We Salute our Noble Baron!
Hello, fellow henchperson! It’s so good to have you here as part of our totally legitimate and faithful organization of good people without any ill intent.
This is the base of our operations— the venerable ancestral home of the Zemo family, a noble household that has helped its people through generations. Let me take you through a quick tour before you’re assigned to your mission, which will be morally correct and within the law.
The Zemos have been part of this land since its very beginning. The great founder, Harbin Zemo, saved the people of this land from multiple invasions with nothing but a sword in his hand. He was heralded as a noble for his actions, and he built this castle to be the bastion of the goodness that is the Zemo family. Don’t listen to those “historians” who try to besmirch his honor with their “proof” that Harbin became corrupted with power and oppressed his own people!
Since their revered beginnings, the familyline had many heroes of note. But let’s focus on the last two members of this exalted household, who have been brilliant in their own right. Firstly, we have the brilliant scientist Heinrich Zemo. He tried to use his science to help people by stopping the war at the time. What’s that? “Which side of the war was he on?” Never mind that.
And though he made many advancements in science, he met his tragic fate at the hands of the villain known as Captain America.
Lastly, we have our leader, Baron Helmut Zemo. Even without the lineage, he’s got it all: the brains, the brawl, and the cunning to outsmart any villain who tries to defeat him. With his charisma, he could recruit anyone to our noble cause! He is the kind of leader you would follow in any battle because you know he has your back.
Well, that’s the end of the tour, my dear fellow henchperson. Do you have any questions?
“Why do we have so many skulls in our uniform?” “Are we the baddies?”
What makes you ask that?
Castle Zemo - The Location
Castle Zemo is quite simple: the first card played here by each player switches sides. It’s like a free effect from our favorite Green Girl, Viper.
Like playing with Viper, we need to find some awful cards we can donate to our opponent. Let’s consider some cards that would be devastating to send to Zemo’s opulent ancestral home.
Maybe the most dastardly evil card to send to your opponent is Electro. You get the benefit of the extra energy, while your opponent gets the detriment of only being able to play one card each turn. From there, the game is practically won outright. Don’t forget to snap before doing this play!
Another very restrictive card that you could play is Ebony Maw: he is quite cheap, and since the location reveals on turn 3 at the latest, you can reliably play him on Castle Zemo to limit where your opponent can play.
One last card that could be a huge detriment to your opponent? Havok. He can scale quite high in Power, but he locks the owner's energy for the duration of the match. For example, if he is played on turn 2 on Castle Zemo, the opponent will only have 2 Max Energy for the rest of the match. Diabolical! And even though Havok will get huge by the end of the game, he’s nothing a Shang-Chi or Shadow King can’t answer.
Be careful; every one of those evil actions can happen to you, too! You might look into avoiding those bad situations by Viper-ing back the junk they sent you or destroying it altogether.
That said, Castle Zemo’s day promises to be ruthless! You better be ready, lest you get buried under a sea of junk, grasping for dear life on a ladder. Just because I like you, I have a few deck recommendations to help you.
Castle Zemo’s Decks
We are going to start strong with this one. It’s one of my favorite decks, and it has both things you need to survive the day: something awful to give your opponent and a way to get rid of the trash your opponent sends you in kind. Don’t forget that you can retrigger your Destroy cards on the side locations with Grandmaster!
Yeah, yeah, we are all tired of Hela— but there is a good reason for it. The goddess of Death is meta-strong, and Castle Zeemo won’t hurt her in many of your matches. You can send your Ebony or Electro, and it doesn’t matter what you get back, save maybe for Havok. Just discard your stuff and finish big with Hela!
Big Boys Playing in the Sand
You don’t like Hela? No problem! This is a similar deck to the one above without relying on Hela's RNG. Again, you don’t care about what your opponent sends your way—and even without Sandman, you can always lock them down by playing your Electro on Zemo’s Castle.
Sera's Siege
It’s Sera, but designed to siege Castle Zemo! We have Killmonger to eliminate every possible Ebony Maw, Enchantress to remove Electro’s effect on your side of the board, and Havok to take advantage of the Castle ourselves.
Just Destroy
As the title suggests, it’s just a Destroy Deck. Nothing fancy about this one. It follows the simple premise: if your opponents try to give you crap, destroy it!
Afterthoughts
That brings us to the end, fellow Snappers! Again, I’m glad to help you guys walk through these treacherous new locations. I hope you liked the light reading and that my tips help you reach your goals for this season! While I often say you can mostly ignore Hot Locations, Castle Zemo will be too impactful to ignore in roughly 50% of your games.
As always, I’m open to your feedback, especially because I only exist as a fragment of your imagination, and I’ll be gone forever the moment you stop reading. Did you enjoy the Zemo Family Story? What about the decks and strategies? Do you have your own recipes for Castle Zemo’s Day? Let me know in the comments. Thank you all for reading, and I’ll see you next time!