Black Swan - Card Preview
Yabbat Ummon Turru (say that ten times fast!), otherwise known as Black Swan, enters the Marvel Snap fray as the featured Season Pass card for this month.
The last surviving member of Earth-1365, Black Swan, is a member of the Black Order, the league of warriors assembled by Thanos to serve as generals in his neverending war with life itself. Black Swan is an incredible telepath and master of many psionic abilities. She can fly, generate force fields, read minds, super strength, and, oh yeah… Shoot lasers out of her eyes!
While most of those fancy powers may not relate much to her actual in-game effect, she nonetheless proves an effective member of the Thanos war party. Offering a strong 3-cost 5-power stat-line capable of reducing those 1-cost Infinity Stones to 0 for the next turn, Black Swan can let you trigger all 6 Stones and activate the Power Stone’s boosting effect for Thanos.
However, she’s not limited to beefing Thano’s fragile ego; her ability is a compelling argument to run her as a staple in any deck running multiple 1-cost cards. With a solid 3/5 stat line, she can lay down enough power and provide cover to deploy multiple 1-cost cards in a single turn.
While only active for a single turn, Swan’s effect marks a slight bend on a design rule Second Dinner has established with previous card changes to ensure card reduction mechanics don’t make it too easy to drop the cost to 0. Cards like Sera, Zabu, and Quinjet have previously been altered to include explicit language restricting cost reduction to a minimum of 1.
Will she herald an Incursion on our meta?
Because of her ability to make multiple 1-cost cards free, there is a ton of combo potential to consider. She will likely find herself at home as a staple in a few decks, which, in my opinion, is usually what we want in a season pass card–versatility. Cost reduction is a powerful and valuable function, and there is a reason Second Dinner has been careful with anything that makes something 0 cost: it can lead to creative decks laying down a lot of power very quickly, turning the tide of a match before it’s just begun. Let’s take a look at what some of the possible synergies might be, starting with a handful of obvious, non-stone related, 1-costs.
The first thing that comes to mind when considering how to pair this card is going to be Thanos, obviously, but also Caiera to keep those precious stones safe from Killmonger and his damned daggers.
There is also the Zoo potential to consider pairing Black Swan with cards that require 1-cost or filling the board quickly like KaZar and Dazzler.
How about move decks? Move decks require various other cards to trigger their abilities, and, coincidentally, a few of them fall in that 1-cost sweet spot— consider Iron Fist, Ghost-Spider, and Human Torch. You could pull a pretty good amount of power onto Human Torch in a single turn.
She could also prove useful in Destroy decks, allowing you to pull off a much larger turn 4 Venom by making Yondu, X-23, Nova, and Deadpool free of charge.
You’re also going to want to watch out for these potential counters. Mobius M. Mobius will completely negate her cost reduction, leaving you with a 3/5 on the board and no freebies. Killmonger is also a nasty threat to your 1-cost empire. His daggers would make quick work of your loaded board and, if played on the last turn, could turn your easy win into an embarrassing defeat. The good boy himself, Cosmo, could also ruin your good day if he is played on the same lane with priority. Supergiant releasing the same day could make your big turn less impactful, freezing all your free on-reveal effects.
Cultpapa’s Day 1 Decks to Try
Black Swan will likely feel at home in a few decks, so why not adopt her today with these decks to try out on Day 1?
Spectrum Thanos with Special Guest Black Swan!
While a deviation from the classic Lockjaw Thanos decks, this Thanos combo with Black Swan should help fill the board with those other 1-cost cards while still playing Ka-Zar or Caiera in the same turn to maximize your likelihood of keeping those cards on the board, lest a certain Killmonger make an unwelcome appearance.
Black Swan Moving and Bouncing
Submitted to Snap.Fan by the user Pavs, this deck promises to light up the board with chaotic movements. Imagine a massive turn 4 playing Hercules into Iron Fist and Human Torch, followed by a cheeky Ghost Spider for 3 Torch procs in 1 turn, putting down 27 power on turn 4.
Swan's Day at the Zoo
This is your classic Zoo deck, but now we are using Black Swan to maximize your board-filling potential. This deck doesn’t have removal on the mind with, at most, the ability to neutralize a large card or 2 with Valkyrie.
Black Swan Death
Maybe not a perfect fit, but I am curious to see how much of a difference it makes to drop those 1 cost cards to free in a destroy deck. With 5 power of its own, it makes a tasty snack for our boy Venom, so adding in bonus flavor with a couple of decedent tastings like Forge, X-23, and Yondu on the proverbial charcuterie board, I don’t see how it could hurt.
Variants
As a huge fan of the gothic aesthetic, I am excited to see the first 2 variants for Black Swan pull from some of her existing artwork. The Season Pass variant is extremely cool with the glowing skull, and the Incursion variant gives an absolute badass display of power, smashing 2 multiverse planets together.
Closing Thoughts
I think this season pass card will take up a cozy spot in a few decks; cost reduction is incredibly valuable, and she provides the best kind of cost reduction: free.
The developers hit a good balance of power and single-turn effect to limit the ceiling on how much you can abuse this card's potential. I would give this season pass serious consideration if you are an avid Thanos or Zoo player, for sure.
I’ll additionally be interested to see how she pairs with her fellow Black Order card releasing this month, Cull Obsidian. Seems like a match made in heaven.
