Best Makkari Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Makkari is the third Spotlight card for the June 2024 Season, The Celestials’ Finest. It is a 3-Cost, 4-Power card that reads: “After the turn, runs from your hand to a random location. (if possible) Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.

Spotlight Cache

Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).

Spotlight Cache Week of June 18, 2024: Are Makkari, Gladiator, and X-23 Worth It?

Strengths and Weaknesses

On the surface, Makkari looks like a much, much better M'Baku. Not only does she have more power, she also will never be stuck in your hand (unless you run out of space on the board). With this in mind, you could consider this a [0/4] card that you don’t to pick the location of. Except the game will consider her a 3-Cost, which can make a big difference for synergies.

While these are cute synergies you can leverage, the big concern I have seen the community discuss with Makkari is the inability to control where she goes. Marvel Snap is a game with a big emphasis on the space you have available, which is a major reason why we just saw Professor X nerfed a second time. But, even without Charles Xavier around, you can still expect White Widow, Debrii, Green Goblin, and other cards to impact the space you have available on the board.

Speaking of, Makkari would have been great alongside Professor X since it represents a bonus four points to help win the soon-to-be locked lane. Maybe the arrival of the card actually played a role in that nerf?

It is only logical to ponder whether Makkari is free power added to your side of the board, or a card that potentially loses you a lane if it takes the last space you had available on it. Before I shed a bad light on the card, let’s recall the fact that we have cards in Marvel Snap that are perfectly fine with you having a filled board.

Plus, I could also talk about certain cards that limit your ability to play. That’s something Makkari will ignore because she isn’t considered “played” unless you spend three energy to put the card on the board.

The Move synergy also exists, which provides several strong cards that you can use to limit Makkari‘s weakness.

You can use these cards in two different ways: play them where you fear Makkari might go (so you can at least free a spot later on), or fill a lane so Makkari cannot go there and move your cards out in some later turn.

Speaking of Move, it is important to note another strength of Makkari: the possibility of reaching unplayable locations. I’m not sure if that is enough to balance the weakness of losing you locations at times, but four power would beat Jeff the Baby Land Shark in a location you couldn’t normally play on.

Finally, there is a cute synergy to explore with Moon Girl, as two cards for free is rarely a bad thing. Makkari jumping out of your hand can also help you manage it to make sure you have enough space to copy everything you want, too.

The Verdict

This month is filled with very interesting cards, and Makkari feels a bit like the odd one out. As a [3/3], the card had the upside of being a consideration in Cerebro 3, which rarely gets too many cards on the board. With a buff to a [3/4], though, Makkari now looks more like a Silver Surfer card. But Brood and Absorbing Man routinely eat most of your available space, so it might not even make the cut. Outside of that deck, you could consider some that simply want to fill the board like Kazoo.

Overall, the use cases for Makkari are limited, and Marvel Snap’s 12 card restriction only makes me believe this week’s card will often be left out.

Pre-Release Score:

Move Surfer

I know this one probably won’t become meta defining anytime soon, but it makes the most sense when looking at what Makkari brings to the table. You have the Silver Surfer synergy, of course, and you can control how problematic Makkari might be if she goes to a location you didn’t really want to add another card to.

Kazoolgamesh

An extra card on the board for free is one more for Blue Marvel to buff, which could equal an extra power to Gilgamesh. In that scenario, Makkari represents a total of six power, which is a pretty good deal when all you have to pay for it is a slot in your deck.

This is one of the most intriguing synergies with Makkari. I think her ability to be a card you will always have in play will always be better than a card you couldn’t play due to a lack of energy available. Especially in builds looking to fill the board—like Kazoolgamesh does to build Gilgamesh‘s power—Makkari appears to make a lot of sense.

Ramp

I’m not entirely sure this deck will improve with Makkari added to the mix, but the card sure has plenty of synergies with several staples of the deck. Indeed, Makkari bypasses Electro‘s and Sandman‘s limitations, and she also represents a solid target for Sersi.

The new card is nowhere near a new staple for Ramp, but it could be a nice tool to consider for a deck that typically struggles to compete on points.

Moon Girl

Moon Girl isn’t exactly an impactful card in the current meta, so in order to make this pair work I had to think outside the box a little. Here are two ideas, but there are likely plenty of gimmicks you could experiment with to see if you can get somewhere with the Moon Girl+Makkari duo.

Variants

Closing Thoughts

I still have not found a deck that makes me believe Makkari isn’t this month’s skip for someone with limited resources. Sure, a free card will never be bad, but apart from Kazoolgamesh, there really isn’t any high profile deck that is interested in running the card (or one that really needs it, either). Makkari will probably have to create something new to exist, and I can’t imagine the card being strong enough to make that happen.

As such, my advice for the card is to wait a bit and see if anyone comes up with something convincing enough to make you spend your Spotlight Caches. I haven’t so far, but I would love to be surprised.

As usual, feel free to join us on Discord to share your ideas with the Snap Zone Community. You can also tag me on Twitter if you want my opinion on your Makkari deck.

Good Game Everyone.