Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly

Scarlet Spider, Ben Reilly is all about bouncing your own creatures and getting rewarded for it. The web-slinging mechanic lets you cast him for just {R}{G} by returning a tapped creature to your hand, and if you do, he enters as a beefy threat with +1/+1 counters equal to that creature's mana value. This naturally pushes you toward creatures with high impact on entry or exit—think ETB effects that trigger when they bounce back, or creatures that are already tapped and ready to reuse.

Build around creatures that love being bounced: Zealous Conscripts, Ephemerate targets, and anything with enters-the-battlefield triggers. You're essentially getting a discount cast while tucking a threat away temporarily, then replaying it for value. This creates a pseudo-tempo play pattern where you're never really behind—you're just cycling threats while building Scarlet Spider into a trampling monster. The deck wants cheap creatures you can bounce repeatedly and mana acceleration to power out multiple spells per turn.

You win through combat damage, often with Scarlet Spider itself as a growing threat, or by generating enough creature value and ETB triggers that you overwhelm through sheer board presence and repeated advantage. It's a fidgety, interactive gameplan that rewards careful sequencing.

Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.