This week’s card is a hotly anticipated and hotly contested archetype-defining card: Arishem. Marvel Snap’s first seven energy card, Arishem, does two things: he lets you start the game with extra energy and shuffles 12 random cards into your deck at the start of the game. He may be a The Judge, but this article seeks to analyze and pass the ultimate judgment a Marvel Snap card can get before release: will this card be any good?
This is especially an especially oe important question because, in all honesty–this week has been a very weak week in terms of spotlights. Arishem is featured alongside Hercules and Black Swan. The Hercules buff, dropping him to 3 energy, did not assuage the nerf move faced in general several patches ago, and he thus is not a huge meta contender. Black Swan has some very niche utility but ultimately is very rarely seen. Even if you do not have any of the cards this week, I believe the determining factor, if you should open at all, is whether Arishem is worth getting. Since there is a lot of discourse on this topic, I will make my case before answering this question.
The Case for Arishem
Yes, I buried the lede to unbury it with the section heading immediately: I believe Arishem will be good and worth opening caches to get, regardless of the fun factor. For some context, one of my favorite decks to play is a card generation deck (shown below for reference). This deck is designed to generate random cards by discarding Helicarrier, playing Agent Coulson or Nick Fury, etc., and discounting them with Quinjet and/or ramping with Corvus Glaive. This deck is not superb; however, it has high cube equity due to your opponent's inability to conceive what you can play in any given game. It also now includes Sersi for a little more RNG oomph.
I bring this deck up because it seeks to create random cards and use them to your advantage, and when you can do so effectively, it works well. The deck’s biggest folly is playing “bad” cards to get good ones. On countless occasions, Corvus has discarded the exact two cards I did not want him to. I simply won't draw him or Quinjet, or the early game does not develop enough power to ramp into Nick Fury cards effectively.
However, it works when the deck works because I can play cards earlier than their energy costs imply. Mintends, my opponent cannot play around cards they cannot possibly anticipate, or I play half my hand due to Quinjet Helicarrier essentially being a Loki for a deck that doesn’t exist. A “bad” card at 4 energy (for example, Rescue) is significantly better when you can play it earlier or with extra energy.
Now, Arishem cuts out the middleman. You no longer have to include “bad cards” to make the RNG work to your advantage. You have the ramp built in from the beginning of the game. You are still subject to the RNG, of course, but that can work to your advantage and, more often than not, will. My ultimate point is that randomly generated cards–the “downside” to playing Arishem–is not as harrowing as many people think, since many cards in Marvel Snap are, in fact, good in a vacuum.
This is not to say that Arishem will be an easy card to play with. That is in part because…
Arishem is a Deckbuilding Riddle
Given my argument above–that RNG is good sometimes and extra energy for free is always good–there is still the problem that you still have to build a deck, with one slot being taken by a 7 energy 7 power card (basically one dead draw), and having to come to terms with the fact that each card you include in your deck proper now only has roughly a 37% chance of being drawn at all each game. On average, 4 to 5 of the cards you draw will be random, and 4 to 5 will be the ones you put in the deck. You must also consider that Domino and Quicksilver can be a randomly generated card, thus guaranteeing you draw a terrible card on turn 1 or 2.
So make no mistake; the RNG is certainly a burden in many ways, but it need not necessarily be one so damning that it renders the extra energy not worth it. I believe the main tenets of Arishem are thus the following: Every draw from the deck you construct must be impactful upon draw, and utilizing the extra energy every turn is vital. These two tenets make the random cards stuffed into your deck worth it for the energy and thus need to be core to the idea of playing a deck like this.
With this in mind, there are three different philosophies I believe one could implement in service of these central tenets: (1) hand mitigation, (2) draw mitigation, and (3) opponent mitigation. In all three of these philosophies, I think some cards should be included in nearly every Arishem deck.
The Auto-Includes
Due to the nature of Arishem decks, I believe the following cards are always meaningful draws and should thus nearly always be included when constructing an Arishem deck. Of course, there will be exceptions, but these cards will always service the philosophies I outline below and, ultimately, any deck that runs Arishem.
