decks
Bounce Move Win
I'll try Falcon and Hercules on Day One, but will also experiment with Grandmaster and Doctor Strange. Will Hercules feel like overkill or mean lack of precision or will he form a little moving engine with Madame Web?
Dagslayer
Move Dagger into lanes that you've cluttered up on previous turns. This deck can push out an unexpected amount of power on the last turn.
Elimination Move
We have to try 2099 at least, but if that feels a little too much like coping, you could put Heimdall, Magneto, or Nico Minoru in here.
Remorae
Use Iron Fist to put Dagger or Vulture into Madame Web’s lane and move them out after. Or organize your board and shift opposing clog cards to set up strong Namora plays.
Angel Threads
Lockdown Decks
Storm Web
Web X
If you don't have Bob for this deck try Yellowjacket or Wasp!
Ongoing Decks
Red Web
Spectrum's Web
Sera allows you to play Spectrum plus one of your five 2-Cost cards or Cage, US Agent, and Man-Thing!
Madame Web has a plethora of potential uses
There are a hundred cute little plays you could pull off with Madame Web, from placing a Klaw on a Madame Web and making your opponent play a guessing game about where the power will go to moving affliction cards like U.S. Agent and Man-Thing around the board to where they will be most impactful. You could also treat Madame Web as a new Space Stone and use her to leverage Lockjaw like Thanos decks used to. You could use her to put Nimrod or X-23 back into a lane with Attuma. Here are a few cards that might be fun to move around or play with Madame Web that you could experiment with that I haven't included in the decks above.
Araña Looms
The lists here could change dramatically and become more powerful soon. Next week's card, Araña, will have a massive impact on how Madame Web is played. They won't always be played together—both cards are powerful enough to stand alone. Araña and Madame Web will be great together in bounce/move decks, especially in traditional move decks. They could also enable some new archetypes. The pair could make a viable move-based Surfer lockdown deck with Cosmo, Vulture, Storm, and Juggernaut. They could buff and organize your board in a Black Panther, Galactus, and Symbiote Spider-Man deck. Araña will majorly impact how Madame Web is played, so keep that in mind when planning your resources.
Variant Gallery
Conclusion
Despite having some natural counters and more on the way (Scream releases in October), Madame Web seems poised to become a critical Marvel Snap card. I think that, at her earlier datamined 3-Power, she would hold more promise in Spectrum decks or as a general-use card. At 1-Power, she will likely require you to take advantage of movement synergies to be successful. In other words, if you have no interest in move decks, you can probably live without Madame Web in your collection. She will become more powerful when Araña releases, so it is optimal to plan your resources to get both, if possible. The other cards available alongside her in spotlights are Silk and Alioth. Once one of the best cards in the game, Silk has recently lost much of her utility with the release of Hydra Bob, Kate Bishop, and even Silver Sable as competition for deck spots. She is still one of the better Miles Morales enablers and has some usefulness for lockdown strategies. Alioth is a powerful card enjoying a period of increased relevance.