Ms. Marvel – Card Preview
The Higher, Further, Faster season is almost upon us in Marvel Snap. Ms. Marvel will be joining the game alongside the start of the newest Marvel Snap season. Ms. Marvel has big shoes to fill when compared to the most recent season pass cards which were Loki and Elsa Bloodstone. Will she live up to those cards performances or fall short? Let’s find out.
The Card
Ms. Marvel is an ongoing 4-cost, 5-power card. Ms. Marvel’s Ongoing ability states that adjacent locations where your cards have unique Costs have +5 Power. I would like to think of her as a Mr. Fantasticesqe card with the power distribution potential of Doctor Doom with extra caveats.
Interactions to Note
- Ms. Marvel’s Ongoing ability is based off the base cost even if the card’s cost has been increased or reduced prior to being in play.
- The Ongoing ability will track the adjacent locations costs only. The ability does not apply for the location Ms. Marvel is played on.
- A card must be active in an adjacent location to be eligible to be factored into Ms. Marvel’s ongoing ability. An adjacent location with no cards will not activate Ms. Marvel’s ongoing ability.
Initial Thoughts
Ms. Marvel does add a wrinkle to the Ongoing deck compositions and should have a place in Marvel Snap. By no means do I think she is a bad card as I analyze the card prior to testing. There are just some mechanics surrounding her card that initially feel like they could hinder the card’s performance. Firstly, the hinderance of locations seems to hurt this card’s viability. Not only do you have hard to reach locations such as Sanctum Sanctorum but also locations that add cards to the location such as Savage Land that could complicate activating Ms. Marvel’s ongoing ability if you don’t have the tools to handle those locations effectively. I think it is important to pair Ms. Marvel with cards that manipulate locations that can interact in Ms. Marvel’s favor to complete her cards’ condition.
Secondly, the counters are plentiful now for Ms. Marvel and seem to increase as the season progresses. Some of the counters to Ms. Marvel currently available in the game include:
See a commonality for some of those cards? Junk decks and the cards that synergize in Junk based decks crush the game plan of Ms. Marvel and are meta relevant currently in Marvel Snap. Later this season, Annihilus will join Marvel Snap. We won’t get too much into Annihilus in this Ms. Marvel card preview but he is a card that will disrupt the game plan of Ms. Marvel and work around solutions to Ms. Marvel's counters like Cosmo as you can only place Cosmo in one location.
Speaking of cards that synergize with Ms. Marvel, let’s dive into a few cards that pair well in decks alongside Ms. Marvel. As mentioned above, Cosmo will not only be helpful for protecting tech cards from stealing or turning off Ms. Marvel’s ongoing ability, but also to prevent opponent cards that could disrupt the cost conditions you are trying to meet in adjacent locations such as Cosmo stopping the opponents HobGoblin play. Alongside Cosmo, a few cards that synergize with Ms. Marvel include:
So, does Ms. Marvel live up to being the season pass card? I think she is worth the $10 to get the season pass just because she is coupled with rewards to justify the cost of the pass alone. Would she be a consideration for spotlight caches or using 6000 collector tokens to obtain her at this time? She would be a pass for me for both if that was how she was being obtained currently or in any future spotlights she is involved in. You have all season to determine the value the card has for you and if you want to get it or not. I personally will be testing it to see if my middling opinion is justified or completely off the mark. Let me know your thoughts on Ms. Marvel down below and remember to have a BEWDiful Day!
BEWD’s Day 1 Ms. Marvel Decks
As I normally do with most articles, I try to make sure there is an option for people in series 2 and below. This deck features an Ongoing heavy based strategy that is able to reach those hard-to-reach locations and has the appropriate defensive capabilities to be competitive. It has the classic 6 cost option of Onslaught or Spectrum depending on the board state on turn 6. Although these are all series 2 and below cards, this deck composition may be competitive no matter what opposition you face.
Isn’t cerebro what comes to mind whenever a new card drops? Maybe not but here is a fun list for the Cerebro players out there. Is it competitive? You can be the judge.
This is probably not the most optimal way to build a lockdown-based Ms. Marvel deck but watch out for this archetype as it may be on the rise this season. One thing I will note is that there are a lot of moveable pieces when adding in Ms. Marvel. You can put in some Guardians cards, power affliction cards like Man Thing, or go even more defensive.
Electro seems like a sleeper card to pair with Ms. Marvel but we will see. This is a list composed around the Living Tribunal primary strategy of distributing huge numbers across the board. Invisible woman is always an excellent card to put into decks to deter your opponent from countering your combos without spending a lot to do it on their side. It is also nice for Onslaught to have an optional play line of playing into Ms. Marvel if Tribunal is not available on the board (OR STACK THEM ALL!).
You thought Orka at 16 power was good, well watch out when his location is at 21. I think this deck makes Orka a viable option as he can provide a massive point slam on the last turn and allow you to fight for other locations throughout a match with less worry of leaving a location empty. Also, it can factor in the priority game to protect Orka by giving up priority on turn 5 on purpose to not be vulnerable to Shang Chi.
Another interesting idea is Patriot with Ms. Marvel. The thing I would stress with this deck is to be careful about messing your gameplan up with Debrii if you are centering it around Ms. Marvel. Even though Debrii could be hurtful, she is also an excellent tool to set up the main win condition of the deck which is Patriot.
If your opponent plans to disrupt your Ms. Marvel game plan, well they have another thing coming in this deck list. With a mixture of Darkhawk rock shenanigans, power affliction, and disruption of its own there is no question that Ms. Marvel isn’t the only thing that will be challenging for your opponent with this deck.
Variants
