Miek - Card Preview

The newest card in Marvel Snap will be Miek. Miek is another in a long line of 1-cost cards that can grow to a higher power. It's discard’s turn to get a dedicated scaling 1-cost card that moves. Miek hasn't been predicted to be the strongest card of this season, but is Miek mightier than perceived?

Miek

When you discard a card, this gains +1 Power and Moveable next turn.

Discard as an archetype has struggled to regain its footing after the rework to America Chavez, so it's nice to see the archetype get a new tool. Miek might be perfect for the standard discard deck as it didn't have an auto-include 1-drop that you can consistently play on turn one before, with some decks forgoing a 1-drop entirely.

Comparisons

Previously Nebula or Sunspot were slotted into traditional discard decks. It remains to be seen if Miek will be more powerful than Nebula, but he could also be added alongside her.

Nebula

Each turn your opponent doesn't play a card here, +2 Power. (except the turn you play this)

Sunspot

End of Turn: Gain +1 Power for each unspent Energy.

Is Miek just a worse Morbius? One major advantage that Morbius has is that, because his ability is Ongoing, he will benefit from your discards regardless of when they happen, whether before he is played out or after. Miek, on the other hand, is best if you can play him out early. Miek will have to prove strong enough to be played alongside Morbius because he will rarely be chosen over Morbius.

Morbius

Ongoing: +2 Power for each time you discarded a card this game.

Where does Miek fit in?

When a card moves here, give it +2 Power.

Cards can't be played here.

After you play a card here, destroy it.

You can't play cards here after turn 4.

After you play a card here, return it to your hand.

After you play a card here, destroy it to get +2 Energy next turn.

It seems clear that Miek will be played in traditional discard decks, including Apocalypse and Swarm, and try to discard as often as possible. The question is if Miek will have any other uses stemming from his secondary ability, his movement. Is some move/discard hybrid deck viable? How valuable will he be at getting into flooded or closed-off locations like Sanctum Sanctorum and Death's Domain? Is his movement a non-factor? Could it even be a liability since it will be somewhat unpredictable? Everyone will try Miek in traditional discard, but it will be worth exploring him in slightly different situations and seeing how useful his move mechanic is.

Apocalypse

When Discarded: Put this back with +4 Power.

Swarm

When Discarded: Add two copies of this that cost 0 to your hand.

ScoSco's Day One Miek Decks

Basic Miek

Miek should easily find a place in a traditional Apocalypse discard deck like this, with a couple more discard triggers to take advantage of Miek. The loss of Chavez is unlikely to be made up much by Miek, but this is the obvious first home for the bug.

Max Miek

Miek is a card that encourages us to discard as much as possible, and this deck can leverage multiple discards into massive power.

Get out of there Miek!

Miek's best home is probably in discard decks focusing on Apocalypse rather than Hela. However, his low cost and ability to move out of the way if he pops out of Lockjaw make this deck a possible landing spot for him.

Miek Moves

Storm has always been a fringe inclusion in discard decks simply because putting a Dracula behind her is so strong, and there's usually no highly important alternative play on turn 3. Miek gives us another way to put power into the flooded location if we think Dracula won't win it. We can also pump Kraven with Miek (and Jeff).

Ebony Miek

Any 4-cost cards make a reasonable follow-up to Storm with this deck, and Zabu helps us play them for less.

The Future

There is more help coming to discard decks in the future. In particular, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight seem set to boost the archetype. If you're on the fence about Miek, remember that more tools are coming.

Corvus Glaive

On Reveal: Discard 2 cards from your hand to get +1 Max Energy.

Proxima Midnight

When Discarded: This jumps to your lowest-Power location. (that isn't full)

Future King Miek

Variant

For the first time, a card is launching with no variants beyond its spotlight variant. Miek is a relatively minor and short-lived character who only played a prominent role in the Planet Hulk storyline in the comics and had a brief cameo appearance in Thor: Ragnarok. However, Snap has managed multiple variants for minor characters before. The odd thing is that in both variants we have for Miek, he resembles neither his initial comic book form nor his MCU form. Instead, he's in his later ‘King Miek’ form only. It's a strange situation, and hopefully, Miek will get more variants soon.

In Conclusion

I think Miek will probably be a staple in discard decks and will have a positive effect on them. However, my concern is that his effect won't be particularly large. Still, the choice to pick up Miek is simple. If you play discard at all, get him. He's only 3000 tokens. If you never play discard, then save your resources. The cards alongside him don't have any particular synergy with Miek, but Annihilus is also worth grabbing, so if you are missing that card, you could consider spending your spotlight keys.