The Hellfire Gala has officially begun and with that we’ve got the results of the first big Marvel Snap Tournament. We see a lot of familiar faces from the Top 4 of a 70 person CG Series #40 but our man of the evening, Sebastian Shaw is fashionably late to the party. Shaw may very well have a presence in future events, but many players chose to stick with their tried and true lists, updating them to adjust for nerfs from the most recent patch.
1st: Loki by ishaan jain
Winning the event is none other than Loki on top for this event. The deck now is slightly more random without Chavez, but Loki thrives in the Chaos. The new addition is Dino, subbing out for both Quinjet or/and Beast. I’ve played around a bit with this deck and have been impressed with Dino. It’s just solid points for a deck already doing Loki/Collector things. Dino had a huge impact in Rounds 2, 3, 4, and 6 of this event and is a huge contributor to putting this deck on top.
To see this and the other featured decks in action, check out this article’s accompanying video!
I had the chance to talk with our winner, Ishaan about the event who shared some highlights. The first game of the first match in this single elimination event, Ishaan lost 8 cubes. He came back 2 at a time until game 5 which was an Ego game that was only won through a lucky Great Web trigger. It’s an incredible way to start an event that shows why you should never give up!
This list also includes a lot of “tech” cards including the “nerfed” Luke Cage. Ishaan describes Luke as a lane saver and a hidden element, especially because this was a closed decklist event and many participants had written Luke off. He can save you a lane which is still great for winning games.
Rogue also came up big in the finals against the Ongoing-heavy DinoHawk. Both finalists had 6 cubes remaining when Rogue was able to catch Rusinho off guard to steal a Mrs. Marvel, and with it the whole event!
2nd: DinoHawk by Rusinho
Devil Dinosaur is the card of this event! (Okay realistically it’s still Snowguard)
This list is Blaster Dark’s winning list from last season card for card. It’s great to see it still works!
Rusinho had a different experience in this event, facing a lot of Loki throughout this tournament. He also had a sort of Ego experience, winning a match where an opponent was forced to play Agatha because of District X!
Another highlight for Rusinho was in the semis against the next deck where he had to come back 6 to 2 cubes and just barely made it past an unlucky Jubilee.
3rd: Hela Consistent by em0k1d
That deck that just barely lost was Hela Consistent, a deck that I don’t feel gets appropriate credit as an excellent option.
With all of the card draw, this list sometimes sees every card in the deck, allowing you to definitely find all of your combos. This is an important discussion in a post-Chavez timeline where many players lamenting their loss of consistency!
This list chooses to play Electro as a backup plan that allows you to play Iron Man, Onslaught, Tribunal without Limbo.
Magneto is also a great way to disrupt Ms. Marvel and worked well for me in the game I played with this deck for the video for this article!
Em0K1d also shared with me two screenshots of fantastic wins in the first two rounds of this event.
4th: Darkhawk Bounce by ANDRO1D
Lastly, we have bounce, another deck hurt by the rework of Chavez. ANDRO1D wasn’t too bothered by the Chavez nerf, calling the change noticeable, but he says Conquest and Tournaments come down much more to managing your health appropriately through snapping and retreating. He thinks Loki is also a top deck, especially after nerfs to Elsa and Alioth, and he’s excited for future OTA shakeups!
ANDRO1D felt favored overall with this deck, as many skilled bounce players do, defeating Loki, Darkhawk, Phoenix, and Lockdown on his way to 4th place.
On final pitch for the accompanying video;
Nico is going to copy Beast and I’ve got a bunch of extra energy from these locations… and this wasn’t even the most exciting part of this game. For that you’ll have to watch and find out!
On Sebastian Shaw
Shaw’s late arrival may not be solely due to power level, as this tournament was played on the first day of the season which means that Shaw lists were still being fine-tuned, and some players may have chosen to go with decks they were more familiar with.
What decks are you looking to play in the new season? Have you experimented and found anything fun, or will you stick to the more tested decks for your climb like the ones featured here?