Best Corvus Glaive Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: Hela of a Card!

Corvus Glaive is the first of the two discard additions in the February 2024 season Black Order: 3-Cost, 5-Power card that reads: On Reveal: Discard 2 cards from your hand to get +1 Max Energy. It has been the source of much talk around the community, and so far, I have seen almost every possible opinion be shared about the card. Some see it as super strong since both the power and ability are great for a 3-Cost. Others struggle to picture it in any discard deck, which makes it almost useless to get for lack of a home in the current Marvel Snap.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m rooting for Corvus Glaive, and I think the potential is too good to not find some kind of deck with it. I agree with those saying there isn’t a deck for Corvus Glaive in the current Marvel Snap. However, aren’t the best cards the ones that manage to create their own deck?

Strengths and Weaknesses

Corvus Glaive isn’t trying to be sneaky when it comes to its strengths. They’re all written on the card:

• You get an extra energy, which we know is good because Electro has pushed an archetype solely around this ability. Plus, you don’t have to deal with the limitation of one card per turn with Corvus Glaive.
• Instead, the downside is discarding two cards, which we know isn’t that easy to leverage based on Hellcow‘s difficult track record.
• You get five power for a 3-Cost, which is currently the norm for cards at that cost. It’s on par with Black Swan, Wave, Lady Sif, and other cards with an ability.

Overall, Corvus Glaive is a card with an evident upside and several examples of how to abuse the extra energy. Destroyer Ramp with Nimrod, Galactus, Odin to reactivate Doctor Doom or Leader… There are plenty of decks that Electro has pushed in the past.

These decks still exist to this day, even if they aren’t necessarily dominant in the current meta:

These decks were built around the certainty of what would happen when they get Electro since the list is meant to function when playing just one card per turn. This is why Sandman has become an iconic partner of Electro over time; the two just make sense together.

When it comes to Corvus Glaive, I feel what we are missing the most obvious pairing. That card that tells us: Go ahead, we’re a foundation you can rely on. Indeed, a lot of people around the community have pointed out that discard has never used extra energy in the past.

I agree with the statement, but I still believe there is one card that likes both extra energy and discarding:

I know this might raise a few eyebrows. Actually, I tossed the idea on social media already, and it was mostly met with people telling me Hela wasn’t the answer. I definitely could be wrong on this one. First, Hela already has a great deck where Lockjaw is a great card for cheating energy. Second, Hela has enough targeted discard tools in the game to not take a gamble with Corvus Glaive.

There is another card I believe has a lot of potential alongside Corvus Glaive:

Helicarrier has been buffed recently, and now that you get a hand full of random cards an extra energy could equal more opportunities to abuse those cards. If you could find a deck with Quinjet as well (and, of course, The Collector), it seems like you would have access to some pretty explosive turns with more energy and cheaper cards compared to your opponent.

The Verdict

I love the design of Corvus Glaive, and I think there is certainly enough upside in the card for it to be a worthy buy down the line. However, when it comes to an immediate contribution, Corvus Glaive might struggle because there is no deck it feels like a “plug-and-play” in.

I would recommend the card to deck builders and people who enjoy Discard/Ramp, and I wouldn’t want to miss Corvus Glaive in the future in case the card opens an archetype.

Potential Score:

Discard Ramp

Electro ramp is in dire need of some help. The archetype hasn’t been relevant in a while. With Corvus Glaive in the mix, the deck gains a bit more reliability since you’ll have two cards to gain an extra max energy.

The new card opens one play pattern I’m curious about. Playing Hela on the same location as Corvus Glaive on Turn 5 already nets you two summons. Then, on Turn 6, you can play Odin on that same location to reactivate both cards and get two more summons.

Otherwise, Corvus Glaive seems to be at its best with the newly buffed Helicarrier, as discarding two cards become “fill your hand with random cards”. I think the synergy already has some merit in a Ramp deck, but it can also become the backbone of another deck.

Loki Discard

Not only is Loki Discard a real deck as we speak, but Helicarrier has gained a lot of importance inside that deck with its buff. MODOK might be too much in here, but I feel like this deck really wants to discard Helicarrier often and the rest of your hand doesn’t matter when you do. Plus, it opens cards like Morbius or Swarm to also see play, and you can always just transform the Swarms with Loki.

In this mix, Corvus Glaive would simply serve as a way to open more avenues than the deck already has access to. As long as you discard Helicarrier at some point, your previous discards shouldn’t matter too much considering your hand goes back to full. In that scenario, you would just take the extra energy you’re offered and add it to the discounts from Quinjet and Loki to craft even more explosive turns.

You might have an opportunity to run two synergies I never thought would make sense together: Devil Dinosaur and Loki, which push for having lots of cards in hand, and Discard, which kind of wants the exact opposite. With Helicarrier and Swarm, you have the opportunity to just refill your hand to keep enough cards available so Loki or Devil Dinosaur are totally viable.

While the Ramp deck was a little more straight forward (Hela was the only real twist to the archetype), I feel like adding Corvus Glaive to Loki Discard could completely change how we build and play the archetype. Therefore, I wouldn’t consider this list a finished product. It will likely take a few missed attempts in order to land on the correct way to build the deck.

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula clearly lacks some craziness to it, which often leads to a deck that is unable to surprise its opponent. Either you go Morbius into Dracula with Apocalypse in hand ready to grow and you Snap, or you just do your best and hope the opponent doesn’t Snap. We aren’t in 2023 anymore, so let’s see if we could throw some curve balls in the old Discard Dracula recipe.

Similar to the Loki deck above, you could use the package of Quinjet and Helicarrier to give the deck a ton of extra unpredictability (and maybe the ability to be competitive in more games). Plus, the extra energy provided by Corvus Glaive could actually serve to play Apocalypse on Turn 5 or Turn 6 in the games where you don’t draw Dracula. In that scenario, the other late game possibility would simply be to play cards you got from Helicarrier.

It probably won’t be as strong as knowing you have a 20 power Dracula the opponent can’t do much about, but this gives you a chance to compete in matches that you would have otherwise Retreated.

Closing Thoughts

I genuinely believe there is something to be found with Corvus Glaive, either with Hela or Helicarrier. However, I’m also concerned about the ability for the community to find that perfect mix in the current Marvel Snap environment since it is a pretty punishing one.

Overall, I don’t expect Corvus Glaive to make a huge impact; instead, I think it will be a nice deckbuilding addition that requires time to build around and utilize properly. Nevertheless, I’m convinced the card is too good to just gather dust in our collections if we put in the effort and accept the losses that come with refining a deck. I know I’ll be playing a lot of Proving Grounds in Conquest to test the three ideas I shared in this article, as well as the ideas I’ll get in the future. If you also have some ideas for the card, join us on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or reach out through my Twitter page to share your creation with the community.

Good Game Everyone.