This season's two pass cards are both familiar and novel at the same time. Marvel Snap's Weapon X version of Wolverine is the newest destroy payoff card and has one of the more complicated text boxes we've seen.
Wolverine's infusion of adamantium was iconically chronicled by Barry Windsor-Smith in the pages of Marvel Comics Presents 72-84. In the story, a man named Logan is captured and subjected to a variety of horrific experiments and has adamantium, the world's hardest metal, grafted onto his skeleton by Doctor Abraham Cornelius, Carol Hines, and the mysterious “Professor.” Logan, now a feral beast, escapes into the wilderness.
The Math of Weapon X
We've had scalers in the past, but Weapon X has an acceleration mechanic. It starts to pick up pace the more you destroy. Bear in mind, Weapon X tracks destructions while he is in play, so it will be particularly important to build around him in a way that takes advantage of playing him on turn 2 as often as possible.
Weapon of Mass Destruction
Weapon X isn't going to be worth it if you're only getting a few destructions. You want to be building in a way that hitting that 7th destruction is feasible. Weapon X may have a place in traditional Destroy decks, but I think it's more likely he'll bring about a new style of Destroy deck that aims for high numbers of destructions rather than the precise targeting of the currently popular Deadpool-fueled lists. There are a few ways to go with this concept. My favorite traditional Destroy decks focus mostly on the powerful 1-Cost cards that Destroy has access to, which can make hitting high numbers more likely than if you have Agony, Wolverine, or Bucky in your deck.
Inexpensive Destroy
However, I'm more interested in exploring “DeathBird” style lists that take advantage of tokens to cheapen Mockingbird and Death. This type of deck is much more likely to reach the higher numbers in the chart above, as 7+ destructions is not uncommon. This type of deck can also be built around Thanos, if that's your thing.
X Bird
The other big payoff for mass destruction is Morgan Le Fay. Drawing well will be especially important with a list like this, but the pop-off potential is huge. This deck just skirts that 7+ threshold.
Fay X
Adamantium Infusion
In the Super Premium Season Pass Card, Marvel Snap is getting another direct-to-Series-5 skill card but, unlike recent stand-alone skills, this one costs 4 Energy! Will its effect be powerful enough to justify its cost? It has a familiar and powerful effect that just might do it!
Opponents of stand-alone skill cards as a class may be disappointed that we're getting this instead of, say, a Dr. Abraham Cornelius card. After all, whose skill exactly is this? Dr. Cornelius is the one responsible for grafting adamantium onto Wolverine's skeleton and other terrible scientific crimes under the Weapon X program.
Whether it's Man-Spider or repeating your best effects with cards like First Steps Invisible Woman, Jocasta, and Mystique, everything is all about doubling (and often redoubling) these days in Marvel Snap. How good Adamantium Infusion will be depends on what we can use it to revive. Because it only looks for cards that are actually in your destruction pool, Weapon X alums like Deadpool, X-23, and Wolverine don't have synergy with Adamantium Infusion, meaning it is likely to be the centerpiece of a new destroy sub-archetype rather than slotting into something that already exists.
Revival Targets
The best targets are going to be things you want to or are able to easily destroy anyway and take particular advantage of the doubling in some way. That Adamantium Infusion specifically targets your highest-Power destroyed card lends it a nice degree of consistency and reliability.
Most Promising
Too much cope or clever outside-the-box?
Here are some of the more wacky ideas for Adamantium Infusion targets.
Alternative Ways to Destroy
Adamantium Infusion is going to rely on our most familiar destroyers Venom and Carnage, but don't forget about lesser-used, alternative options when attempting to build around a new card. Kid Omega is my top choice for Adamantium Infusion.
Shared Synergy
Here are a handful of cards that aren't necessarily revival targets, but have some synergy with Adamantium Infusion.
Key Combos
One of the best combos with Adamantium Infusion won't be available until Fastball Special comes out on December 18th, but there are quite a few fun high-flying play lines with the card.
- On turn 6, with Fastball Special
- Ramp into turn 5 Zola, play Adamantium Infusion afterwards
- Ramp into Destroyer, play Adamantium Infusion afterwards
- Make a chain of revivals with Elixir
- Kid Omega into Venom into Venom again
Scosco's Day One Adamantium Infusion Decks
Adamantium Rod
Reviving an extra Nimrod is the obvious play line, but I think it will just about as often be better to revive Venom for a second helping.
Metal Peef
This is a deck with multiple play lines. Make a choice for what to chase based on your opening hand and first couple of draws.
Smashers
How many things can we smash with Cannonball? Is that a challenge?! Death might be an optimistic payoff, and I plan to try Fenris out in that spot as well.
Burning Metal
Sage is one of the best targets for repeated revival and Ravonna allows us to have an adaptable game-plan depending on draws and situation. Repeating Venom is a core principle here.
Variants
Weapon X is launching with some nice variants, including a Season Pass variant from Supja and a special Pixel variant that you'll be able to use in the Champions Arena! There's no word yet on a XXXXXXX variant for Adamantium Infusion, but we only have datamines for a Super Rare Pandart Studios variant.
Adamantium Infusion
Weapon X Wolverine
Final Thoughts
The Season Pass is always the best value in the game and the Super Premium Season Pass is one of the most inexpensive ways to acquire a Series 5 card. Weapon X has the potential to be a giant pile of stats, something that always manages to find a place in the metagame, but Adamantium Infusion is the more exciting of the two cards because of its combo potential. Neither are absolute slam dunks, but the flop potential is relatively low. As long as you like to blow up your own cards, these cards will make a solid addition to your collection.