The newest card to enter the game via Spotlight Caches is Nocturne, otherwise known as Talia Josephine “T.J.” Wagner, the daughter of Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler, who hails from Earth-2181.
What Does Nocturne Do?
Nocturne is a 3-cost, 5-power card that reads, “You can move this once. When this moves, replace its location with a random new one.” The cool thing about her design is how she combines the effects of both of her parents— the developers even combined the cost and power of both cards for Nocturne’s stat line.
This is a pretty neat idea, and with plenty of other hybrid-type characters in the Marvel Universe, hopefully, we will see more in the future. But for now, Nocturne is plenty; being able to both move and change a location are two powerful utility effects, and having them on one card with good power output is useful in a variety of strategies.
How Does She Work?
Well, you play her whenever you want to play her (like any card), and then when she moves, the location she moves to is replaced with a new location. Just like Nightcrawler and Jeff The Baby Land Shark, she can only move once by herself during a game. However, this doesn’t mean she can never move again—if she is moved outside of her own effect, she does not have a limit on how many locations she can change. That means if you play her and then play a Ghost Spider, the location you moved her to would change! And, if you moved her again next turn using her ability, the next location would also change after that. Technically, you can see a lot of new locations when Nocturne is in the game. Let's dive a little deeper into how to utilize these two aspects of Nocturne.
Location Change
Most decks will encounter an undesirable location at some point. Being able to control and remove these locations is universally beneficial for any set of 12 cards, and Nocturne joins a host of other location-changing cards like Storm, Magik, Legion, and her mother, Scarlet Witch.
Unlike these others, Nocturne doesn’t rely on an On Reveal, nor does she have to be played at that specific location. This has both benefits and downsides. The main benefit is that she can change a restricted location like Sanctum Sanctorum or Crimson Cosmos, as well as one that has cost restrictions or doesn’t allow On Reveals like Knowhere. She can change lockdown locations after they have triggered too, like the Klyn. The main downside? Yes, your opponent can see the change since Nocturne must be on the board beforehand. This will probably hurt her cube equity a little bit, but allowing you to get into hard-to-reach locations will be beneficial in the long run.
Move Interactions
Some of the most complicated interactions in Marvel Snap are how cards move and the different interactions that result from these movements. Let's take a moment to learn about these interactions so we won’t be caught by surprise and so we can maximize Nocturne's potential in the game.
There are two types of moves in the Marvel Snap game: direct and indirect moves.
- A direct move is manually moving the card during the staging phase—the phase of the game where you place your cards. (Think about how Vision or Nightcrawler moves.) The order in which you stage and move a card during this phase matters.
- An Indirect Move is any other type of movement that happens when cards have been played— for example, Ghost Spider and Juggernaut produce indirect moves.
Nocturne can experience direct and indirect moves throughout a game, but her own ability is a direct move (because moving her would happen during the staging phase).
Now that we’ve covered both types, we need to discuss how moves resolve. First, a move is depicted by a white flash over the card in the game. A card is not “finished” moving until that flash has happened. Intuitively enough, all indirect moves resolve right away: if I play Ghost Spider, her move will resolve immediately during her On-Reveal. Direct moves are more complicated, resolving in 2 steps: a physical movement and a move resolution. The physical move happens immediately, right after staging, but before the cards are revealed. At the new location, the moving card is in a sort of stasis, not fully resolved at the new location but appearing there. Because it is physically at the location at that point, it can be affected by cards like Shang Chi, Shadow King, Lady Deathstrike, etc. The move resolution, however, happens in the order that cards were staged: any effects that take place as a result of the direct move will only be applied once the move resolution is complete.
The easiest way to learn these interactions is to play with move cards so they become second nature.
What Does This Mean for Nocturne?
That’s a lot of information, but it is paramount to understand some of the basics to maximize Nocturne. For the most part, Nocturne will be a direct move, meaning you will move her in the staging phase, and the order in which you move her will matter. If I play Kraven and then move Nocturne afterward, effects will resolve in staging order: Kraven will flip first, receive the buff from Nocturne’s move resolution, and then the location will change. However, if I move Nocturne and then play Kraven afterward, Nocturne's move will resolve before Kraven flips, which will cause the location to change first and deny Kraven the buff. This is the main interaction you will need to be aware of; consider playing cards to a location before moving Nocturne there, lest you change a location to Death's Domain or something similarly undesirable.
Speaking of cards, let's move to some of the cards you can partner with Nocturne!
