Introduction
The other archetype designed for new recruits in early Pool 1 to familiarize themselves with the synergy of On Reveal effects and also serves as a good practice of planning their moves ahead.
Game plan
The game plan is to play three high value On Reveal cards on one location and get a big payoff from Odin.
Before you gain enough experience, I recommend choosing the middle lane for Odin because of Medusa. You can generally follow her up with Wolfsbane or Ironheart before playing White Tiger on turn 5. At the same time, try to secure enough power in another location with the help of cards such as Ant-Man, Star Lord or Jessica Jones. Iron Man's been added as an alternative way to push power on the final turn if you lack Odin.
Decklist
The cards included all come from the recruit season and the starting cards available to everyone at collection level 14:
- Ant-Man, get used to the guy, you'll see a whole lot of him for a while. I don't recommend playing him for tempo on turn 1. Used to secure one of the side lanes or even the middle if we're short on Odin.
- Misty Knight, a vanilla 1-drop, but I recommend running her over Hawkeye (you usually want to play Medusa on curve mid while you play Hawkeye on the side and he stays at 1 power for the rest of the game) or Quicksilver (decent turn 1 tempo but does lower the chance of drawing a key card and three 1-drops are more than enough to consistently draw one on the first turn). Immediately swap her out should you open Elektra, Korg or Rocket Raccoon.
- Nightcrawler, a very versatile card, this ought to be your turn 1 play. But this time in the middle location because if you're planning to play Wolfsbane on curve after Medusa, she'll gain extra 2 power, you can always move him away on turn 6 and play Odin afterwards. You can also win locations such as Death's Domain, Sanctum Sanctorum or Luke's Bar by moving him.
- Medusa, play mid on curve for premium stats unless it's a detrimental location. If it's impossible to do so due to a location such as Crimson Cosmos, you can opt for not playing her at all for the whole duration of the match and just fill your curve with Sentinel.
- Star-Lord rewards you for correctly anticipating the opponent's play. Sometimes you may want to keep him in your hand for turn 4 and you'll play Sentinel instead.
- Sentinel is great on curve if you've nothing else to play or would rather not play something else.
- Ironheart, the total of 6 stats is at times difficult to achieve on turn 3 but try to get at least 4 power off her on curve and gain an extra 6 from Odin.
- Wolfsbane, similarly great synergy with Odin, try to pull off the combo in the mid with Nightcrawler (this combo is especially great with Cloning Vats so if they show up as the first location and you're holding these cards then your game plan will be entirely different). She can also serve as a finisher on turn 6 if you've been extra unlucky and didn't draw any of your payoffs.
- Jessica Jones, here to contest one of the side locations. Your best bet at winning The Space Throne.
- Iron Man, great alternative win condition to Odin. I'd choose to run him over Gamora as I feel he's way more consistent.
- White Tiger, what you want to be playing on turn 5 on the designated Odin landing pad. The tigers can be a bit inconsistent at times but that's life.
- Odin the Allfather, your big finisher. Before playing him always calculate your power output, if you're coming up short you can either try Iron Man + 1 drop or 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.
- 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.
- 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, but 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.
- 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 as losing 1 or 2 cubes doesn't matter in the long run as they can be replaced easily by winning just a single match.
- 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.
- 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
This early on, you'll be more limited by the locations you encounter than your opponent's counters but should already be aware of them:
- A well placed Cosmo by your opponent can deny you your On Reveal effects at a critical moment. They'll be mostly be playing him on turns 3 or 5 so retreat is always an option if you're unable to salvage the situation by improvising with White Tiger or Iron Man.
- Elektra will start popping up eventually, attempting to destroy your Ant-Man synergy (doesn't even have to hit him to remove 3 power if you have multiple 1-drops in the same lane).
Have fun!