Elsa Bloodstone - Card Preview
The latest season pass card to come to Marvel Snap looks to be a good one. Some of the strongest cards in the history of Snap have been obtainable through the season pass. How will Elsa stack up?
At two cost, Elsa is a powerful low-curve value play that can scale out of control very quickly. She can easily provide 5, 8, 11, or even more power throughout the course of a game. She is a flexible card that can be put into a variety of existing archetypes, but she is also powerful enough to be a new build-around card in decks that focus on activating Elsa up as many times as possible. Her biggest downside is that you have to draw her early enough to get the most out of her and you have to plan out your board space carefully.
Character bio
Elsa is a relatively new character in the Marvel universe being created in 2001. She is the daughter of the famous monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, who raised Elsa to be a monster hunter herself. She has super strength, speed, and durability and is immune to Vampire bites. Her publication history is sparse but she appeared in the popular and quirky Warren Ellis series Nextwave, which I highly recommend.
More recently, she appeared in last year's Disney+ Halloween special Werewolf by Night, which appears to be a deep source of inspiration for this season, which also features the release of Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night cards, both of whom also appeared in the Halloween special. I expect to see Marvel and the MCU to spotlight her more in the near future as she's a young, cool, Buffy the Vampire Slayer type character.
Companions
Elsa's best friends will be cards that can fill locations and, ideally, fill them multiple times.
Brood and (to a lesser extent) Mr. Sinister can provide the raw bodies required to get lanes ready to be filled. Both can be followed up by Absorbing Man.
Tip: you have to be careful about how you fill lanes. Only a card played (staged face-down) to fill a lane will receive a buff. Neither Brood, nor Broodlings will get buffed if you play Brood to fill a lane. That has implications for cards like Squirrel Girl, Shanna, Dr. Doom, and Mysterio as well as Brood and Sinister. Plan out how you're filling a lane in advance.
Jeff, Nightcrawler, and Silk are all low-curve cards that can help fill a lane and then get out of the way so the same lane can be filled again.
Dazzler and Elsa both benefit from filled lanes. Perhaps it's Dazzler's time to shine?
Kitty Pryde is clearly the best activator for Elsa as she can fill, vacate, and then re-fill a location repeatedly to get herself truly big and chunky. The Elsa / Kitty pairing is so clearly good that Kitty got a harsh nerf in anticipation of Elsa's release. But Elsa could make Kitty relevant again. Elsa will have Kitty purring and yelling "Can Do!"
Deck lists
Here are a few theory-crafted ideas to try with Elsa Bloodstone on day one.
This is probably the most promising place for Elsa. I think she could bring bounce back to the top of the meta. Mobius is a meta consideration for nearly all of these lists. He may not be necessary if Wave drops in popularity.
Another former best deck in format could be revived by Elsa. A lot of these cards get a lot better with a +3 Elsa buff, while still dodging Shang Chi.
Surfer has never had a problem filling lanes and is flexible in the 2-drop spot. Again, be careful about how you fill a lane. Brood can prep a lane to be filled later, but isn't as good a turn 6 play in this deck, while Maximus shouldn't be played early. Maximus is a major liability against Loki decks, but even Mobius might not improve that match-up. Thor, Daken, and Dazzler are other interesting possibilities.
Patriot is another deck that can fill lanes on later turns quite easily. Ultron doesn't play well with Elsa, so he's left out.
Playing Elsa early and Hit-Monkey plus a lot of cards late seems like a winning concept. You can go either the Sera route or flood with 0-cost cards.
Going all-in on a big Kitty seemed like a better proposition before the recent nerf. Perhaps we can still get up to some shenanigans with Hulk-Buster or Forge?
Movement cards have a natural synergy with Elsa as she can buff cards that can then make way for a different card to get buffed. Ghost-Spider seems like an interesting partner for her, as does Cloak. This list is a starting point to experiment with those pieces.
Final verdict
So, can Elsa shake up a meta that could use a good, strong shake? Does she make the October season pass a must buy?
If Kitty Pryde hadn't recently been nerfed, I think a deck with her and Elsa would have dominated the meta game. As it is, Elsa is still a very strong card that will see success in decks built around her. Additionally, she's reasonably flexible and should be able to make a few archetypes better. All season passes are good value and with Elsa Bloodstone included in this one, I definitely recommend picking up the October season pass.