Card Combos
Move Enablers
These cards enable you to move Nocturne directly or indirectly beyond her own ability. This can be beneficial if you want to change multiple locations throughout the game. However, because Nocturne doesn’t benefit from being moved multiple times, just pairing her with other Move cards isn’t the best way to think about her.
Other Card Considerations
These four cards are featured in many different decks in the format, and they all directly benefit from a card that can move out of a location. Just like Jeff or Nightcrawler, Nocturne can move out of a location after being played there, meaning she can trigger Angela, receive an Elsa buff, and then move to both open another space for Angela and buff Kraven. That’s a lot of power for just one card! And the redundancy with oft-played cards like Jeff will help the overall consistency of that synergy.
Move Counters
This is mainly just a card to be mindful of— like any moving card. Nocturne will be hit if you decide to move her into Kingpin’s location. While it isn’t the biggest deterrent, it can be something to account for.
What About The Move Locations?
There are 7 locations that either cause movement or affect cards when moved.
These five locations are all pretty simple to understand— if Nocturne moves to any of them, she will change the location, and that is that. Great Web pulls your Nocturne there at the end of the turn? Goodbye to The Great Web. Strange Academy sends your Nocturne away at the end of turn 5? Wherever she lands will change right after. If you move Nocturne to New York on turn 6 (a direct move made in the staging phase), New York will change only once Nocturne’s move is resolved.
Fisk Tower is slightly different! Typically, location effects happen after card effects, but with Fisk Tower, the -4 power affliction happens immediately, before any “when this moves” effects occur. If you move Nocturne to Fisk Tower, she will receive the -4 power and then change the location.
On the flip side, if you move Nocturne to K’un-Lun, the location will change before she gets the chance to receive the 2-power buff— this location effect triggers after “when this moves” effects occur.
While this is not specifically a move location, it is relevant to understand that Deep Space’s text also negates “when this moves” effects before they resolve. Therefore, if Nocturne is moved into Deep Space, she will not change that location. She will already be at the location, and Deep Space stops all text and triggers from happening.
Being able to move Nocturne is great, but the main twist is her location-changing. There are many locations and interactions beyond these, but hopefully, understanding these direct interactions will give you a good starting point for using her effectively in the game. Speaking of the game, let's get to some decklists that we can use when she comes out.
JFSnap's Day One Decks
C5
Cerebro decks are always at the mercy of locations, and until now, C5 has not been able to change locations as cleanly as its counterparts, C2 and C3. With Nocturne coming in at 5-power, she fits in perfectly as a long-needed tool. I don’t think this will be her best spot, but I think the deck could use the extra utility, and I am excited to try her out.
Surfer
Whenever a 3-cost card is introduced into the game, there is always the cry that Surfer has gained a new friend. While this is not always the case, I think there’s a great case to be made for Nocturne in this instance. Surfer decks usually have trouble with locations that either limit board space or block card play altogether. Nocturne helps mitigate those situations, and as an above-rate 3-cost that can move, she synergizes well with both Surfer and Hope Summers, giving this deck a powerful player.
Silky Nocturne
This is probably the easiest spot to picture Nocturne in— she adds more utility to an already solid package. Some versions might also run Legion, giving the deck even greater location manipulation. There is a lot of room to mix around the cards in this deck, but the main idea is the same: buff our early scaling cards like Angela and Kraven with cards that can move around the board, and use that movement to hide where our power will be concentrated by the end of the game. Nocturne gives us another card that can move, adding some welcome redundancy and consistency and allowing us to reroll unfavorable locations (or favorable locations for our opponents) we encounter while playing.
Variants
Currently, Nocturne is only entering the game with her Spotlight variant by Alberto Dal Lago— hopefully, she will get some more released soon for players looking for more variety!
Conclusion
Nocturne is a generally playable good card— honestly, that might make her scary good! She doesn’t need to be put into one specific type of deck. Instead, she functions as a general utility card that can help out any decks looking for location control… or just an above-rate teleporting 5-power body for 3 energy. So, while she may not be a must-have, archetype-enabling card, she would be nice to have in your collection. Being in a Spotlight week alongside both Caiera and Selene does not help her case, though— neither sees a lot of play at the moment. However, if you are missing at least one of those two, Nocturne is worth pulling for, and even if you don’t pull for this Spotlight immediately, she will probably still be worth consideration in the long run. Let me know about your plans for Nocturne in the comments below!
