Introduction
This Pool 1 deck is built around Devil Dinosaur, it's easy to pick up, fun to pilot, overall solid and will get additional support as you'll be moving through Pool 2 (trust me, you'll be seeing a whole lot of Dinos in Pool 2).
Game plan
The basic strategy is:
- Dump a few low cost cards on turn 1-3.
- Play Moon Girl on 4 to double Devil Dinosaur and 2 other cards.
- Finally play Dino on both turn 5 and 6.
- Profit!
Based on your draws, you'll be playing 2 different decks or a combination of them. Either the Devil Dino described above, or a Midrange deck focused on stacking Angela, with Iron Man and America Chavez being your big finishers. And as mentioned, sometimes you'll forgo the second Dino in favor of Iron Man or Chavez.
Decklist
More about the cards:
- Ant-Man, a staple 1-drop of Pool 1. Don't recommend playing him for tempo on turn 1, I usually slide him in on either turn 3 after Angela and pray that he doesn't get sniped or on the final turn with the second Dino if I think I can afford the 2 power loss on the other one.
- Mantis, great for disrupting and spying on the opponent by stealing a card from their deck. If you guess right that is. Play her on turn 1 on the first revealed location (unless it's detrimental and you can tell no one will play there) or wait to play her on turn 3 if you're holding Angela. Doesn't matter whether she misses or gets destroyed by Elektra.
- Nightcrawler, very flexible, can contest Sanctum Sanctorum or Death's Domain, play on the same location as Angela to potentially grow her to 9 power after moving him away if she's in your starting hand. If she's not play him on turn 1 on the farthest location.
- Angela, fits any deck as she scales well. Really helps with both your primary and alternative win condition.
- Cable, fills in for Angela on turn 2 and doesn't lose keeps the hand size the same, serves the same purpose as Mantis with a guaranteed effect.
- Sentinel, your final curve filler which doesn't lose you a card.
- Scarlet Witch, get rid of unfavorable locations such as Isle of Silence, Attilan, Mindscape, Dream Dimension, etc. Can play her for tempo as well if you really must, I'd advise against it though - any of the above is a much better option.
- Moon Girl, key card for the deck's primary win condition. If your hand doesn't support the strategy at the moment, play White Queen or two 2-drops instead (or some other combination of cards).
- White Queen, your alternative turn 4 play, will usually net you the opponent's win condition or will let you know that he's at the mercy of their topdecks.
- Devil Dinosaur, explained thoroughly above.
- Iron Man, once again not much to say, a great card in any deck and can often steal you the win from the clutches of defeat.
- America Chavez, your big finisher if you ended up not drawing Devil Dino. Will not draw her sooner than turn 6 thus increasing the chance you do your key cards ever so slightly.
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
Something to consider is how you distribute your Ongoing cards as Enchantress can always swoop in and ruin your day on the last turn - be especially mindful of her when against Odin decks, Zoo or Spectrum usually can't support running her.
Have fun!