Best Baron Zemo Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: Finally, a Disruptive Season Pass Card!

Season Pass cards are always proactive in Marvel Snap; that’s what makes them good, or at least a low risk to purchase. It is fairly simple to understand how to leverage their abilities and build a deck around them. In Marvel Snap’s 22nd season (counting beta), only Daredevil could qualify as a Season Pass card that had a big impact on your opponent.

As for the 21 others, they all pushed to be built around – oftentimes with very little regard as to what your opponent played on the other side of the battlefield. Just look at the cards we’ve gotten already in 2024: Skaar, Black Swan, and Hope Summers. Want to go back a little further? Sebastian Shaw, Ms. Marvel, Elsa Bloodstone…

Alright, I’ll give you Loki since part of its power is based on what the opponent is playing. But you probably get my point by now: Baron Zemo looks different, and I love it!

Variants

Baron Zemo

On Reveal: Recruit the lowest-Cost card from your opponent’s deck to your side of this location.

Season Pass

view card details Start a deck Decks with Baron Zemo

As a [3/5] card, unless you pull Yellowjacket and actually lose power on the lane, Baron Zemo should always be at least a [3/7] to a [3/9] on average. You also gain the ability of the card you pulled alongside having the nice upside of being playable on any given turn of the game. Indeed, compared to Hope Summers (which needs to be played as early as possible), Baron Zemo is good as long as your opponent has cards in their deck. The other thing I love about the card is the Snap opportunity it creates when you pull one of your opponent’s key cards. Get their Deadpool, Human Torch, Zabu, or Jeff the Baby Land Shark? Yes, please!

Overall, I have a lot of expectations for Baron Zemo, and I believe the card will be a great addition to Marvel Snap because it will bring some much-needed help to disruptive archetypes. However, there are also some obstacles the card will have to overcome. Things like Discard being very popular, or the fact that you make your opponent more likely to draw into their big cards.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Variants

Yondu

On Reveal: Destroy the lowest-Cost card in your opponent’s deck.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Yondu

Variants

Cable

On Reveal: Draw a card from your opponent’s deck.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Cable

Variants

Gladiator

On Reveal: Add a card from your opponent’s deck to their side of this location. If it has less Power, destroy it.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Gladiator

I’m not sold on Yondu yet, but the recent ability change clearly happened with Baron Zemo in mind. However, I have been playing a lot with Cable and Gladiator lately, and I love the pair when it comes to bringing some proactive disruption to various decks.

Together, Cable and Gladiator give you 11 power for five energy; that’s a pretty solid deal already, and you get two cards out of your opponent’s deck. If you look at most of the current dominant archetypes, be it Thanos, Discard, Destroy, Loki, or even Lockdown, you’ll notice they have a card that makes their deck so much better when they draw into it. If you get that card out of the equation, the juggernaut you were up against is now a nice Tier 2 or Tier 3 deck that you have every chance to beat.

I don’t necessarily think Baron Zemo will come in and disable decks like Cable, Spider-Ham, or Gladiator can at times. However, it should greatly benefit from their abilities and add even more abilities to swing at the opponent’s deck (which you will learn everything about very quickly in a match).

Indeed, in addition to the potential disruption, these cards give you a ton of information about your opponent’s list and strategy. In a game like Marvel Snap where your goal is to raise the stakes or leave at minimal cost, information is very high on the list of things that help you rack up as many cubes as possible.

I could go as far as saying Baron Zemo is one of the best spies in the game. If you recognize your opponent’s deck, the ability basically tells you all the cards cheaper than the one you pulled are in their hand. This could be huge for assessing the strength of your opponent’s hand at that point in the match.

Variants

Elsa Bloodstone

Each card you play to fill your side of a location gains +2 Power.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Elsa Bloodstone

Variants

Dazzler

Ongoing: +2 Power for each location that’s full on your side.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Dazzler

Variants

Mockingbird

Costs 1 less for each of your cards in play that didn’t start in your deck.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mockingbird

Variants

Silver Surfer

On Reveal: Give your other 3-Cost cards +2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Silver Surfer

So, I discussed how Baron Zemo could be a nice addition to a strategy that is based on mastering information, but the new Season Pass card can also be used for points!

It won’t be the card actually bringing you the points, but it should help your other cards do a better job at that. For example, you get two spots filled for Elsa Bloodstone, which is perfect for playing her and Kitty Pryde on Turn 4 to get the buffs going. The same idea works with Dazzler, too. As for Mockingbird, Baron Zemo will discount her cost by one. And on top of all that, a 3-Cost will always work with Silver Surfer.

I don’t think this is the reason the card will shine, but it is always important to find ways to develop points around a card – even one that isn’t necessarily designed to be a high scorer.

Variants

Blade

On Reveal: Discard the rightmost card from your hand.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Blade

Variants

Ebony Maw

You can’t play this after turn 3. Ongoing: You can’t play cards here.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Ebony Maw

Variants

Carnage

On Reveal: Destroy your other cards here. +2 Power for each destroyed.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Carnage

I’m a firm believer that the card has more upsides than downsides, but I can’t ignore that there are a lot of bad recruits. Unfortunately, a lot of those bad recruits also happen to be part of some of the most popular decks in the deck.

