So I am still new to Marvel Snap and have been experimenting with a few different decks as I find what I enjoy the most. While testing decks like the Silver Surfer, Toxic and a few others, this is one that I've sort of begun picking and choosing and piecing together to give myself a few alternative win-conditions in the same deck.
I know that this is a VERY VERY lengthy description but I want to better explain all aspects of how I pieced this together, and I am in no way claiming that this is my brain-child, this deck probably exists elsewhere already. I also, as I said, am new. Please, if you see any issues with anything that I start or would consider it "misinformation" please comment and let me know what I am wrong about so I can understand and also correct what is wrong.
I want to touch on a few things before I explain my gameplan on this deck.
- This is a late-game, borderline Magik dependant, tempo-combo deck.
- Because this banks on a 3 card combo which is all Ongoing, this deck can be shutdown by a well played Enchantress.
- I see a total of four possible win-conditions with this deck. I will explain each path and which cards are required to execute those win-conditions.
- With the exception of Shaw, every card in this deck is a Series 3 and below. Because of this, this is a deck that is much more friendly for F2P as well as more beginner players who have limited cards and much more limited access to Series 4 and 5 cards.
What Do the Different Combos Do?
- Luke Cage / Hazmat - Your standard Toxic "Lite" Combo. Luke Cage guards your cards against being afflicted while Hazmat rips off 12x on every card afflicting them with -1.
- If they have a Luke Cage, pivot. Your Hazmat won't do anything.
- Shaw / Silver Surfer - This combo is nice because not only does Shaw get a +2 every single time he gets an increase, but Silver Surfer will also buff your Mystique and any other 3-cost that you danced in during the turns, providing +24 to every standard 3-cost and +48 total to Shaw due to Shaw's card text.
- Apocalypse / Gambit - This combo doesn't require you having a support card down, this combo requires you having Apoc in hand on turn 7 when you play Gambit. 12x on reveal = keep cycling Apoc over and over as Gambit rips through every card on the other side of the board and leaves the opponent with 0 cards in play.
- If they're running a destroy deck which has either Wolverine and/or Nimrod, this combo will be challenged or outright nullified by Nimrod.
- Super Skrull - Play him into an ongoing opponent and typically profit, though you may struggle with maintaining board coverage unless you can simply work him in with another one of the above combos.
Typical Sequence of Games
As we begin the game we, for the most part, will use the first two turns to utilize how we are going to classify our lanes and how we will pick which lanes we'll be playing in. Typically our lanes will have this layout.
Combo Lane : Obviously a lane that is going to either benefit our ongoing affects the most, or at the very least not do us any harm.
Beef/Compliment Lane: Often this will turn out to be where we've played our Majik at as more often than not, it is just a standard, safe lane. Depending on if you play Magik on Turn 3 or not this can be the lane that hurts you the most that you neutralize with your Magik or it can be the lane that benefits your opponent the most that you then neutralize the advantage by turning it into a Limbo.
Ignore Lane: This is a lane that has no benefit to us and/or negatively impacts our plays. Just abandon this as you'll almost always win your other two lanes based upon your combo.
Turn 1: Sit and spin on it.
Turn 2: Keep spinning.
Turn 3: This is where you'll make your first decision based upon what you've accumulated in hand.
- If you've already pulled a Wong and Majik, you're already sitting pretty.
- (Toxic Route) - If you already have Hazmat and Luke Cage, you can go for the somewhat standard Toxic approach of destroying your opponents power. Throw Luke Cage into a complemntary lane and move along.
- Read their deck. Try to anticipate if it makes sense that they'd have a Luke Cage in their deck. If it seems like they might, just abandon this plan. You can always pivot back later due to Hazmat being a 2-cost. (Aim to make sure you reveal second on turn 7)
- (Silver Surfer Route) - If you have a Silver Surfer and/or Shaw in hand, you can easily pivot to this win condition. You can set Shaw down on a complimentary lane and forget about him until the end of the game. He has basic card text for his buff which makes him a bit harder to counter.
- Ironheart can be played in place of Silver Surfer if you are lacking Silver Surfer, but note that while Ironheart will buff anyone, it also means that it is not as guaranteed to hit Shaw.
- (Board Clear Route ) - This one is kind of funny. I got hit with it once which made me realize its possibilities. Turn 7 starts and then you get the Fast-Forward screen and then bam... screen comes back and your entire board is gone. This is achieved by simply playing Gambit on turn 7 while you have Apoc in your hand, allowing Gambit to knock their entire board 1 by 1. (Aim to make sure you reveal second on turn 7)
- Playing this into a destroy deck can be dangerous, especially if they have a Wolverine or Nimrod which can counter this..
- Obviously this is countered by anything that has to do with not being able to be destroyed.
- ( Ongoing ) - This is one of the tougher ones to make work for you but if your opponent is running an ongoing deck, throw down Super Skrull in a compliment lane in the later turns and just keep playing your own game.
- (Toxic Route) - If you already have Hazmat and Luke Cage, you can go for the somewhat standard Toxic approach of destroying your opponents power. Throw Luke Cage into a complemntary lane and move along.
Turn 4: If you have Wong you can throw him down here in your determined Combo Lane.
