"And this is my fourth and final form."
Introduction
If you've seen one Dino deck, you've seen them all. I did manage to get my hands on Darkhawk recently, and this version of the deck feels about right. To brand new players this is more of a Pool 5 deck if they missed the Savage Land season in January. No worries, I expect Zabu to go down to Pool 4 this month anyway.
Game plan
There's a couple of things you can do to win with the deck:
- Moon Girl into double or triple Darkhawk with Mystique,
- Moon Girl into double or triple Devil Dinosaur with Mystique,
- Moon Girl into double She-Hulk + something,
- the classic 'play good cards to get ahead' and Aero on the final turn,
- or just win with some combination of big cards.
Korg, Quinjet, Zabu and Sentinel can provide some tempo in the early game. Rock Slide with She-Hulk in the midgame if you're not going for Moon Girl.
I feel like you can't build a proper deck without Shang-Chi and Aero in it these days. And of course, if you're running Aero, She-Hulk is usually a great addition too.
Decklist
Very reminiscent of my deck for Quantumania.
- Korg, disrupts the opponent's draws and feed Darkhawk 2 extra power.
- Quinjet, great synergy with all added/copied cards and the mana discount provides amazing flexibility.
- Sentinel, decent curve filler which doesn't lose you a card and gets better thanks to Quinjet as the subsequent copies will cost only 1 energy.
- Zabu, more discount for 4-cost cards which smoothens the curve.
- Mystique, here to provide additional benefit from Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur, will let you curve better on the final turn but still enable to play a second Dino. Sometimes you'll opt for a Devil Dino (13 power) + double Mystique (10 power each). Same goes for Darkhawk.
- Darkhawk, fits right into a Dino deck with some support from Korg and Rock Slide, makes Mystique more relevant with two good targets to copy. Good in Thanos matchups due to their large deck size, vulnerable to the same stuff that Dino is though (Leech, Enchantress, Shang-Chi).
- Shang-Chi, great utility which swings games.
- Moon Girl to make two copies of Darkhawk, Devil Dinosaur, She-Hulk, Mystique, sometimes you'll be happy with double Shang-Chi or Aero as well.
- Rock Slide, a bigger Korg, additional disruption and +4 power on Darkhawk.
- Devil Dinosaur, few cards rival the stats for the cost, depending on hand size of course.
- Aero, to move away the opponent's cards from a priority location on the final turn. Especially powerful when we hold the initiative as she can grab a Shang-Chi or Enchantress from a location with a Dino on it.
- She-Hulk, another card to benefit from Moon Girl with built in cost reduction. Can be played as early as the fourth turn if you float at least 2 energy on the third turn. And she also works well with Aero if you skip turn 5.
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. 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, 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
As there are only so many cards that can be included in a deck, it can't carry each and every answer to every situation. So in the current meta, watch out for the following counter/set up cards.
- Armor, can counter your own Shang-Chi at a critical moment. Staple in Shuri decks.
- Cosmo stops anything On Reveal related, can be a double edged blade though because it protects our big stuff as well. Currently it's another staple in Shuri decks to protect their big Red Skull/She-Hulk.
- Lockjaw, take a look at the deck size of the opponent at the start of the game. If you see more than 10 cards, you're playing against a Thanos Lockjaw deck.
- Elektro or Wave on turn 3 usually means a Galactus is around the corner. Just pull him to the location where they have cards with Aero if you hold the initiative. Elektro can also signify a Ramp deck.
- Enchantress or Rogue, as there are quite a few Ongoing cards in our deck. Seen mostly in Sera Control or Zero matchups.
- Polaris, Aero and Magneto, always keep them in mind and how they'll impact the board state, especially around Fisk Tower. Aero is currently very prominent, you'll see Magneto in Lockjaw decks.
- Leech can just delete your plans for the final turn. Usually run in Thanos Lockjaw or Ramp decks.
If I've forgotten anything it'll be added in my next update.
Have fun!