I have spent the last month or so mostly playing various forms of Dracula/Apoc decks, with Lockjaw added. My lists have been pretty similar to the ones you see here, with America Chavez in there as a "plan B" or whatever.
"America Chavez increases your chance to draw Apocalypse by turn 5 by 6%"
Everyone knows this.
The question for Dracula players is WHY WOULD YOU WANT THIS? We don't need Apocalypse on turn 5. We're not playing him in this deck, almost ever. Getting him on turn 6 is just as valuable.
Chavez gives you a 72.7% chance to hit Apoc by turn 5, which doesn't matter because we don't play him on turn 6.
She also gives you a 0% chance to hit him on turn 6, which burns us because that's usually our last turn. And Chavez can win a lane and maybe beat some bots, but if you end up with a 0 power Dracula and a weak Morbius because you couldn't bounce Apocalypse around, the deck failed you and you were never going to win anyway. Without Chavez, you have a 75% chance to draw Apocalypse by turn 6.
With Magik, you have a 83.33% chance to hit him by turn 7. And if you don't think you can build a big Apocalypse in 1 turn, think again. Sending 3 cards into Lockjaw on turn 7 could get up to 7 bounces in one turn. That's a 40 power to Dracula after his discard, in one turn, and +16 power to Morbius.
And your third lane will be filled with Lockjaw + whoever he draws from your pile.
**A NOTE ON DRAW PROBABILITY IN MARVEL SNAP**
The above calculations are based on the assumption that the game is fair with its draw RNG. This does not appear to be the case. There is a lot of evidence that the game messes with the draw chances in order to lower the win rate of certain cards. If you win 4 or 8 cubes 90% of the time when you draw Apocalypse, but 0% when you don't, he will be stuck at the bottom of your deck a lot more than what is mathematically probable. This is in order to have everyone at around a 50% win rate as much as possible. This is just something you have to accept when playing a combo deck in a game like this. If you expect Snap to be fair, just stop.
A good example of drawing Apocalypse really late on turn 6, but still getting a ton of value from him. This would have been 100% a loss with Chavez.
I will give the same basic tips I gave on my last Dracula deck. These are general tips, not hard fast rules. Sometimes it makes sense to do something else. But overall:
You have 6 or 7 turns to do these things, going from order of most to least important:
- Get Dracula on board
- Draw Apocalypse
- Get Lockjaw on board with room for 3 more plays
- Use Morbius to pressure the third lane
- Build up your Morbius lane and then Dracula lane depending on what your opponent does (your Lockjaw lane should be considered a lost lane, and is only used to bounce Apocalypse, unless of course he pulls out Dracula or Morbius)
That's basically it. As we all know, this game likes to poop on you with RNG, so this is often harder than it seems. But if everything goes fine, and you have a typical "good game", it will look something like this:
Turn 1) Pass (this will be your turn 1 play 99% of the time - do NOT play Blade on turn 1 unless your other two cards are Apocalypse and Swarm)
Turn 2) Play Morbius on a lane
alt Turn 2) Play Colleen Wing if you are holding Swarm but not Blade or Morbius
Turn 3) Play Lockjaw in an empty lane, preferably with a positive effect on multiple cards (like +5 to every card)
Turn 4) Play Dracula on a lane, preferably one that NEGATIVELY effects cards (like -3 per card, making it hard for your opponent to challenge a big Dracula)
Turn 5) If holding Apocalypse, dump everything you have into the Lockjaw lane. If you are holding Magik, this is where she goes.
Order of importance can change depending on board state. Gambit is good if your opponent's board has a few larger cards. Moon Knight is good if your opponent may be holding onto a combo (especially if they are zoo and about to play Blue Marvel).
Otherwise just fit as much as you can there with your 5 mana. This is why holding Blade was important. Hell Cow + Blade is a fantastic turn 5. Or even Moon Knight or whoever plus Blade. If you duplicated Swarm, put them here.
Turn 6) Either put more into the Lockjaw lane, or try to build up your Dracula or Morbius lanes, depending on how your opponent played.
Turn 7) More of the same, just make sure you aren't holding anything more than Apocalypse by the end. DO YOUR MATH. Remember that Dracula takes Apoc power AFTER the discard, so add 4. Also Morbius will benefit from Dracula's discard as well.
That's about it. DO NOT PLAY ANYTHING THAT WILL DISCARD DRACULA UNTIL AFTER YOU PLAY HIM. I don't know how, but it seems like the game is weighed heavily in favour if discarding Dracula if he's in hand. I have rarely attempted this, but in 11 times out of 12, Dracula was discarded over everything else in hand. JUST DON'T. Play slow. If things aren't going your way, retreat.
Also DO NOT PLAY ANYTHING INTO LOCKJAW UNLESS YOU HAVE DRAWN APOCALYPSE. Keep that lane empty if you have to. But make sure you aren't holding too many cards if you do get him. Throw down a sneaky Moon Knight to mess with your opponent's hand while you wait for Apoc to be drawn. If you don't get him by turn 7, well Ben Brode is just laughing at you, and you just have to give up your cube and try again.
Finally, you will retreat a lot with any combo deck. Don't be sad. Just know when to snap.
When to snap: If you drew Apocalypse early, and are able to get Lockjaw and Dracula down without your opponent messing up your plans, you will have a great chance at winning. There are a LOT of lanes and effects that just break this deck. That goes for ANY combo deck. Just let your opponent take their ONE CUBE, and go for 4 or 8 next time. You can retreat 8 times in a row, then win 1 game and you are even. This game is designed to make you lose a lot, so don't worry about it too much.
Why no plan B? Plan B's are pointless for combo decks. Go for 4/8 or retreat. If you want to gamble on cubes, this isn't the kind of deck to do it with. You want to be clear on whether you're going to win or not, and I have tried to build it to be able to tell you by turn 3 or 4.
ALTERNATE CARDS
The discard cards are pretty much free to swap with each other, since they are mostly around the same mana, and some have high damage. So if you don't have Hell Cow or Moon Knight, just replace them with Sword Master or Gambit or whoever else. If you are short more than one discard from this deck, I don't think it will work. Try it and see for yourself.