Pool 2 Control with a few tips

Introduction

A new type of deck spawned from the disruptive nature of a lot of new Pool 2 cards which focuses on securing a location with Storm in the midgame and winning another one with overwhelming power.

Game plan

The basic strategy of the deck is the following:

• lock down a lane with Storm and some combination of cards such as Sunspot protected by Armor, a scaling early Angela or Jessica Jones, 
• skip turn 5 and play The Infinaut or Hobgoblin + America Chavez into the same location for a strong finish.

Now, the deck does run a lot of tech or situational cards, so it may take some time to get used to.

Decklist

The deck is heavily reliant on Pool 2 cards so some players will have the chance to play it later than others. Onto the card list:

• Sunspot, one of the pillars of the deck, scales with any unspent energy. General rule of thumb; don't play him on turn 1 if you're not following him up with Armor on turn 2.
• Iceman is here to provide tempo and disrupt the opponent, can be played on curve. Great synergy with Kamar-Taj, Cloning Vats or Luke's Bar.
• Nightcrawler is in the deck for the classic buff Angela and move away combo, you can also move him into a difficult to reach location Sanctum Sanctorum/Death's Domain/Flooded or just bail out of a location. 
• Angela, I think she's in every single one of my decks, no need to overexplain, play on curve and profit.
• Armor, either protect your small cards from Killmonger or drop him into the same lane as Bucky Barnes and watch the opponent cry (watch out for initiative). Can also be played into Death's Domain or Danger Room.
• Scorpion's been swapped in for an extra bit of disruption, also lowers the curve of the deck.
• Storm, the lady who makes the archetype. By turn 3 you should already know which location you want to flood and have probably been working towards it by distributing power accordingly. There are times when the plan's thrown out of the window on turn 3 when the final location and/or your opponent's strategy are revealed, you may just decide to flood the lane which is incredibly beneficial to your opponent. 
  And sometimes you'll just pull a 'Scarlet Witch' and play her on turn 6 for a cheeky win on Bar With No Name, Death's Domain or Luke's Bar, end the game early by ruining Limbo or extend the game by doing the same with TVA.
• Shang-Chi for those chunky Dinos or some other large power cards.
  A favorite scenario of mine; we're ahead on the Flooded lane and the opponent plays a Dino into The Space Throne on turn 5 while I'm holding this guy.
• Jessica Jones, the on curve play into the flooding lane.
• Hobgoblin, a fun disruption card which can just as easily ruin you. I usually play him into the opponent's weakest location followed by America Chavez. Doesn't always have to be the case. Before playing him, always ask yourself; is it possible that the opponent will fill out this location this turn? And the answer may just surprise you.
  An example: you'd usually hold off on playing him against an Odin deck as he can just send him back. However, there's usually a lane in which the big payoff is being set up. It usually contains an awkwardly played Ironheart and/or Wolfsbane. If there are already 2 cards in that location, you can expect the opponent to play a White Tiger on turn 5 and an Odin on turn 6. If you've guessed correctly and play Hobgoblin on turn 5, you can fill out that location and deny your opponent's win condition, while also leave an easy to beat lane for yourself on the following turn.
• America Chavez, a consistent, reliable card which increases the odds of drawing your win condition sooner and lets you plan out your final turns in advance.
• The Infinaut, Sunspot's best friend. If you've decided to skip turn 5, but come turn 6 you find yourself being behind on the Flooded location or you anticipate that the opponent has means to overpower you there, retreat.

Snapping

The Snap is an interesting mechanic which makes your matches similar to games of Poker. Meaning, knowing when to fold (retreat) or double down by snapping will heavily impact the amount of cubes you'll be gaining. It also means that while I'm in love with the game, I wouldn't recommend playing it if you're struggling with gambling addiction.

Snap in the midgame if you look at your hand, can already see your endgame and you like it - depending on the matchup - is the short answer on when to snap.

I'll go over some general rules I try to stick to which may help out players maximize cube gains and minimize losses, as I see a lot of them using this mechanic in questionable ways.

1. Never snap before all the locations are revealed is probably the first one I adhere to. Therefore, turn 3 should be the first moment when you ought to consider snapping as you never know whether that final location will turn out to be Ego, Worldship or a location which supercharges the opponent's archetype and the whole game plan just flies out of the window. Not to mention, the opponent also has agency and will use it by playing Storm, Scarlet Witch, Aero, Magneto, etc. That also brings me to the second rule.
2. I don't recommend snapping until you've figured out what archetype the opponent's playing. This can delay your decision to do so by a turn or two. You could have the best hand in the game, but a disruptive deck doesn't care about that. This leads us to the next point.
3. Watch the game, take note of what and where the opponent's setting up their plays. To be honest, this is probably the most complicated one as it requires a broader knowledge of the archetypes and it will take some time to gain enough experience. If you've considered all the options and are feeling comfortable, go ahead and snap before locking in your play on turn 5 at latest - the reason to do so is related to the next rule. The same goes for when you're feeling behind and the opponent snaps on turn 5, there's always the option to retreat. Also, if you've accepted a snap earlier or have snapped yourself, it is not wrong to retreat if you see an unfavorable outcome. No need to feel obligated to commit just because there's more than 1 cube on the line, losing 1 or 2 cubes doesn't matter in the long run as they can be replaced easily by winning just a single match.
4. Never snap on the final turn. This is probably the most common thing I see when playing. The math is mostly on the table on the final turn, be it a close game or they're ahead, the opponent snaps. Best case scenario; it may occasionally cheat out 4 cubes from a less experienced player. What it usually ends up achieving is a retreat in a close game where the other party would stay in for those 2 cubes (because now they know that they've managed to draw their finisher and people are very rarely bluffing on the final turn), making a loss of 1 cube. Worst case scenario; the finisher's been anticipated, countered and you make a loss of 4 or more cubes.
5. I'll dub this one 'Avoid bad snaps', it's about snapping before making a play of small significance. One of my favorite examples is snapping when playing Armor on Nova or The Hood. Remember that the opponent has 11 more cards in their deck, was also just informed about the 'big counter' and will likely adjust accordingly.

Final thoughts

You'll usually be snapping between turns 4-5, depending on how well you've managed to secure a location. Watch out for Killmonger if you have an unprotected Sunspot and Shang-Chi on the final turn if you have initiative.

Have fun!