Villain of the Week or Archenemy?
Otto Octavius, better known as Doc Ock, is the type of guy who woke up one morning and said to himself, "You know what I need in my life? Eight limbs!" Clearly, two arms weren't cutting it for this overachieving scientist. He used to be a cool guy, but the “incident” left him with some brain damage in the region that is responsible for you not being a supervillain (that’s a very real part of the brain, by comics science). He decided to spend the rest of his days getting smacked around by a guy in spandex who was always taking pictures of the fight for some unknown reason.
Sometimes, Otto is a Spider-Man of a Superior variety. Sometimes, he is in a cloned body that is mixed with Peter’s DNA. And there was this time that he was marrying Aunt May. Spidey and Otto’s relationship is weird.
He looks stylish for someone with a haircut that screams, "I cut this myself with a bow."
So, enough about Otto. Let’s talk about his Lab, where the magic happens.
You get mechanical tentacles! You get mechanical tentacles! Everybody gets mechanical tentacles! Otto’s lab reads, “The next card you play here pulls a card to the enemy side from their hand.” This means that for both players, their next card will have the titular scientist effect of pulling a card from the opponent’s hand toward the location.
That’s quite a unique new location! The closest location I can think of is Sakaar, which also pulls a card from both players' hands. Although Sakkar is a way less strategic location, relying on pure dumb luck to get your best card on the board for free. Otto’s Lab can be activated whenever you want. You just have to play a card there. Meaning that you could manipulate it somewhat to determine when or even if you’re going to pull an opponent’s card onto the board.
So yeah, that’s Otto’s Lab. Can you manage it when it shows up on your games? I hope so because on Wednesday, the 25th, it will join our growing location list and be the hot location for 24 hours. And I’m here to guide you through this location. So, let’s prepare ourselves to be Superior during that tentacleful day.
One of the ways we could avoid pulling a powerful card from our opponent’s hand is by giving him bad or weak cards beforehand. The best guy for the job is Master Mold. He gives your opponent 2 copies of Sentinel. If you could replicate Mold’s effect with GrandMaster, your Opponent’s hands will be filled up with sentinels, giving you a great chance of pulling one of those sentinels on the field when you play on Otto’s Lab. If you try this strat, don’t forget to bring your Ronan the Accuser, he loves it when your opponent can’t get rid of his hand.
You could follow the opposite thinking and consider playing a deck with many powerful cards you wouldn’t mind getting pulled onto the board. I hate to say this, but the Goddess of Death, Hela, is powerful and meta-relevant right now. So if your opponent, in his carelessness, plays a card onto Otto’s Lab, he might pull into the field your Infinaut, Giganto, Death, or Magneto. Two things could go wrong, though the lab pulling your Hela onto the board before you discard anything or if one of your discard cards gets pulled and discards your Hela. Both scenarios are a pure disaster and probably an instant retreat from you.
If you’re opposed to RNG and don’t want to risk pulling one of the opponent's cards, you could play a deck that could possibly win by never playing a single card into Otto’s Lab. The best candidate is the Move archetype, which acquired two brand-new toys this season and demolished people left and right. With Madame Web and Araña, the deck got so much better about moving your scaling move cards like Vulture, Dagger, and Human Torch.
And I couldn’t finish without featuring the man himself, Doctor Otto Octavius. You could and perhaps should play him in his lab to half-fill the opponent’s side of the board. That can be extremely annoying if you’re playing with a junk-styled deck. Cards like Titania, Goblins, Debrii, White Widow, and Cannonball can wreck your opponent’s plans to win the game by slowly removing his playlines.
I think that covers it. Shall we look at some decks?
Otto's Lab Decks
Big Ongoings From Outer Space - BOFOS
Remember what I said about Ronan? It turns out he overlaps with Darkhawk if you fill your opponent’s deck and hand with weak cards like sentinels and rocks. Your chances of winning increase while your opponents struggle to find their key cards on a deck that is half rocks. Cosmo is a sneaky last-turn play to protect your big 5-Drops or to stop your opponent’s Hela or another impactful On-Reveal.
Literally Bull#@&*
After Hellcow transitioned into an Activate card, the Hela archetype became a force to be respected once again. The deck now is explosive, reliable, and simple to play, which is cool for newcomers since it only uses a single pool 5 card, which is Blink. This deck will be even better with the lab up; having a handful of 6 drops is great for it. Just be careful with your last turn, Hela, because Alioth and Cosmo are creeping up on the meta.
Researching Spiders Just Before She Died
Talking about Cosmo and Alitoh... They are here to protect your big movers and to stop Hela in her tracks. Madame Web is the central piece of this deck, prioritizing getting her on the board. She gives the power to your movers, and she can be terrifying with a Cosmo on her location because she can play fetch with the opponents on reveal anytime she wants. One interesting thing that might help you is that if you play Iron Fist and activate Araña, Iron Fist On-Reveal will go before Araña’s effect, so remember that the card goes to the left first and then to the right.
Superior Junk
The man himself couldn’t be missing from his lab. This is a junk deck through and through. You might need some experience to pilot this well. Try to read your opponent’s game plan and disrupt it with some key cards blocking his way. Magik is here to give you more time to suffocate your opponent out of the game. If the opponent played a huge card, don’t worry because Cannonball takes care of that. Just be careful not to get your goblins stuck on your side of the board.
Afterthoughts
I like these wacky new locations, and I feel Otto’s Lab will be a fun addition to the game. It will be funny when Nocturne moves somewhere on the last turn, and the Lab shows up. It will be another rare location, like Brooklyn’s Bridge so that it won’t show up that often. What about you? Do you think Otto cooked with his location?
Thank you so much for reading! Like I promised, I have a gift for one of you. A code for a Premium Mystery Variant: 02TJFfOJehVVJd_
The missing last digit is Sersi’s Power.
Good luck grabbing the code! I hope you got the Super Rare variant that you always wanted but never saw in your store. I wish I could give you all avid readers the code, but unfortunately, I can’t.
Let me know what you got!
As always, I hope that I was able to help you get ready for the hot location. Tell me how the day went for you. Was it a fun location? Did you manage to climb up the ladder? Do you have any strategies that I missed completely? Tell me in the comments!
One last fun fact: This is the fourth Lab location in Snap. We have Gamma Lab, the place where The Hulk was created. Miniaturized Lab, Hank Pym’s Lab that can fit a suitcase, and Shuri’s Lab where she develops many gadgets to help her brother out.
Catch you on the next one!