There is a new candidate for the goodest boy award. Fenris Wolf is the next spotlight card, and everyone is howling in anticipation.
But who is this possibly the best of the boys? Let’s have a look at his pedigree. I’m sure there is nothing surprising here… Welp, he is the son of Loki—Lokison?
How?! You have a lot of explaining to do, mister.
Well, first of all, through Magic and Mischief all things are possible, so jot that down.
Fenris is a powerful, godlike wolf who is extremely smart and has shapeshifting powers. The Asgardians were so afraid of him and his strength that they tried to find a way of binding the wolf. They made it a game, actually. They tried to lock the wolf down to see how long it took for him to be free. Fenris allowed the Asgardians to put him in chains since he liked the challenge, and they always promised to release him if he couldn’t break the chains.
That continued for a long time until Odin grew tired of it and demanded that an unbreakable bond be made just for Fenris. And so it was made, but Fenris, sensing that this bond would be too strong for him to break, agreed to wear it only if there was a good willing to put his hand in the wolf’s month as a sign of trust. If the bonds proved to be too strong and the Asgardians didn’t release Fenris, he would bite off the hand of the god. Tyr, the Asgardian God of War, accepted. To no one’s surprise, the Asgardians didn’t release the wolf, and he took Tyr’s hand for the betrayal.
To this day, Fenris is bound and locked. It is prophesied that when Ragnarok comes, he’ll be free to take his revenge by devouring his Grandfather, Odin. Prophecy is a trick, so who knows what might actually happen when Ragnarok dawns upon us?
Possibly the most potent Activate so far
Fenris Wolf howls in as a 2-Cost 3-Power with the powerfully unique Activate effect of bringing back a card, the most powerful card your opponent lost during the game, whether by discard or destroy. I’d say he’ll be a great card due to his vanilla stats, which also have a lane-winning effect that can be activated at any point in the game. He also has the potential to improve as more cards are added into the game since more destruction and discarding effects can be added in the future, granting you more options to use with our lupine friend.
Usually, card games have a graveyard where discarded or destroyed cards go. Still, Marvel Snap is unique because it separates how a card is removed from the game, meaning that we have two different graveyards, one for discard and one for destruction. And our good wolf here is allowed to fetch a card from either, which means that he could be used with decks that discard or destroy your opponent's cards, perhaps both?
One interesting aspect of our wolf is denying access to destroyed or discarded cards that your opponent might need. Cards like Ghost Rider, Hela, and The Phoenix Force could be demolished by a dog playing fetch with the foundation of their game plans.
Since our lupine gravedigger would be useless by itself, let's look at possible partners for the hunt.
Destruction
Firstly, on the destruction side of things, we have an obvious synergy with Shang-Chi. He needs no introduction; everyone has lost many games by now due to his heartbreaking effect of removing your most powerful cards from the field. Well, to add salt to injury, not only do you lose your most powerful card in a location, but Fenris fetches it back from the shadow realm straight into the opponent’s side of the field. Making you lose the game faster than you can say, “I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling martial artist and your dog!”
Shang would be the best dog walker in town, but further options exist. Negasonic Teenage Warhead could be used to surprise your opponent by destroying a powerful late-game card; to do that, you would need a deck that can get priority easily. Gladiator could be another interesting card to play with Fenris, but the hard limit of 7 Power could possibly be too low. Maybe buffing Gladiator is a viable strategy. If you’re a gambler, you could use the appropriately named Gambit to snipe your opponent’s card and return it to your side of the field.
There are more, but I don’t think they will be reliably good. Killmonger is a card that could allow Fenris to return your opponent’s Bob, Demon, or even Ebony Maw, but that is perhaps wishful thinking. If a Junk Wolf deck ever happens, Cannonball would be a star of that deck. Lastly, Lady Deathstrike could be used in a heavy Iron Man meta to steal Tony to your side of the fight. And lastly, Yondu, the forgotten Destroy card. Yondu could snipe something big enough to get the wolf interested if you are playing a Mill deck.
Discard
Discard is, at least for now, more limited since we don’t have that many cards that discard a card from your opponent's hand. I wouldn’t hold my breath about getting more cards in this section since the devs repeatedly mentioned that they don’t plan on adding many cards that discard your opponent’s cards because it isn’t a fun interaction to have in the game. So, who do we have?
The list is much smaller, and two of our three options carry double-edged blades that discard our cards. Moon Knight is my favorite option of the bunch since he can target your opponent’s 6-Drop if you’re lucky. SilverSamurai discard cards that have the lowest amount of power, which, most of the time, isn’t very exciting to bring to the field with the wolf. Lastly, Black Bolt targets the card with the smallest cost, which is also not very exciting. On a good day, we could discard your opponent’s free Death and bring her back on our side. Perhaps the best way to use Black Bolt and White Samurai would be by replicating their effects with either Wong or GrandMaster.
Dualgloves’ Day One Fenris Wolf Decks
Play Fetch
Mill is back in town! Wolf should slot in quite nicely. Since we have three destroyers in Yondu, Gladiator, and Shang, they are bound to hit something big at some point, allowing the wolf to make some big power in a location. Magik gives us one more turn to play, and since you are ruining most of their cards, your opponent probably won’t be able to fight back.
Mz. Samurai
BEWD, our Chief Editor, loves the discard archetype. I’m pretty sure his favorite card is Moon Knight (Editors Note: It is), and it is no surprise that he had a deck for me even before I finished writing this. We have the usual discarding suspects to remove your opponent’s options while benefiting from our discards with the help of Scorn. Doom and Ms Marvel are here to boost our power since we don’t have a big card like Thanos and Surtur decks do.
Gravediggin' at Moonlight, Having a Wonderful Time
Alright, I want to use cards that I don’t usually use in interesting new ways. Wolf is here to hopefully bring back one of your opponent’s strongest 1-Drops. We have Yondu and Elektra to do the dirty work for the wolf. If you grab a Hood from the graveyard, never fear, Misery is here.
Not a Stone Left Unturned
This is a shell that has proven itself time and again, and this time around, it's better than never. Hopefully, the wolf adds to it, but he won’t be the main attraction since you’ll play with a longer deck, and sometimes, you simply won’t draw him on time. Luckily, the deck has many lines and ways to win, and the wolf is just the cherry on top.
Verdict
Okay, so the big moment finally arrived. Should you add Fenris to your collection? All I can say is that I certainly will. He seems fun, unique, and capable of helping you win games. That is all I could ask for when a card is released. He might be too janky to be worth a deckslot. If that is your fear, I suggest you wait around this week. There is no rush; you can always grab him later if he proves powerful enough.
I genuinely believe that there is no way that Fenris will have a bad variant. He is too stylish for it. But you will have difficulty deciding between his spotlight variant or Viktor Farro’s rendition of our beloved wolf.
