Welcome to Planet Hulk where everything is bigger and meaner. First up for this season is the son of the Hulk himself, Skaar. As the offspring of Hulk and Caiera, Skaar is one of the toughest and meanest beings around. I’m excited for his release as a big fan of Planet Hulk so let’s dig a little deeper into how he functions and what impact he will have on Marvel Snap altogether.
How He Works
Skaar is a 6 energy 11 power card that costs 2 less for each card you have on the board with 10 or more power. Just like She hulk he has an ability that lowers his cost if certain criteria is met. Now, at a base level a 6/11 is not that bad if you just need some power in a lane but if he was just a vanilla 6/11 I don’t think he would be that interesting. His ability however can make him at worst a 4/11 which is a stat line I very much can get behind. So let’s see who enables him to do so.
Enablers
Skaar actually has a number of enablers that can lower his cost. But essentially any card that can get to 10 power will help him out so let’s list some.
However, just because these cards enable Skaar to be less, it's unlikely that we will get all of them on the board early enough to make an impact. When playing Skaar I think you want to go into deck building with the mindset that you’ll have mainly one enabler which makes him a 4/11 overall during the course of a game. It’s possible that you can get two on the board making him even better at a 2/11 but that’s not going to be as consistent.
How to play Skaar
So what’s the optimal way to play this card? There are several options that I think make sense when approaching Skaar.
Power Cheat
Option 1 is to cheat power out early using cards like Lockjaw, Psylocke, Jubilee and time stone. This option I think can provide a good consistent 4/11 at least by turn 5 and sometimes a 2/11 by turn six. That means you can drop a Skaar and a valuable two cost or four cost card on turn 6 for a lot of power.
Cheap power
Option 2 is to just use cheap power. Cards like Typhoid Mary, The Sentry, Darkhawk all will have 10 power before turn 5 making Skaar at least a 4/11. If you combine those four cost cards with a five cost card that also has at least 10 power then you’re providing a great opportunity to give yourself a 2/11 on turn six.
Combo power
Option 3 is to use some sort of combo to increase the overall power of your cards on the board or to gain cheap power in your hand so you can decrease the cost of Skaar and play him out in the later turns. Black Knight seems like the perfect enabler for this type of combo power deck. Discarding Skaar gives you a 4/11 already so that’s not a downside and any card you can play out with Black Knight on turn 4 you will want to be over 10 power anyway which lowers his cost. If you can combine this with a Ghost Rider for said discarded card you’re in business to have a 2/11 in the later turns which is great stats overall.
Pitfalls
There are several pitfalls to using a deck that enables Skaar that need to be addressed
Everyone’s favorite tech card can ruin your day very easily when trying to enable Skaar. Having to play out cards early with 10 or more power leaves you incredibly vulnerable to a Shang Chi. However, typically this will still allow you to play Skaar at a discount before the card providing the discount is destroyed but that’s a lot of resources used up just to get a 2 energy discount
While cheap power is great, banking on being able to play a card cheaply can be swiftly negated when facing someone playing Mobius. Thankfully, he isn’t too prevalent these days but it’s always something to be aware of. Nothing is worse than putting all your eggs in one basket to just be annihilated by a single tech card. I’m
Leech has made his way back into the Meta game in stride so it’s something to be wary of when playing Skaar. Luckily this isn’t the craziest counter because you can most likely play Skaar out earlier than turn six but if you’re hoping for a big power dump on turn 6 just be aware of what decks are running leech and plan accordingly.
Locations
Here is a quick rundown of some helpful locations when you just have Skaar in your deck.
All of these locations help get more cards equalling to 10 or more power which directly lowers Skaars cost.
JFSnap’s Day 1 Decklists
These are the few decklists that I am going to try out with Skaar for the first week. Each of which fit into one of the three categories that I described earlier.
Lockjaw Skaar
This is a new take on Thor Lockjaw that I think will be able to output a lot of power. Lockjaw and Thor both can provide multiple 10 power options to enable Skaar. The goal here is to make Skaar a 2/11 overall by getting at least 2 10 power cards out by turn 6 by using jubilee and lockjaw. This will allow you to play both a Skaar and another one of your non six cost cards on turn six. It’s possible though that just simple Lockjaw deck will be too clunky of a deck which is why I think a version of Thanos Lockjaw will provide better flexibility.
Thanos Skaar
This is a variant on Thanos Lockjaw that I think will benefit from Skaar. Instead of running Death which typically will only be played by using the Lockjaw I’ve switched in Skaar because he is easier to play just by himself with 3 other possible enablers and you’re only
losing 1 total power. I think this will have more flexibility than the normal Lockjaw list and I’m looking forward to testing out how reliable I can get Skaar to four energy or even two energy.
Shuri Skaar
Sometimes you need to go back to a tried and true combo that also includes some cheap power. Shuri Sauron I think is a good shell to run Skaar in because you’re more than likely to have a four energy card to play on turn 5 and if the curve works out a two energy cost card on turn six alongside of your other four cost high power cards.
Bk SKAAR
This is the deck I’m the most interested in trying out because it seems like it will be the least clunky with Skaars cost. Plus he isn’t a bad Black Knight target either. Honestly, in a perfect world it’s possible he could be a one cost eleven power swing on the final turn. Also, with the Ebony Blade being pretty much indestructible it helps mitigate the vulnerable nature of having a 10 power card out early.
Special Consideration
This will be the first time during spotlights that a season pass and a spotlight card are released at the same time. With Skaar being the season pass card this article does not include a lot of information with the spotlight card, Caiera, within even though Skaar and Caiera do have good synergy with each other. This is mainly because at series 5 and spotlight, Caiera is at a different place regarding acquisition so I did not want to include her heavily in this article.
Conclusion
Overall, I think Skaar is going to be a fun addition to the game and I can’t wait to try him out. As a season pass card he is a simple pick up for those who partake in the season pass. Let me know what you are planning on using him for and if you're excited for the additions he brings to the game which don’t seem overpowered yet but as always with energy reduction there can be a big over step of power if not done correctly.