After a full season of never-ending fights, our beloved heroes, villains, and in-betweeners could use a break. Cancun might be the perfect location for it! So get your luggage ready and leave your spandex costume and utility belt at home because we won’t need them.
I’m always amazed by Marvel writers' rampant imagination. They always come up with some of the craziest locations I’ve ever seen. Most of the time, fiction is what our marvelous minds can come up with based on what we desire the most. This time, they devised this absurdly awesome place called Cancun, where you can relax and appreciate life’s simple pleasures.
This fictional land of Cancun is known for its white sand beaches, where the water is refreshing and has the perfect shade of turquoise. It’s the ideal place to unwind after saving the world for the fifth time this month. No more worries about what kind of doomsday device you must destroy before the week's end. You can bake in the sun and drink local drinks like margaritas and horchatas here. Or perhaps indulge in the local cuisine, like Deadpool’s famous chimichangas. Marvel should consider releasing a book with these made-up recipes. Where else could we learn how to make these fictitious plates like tamales or burritos?
What else can we say about the place? Not much else is known about it since it's not a real–
Sorry, my editor is calling me…
It is a real place!? In Mexico???
Everyone! I have wonderful news! The place is real! We can go there right now and experience all that delicious food and sunny beaches to our heart's content! It has resorts and nightlife; it is the perfect place for a wonderful vacation! It is on the Caribbean Sea. Wait, is the Caribbean Sea also real? Wasn’t it made up for those pirate movies? I need to study more geography.
Cancun - The Location
On the 29th, Cancun will star as the hot location for its inauguration on Snap. It will be a very complex day because the location fundamentally changes how we should play. When Cancun shows up, the game becomes a two-location match in terms of power because power in Cancun won’t be counted at the end of the game, not even for tiebreaks. So, you better stack your power at one of the other two locations.
The closest location we have that I could compare to Cancun is Bar With No Name. When it pops up, the game usually becomes a competition to see who can gain more power in one of the other two locations. I suspect the same could be said about Cancun. Also, some lane-changing shenanigans could be devastating when they show up.
So, how do we win when Cancun is all over the place? I have three strategies to handle it: power-stacking, lane-changing, and junk. Let’s focus on both archetypes and see their main cards.
Let’s start with power-stacking. It makes sense to go as big as possible when at least half of our games will end in a tiebreak. Iron Man is one of the best cards to make power in a single location, and one of his best shells to make power with him is the Tribunal archetype. However, I must say that Tribunal will be a much worse card during Cancun because he will send ⅓ of your power to a location that doesn’t count toward winning the game. So when Cancun is on the board, you should forgo playing it. Instead, your finisher could be Onslaught to duplicate Iron Man’s Ongoing effect.
Another power-stacker is our current undisputed Sorcerer Supreme, Wong. He can reach such a high ceiling with our On-Reveal cards, especially those that duplicate their power, like Black Panther and Beta Ray Bill. Finish it all with Odin deeming you worthy to reach gigantic power. If you somehow get Mystique to copy Wong’s Ongoing effect and then do all that, your power will be impossibly high for your opponent.
Lane-change time! There are arguably the most fun cards in the game. You feel like a mastermind playing with your opponent; he doesn’t know that the foundation of his plans will be swept under his feet. Quake will be queen during Cancun’s hot location day. If you see your opponent stacking all his power to win a location, you can send all his characters on an all-paid trip to Cancun, where they won’t be helping them anymore. Or perhaps you want to put the seeds of doubt in your opponent’s mind by telling him that, at any moment, the Cancun location could go away. By playing Nocturne in a non-Cancun location, you’ll always have the threat of taking it away. Your opponent won’t be able to know if you’re going to change it or not. It all depends on your winning plan. Do you want another evil play? How about the powerful mutant Legion? If you are losing the game, you could play him on Cancun and decide at any moment that this game will end in a tie.
Last but not least is the Junk archetype. Whenever Cancun shows up, you and your opponent only have 8 card slots on the board to make power to win. The more card slots you take away from your opponent, the bigger your chance to win. White Widow removes a slot from your opponent while giving him an annoying condition. Goblins are much more annoying when cards’ real estate becomes so valuable. The Annihilus package is always awful to face, with so few slots on the board. And to finish it all? Cannonball throwing your opponent's most powerful card into Cancun for that sneaky win.
These are the three strategies that I consider best for Cancun’s debut. Let me give you some decks to get you all sorted out for that day. Since I showed you three different strats, I’ll give you two decks for each, on the house, of course.
Cancun Decks
Power Stackers
I Wanna See You Math this Out
How does multiplication work? I have no clue. If you figure out how the double of the double of the double of the double times four works, let me know. Thanks to the Onslaught and Iron Man collaboration, this deck can concentrate an absurd amount of power on a single location. Put mystique into the mix; no deck can get close to this amount of power. The Tribunal is here for those games where Cancun doesn’t show up.
The Biggest of Panthers
Okay, this deck can make an absurd amount of power with the condition that you draw Mister Negative in time. If everything works out, you can earn a gazillion points. If Cancun is on board, your best playline will be to make the biggest Black Panther possible. Otherwise, you can spread your power with Zola.
Lane Changers
Switcheroo
Oh boy, I sure love trolling my opponent. Juggle your opponent's cards, switch Cancun around, or remove it altogether. Magnetize his power into Cancun. Terrorize your opponent with the removal of Cancun by playing Nocturne. This deck will surely surprise your opponent.
Pocket Sand
Ramp up our energy, and then play the biggest guy we have every turn. Blink Electro away if possible. We have Sandman if our opponent likes playing many cards; we can even use double sand with Odin. If, for any reason, we feel like we are going to lose the game, we can play Legion on Cancun and set this game with a tie.
Junk
Compulsory Vacation
Diabolical. We remove their card slots with our junk while playing some decent power. We can make the legendary play of using Doctor Octopus on Cancun, pulling him out of there with Ghost-Spider, and finishing the game with Cannonball, destroying our opponent's biggest card.
Pixie is Cheating
Remember those power stackers and junk? Lady Deathstrike, most of the time, breaks down their play pattern. You can take the trash away by destroying Window’s Kisses, goblins, voids, and hoods. Or you can destroy their Iron Man winning condition. Also, we have some formidable plays of our own. If we get Pixie early, your opponent is in for a surprise, with some of our powerful cards being extremely cheap. Is anyone up for a 1-cost Red Hulk?
Afterthoughts
Introducing the Cancun location in the game brings new strategic opportunities and challenges. The games where this location shows up will be quite interesting, and if you have some key cards that work well with it, you're in for a good time. The key to success is always recognizing the potential of each location and card. Consider carefully each of your plays and whether your opponent is as prepared as you are for this hot location. If your opponent is trying one of these strategies, you must always consider what they could do to mess you up in Cancun. I like locations like this because they encourage creativity, strategic thinking, and adaptability.
What about you? Do you like locations like this one? Do you want to travel with me to Cancun? Do you have any secret decks for Cancun’s launch? Did this article help you out? Let me know; I always read the comments below.