Table of Contents
Clea is the last Series 5 cards joining Marvel Snap for the June 2025 Season, Masters of the Arcane. It is a 1-Cost, 2-Power card that reads: When this permanently gains Power, add Flames of the Faltine to your hand. (if in hand or in play)
Today, let’s explore the new card strengths and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Clea
Decks with Flames of the Faltine
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop as the latest Seasonal Spotlight card. They will be also be included in the Seasonal Series 5 Snap Pack for 5,000 Collector’s Tokens during their season and the following one.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Clea is a timing-based card, at least when it comes to drawing it. Indeed, the whole point of the card is to generate Flames of the Faltine, which opens three very different synergies:
- Cards that buff Clea, either when in play or in hand
Decks with Marvel Boy
Decks with Gwenpool
Decks with Kahhori
Decks with Hulkbuster
Decks with Symbiote Spider-Man
Decks with Galacta
Decks with SP//dr
Decks with Toxie Doxie
Decks with Evolved Misty Knight
I have a lot of faith in the first three, and not very much in the last four. Galacta was recently nerfed and lost a ton of momentum, but she would have been a fantastic pairing as well. As for the merge cards, they typically don’t see play outside the Destroy synergy, so you would need to find additional targets for them to make sense alongside Clea. Also, I’m not sure whether Bast is considered a buff.
- Cards that synergize with Skills or cheap On Reveal cards
Decks with Werewolf By Night
Basically, if you have a card you feel is great to pair with Merlin, it is likely that Clea will be quite good to add to that synergy as well.
- Clog and Toxic style decks, since Flames of the Faltine is a power affliction card
Decks with Ajax
Decks with Diamondback
Decks with Evolved Abomination
Typically, a card that synergizes with many others is a great sign because it shows great versatility, which should maximize the chances of that card being playable. However, Clea does not really synergize with all those cards; rather, you have to fulfill her buff condition in order to unlock Flames of the Faltine.
There aren’t many choices for building around Clea. You just need more cards to make it work, with the buff being the mandatory requirement.
To be fair, Flames of the Faltine is a pretty strong card. One energy for -3 power is a good deal in my opinion, and we already know how to synergize with Skills thanks to Merlin being a meta staple for the entire season. Unfortunately, we also know exactly how to stop these synergies, which means Clea could release into hostile territory.
Decks with Gorgon
I could also add Luke Cage and Cosmo as specific counters for Clea, but Gorgon and Killmonger are the ones you should keep in mind first and foremost.
Gorgon has done nothing but grow in popularity throughout the season, and another skill generating card will give that trend another reason to keep going. As for Killmonger, the card exists in Destroy decks, Silver Surfer decks, and sometimes as a random inclusion in decks with disposable 1-Costs. You could face it even if your opponent doesn’t care about Clea specifically.
The Verdict: Should You Buy Clea?
Clea comes in with two requirements in order to be successful: get buffed and dodge Gorgon (or the other possible counters). If you can achieve both, Clea looks like a pretty good 1-Cost to run. Plus, we already know which cards to pair her with thanks to Merlin (such as Werewolf By Night) on top of the synergies interested in Flames of the Faltine.
Pre-Release Score:
Clea Decks
I managed to include Clea in various synergies, demonstrating the card’s versatility when it comes to deckbuilding. However, almost all of these decks felt very difficult to balance with the multiple card types needed for Clea to work.
You need at least two buffs for the 1-Cost to make sense, and you also have to account for the energy required to play Flames of the Faltine. This limits Clea to flexible synergies that are able to adapt their energy usage from turn to turn.
From there, I started thinking about the payoffs I wanted to include. Fortunately, this is the best part about Clea, as she enables some high power cards.
Sasquatch, Nicholas Scratch, and Werewolf By Night represent the points in this deck, and all of them synergize with Flames of the Faltine.
den
Marvel Boy will likely be the strongest card to pair with Clea since you’ll get an automatic buff every turn. However, finding decks to run Marvel Boy isn’t as simple as I thought. Thanos makes the most sense in my opinion, but I also tried to adapt KaZoo for the new card (and I’m not very confident about that one).
den
I came into my theorycrafts believing High Evolutionary would be a banger with Clea. Misty Knight can buff it every turn while Abomination gets discounted each time Flames of the Faltine hits a card.
It works on paper, but I’m wondering whether you’ll be able to avoid using all your energy to keep the buffs coming. I threw Gwenpool in there for support, but there might be a more suitable buff to consider for that slot.
den
Silver Surfer might be the easiest deck to add Clea to, except for the lack of payoff cards. If you believe Flames of the Faltine is worth it on its own, you’ll have access to plenty of ways to buff Clea. You can also just play her skill behind Hope Summers to get the spent energy back next turn.
Variants
Conclusion
Cards with multiple requirements tend to fall short in Marvel Snap, mostly because they make their deck too predictable and unable to adapt to the competition. In all the decks I built, I always felt like I wanted some disruptive cards in the mix, but there was already too much I needed to include. As such, I believe Clea will likely be strong in the lower ranks, but I expect it to struggle in the Infinite environment where decks tend to be more flexible and disruptive.
I hope this review of the new card was helpful. You can find everyone on the Marvel Snap Zone team in our community discord to have a chat or ask any questions.
Good Game Everyone!
More Content