EVERYONE. I HAVE JUST BEEN HANDED AN URGENT AND HORRIFYING NEWS STORY. AND I NEED ALL OF YOU TO STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING, AND LISTEN.*
IT’S CANNONBALL!!
Yes, Cannonball is this week’s newest card and my personal most anticipated of the month. Is he the best this month? Probably not; I will be upfront and say he is most likely the weakest card this month. However, that is not to say he is bad. I think he has very strong potential across several archetypes, and I hope to illuminate some of his strengths in today’s spotlight highlight.
Speaking of Spotlights, Cannonball is accompanied by Ms. Marvel and Kitty Pride this week, and all three have some excellent spotlight variants, in my opinion. Should you open this week? If you have none of these cards, I would say yes; Ms. Marvel is a fantastic card, and Kitty is making a resurgence (although I would not go for her without her enablers like Elsa Bloodstone or Hope Summers). Otherwise, unless you were looking forward to Cannonball already or this article gets you excited for him, you can probably skip this week.
The Card & Strategy
Well, what does Cannonball do? He is a 5 energy, 8 power card that will move your opponent’s highest power card to another location. If he cannot move the card, he will destroy it and replace it with a rock.
Cannonball Breakdown
First, it is 8 power, a solid stat line for a 5-cost card. This puts it in the same vein as Jane Foster, The Mighty Thor, M.O.D.O.K., Spider-Woman, and Vision. In and of itself, it is a good power to play for 5 energy and isn’t vulnerable to Shang Chi.
Second, he moves your opponent’s highest power card in that lane if he can. This is a disruption tool; redistributing your opponent's power against their will, even when it isn't destroyed, can win you a lane or disrupt your opponent’s playline. The most egregious example of this would be a Black Panther. Your opponent wants to play with Arnim Zola. It is much more difficult if he is not there! The movement aspect, of course, has synergies with cards that like movement, such as Kraven, Miles Morales, and Kingpin.
Third and most alluring, if Cannonball cannot move the card, he destroys it and replaces it with a rock. This can happen in one of three ways: the other two lanes are full and/or locked down (a la Professor X or clog), there are no other lanes (Galactus), or the card is The Blob (who cannot be moved). While the Rock placement is more of a novelty, I think there may be circumstances where the lane clog comes in handy. Regardless, the destruction of a high-powered card is great, especially if it's normally under Shang-Chi range (Mockingbird is a prime example, especially since she is everywhere at the moment).
While destroying the most powerful card in a lane is great, I think his moving the highest power card in a lane is a useful tool that is underappreciated. If you clog one lane entirely, whether, by movement cards, clog cards, or lockdown cards, you can now displace power in a lane, the opponent may not have accounted for. Cannonball nearly guarantees power displacement and adds 8-power of his own, and eliminates the randomness of cards like Spider-Man and Stegron. Even if your opponent does not have a full lane, Cannonball can put you in 50/50 situations, where before, the odds would be far less, which is an underappreciated value. In a game about risk management, sometimes taking a 50/50 is the best you can ask for, and Cannonball can make that happen.
Thus, there are three different mentalities I see with Cannonball:
- Make it so you don't care which lane the tossed card ends up in
- Make it so the lane the card is being thrown is guaranteed
- Make it so they can't move and thus are destroyed. The decks below attempt to take all 3 philosophies, with some other novelties sprinkled in.
Jimmy’s Day 1 Cannonball Decks
Junkball
I have been off Junk for a few seasons now (don't take that out of context), since it hasn’t been able to stack up in terms of raw power many meta decks generate. Cannonball has revamped my excitement to play junk, and here is the first one I am bringing. This is a standard clog package, with cards like Debrii (who you are about to see a lot of in this article), Green Goblin, Titania, and the Annihilus Package. The primary objective is to have one lane full on your opponent’s side by turn 6 and be winning it or have it be won with a low-cost card (a la Demon). Then, you Cannonball the lane you are highest up in. It is that simple. Junk struggles with power; thus, winning a second lane has always been its weakness. Cannonball now adds power and displacement. I am very excited to bring this deck on the ladder, as I feel it will greatly help Junk win that second lane. Remember: if you have a lane clogged with Titania and need her back to win it, play Cannonball first.
