Mockingbird is the first Avenger released this season, and she might turn you over to the Avenger side if you’re tired of hanging out with the X-men. So, let’s see what she can do and what all the hype is about.
Mockingbird is a 5-cost, 9-power card that costs one less for each card in play that did not start in your deck. As a 5-cost card, the 9-power is not as high as other 5-cost cards, but she makes up for it with her potential discount. She also has the added benefit of surviving shang-chi.
How does she work?
Mockingbird joins a host of cards that carry conditions to lower their potential cost. Like Skaar, She-Hulk, Death, Stature, and Miles Morales, she has a high upside if her conditions are met.
Her condition states, “Costs 1 less for each card you have in play that didn't start in your deck.” This seems relatively simple. However, her condition isn’t as easy as other cards because it’s a two-step process. You must first get the cards from outside your deck into your hand and onto the board before you reap her benefits. There are special cases with token creation cards that take a step out of the process, so let’s see what potential cards can help you accomplish this task.
Card Synergies
Thanos
Let's start with probably the most obvious card that Mockingbird will be best friends with. Thanos adds the six infinity stones to your deck right at the start of the game, so step one, check. Typically, you want to play out the stones, so naturally, when you draw Mockingbird, she will be discounted already. This is great because even at 3-cost, she will be above rate, and naturally, with immunity to Shang-Chi, she will stick around to add power to any lane. She will consistently be at least a 2-energy to play as a good average. This is probably the best place for her.
Token Generators
Several cards add others to the board when you play them, which helps skip a step to satisfy Mockingbird's condition. Honestly, this concept might be the next best spot to start because while they are not the most overpowering cards and take up a lot of board space, all you need is two tokens on the field for Mockingbird to be worth it. 3 cost 9 power is nothing to complain about. They also exist in decks that wouldn’t mind having raw stats added, especially at a discount rate.
Card Generators
This is probably the slowest way to utilize Mockingbird because you first have to generate the cards in your hand and then actually play them on the board. During this last week, there has been some discussion that Mockingbird and Loki would be good together, but I don’t think that is a good spot for her. Loki decks want to generate cards to create a massive Loki hand and then play out your opponent's deck much cheaper. While that means you’ll have a lot of cards that didn’t exist in your deck in play, the likelihood that you don’t get Loki Mockingbird away or draw her after Loki is not a consistent idea. The window is a little tight. Nonetheless, it’s worth considering because Loki decks always want raw power when they can’t get a Loki off.
Special Cases
These cards are not precisely what you add to help but are more of a thought to remember when playing. Again, any card that doesn’t start in your deck helps lower Mockingbirds' cost, so the Ebony Blade, Shard, Pig, rocks, winter Soldier, widows Bites, and the goblins will lower her cost.
Overall, there are a lot of cards that exist to help create an advantage when playing Mockingbird.
Locations
Specific locations also help you with Mockingbird by adding tokens to the board or giving you cards that did not exist in your deck before providing a nice free reduction to her cost. It would be helpful if any of these appeared as hot locations in the future. This list is a lot larger than I initially assumed, and there are some that I did not include because, while they are helpful, they are not that common.
JFSnap's Day One Decks
Thanos Mockingbird
This is probably the best place to start. There is nothing novel to say here. This is Thanos as he sits in all his glory right now with just some more cheap power to throw on the board. Do you want to feel some pain? Wait till you see someone play Alioth and Mockingbird on the same turn and crush all of your hopes and dreams.
Patriot Junk
Full Patriot
These two take a token creation spin to help lower the cost of Mockingbird and bring in Patriot to help buff those tokens. This might be my favorite idea because I love Patriot as a deck and haven’t been able to play it in a while since it can’t keep up power-wise with the meta, but if Mockingbird can help bring it back, I am all for that. I would love to slam an Iron Man and a Mockingbird on the last turn to go over the top of the opponent. Give it a try.
Mockingbird Loki
Again, I don’t think this is the best spot for her because the window is too small, but I am willing to give it a shot since a cheap 9-power card never seems like a bad idea. Let's go with it. There are other non-Loki decks to consider, but Loki is strong already, so slotting in Mockingbird for more power seems like a fitting idea.
ZooBird
This last one might not be competitive but could also just be hilarious fun, and so I am putting it here mainly because it involves two of my favorite cards: Elektra and Dazzler. Ultron is nice here as just a possible surprise play that helps fill in all those locations. Mockingbird here is helpful because, again, many token-type decks lack power, and at a discount, Mockingbird helps fill that gap.
Is Mockingbird worth it?
Mockingbird is another series 5 card that costs a whopping 6000 tokens. She will be in the spotlight for her week alongside Man-Thing and Ghost Spider, series 4 cards. Both of these other cards that she is a long side are very niche cards that don’t have the best playrates so while I think she is going to be a good card that has a lot of synergies with the game and has major potential as a great stat card to have in a bunch of decks she might be a skip unless you want her. If, on the other hand, you want to pick up an essential move card and are missing Man-Thing it is a very good week to open your caches.
