I herald his beginning. I herald your end, but more importantly, I herald reviews of new cards! 10 cards are being released through various methods this season and I’m here to help break it down, but I like my card evaluations like I like my Marvel Snap games. Fast! Snappy!
Big space god man is a Big 6 Cost
Confusing wording, but simple once explained
Do we need another Big 6?
Galactus has a few interesting interactions to gain Power as simply as possible. After the last balance change, Black Cat is now a 1/5 which makes her a great early Herald. That kind of statline usually lets you secure two turns of bonuses right away. If Kitty Pryde is your Herald she will change the location you need to win every time she comes back to your hand.
Galactus ends up usually sitting around similar Power to other 6/Big cards Gorr and Red Hulk so it’s up to you which one your deck is the easier condition to fulfil.
I wonder if this card gets a mid season buff? Could we potentially see Galactus First Steps as a 5-Cost?
New dimension to repeating On Reveals
Can be played BEFORE or AFTER the On Reveal you want to copy
Silver Surfer First Steps (try saying that 10 times fast) offers a flexibility in doubling your On Reveals that you haven’t been able to do before. Most cards that repeat On Reveals have to be played after the On Reveal you want to copy. SSfs only requires you to have on in the lane when you are winning. Meaning you can play SSfs and then wait for the right moment to drop something like Silver Surfer the original. You can even pair it on turn 6 with another 3 cost, something you can’t do with Wong or Symbiote Spider-Man.
Despite all this potential I don’t think she’s particularly exciting, so if you don’t want to get her from the Super Premium Season Pass, I think you can afford to wait for her to come to Seasonal Series 4 packs next month.
Latest in the world of Tech
Shuts down Hela, Brood, and others
Is this a little too all encompassing?
Stardust hasn’t made too many waves yet, but it’s the kind of piece that will end up being absolutely necessary in certain meta games. Being the definitive answer to Hela decks is already going to make this a great card, but what about its more mundane applications?
Locking your opponent out from spawning Broods or Mister Sinister’s will help you against Cerebro decks, while also shutting down Zoo decks’ use of Squirrels and Shanna.
Classic archetypes like Destroy and Discard also take a hit from Stardust by keeping Wolverines and Proximas from jumping to your board.
There’s a pretty big number of interactions this one card has, and since it’s not limited to just one location I would expect we see lots of Stardust going forward.
Discard gets a new toy!
Agatha’s new best friend?
Targeted discard just keeps getting better
Now this is an exciting Series 4 card! Enabling the Agatha archetype is a great place for a card to be. Agatha decks have always been good when you can reliably discard her as soon as possible. Before Red Shift that was turn 3, but now we can do it a whole turn earlier. Not only does he get rid of Agatha for you but he replaces her with a random 6 Cost. That kind of information asymmetry is what wins you cubes as opposed to just winning you games.
Now why am I talking about Agatha so much? For those that don’t realize, she not only starts in your hand but she is an EXTRA card in it. Meaning you are effectively playing with an 11 card deck. Older players who remember old America Chavez know how powerful that can be and why I am super high on Red Shift.
Move over Rockslide
Darkhawk has a new partner!
Play fast with priority to avoid getting rocks
This card has been surprising me! When I first read it I didn’t think much of it, but having got to see it in a few games already I’m walking away impressed. If you gear your early game to securing priority fast, this guy can come out and give 2 or even 3 rocks to your opponent with next to no downside.
His statline of 3/3 is a little on the low side, which is the tradeoff, but the upside can be backbreaking. You won’t know for sure when your opponent draws a Rock, but if there is enough of them you’ll eventually mess with their game plan.
Darkhawk decks have already begun to see a resurgence and I believe Terrax will help push that over the edge.
Another Power sink for buff decks
Give her as much Power as you can BEFORE doubling
Are there many 6 Costs that go with that strategy?
Ironically I liked her previous datamined statline of 3/4 more. Frankie Raye is the type of card where every point of Power matters, since they compound into more Power with each buff. As a 2 Cost card I don’t think she needs to be able to solo a lane, but I think her role will be in securing your victory of one.
Since you are using her to beef up the score in one lane, the 6-Cost you pair with her should be able to win a lane on their own. Perhaps a 20 Power threat like Galactus First Steps?
Very specific combo piece
The kind of card that either does nothing or is irreplaceable
I’m leaning on it being closer to nothing
The way this card is worded they might as well have said “revive your discarded or destroyed Air Walker”. A specific combo piece that brings back another specific combo piece isn’t the space I want to see a card in.
Aside from Air Walker I can’t thing of many other 3 costs you want to revive for value, or why you’d even want to destroy them in the first place. Would this card be too good if it said “3 or lower Cost”?
Everyone’s most anticipated card
If handbuff decks were ever going to exist this is why
Gains SO MUCH max Energy
Getting extra Max Energy is a lot more useful than reducing costs at the moment as there is no Mobius for Max Energy. You can safely put all your effort into Fallen One since you know you are getting to use all that Energy without fail. What can we do about it? Cosmo will be your friend, especially since Fallen One’s partners Shuri and Symbiote Spider-Man will heavily telegraph your play.
I can’t wait to go into turn 6 with 10+ Energy. It’s going to become so much easier to react to your opponent and dump out your hand. You’re going to find it easy to reverse the game and win with Fallen One supporting your gameplan.
A new combo piece!
Will this break the trend of poor High Voltage reward cards?
I’m hearing talk about the combo potential of Air Walker but I’m just not seeing it myself. Marvel Snap doesn’t have as much use for “tutoring” specific cards from your deck as other card games due to how small your deck size is already. Air Walker also isn’t simply an On Reveal, you have to do something else to destroy it. So you’re potentially using two cards to try and find one. That one would need to have a great reason to build around it. Phoenix Force perhaps?
I’m admittedly low on combos like this but it looks like my fellow writers at snapfan also feel similarly.
The terror of tech cards continues!
Easy answer to Activate and End of Turn
But does he cost too much?
I love getting new interaction options in Marvel Snap. Being able to blank a card’s text in this game is especially powerful because there's no way to restore it. You also don’t have to always wait to hit 2 cards with this. Sometimes hitting a key piece will be enough even if you aren’t getting maximum value from this card.
My only issue is the 5-Cost. That’s very expensive for a tech card. Lady Deathstrike is probably the most comparable and she doesn’t often see use outside of ramp decks. Hopefully Cosmic Ghost Rider plays easier than he looks.
So how did I do? Are you ready for the Heralds to arrive on your opponent’s side of the board or are you using them to herald your own victory? Hit me up on X or down here in the comments and let me know what you think about all these new cards.
I’m also looking for opinions on if there’s too many new cards releasing per season or not. If you comment either here at the bottom of this article or on my X with your thoughts on the amount of new cards, you can be randomly chosen to win a PAX CODE! The Code will be given out on Saturday August 9. Good luck!