Junktriot Surf
This deck intends to clog to the absolute maximum and benefit you. Debrii into Grandmaster or Absorbing Man (OR BOTH) can be the most irritating line to go against, which is this deck’s intent. If you want to use Cannonball in a game where all lanes are full, a list like this is likely your answer. The rocks get buffed with Patriot, Mockingbird can be discounted significantly with Rocks or Brood, and in the worst case, you always have a Silver Surfer line to back you up. Cannonball is likely a turn 6 play here, and that is if your opponent hasn’t already left in frustration. This deck tries not to live or die by the Debrii play, hence the Surfer alternative.
The Trashbin
Full disclosure: Lockdown is my least favorite archetype in the game. It frustrates me to no end to play against, and I do not enjoy playing it. That said, Cannonball is a card that benefits from Lockdown, so I would be remiss not to include some form of lockdown deck.
Enter The Trashbin. The idea here is to play Storm solely as bait; for once, the storm lane is the one you intend on losing. Throw the Hood in there, Storm the right lane, and play the Sentry (notice the lack of Annihilus?), etc. You want your opponent to invest in the Stormed lane so you can invest elsewhere and then play Professor X on top of a powerful card. Guarantee the one lane, and the Cannonball can throw a strong card they have in the remaining lane into the Trashbin. You weren't going to win there anyway! Without Storm, seek to Prof X right so you can safely play the Sentry; without Prof X, fight for priority and either take the Cannonball 50/50 or play Alitoh. This deck is intended to take opponents by surprise but might have legs in conquest with mind games (i.e., use the Storm lane as trash in some games, and in others, fight for it). Either way, this is a unique take on Storm-type decks that becomes playable due to Cannonball.
Movin’ You
This standard move deck aims to move your opponent’s cards to your advantage. Kingpin and Kraven benefit from you moving opponent cards. Hope Summers can help with some energy generation. Ultimately, this works like clog, wherein you aim to clog up one of their lanes to win it on 5, then slam big power on 6. Kraven and Kingpin act as early-turn scalers, and Cannonball, Aero, and Magneto are late-game disruptors and power sticks in their own right. I threw Ice Man in there, too, but that could just as easily be Jeff. Either way, this seeks to take advantage of the moving element of Cannonball to its fullest extent and doesn't care too much where the card ends up so long as there is a Kraven or Kingpin to help.
Octoball
This is another flavor of the movement package above (inspired by Snap.Fan's head writer Bewd), except we have Doctor Octopus to guarantee a clogged lane. If you are winning the lane you play him, then Cannonball a different lane to win; if not (and Doctor Octopus didn’t pull Shang Chi like he loves to do), Ghost Spider him out of there, then play Cannonball somewhere else!
Pixilactusball
So…I was having a lot of fun with Pixie when she was released in a junk Galactus shell. It worked well enough, but was a ton of fun. Cannonball is ostensibly a Galactus card–as he removes their highest power card and replaces it with a rock and is not subject to Shang Chi, he is a premier Galactus card, in my opinion. So, I combined them into this monstrosity. Early Galactus with Wave or Hope Summers as your ramp options, or Pixie for a low-cost Galactus, etc. The deck is scrappy without the G-man, but playing a 3-cost Galactus into a 1-cost Cannonball or 2-cost Alioth is delightfully mean. This is solely a fun build, but you can get some nasty 8-cube wins because who would dare expect Galactus?!
If you decide to get Cannonball, I hope these lists inspire some creativity in your builds, or you take these decks out for a spin and enjoy them. Let me know your thoughts on the card and these builds, and feel free to share some ideas of your own. Thank you for reading, and happy snapping!
*This bit was brought to you by Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.