In the sense that using them for xp costs silver, and you have to spend energy to get silver. Thus, (disregarding tournaments for the moment), we can express the amount of xp and silver won by a 12-3 run as a linear combination of brews and spider runs. See spreadsheet:

i

(sorry for geeking out on this, just killing time until fusion drops!)

I have over 100M silver and 7k + brews.  I think that changes the equation a bit... 😆 

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm actuallllllllly.... the amount of resources you have doesn't change the math, sir.

XD XD