Bounce Detailed Deck Guide: Jump Around!

With just six turns to play in a game and 21 energy total, Marvel Snap is routinely described as a rather simple game when it comes to building a cohesive game plan. In other popular CCGs, you don’t really know how long the game will go or how many resources you will need; therefore, the ability to reuse some of your cards and extend their value can have a lot of upsides. On the other hand, because Marvel snap is so fast-paced and limited in time, most strategies don’t consider using cards multiple times. Instead, they would rather have an efficient curve they can follow from Turns 1 through 6, with cards increasing in power and leading to a climax on Turn 6 (most of the time).

Deckbuilding in Marvel Snap isn’t that simple. Still, if you take a look at most decks, you should notice this pattern of building something in the first four or five turns and then trying to kill the match during the last one or two. Most or all of the popular archetypes follow this trend. Most archetypes, except one: Bounce. This archetype barely plays any cards with a cost higher than three, and while they tend to keep their big power spike for Turn 6 for the surprise effect, they are also able to go off at various times in the game.

This particular way of playing the game has turned Bounce into a niche archetype in Marvel Snap. Without Hit Monkey joining the game, we probably wouldn’t even have this guide in the first place. But, thanks to the new Season Pass card, Bounce has gained a great new win condition to abuse. The deck has gone from a fragile niche deck, too technical to master considering the low reward it carried in terms of performances, to a popular archetype that is able to climb to the Infinite rank – even if it still retained its very technical traits.

In this guide, I’ll take you through everything you need to know to play Bounce, and I’ll share the little secrets behind adapting the decklist to make it your own.

Deck Presentation

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 7 days ago

2

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Concept and Strategy

Bounce relies on replaying cheap cards several times through the use of Beast, Kitty Pryde and Falcon, leading to several benefits:

• Their abilities can be great, such as Iceman and The Hood. Korg, for example, feeds Darkhawk and disrupts the opponent’s deck each time you replay it.
• They serve to buff cards like Angela or Bishop as they grow when you play more cards.
• It gives you an easy way to plan ahead of time because you don’t necessarily depend on your draw to use your energy. You can reuse cards already in play.
• You are much more flexible with your available space because you can remove cards and play others instead.
• Bounced cards are usually quite cheap, leading to very flexible turns down the line.

With Hit Monkey joining the archetype, Bounce now also looks to keep those cheap cards in hand to have an explosive Turn 6 play. Through the bounce mechanic we are able to both play cards to buff Angela and Bishop during the game and also have them available to play alongside Hit Monkey.

Rounding up the deck are Darkhawk and Iron Man, both serving as an extra win condition outside Angela, Bishop, and Hit Monkey. These two are more situational; Darkhawk is only good when we draw into Korg, and Iron Man can help develop points when we’re limited to one card by Sandman or Wave.

Strategy wise, the deck wants to be as flexible as possible and only commit to lanes on Turns 5 and 6 in order to withhold as much information as possible from the opponent. Until this last turn, the deck will use Beast and Falcon to manage its hand and locations. The idea should be to abuse the abilities of our cards to disrupt the opponent while building the best hand possible going into the final turns.

Obviously, Angela and Bishop are a tell of where you will develop your points in the future. Darkhawk, Hit Monkey, or the Demon, however, can be a nice surprise on Turn 6.

For all those reasons and more, Bounce is among the most technical archetypes to master. Understanding the strategy behind the deck and knowing as early as possible what you want to do in the end game will go a long way towards navigating a match properly.

Core Cards

Variants

Angela

After you play a card here, +2 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Angela

Variants

Bishop

After you play a card, this gains +1 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Bishop

Variants

Hit Monkey

On Reveal: Gain +2 Power for each other card you played this turn.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Hit Monkey

Variants

Bast

On Reveal: Set the Power of all cards in your hand to 3.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Bast

Variants

Beast

On Reveal: Return your other cards at this location to your hand. They cost 1 less.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Beast

Variants

Falcon

On Reveal: Return your 1-Cost cards to your hand.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Falcon

Variants

Kitty Pryde

When this returns to your hand, +2 Power. Returns at the start of each turn.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Kitty Pryde

In the core of the deck, we find all the cards that help us replay our 1-cost cards and those that benefit the most from it.