Discard is a big one in my opinion; Blade or Colleen Wing could discard an essential card from your hand. The upside here is the power of those cards (Baron Zemo would be a [3/7] with Blade). A similar logic applies to Ebony Maw, which gained a lot of momentum with War Machine. It is worth a lot of points, but it might cost you more than it helps. Zero could fit that description as well, or Squirrel Girl if it suddenly eats up all your space. Even though you could Snap a Deadpool (because it means your opponent can’t leverage it this game), you can’t ignore the possibility of Carnage eating all the cards on the lane being worth a Retreat.

The card is risky for sure – especially in this meta with Discard and Destroy at the top – but that is where information becomes crucial to making Baron Zemo a star. The riskier it is to use, the later in the match you should pull the trigger. Apart from pulling a Destroy ability, you would be able to assess the risk by Turn 6, and all the other pulls are very low risk on the final turn of the game.

The Verdict

I love the design of Baron Zemo, and I will definitely have some fun testing and building decks around the card. However, I recognize this isn’t the usual proactive, build-around, risk-free card Second Dinner typically gives us in the Season Pass. As such, I can’t ignore the fact that Baron Zemo will lose you a few games with a terrible recruit, or at least not feel as impactful as Hope Summers or Ms. Marvel on average.

Potential Score:

Loki

Loki Zemo

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Season Pass

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Loki naturally runs many of the cards I discussed as pairing well with Baron Zemo, and this deck loves to get as much information about the opponent as possible. Plus, the Trickster God lost its ability to just dominate on points since Discard and Thanos took over the meta in February. Alongside Mobius M. Mobius being a routine inclusion as a disruptive card, Loki could use a new addition to the deck – especially if it helps with opening a new win condition.

Sera

Sera Zemo

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Season Pass

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

You can’t talk about winning through disruption and not include Sera Control in the conversation.

I know, this is just a three card difference compared to the Loki deck above, but those three cards shift the deck towards more reactivity while Loki will often steal the opponent’s deck to find a second wind. As such, I believe Sera Control might have a better use of Baron Zemo. Playing the card on Turn 6 is probably the safest way to avoid the recruited card punishing you.

In a deck with a lot of space to work with (and lacking points to compete lately), the new Season Pass card could give you some high roll potential against certain decks. For example, if Thanos still hasn’t played Mockingbird by Turn 4 while their Infinity Stones are in play, it is very likely that the card is still in their deck.

Silver Surfer

Zemo Surfer

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Season Pass

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Baron Zemo is a 3-Cost card, so here is the mandatory Silver Surfer deck. Except this time I actually like it a lot. Yondu might be pushing it a little too far, but the card really didn’t fit in the other two decks and Silver Surfer is flexible enough to include it.

In this list, you’ll very often not rely on Baron Zemo (except when you know it is excellent). Indeed, Silver Surfer already has most of its needs filled by Brood, Hope Summers, Sebastian Shaw, and other similar cards. However, when pitted against an opponent with more points potential, the deck can quickly struggle to win with any consistency. You would usually use cards like Killmonger and Rogue to limit your opponent’s development, and that might end up still being the best way to build a Silver Surfer deck. With the addition of Baron Zemo, you get a plug-and-play package of four cards (with two of them being 3-Cost cards).

When you recognize an opponent with more points available than you do, you could always give Cable, Gladiator, or Yondu a shot and hope Baron Zemo will bring out one of the 4- or 5-Cost cards they didn’t draw by the end of the match to win the lane.

It might sound like a long shot, but this is typically the way an archetype finds a second wind and comes back as a competitive option after a period of struggles.

Bounce

Zemo Bounce

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Season Pass

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Yondu and Baron Zemo can disrupt the opponent’s deck, while Spider-Ham and Iceman can take care of their hand. Plus, you also gather plenty of information to plan for where Werewolf By Night should end up or the location you intend to use Valkyrie on.

Yes, this is a fairly complicated game plan, but Bounce has been struggling to keep up with the best archetypes when it comes to getting points onto the board. The archetype might as well embrace a more disruptive approach to find its way back into the meta.

It will probably take a while to learn how to play this optimally compared to the other three decks I discussed already, but the potential for shenanigans is off the charts. First, you can replay Yondu several times to increase the value of Baron Zemo later on. Also, Baron Zemo itself can be used a second time if the first pull was nice. Finally, because Baron Zemo recruits the lowest-cost card, you have Beast and Falcon to potentially synergize with some 1-Cost cards as well!

Closing Words

Overall, I don’t expect Baron Zemo to compare to Hope Summers because the card is much more specific at what it does. I would probably compare the card to Black Swan in terms of its contribution to Marvel Snap. It has some great synergies that are, at the very least, worth exploring and building a few decks around, but I wouldn’t count on Baron Zemo being a dominant card throughout the whole season.

As far as I’m concerned, the Bounce deck alone is enough to make me want the Season Pass; it looks like a really fun deck! However, if you are more of a Discard or Destroy player currently, I could understand why you might have little interest in the upcoming Season Pass card.

Have an idea for Baron Zemo you want to share? You can do so in the comments section, or on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord. You can also share your creation on Twitter, and I’ll happily share it with the community!

Good Game Everyone.