- If you've not yet pulled Wong, you can always throw a second card into the complimentary column (Shaw or Luke Cage if you didn't play them turn 3 is usually your best bet if you have them in hand.
- You could alternatively play Magik on this turn. Refer to above for best placement to use Magik.
Turn 5: Hopefully Wong and Magik are down by this point, if not then this is your last change to play Magik. If you can't get her out by turn 5 and the opponent hasn't played a Magik, you're in trouble as your combo is most likely going to fall short.
- Best case scenario - You already have Wong down in your combo lane by himself and you have Magik down by herself in your Beef lane. You can throw Sera down to give you even more flexibility in the final two turns.
- Even Better Best Case Scenario - Magik is already down and your opponent squeezed out an early Wong due to some random pull out from deck or Psylock turn 2 and Wong turn 3. Now you can just playing Super Skrull instead of Wong, snag his ongoing and any other ongoing affects that your opponent may play simply as a base for your combo.
- Typical Scnario- You or your opponent have already played Magik, you're still waiting on Wong. You've determined, based upon what you already have in hand, what your route to winning is going to be based upon the four recipes for winning and you already have.
Turn 6: If you still have hope at this point and things have gone marginally well enough for you, you either have Wong buff down in your combo lane, there is a turn 7 already established, You have Onslaught, Mystique and your chosen Ace in the Hole buff card in hand. All you have to do is play Onslaught AND NOTHING ELSE AFTER HIM ON TURN 6 on your combo location.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE - We are aiming to use Mystique on our Onslaught, not on our Wong.
- If you were to clone Wong with Mystique you would then have double on reveal twice and then Onslaught would provide a double to both of those so, in other words 2x2x2 = 8. (Onslaught 2x buff X Mystique/Wong 2x buff X Mystique/Wong 2x buff) = 8 On Reveal
- By playing Onslaught turn 6 and Mystique first thing turn 7 you instead buff your other Onslaught. While you would think that that alone would give you 8, his buffs are addative, not multiplicative.
- 1 Wong = 2x On Reveal
- 1 Onslaught W/ Wong = 2x On Reveal
- 1 Onslaught and Wong W/ Mystique Wong = 8 On Reveal (discussed above)
- 1 Onslaught W/ Mystique Onslaught = 6x Multiplier
- This is because the Mystique buffs the first Onslaught to a 3x addative and then also applies its own 2x so how that works out in math is. (2+1)x2 = 6
- 1 Onslaught W/ Mystique Onslaught and Wong = 12x On Reveal
- 1 Onslaught W/ Mystique Onslaught and Wong W/ Double Ongoing Location = 24x On Reveal
Turn 7: Assuming you have a turn 7, Wong is down on your combo pad already and the last card you played was Onslaught on your combo location, you will play the following sequence.
- Mystique First (Clones Onslaughts Ongoing)
- Combo De/Buff Card (Hazmat, Silver Surfer, Gambit)
End of Game: More often than not, you've now won and being that you were hella week and barely showing anything up until turn 4, they've likely snapped. Snap back! Get your cubes!
The Big Scaries Of This Deck
- Enchantress- Bottom line, it just shuts your combo down and that is that, even if they play it turn 5 and shut down just Wong, your other two ongoings won't matter for anything.
- Cosmo - If there is a Cosmo played across from you when you already have Wong down, that's that... your On Reveal is no more.
- Red Guardian - They play Red Guardian and smack your Wong? RIP
- Magneto - Oh look, Wong just flew out of our planned tile and is stacked up with the other 3-cost cards that are out. That's cute. ;(
- Any location or card that puts an unintended card in your combo lane which prevents you from playing your 4 card combo on spot.
- Leech - Suprisingly not as worrisome as you have multiple ways of turning out your combo but if by some rare chance you have all of your onreveal cards in hand when Leech is played... RIP. This will become less of a problem 5/23/24 when he receives a 1-cost increase.
- Rogue - She can either sap one of your multipliers or, even worse, your Wong.
- Professor X - Combo was over before it began. RIP.
- Nocturne - If she is played and then jumps onto your Magik's location, 7 turns turns back into 6.
- I'm sure there are many other cards that can mess this up that I am either unaware of or not thinking of.
Alternative Cards / Styles
- Silver Surfer swapped for Ironheart - This is less an option and moreso an early card collection substitute. You preferably will want Silver Surfer in any situation.
- Wave and Psylock - Could always drop Super Skrull or one of your other combos out of the deck and add one or both of them to your deck so you can start swinging your combo in sooner.
- SPECULATIVE I've wondered if Mr. Negative would work with this deck. I'm unsure if you zap everyone and their costs change from 3, if Silver Surfer will still affect them or if they're considered a different cost since their cards are technically replaced.
- Probably a lot of cards you could swap in and out that a lot of people can think of that don't come to mind for me. This is all just something I thought off when unable to sleep an being up for 24-hours.
In Conculsion
I need to sleep. This is probably just a delusional dream but I figured for early players just starting out, this almost full Pool 3, multiple win-condition deck, is a fun play.
As stated above, should you see anything that I wrote up, though I'm sure most will never even read any of this, that is misinformation, please feel free to comment and let me know and I'll be happy to fix it.