Quinjet: This card mitigates the RNG draws. I have seen some discourse that Quinjet is overrated because you will unlikely draw it early. However, a card that functions as a 1-cost Sera for half your deck is good to play on any turn except 6. I think there is no question Quinjet should be in every Arishem deck.
Mockingbird: Half of your deck discounts Mockingbird. That should be reason enough to include a likely 3/9 in your deck.
Blob: A guaranteed 6/15 minimum, that you can play on turn 5 and still have cards to draw in most circumstances. Blob is always a good card to include in Arishem decks, bar none.
Loki: Boy, I dislike including him in this, but I believe I would not do my due diligence without mentioning him. He'sHes a great card and can help you out of bricked hands. I do not encourage including Loki in every Arishem deck, but he will certainly be a good one to consider for every deck.
Sersi: This is a less popular opinion, but Sersi is an excellent card to include with Arishem. She can allow you to roll the dice on having to play bad random cards to transform them into better random cards with one more cost.
Some Good Synergies
In addition to the cards I believe will work in every Arishem deck, I would like to highlight some cards that have particular synergies with Arishem that one might consider when designing their deck.
Wave: The idea of playing wave on 2 and being the only one able to capitalize on the discounted cards since your opponent will only have 3 energy the next turn is a strong one. It is a card to consider, even though the likelihood of having Wave in hand by two is very small.
Magneto: Magneto is already a strong card when played on turn 6. However, his utility is bolstered greatly with the ability to play him on 5. It is a huge disruptive tool that can potentially clog an opponent's lane or ruin careful card placements (like Wong). Simply a strong card to include in Arishem decks.
Alioth: Not only can deactivating cards your opponent plays on 5 be devastating, with all the powerful 5 drops in the game, but now he's just a big boy at 10 power. Very good inclusion in any deck that has a ramp on turn 1.
JimmyDickins Deck Builds & Philosophies.
Hand Mitigation
The idea here is to include a bunch of hand-generating cards to smooth out your curve and to have a better chance of having playable random cards. In essence, you are mitigating RNG with more RNG, but in the process, you have playable cards to do so. The hand-generating cards typically cost less, so you can stack them in a lane to Sersi later if needed (and if drawn). This truly leans into the random generation, but as stated earlier, the ramp amplifies the chances of random cards feeling good to play. Every draw is meaningful because it can lead to being able to play more cards. It also prevents you from running out of cards to play.
Draw Mitigation
Draw more cards to get to your other ones. Nico, Crystal, Adam Warlock, Jubilee, and Blink all serve to get more cards in hand or on board. The former 3 cards are to draw these cards to hand (The Nico draw 2 spell specifically), while the latter 2 serve to dig in your deck a bit blindly. Phastos serves just to buff everything you draw, and the auto-includes all support these cards to be powerful in their own right. I think this is the weakest of the three philosophies, simply due to the lack of draw mechanics with cards, but I believe it can work, especially if you hope hard enough that the random cards you draw will be the ones you need.
Opponent Mitigation
This can also be read as “tech cards and Arishem.” This relies on the RNG cards and the auto-includes for power and then deals with things your opponent may throw at you with Shadow King, Shang-chi, Red Guardian, and Mobius M. Mobius. It also includes Ms. Marvel and Professor X because we all miss playing Professor X on turn 4. Essentially, play what you want, and your opponent has no fun since you have a ramp and tech around every corner. This is the deck type for you if you believe having the energy advantage is insufficient when you cannot control half the cards you draw.
Good Cards Arishem
The central two tenets are core to Arishem, even above my outlined philosophies. As such, here is a deck that looks to play some good cards. You will notice some cards like White Queen and Leech are included; they are much better when you can play them a turn earlier than their energy allows. This is a “generic” deck; it does not lean into any one philosophy but a bit of them all.
Conclusion
The two tenets and three philosophies are the three best ways to think of Arishem when building a deck. Arishem will be one of the most interesting puzzles to solve, and I hope this article sparks some ideas of your own to try with him. Ultimately, playing with the card will only solve the puzzle, so this article seeks to set you on the right foot. Please let me know your thoughts on the card below, whether you think I am absolutely wrong or if you have ideas that you are excited to try.