Another month, another season. This season pass card is actually really strong, in my personal opinion. That said, Sandman was recent buffed and is a direct counter, so we will see...
Season Pass Perks (from purchasing)
Numbers are based on prior season(s):
- Hit Monkey - Season Pass card. See below for thoughts!
- Hit Monkey Variant - Self explanatory.
- Cosmo Variant
- Goose Variant
- 4 Mystery Variants
- 3-4 Avatars
- 1 Card Back
- 300 Credits
- 900 Gold
- 245 Boosters
As I've said in the past, this $10 USD price tag is equivalent to 700 gold purchased directly from the store, and even if you literally do not care about Hit Monkey at all right now...it's still the best cash purchase that has been offered to date.
Hit Monkey Decks
Sera Miracle
As mentioned, I like Hit Monkey a lot. It was a highly discussed card all throughout beta as Sera Miracle was a top deck prior to a ton of nerfs that it sustained (12 cards that were present in the deck have since been nerfed...think about that for a minute, lol. Perhaps not all 12 precisely at same time, but based on collection and version). In any case, Hit Monkey was the datamined card that very clearly wanted to be in the deck, and there was a lot of hype around it as a result.
So what can Sera Miracle do with Hit Monkey? Honestly, there are a lot of directions that it can go, and it is incredibly hard to say what is best. Let me start with a simple example that uses a single s4 card and the rest s3 or below:
Again, I am not claiming this is the final best deck for Hit Monkey - it is just an example. Let's talk about some packages/combos within:
- Sera/2-drops - Perhaps this is obvious, but I really want to touch on the fact that moving a 2-energy card to 1-energy is, in theory, the best bang for your buck. This provides Hit Monkey with the most possible power while also (if balance were perfect with mana cost) getting the highest percentage gain in output.
- Mysterio/Hit Monkey - This is untested, but Mysterio should count as 3 cards played for Hit Monkey. If this does work as I am saying, we then take the deck to lean more heavily into Mysterio. Bishop gets 3 procs (this is also why I believe Hit Monkey will count it as 3), Mojo gets easier to activate, Nova gains additional value when killed, and Bast...
- Bast/Mysterio - This will be 3 units, each with 3 power.
- Nova with Carnage or Killmonger. This is perhaps where I have some doubts. Killmonger is good tech, and when it can buff an entire board with Nova, that is value (realize playing it before Hit Monkey is +2 vs +1, so don't worry about Monkey not getting Nova's +1, in general). There is tension between Carnage and a Mysterio that was hit by Bast, but Carnage gets better if we didn't draw Bast. There is perhaps some tension with Mojo as well if we clear opponent's lane.
- Killmonger/Shang-Chi - This is just a meta call. With Shuri and Thanos both still real decks, running these seems fine. That doesn't mean we play them every game of course.
Sera is the only card in this list that is hurt by Bast, and that is a cost we are willing to pay.
Scarlet Witch is for location control. Bar with No Name, Limbo, plenty of things can just be game winning for her. You can also just get rid of a location early that benefits your opponent more than you, even if it does benefit you (Sinister London for example).
Mojo may not be great in the current meta - depends how reliably the opponent fills a lane. Ideally we do not play him until the final turn, so it shouldn't be too hard to do, assuming the opponent does plan to fill a lane.
Other cards that could be considered:
Star Lord - Not bad as a [1/5], he's there to hedge on a lane that we can win if the opponent doesn't play there (maybe we are tied or 1 point under at start of turn-6), but 5 power could be good if they do play there (maybe we have 2 slots available also).
Lizard - Good card so long as opponent doesn't fill the lane, similar to Star Lord that we can hopefully know on turn-6 where this is. We are also happy to play him turn-2. Is hurt by Bast, however.
Scorpion - Something to do on an early turn.
Luke Cage / Hazmat - Good with Bast, could be an option.
Nightcrawler, Ant-Man, Rocket Raxxoon - Solid 1-drops. Rocket and Ant-Man are okay with Killmonger as we can order final turn. Nightcrawler's perk is to get into locations that are not accessible and is quite bad with Killmonger as a result. Ant-Man could just be better than Mojo as we have full control over it.
Again, I have no clue what the best version of this deck will be, but I am sure planning to mess around with it.
That said, perhaps this makes the Sandman deck(s) a bit better. I use a Sandman deck to solid success in the Thanos meta the last couple months...if Hit Monkey takes off, well, Sandman obviously neuters our monkey friend. The decklist I used:
And for those that care, the nerfed cards referenced earlier...
Sera (lost 1 power), Chavez (lost 1 power), Scarlet Witch (gained 1 cost and 1 power), Okoye (gained 1 cost and 1 power), Nakia (used to hit full hand), Mysterio (lost 1 power), Angela (lost 1 power), Bishop (lost 1 power), Hell Cow (gained 2 cost), Strong Guy (gained 2 cost and 1 power), Lady Sif (gained 1 cost), Ghost Rider (gained 1 cost).
Other decks
This part will be more vague, as I'm not sure how much I agree.
Bounce Deck
Beast can definitely lead to the ability to play more cards on the final turn (primarily with 1 drops, as he can lower their cost to 0). That said, I think this still wants to play Sera on turn-5, though I may be wrong. Some talk here is with Kitty Pryde, but I truly think that is a trap. I think The Hood is just flat better than Kitty if you want to take this route.
Worth noting that if you play Hit Monkey the bounce it, it will keep that bonus powert and then gain more power on the 2nd play. But to do this takes significant effort. Turn-5 could do a 1-drop, Hit Monkey, then Beast? But that's only 2 extra power on the On-Reveal effect, with then 2-3 mana "free" on the final turn...but Sera can do more than that?
Kazoo
1 drops definitely help Hit Monkey. I think this can be a pretty easy addition to the plan of playing 4 1-drops and then Hit Monkey on the final turn. This then begs the question of Mysterio in my mind (and then Blue Marvel perhaps as well?) as well as Bast.
Thanos
Similar to Kazoo, Thanos just has the 1-drops for final turn, if desired. There is some both tension and reward from Lockjaw. Tension if hit Monkey is pulled as a first card out of Lockjaw and is then a 2 power unit? Benefit if on turn-4 we play Stone/Stone/Hit Monkey into Lockjaw. Hit Monkey will get his power, then go into deck...and if/when we redraw him later, he will have that added power.
Other Combos
She-Hulk Clone :: Moongirl -> Pass -> 2x She-Hulk + 2x Monkey...this is worse than 2x Demon that the deck was doing, but an added possible route.
Jane/Lockjaw :: As mentioned in the Thanos section, this deck already wants to play Wasp as an example, which has added value with monkey.
Final comments
New cards coming out this month
I think all 3 are interesting, and I can't imagine paying 6k tokens for any of them. I like Snowguard and Jeff's designs. Stegron is just a mediocre new Juggernaut.
New Locations
And in a little over a week, Snap.fan will have our first tier list. I will be teaming up with the Snap Judgments Podcast to come to something, 1 week after the season starts. I will write more about the process then, but it will be fun to do. Do realize tier lists are always just the opinions of those who create them!