Among the supports are Beast, Falcon, and Bast. The first two are our bouncers and help us replay our cards, which is key to growing Angela, Bishop, and our Turn 6 Hit Monkey. Bast is just a points generator as the deck typically runs no card naturally above three power.

Angela, Bishop, and Hit Monkey are the big payoffs to playing and replaying our cards again and again. Also, they are great recipients to Bast’s ability.

We should probably mention a few 1-cost cards in the core of the deck, although the ones you include are up to your deck’s game plan. The three staples seem to be Iceman, Kitty Pryde and The Hood. Then, Korg is a popular inclusion with Darkhawk as an extra win condition.

Overall, the Bounce archetype usually rotates between three and five 1-cost cards depending on the necessary abilities and the space for other tools in the deck.

Cards Substitutions

Although I only included six cards in the core of the build, there isn’t much room for substitutions (unless you go for a different game plan entirely). Mysterio is intricately connected to Hit Monkey, and we already covered how The Hood and Iceman are currently the best 1-costs to include in a Bounce deck.

From the presented build, the most flexible cards are the Korg and Darkhawk package and Iron Man. Here are some replacements if we want to keep the structure of the deck intact:

• Agent 13 and Devil Dinosaur are basically the Pool 2 versions of Korg and Darkhawk. However, Devil Dinosaur is more expensive and Agent 13 can clog your hand.
• Valkyrie and either Ka-Zar or Blue Marvel could be a nice duo in the deck to get a similar effect to what Bast does. It conflicts with Hit Monkey if you have both available on Turn 6.
•  Scorpion (decent Beast target), Shang-Chi (tech card), Carnage (space management), or America Chavez (draw consistency) can all serve as fine standalone additions.
• 1-cost cards to consider include Rocket Raccoon, Yondu, Hawkeye, Elektra, and Iron Fist.

If you drift away from the Hit Monkey core in search of different win conditions, you can end up with other ways to abuse Falcon and Beast. In this build, for example, we bounce Yondu to discount Death, which we intend to copy with Moon Girl.

Death Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 days ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Snap and Retreat

There aren’t clear rules when it comes to Snaps and Retreats with the archetype since the whole purpose is to be as flexible as possible. In that regard, it is up to the pilot to read the situation, visualize where they are going, and make a decision based on that information.

There are, however, some locations and match ups that can help with making that decision, so let’s go over them.

Locations

Bounce has quite a strong relationship with locations. Some of them are excellent, especially those rewarding you for filling them early on, as we can do so and then bounce our cards to not be locked on said location.

Others are more difficult to navigate, particularly those you can’t play on, those that impact your hand, and those that impact the available space on the board.

Good Locations:

• Asgard, Gamma Lab, The Raft, Kyln, Hala, TVA: We have no problem with quickly filling a location if needed.
• Nidavellir, Mojoworld, Miniaturized Lab: We can easily fill it on Turn 6 and not be predictable.
• Kamar-Taj, Morag, Shuri's Lab: These locations are a boon if we can abuse them – unless the opponent can as well.

Bad Locations:

• Worldship, Altar of Death, Crimson Cosmos, Sanctum Sanctorum, Sinister London, Rickety Bridge: We like to have space available.
• Negative Zone, Necrosha: We don’t have enough big cards for these to be reliably good.
• Lamentis-1, Lechuguilla, Subterranea: We like to manage our hand freely.

Matchups

Matchup wise, there are three cards we want to avoid: Sandman, Leech, and Wave. All three serve a similar purpose to limit our synergies and punish our attempts at an explosive Turn 6.

There isn’t much that can be done against Leech, unfortunately, unless we can empty our hand before it reveals. For Sandman and Wave, we can go off on Turn 5 and keep a strong card like Iron Man, Valkyrie, or America Chavez for Turn 6, and this works most of the time.

