Big Recruit Deck Guide – Controlling Random Factors

Zabu has taken the game over. Regardless of where you stand on his strength and whether he is S Tier, this cannot be denied. As the meta is settling, however, the best Zabu builds have changed and he is often paired with many Series 4 and 5 cards. Today’s deck can be built with or without Series 4 or 5 cards and presents opportunity to discuss a Marvel Snap skill which makes the deck effective and will help anyone to build better decks – controlling random factors.

Big Deck

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

9

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Big Deck – No S4/5

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 5 months ago

3

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Overview

The goal of this deck is to abuse Zabu as much as possible. Many Zabu decks only look for incremental value from Zabu or using him to set up combo finishes whereas this deck uses Zabu to allow for strong tempo plays on 4, 5, and 6.

Variants

Zabu

Ongoing: Your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Zabu

Variants

Jubilee

On Reveal: Add the top card of your deck to this location.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Jubilee

We do this by cutting everything before Turn 3 first. Why? Because this allows for our Turns 4, 5 and 6 to be stronger than if we did play 1 or 2 drops. The first key card enables this – Jubilee.

Jubilee for 4 energy can represent anywhere from 1 to 21 power. So we want to try and build our deck to skew this towards the top end of this range, allowing for the seemingly random outcomes to land in our favour more often than not. This is why we play 4 – 6-Cost cards. If we draw Jubilee by Turn 4, we have 6 cards in deck. If two of our 6-Cost cards are in deck, then we have 33% chance of hitting them when we play Jubilee. This can skew one way or the other, and America Chavez is one of our 6-Cost cards to ensure we always have at least 1 still in deck at the end of the game.

Variants

Dracula

At the end of the game, discard a card from your hand. This has its Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Dracula

However, the odds are still only ok at 33%. How do we push that number to create more opportunities to hit? This leads us to the supporting card, Dracula. Dracula hits the board as 0-Cost card, but can again represent anywhere from 2 to 20 power in this deck. Additionally, with Zabu on board, we are likely to have all our 4-Cost cards out of hand by Turn 6, leaving 6-Cost cards to be pulled by Dracula very often. This makes Dracula a good pull from Jubilee also. So now, we have 5 cards in the deck which are great off Jubilee, and the odds of missing go down. On Turn 4, if 3 of our 5 cards we would like to pull are in deck, then now we are running at 50% to hit a card we want.

4-Cost cards are not all high power, so the next two supporting cards are based on being good effects we can leverage to maximise power or board lead: Spider-Man and Shuri, as these two effects can win games by themselves. Spider-Man off Jubilee blocks a lane for a turn. so can be considered a good hit. Shuri is also an ok hit as we can play follow it up the next turn with our highest power play to push extra power.

Shuri can be easily replaced Drax, Crossbones, or Rescue can all work well with this deck instead, while also being good Jubilee hits. So now, we are up to 7 cards that we are ok with being pulled by Jubilee. Finally, the main deck build around Zabu can be counted as a good hit if he is in deck still on 4. Lets say on 4, we have 4 our 7 cards in deck which could be good hits from Jubilee, we are up to a whopping 80% good outcomes.

Variants

Drax

On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Drax

Variants

Crossbones

You can only play this at locations where you are winning.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Crossbones

Variants

Rescue

On Reveal: If you play a card here next turn, +5 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Rescue

As we have Jubilee, Shuri, and Spider-Man, we wouldn’t mind repeating their On Reveal effects, so Absorbing Man makes a lot of sense in the deck. This allows for double Jubilee or Spider-Man plays. Spider-Man + Absorbing Man on 5 is the most toxic play, and this deck abuses it better than most as we can follow this up with massive stat bombs, or use it to lock out lanes with massive power already. If we don’t have Absorbing Man – return to the good Shuri replacements – Drax, Crossbones, and Rescue. Absorbing Man is harder to replace effectively, but it can be done.

Variants

Ghost Rider

On Reveal: Bring back one of your discarded cards to this location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Ghost Rider

Variants

Lady Sif

On Reveal: Discard the highest-cost card from your hand.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Lady Sif

The second key card is Ghost Rider as this is another cheap way to get massive power. In his case, the range is even smaller. We have 4 – 6-Cost cards, one will always be in the deck on 4. So we have 3 cards we can draw alongside Ghost Rider, they have the added advantage of always being discarded via Lady Sif, so we can play Lady Sif on curve if needed to pull a card for Ghost Rider later.

The optimal outcome, though, is Zabu on 3 allows for Lady Sif and Ghost Rider to be played on 5 or 6. By turn 6, you are 100% likely to have a 6 drop in hand (thank you America Chavez) and by Turn 5, its around 98% to have drawn one of the other three 6 drops. This can hardly be considered random at this stage. This makes your range of outcomes on Ghost Rider, 12 to 23 power. If you Lady Sif prior to Turn 6, it can be pushed up to 15 to 23 power range.

There is a slight anti-synergy with Jubilee. Ghost is the absolute worse Jubilee hit, but this can be worked around also. If you Lady Sif prior to Jubilee, suddenly Ghost Rider becomes one of the best hits of Jubilee.

Hopefully, this in depth explanation of the card choices has demonstrated why this deck works. It limits the actual random outcomes significantly and just throws high power cards at your opponent (so when you get hit by this deck, it wasn’t just luck). The 6-Cost cards can honestly be swapped around based on your collection, they are there for stats, but Magneto can have some interesting implications currently with the large amount of 3 and 4 drops in the game. Furthermore, if you have this card, I recommend his inclusion in any version of this list.

Ideal Turns and Lines

The Perfect Game

The Awkward, But Ok Game

• Turn 1: Hello, Fist Bump, Spider-Man
• Turn 2: What just happened?
• Turn 3: Lady Sif
• Turn 4: Jubilee or Zabu
• Turn 5: 2 x 4 drops (Absorbing Man or Ghost Rider if possible)
• Turn 6: 6 drop

The Worst Case Scenario

• Turn 1: Hello, Fist Bump, Spider-Man
• Turn 2: What just happened?
• Turn 3: Deadpool
• Turn 4: Jubilee
• Turn 5: Absorbing Man, Lady Sif another 4 drop
• Turn 6: 6 drop or Ghost Rider

Nuances

Absorbing Man and Jubilee have some interactions worth noting.

1. Jubilee will not be copied by Absorbing Man if pulled. He will copy the On Reveal played prior to Jubilee. This is VERY important. Spider-Man followed by Jubilee can high roll a game, Jubilee followed by Spider-Man will make you sad and potentially cause damage to your phone.
2. On this note, you also need to be careful or aware that Lady Sif into Jubilee can make you sad.
3. Shuri into Absorbing Man doubles Absorbing Man‘s power and then doubles the next card played. This can be relevant.
4. On Reveal from the card Jubilee pulls will trigger. This can be relevant especially with Rescue, Drax, Jessica Jones or Shuri. Play into the appropriate lane for the effects you can pull.

Conclusion

This is a fun deck which is more nuanced than it may seem and is, even with all the random effects in the deck, at its heart a consistent tempo deck. It’s a shell that can be adapted without other Series 4 and 5 cards also and allows you to do stupid big things without the randomness of Hela or Lockjaw.

Good Luck Have Fun and Stay Safe!

P.S. If you need further convincing to give this one a go, since initially posting this to Twitter, over 10 different players have made Infinite with this deck and either posted publicly or messaged me personally.