Table of Contents
Deckbuilding in Marvel Snap is one of the most important aspects of the game. Creating a consistent and powerful deck from scratch can be difficult if you cannot find cards that fit the specific type of deck you’re trying to create.
Paper’s Staples:
Staple cards are a common idea in most card games. Staple cards are cards that can be included in any deck regardless of the archetype. Common staples in other card games include cards that help you draw more, counter a wide-variety of decks, or simply have such good stats that they are almost never a bad choice to play in any given game. In Marvel Snap, staples are a little harder to come by as decks only contain 12 cards, and every space counts. Certain archetypes do not have cards built for their style of play leaving players to wonder, “What should I play in this deck that costs X Energy and still fits with my deck?”
In this article, I’m going to run you through some of the best 1-Cost cards in the game. These are cards that appear in many decklists on Marvel Snap Zone, and cards that I consider to be staple cards in the current Marvel Snap meta.
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler is one of the first cards you unlock as you begin your collection in Marvel Snap. Despite that, Nightcrawler is a card that I consider in almost all of my decks. The flexibility of moving from one space to another lets your game plan develop as the rest of the locations reveal themselves for the first three turns.
Nightcrawler also allows you to add some power in a closed-off zone like Sanctum Sanctorum or Kyln. This is a potentially game-winning card against decks that cannot properly react to Nightcrawler‘s movement both to and from a location. Filling up a location that has Nightcrawler can give your opponent the idea that the location’s power is set. Moving Nightcrawler out of that location makes room for you to play another card, thus catching your opponent off-guard and winning you the game.
Sunspot
Decks with Sunspot
Sunspot is the perfect card for a deck that runs plenty of high-cost cards in their deck. With an effect that lets his power ramp up as the game progresses, Sunspot is a great 1-Cost card to drop on the first turn without having to think too much.
If you’re running a deck that include The Infinaut, having Sunspot on the board by turn 4 so that you can skip turn 5 in order to play The Infinaut, gives Sunspot a free 5 power.
In other decks, Sunspot offers adaptable power for your situation and often makes up for a missed turn if your draws are not ideal.
Iron Fist
Decks with Iron Fist
Iron Fist can seem like a strange card to include in a staple list as he was very clearly made for a movement-oriented deck, but his effect is great in a lot of situations regardless of your deck’s archetype. For the same reason that Nightcrawler is effective, Iron Fist offers a way to move cards into previous unavailable locations like Sanctum Sanctorum and Kyln or reacting to the effects of cards like Storm and Spider-Man.
Angela is another card that benefits from the inclusion of Iron Fist. Playing the to-be-moved card on Angela’s location gives her the +2 power buff and then the card moves, clearing up more space to power Angela up again.
The Three Musketeers
Decks with Iceman
Decks with Yondu
The last three cards in this list are three cards that I consider to provide the same role. All three cards boast a standard 2 power and all of their effects boil down to the same idea: Mess with your opponent.
Iceman can ruin a deck’s flow by hitting a key combo card, making your opponent’s only 2-Cost card cost 3 energy, or simply makes it less valuable to play a certain card at a higher cost. Yondu and Korg both mess with your opponent’s deck by removing a card or adding a (usually) useless card to their deck respectively.
All three of these cards I value pretty similarly in terms of their use and I interchange them regularly in decks that need just anything to play at 1-Cost. Yondu‘s effect is perhaps the most useful, giving you the chance to completely remove a card that your opponent may need from the game.
Conclusion
Choosing the best cards for your deck comes down to trial and error. The aim for this list and eventual series is to gather some of the most commonly-used and agreed upon staples in the game at all energy costs. These cards can all be slotted into almost any deck with success. The effects and power of these cards makes them great choices at 1-Cost.
Are there any other 1-Cost cards that you’d consider a staple? Let us know in the comments below and look forward to more lists in this series of Paper’s Staples in the future!
