Analysis of the Modern OTK Engine
The "Spider" collection is not one cohesive archetype, but two distinct generations of cards separated by over a decade.
The Legacy Web (2009) focused on a slow, battle-centric control strategy of forcing monsters into Defense Position. This strategy is entirely obsolete in the modern game.
The Modern Swarm (2023) introduced a hyper-consistent, two-card combo engine that completely supplants the old strategy. This modern engine is a proactive, game-ending OTK strategy designed to swarm the field and summon high-Rank DARK Xyz monsters. This analysis will focus exclusively on this modern, competitively viable engine.
Role: The primary, one-card starter.
Role: The versatile combo tool and extender.
The deck's primary win condition. This sequence converts a single Mother Spider Splitter into a game-winning board.
Special Summon Mother Spider Splitter (Hand). Activate its effect, Tributing it. Special Summon 3x Baby Spider from Deck. They all become Level 5.
Activate the on-field effect of one Baby Spider, Tributing itself (a Level 5 DARK monster). The remaining two Baby Spiders have their Levels increased by 5, making them both Level 10.
Overlay the two Level 10 Baby Spiders to Xyz Summon Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula in Attack Position.
Immediately overlay Ravenous Tarantula to Xyz Summon Number 84: Pain Gainer (using Tarantula as material).
Activate the Baby Spider in your GY (from Step 2). Pay half your LP, banish it, and detach Tarantula from Pain Gainer to Special Summon Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula back to the field.
Overlay Number 84: Pain Gainer to Xyz Summon Number 77: The Seven Sins.
The resulting board is simple but overwhelmingly powerful, designed to end the game in a single Battle Phase.
The two-card engine cannot function in a vacuum. Building a successful Spider deck is less about the Spiders themselves and more about constructing the most efficient web of support cards to find and enable Mother Spider Splitter.
Resonance Insect is the most important non-Spider monster. When sent from field to GY (e.g., via Link Summoning Linkuriboh or Salamangreat Almiraj), it searches Mother Spider Splitter (a Level 5 Insect).
The Beetrooper engine provides swarming and extension. Beetrooper Armor Horn grants an additional Normal Summon, allowing you to summon Resonance Insect, Link it off for a search, and still have your Normal Summon.
The original 2009 "Spider" cards (Mother Spider, Spyder Spider, Underground Arachnid) are fundamentally incompatible with the modern engine. Their slow, battle-focused strategy has no synergy with the go-second OTK plan and should not be included in a competitive build.
The Spider archetype itself is largely untouched by the TCG banlist, but key synergistic cards it relies on are affected.
Banlist Status Summary
Core cards checked:
• Baby Spider
• Mother Spider Splitter
• Spider Token
+ Related cards checked:
• Beetrooper Armor Horn
• Beetrooper Scout Buggy
• Linkuriboh
• Mother Spider
• Number 35: Ravenous Tarantula
• Number 77: The Seven Sins
• Number 84: Pain Gainer
• Resonance Insect
• Salamangreat Almiraj analyzed •
0 archetype restrictions •
1 synergistic card restricted
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