As for the match ups we like being paired against, it mostly comes down to the ones we think we can beat on points. Decks that have a linear development are easier to read, and we can usually punish them for that thanks to our flexible way of spreading points.

Turn by Turn Breakdown

During a game, Bounce will typically look to hide its true potential until the last two turns, sometimes the last one, where it will play its whole hand and develop most of its points.

As such, the first four turns should be dedicated to preparing this late game explosion by setting up Angela, Bishop, and playing with our 1-cost cards.

Kitty Pryde can completely throw off the way we use our energy, and can take two directions :

• Commit to playing the card every turn to grow her for turn six.
• Simply use the card to fill your energy and grow Angela / Bishop;

Turn 1

Play a 1-cost card if you have one. If you have Angela in hand, play Bast in a location other than where you intend to play Angela (unless you have a way to bounce it).

Considering Bounce doesn’t have the reach to access unplayable locations, you might want to play onto an unrevealed location. If it’s a bad location, you can always bounce the card later on.

Turn 2

Develop Angela if you can. She can be played on a location you intend to Beast because she isn’t so expensive to replay and it allows you to grow her more. Otherwise, keep working towards your big Bounce turn and play more 1-cost cards. If you have neither 1-cost cards nor Angela, you can expend Beast or Falcon already, but the game doesn’t look so good. If you have Bishop, this should be when you play Bast or you won’t find another time to fit it in properly.

Turn 3

Bishop turn if you have him, preferably on a location where you will not play Beast later on. This is the first committal play of the game as Bishop is very unlikely to move during the match. Bishop is typically able to grow to rival the size of a 5-cost, so play the card on a lane you expect to fight for or want to discourage your opponent from trying to win.

Turn 4

This is your first truly flexible turn. There is no dedicated play like Angela or Bishop in the previous turns. If you have Beast and Falcon in hand, this is the time to play them. Bounce your cards with Beast, replay your 1-cost cards on the next turn along with Falcon, and then have a hand full of free cards for use on Turn 6.

If you have Hit Monkey and no Bounces, start planning ahead for the explosive Turn 6 and save up the necessary space.

Turn 5

If you suspect a Sandman or Wave coming from your opponent, this should be your pop off turn.

If you are free in your choices, your hand will dictate how to play:

• If you have two win conditions (Darkhawk plus Hit Monkey, for example), then play the least flexible one now and save the other for later.
• If you have only one win condition, keep it for Turn 6 if possible and asses the need for priority going into the last turn.

Even if you need to hold cards for a big Hit Monkey on the next turn, Iceman and The Hood are often good to play here as their On Reveal abilities are useless on the last turn.

Turn 6

Go off and try to win the game.

There aren’t any rules regarding how to pop off on this turn. Most of the plan should have been laid out already, so just go through with it or Retreat.

Closing Words

In my book, Bounce is one of the harder archetypes to master in Marvel Snap. It features unique mechanics, requires careful hand and space management, and contains cards that synergize well but only with each other. I’m personally in love with the archetype, and I believe it brings a different level of complexity to Marvel Snap. However, whenever I see someone complain about the deck and question why they can’t win with it, I can’t help but wonder how long they spent trying to learning it.

This is likely the reason Bounce will never reach Tier 1 in the rankings; it is an archetype that is damn difficult to learn. It requires time and a lot of mistakes to understand all the possible combinations and different ways you can use your cards together. On the other hand, it is such a pleasant archetype to pilot once you learn it as you have access to play patterns other archetypes cannot produce. For this simple reason, I would encourage anyone not actively trying to climb the ladder to spend some time learning how to play Bounce. This is the perfect time to do so with Hit Monkey making the deck competitive and Kitty Pryde likely boosting the deck as well upon her return.

I hope this guide was helpful in some way. If you had any questions, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community discord, or on my Twitter page.

Good Game Everyone.