Let’s dive in earlier this month to make up for last month’s slightly late edition. A new month and season is upon us, and I’m ready to help you out with some deck-building advice to keep you competitive in Marvel Snap (Free). Truth be told, I feel like the game got into a decently balanced zone over the course of the last month. A new season means new cards though, so it’s all about to go topsy-turvy again. Let’s do our best to figure out where things are going, shall we? Remember as ever: today’s winning deck could be tomorrow’s crunchy brown leaves. These guides are one way to keep your finger on the pulse of the scene, but they aren’t the only method you should be using.
Note that most of these decks are the best of the best at this point in time. They assume you have access to a full range of cards. I’ll once again be including the five strongest Marvel Snap decks of the moment, and I’ll throw in a couple more decks that don’t need things that are too hard to get and are just sort of fun to play with. You know, a little variety and all of that.
I would go as far as to say that most of the Young Avengers cards didn’t really make a big splash. Kate Bishop hit her mark, as she is wont to, and Marvel Boy definitely made a difference for fans of 1-Cost Kazoo decks, but the rest were kind of all over the place. You’ll see them here and there, but they haven’t shaken things up yet. I can’t say the same for the freshly launched Amazing Spider-Season, as it looks like it and the new Activate ability are coming in like a wrecking ball. Next month is going to look very, very different, I’m certain.
Kazar and Gilgamesh
Included Cards: Ant-Man, Nebula, Squirrel Girl, Dazzler, Kate Bishop, Marvel Boy, Caeira, Shanna, Kazar, Blue Marvel, Gilgamesh, Mockingbird
So it has come to this, eh? Never thought I would see the day when Kazoo was among the top decks, but the Young Avengers have made it happen. At its heart, this is a very familiar deck. Get a bunch of low cost cards out there and then buff them with Kazar and Blue Marvel. The new tricks here are Marvel Boy adding more buffs and Gilgamesh benefiting big-time from all of that. Kate Bishop and her arrows can help fill spaces for Dazzler if needed, and her arrows will help bring down the cost of your other heavy hitter, Mockingbird. A very nice deck with strong performance. We’ll see if it can hang in there.
Silver Surfer Still Never Dies, Part II
Included Cards: Nova, Forge, Cassandra Nova, Brood, Silver Surfer, Killmonger, Hope Summers, Nocturne, Sebastian Shaw, Copycat, Absorbing Man, Gwenpool
Silver Surfer is still flying high, with a few tweaks to react to balance changes and new cards. If you’ve been playing a while, you know how this goes. You’ve got the classic Nova/Killmonger pair for boosting your cards a bit once you have some out there. Forge ideally boosts Brood so that its clones will be stronger. Gwenpool boosts cards in your hand, Shaw gets beefier as he gets buffed, Hope lets you get more Energy, Cassandra Nova grabs power from your opponent, and the Surfer/Absorbing Man combo is there finish things off in style. Copycat steals Red Guardian’s spot, as she has proven an extremely useful general-purpose tool.
Spectrum and Man-Thing Ongoing
Included Cards: Wasp, Ant-Man, Howard the Duck, Armor, US Agent, Lizard, Captain America, Cosmo, Luke Cage, Ms. Marvel, Man-Thing, Spectrum
Even the Ongoing archetype is up here at the top, which is another interesting outcome. You’ve got some generally useful cards here, all with Ongoing abilities. That means Spectrum will give them a nice final turn buff. The Luke Cage/Man-Thing combo is also a very nice one, and Luke will even protect your cards from US Agent’s powerful effect. The other good point of this deck is that it’s pretty easy to play, and I have a feeling Cosmo is going to become even more useful than he already was with things going the way they are.
Discard Dracula
Included Cards: Blade, Morbius, The Collector, Swarm, Colleen Wing, Moon Knight, Corvus Glaive, Lady Sif, Dracula, Proxima Midnight, MODOK, Apocalypse
The classics are the order of the day right now, is the theme. Here’s the very reliable Apocalypse-flavor Discard deck, with the only real change from the standard being the presence of Moon Knight. He got better after his buff. Anyway, your big cards here are Morbius and Dracula, and if everything goes well you’ll end up with nothing more in your hand than Apocalypse on that last round. Dracula will eat him, you’ll get a Mega-Drac, and Morbius should be morbing all over the place with all that discarding you’ve been doing. Collector might even be a bit cheeky if you go to town on Swarms enough.
Destroy
Included Cards: Deadpool, Niko Minoru, X-23, Carnage, Wolverine, Killmonger, Deathlok, Attuma, Nimrod, Knull, Death
Yes, it’s the Destroy deck. Very, very close to the traditional one even. Attuma has grabbed a spot here thanks to his recent change. A very successful buff, that one. Destroy Deadpool and Wolverine as much as possible, get extra energy with X-23, finish up with a nice Nimrod swarm or drop Knull if you’re feeling cute. Weird to see this kind of deck without Arnim Zola, but counter-measures are getting too common these days I suppose.
And now, a couple of fun decks for those still climbing up the collection ladder or who simply want to try something different.
Darkhawk Is Back (Did He Ever Leave?)
Included Cards: The Hood, Spider-Ham, Korg, Niko Minoru, Cassandra Nova, Moon Knight, Rockslide, Viper, Proxima Midnight, Darkhawk, Blackbolt, Stature
I have always liked Darkhawk, despite him being unspeakably goofy from virtually his first appearance. So I’m glad he’s a competitive card in Marvel Snap, to the point that I like to tinker around with decks using him. This one has the classic combos, with Korg and Rockslide adding cards to your opponent’s deck. It also has some spoiler cards like Spider-Ham and Cassandra Nova, plus a couple of cards that will cause your opponent to discard and make Stature cheap to play. Yay, Dorkhawk!
Budget Kazar
Included Cards: Ant-Man, Elektra, Ice Man, Nightcrawler, Armor, Mister Fantastic, Cosmo, Kazar, Namor, Blue Marvel, Klaw, Onslaught
If that Kazar deck up there looks nice but you’re just starting out, you might as well practice with this beginner-friendly variant. No, it probably won’t win as reliably as the fancy version. But it will teach you how this kind of combo works, and that’s valuable experience. You still get that nice Kazar and Blue Marvel mix, with a flavorful Onslaught on top to spike the football.
And that’s it for this month’s deck guide. With the latest season and whatever balance changes Second Dinner opts to make during the course of the month, I’m sure things will look quite different come October. That Activate ability really changes up the flow of games, and Symbiote Spider-Man is looking to be a complete beast. As ever, it’s also going to be interesting to see what cards and decks Second Dinner feels like addressing with balance changes. It’s interesting to see the classics on top again, but I can’t imagine it will stay that way. For now… happy snapping!