Darkhawk Theorycraft, Strategy, and Decklists

It is starting to be difficult to keep up with the weekly Series 5 card release, and considered impossible to get all the cards. As such, people are trying to make sure their Collector’s Token investment is worth it, and they won’t regret spending weeks (months) of saving in a card that won’t have a big impact on their play experience. This is even more true for newly released cards, which are being compared with the ones already available for some time that we can’t collect yet, but still were able to gather information about.

As such, in order to draw the attention of the community, and push a few players to invest and purchase you as soon as you hit the Token Shop – you better be a card that is easily understandable, with established synergies around it, and preferably strong overall as well. Today, we are going to talk about a card that doesn’t have any of these traits, and could be considered exactly the opposite of safety: Darkhawk.

Variants

Darkhawk

Ongoing: +2 Power for each card in your opponent’s deck.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Darkhawk

Why is Darkhawk such a risk, you might ask ? Well, let’s take a look at the criteria I mentioned in order to convince players you are worth it:

• Easily understandable: Check.
• With established synergies: First time we have such effect in the game, although we have several cards that can impact the opposing deck in the game already.
• Strong overall: Darkhawk is a [4/7] if the match unfolds without any casualty, as the opponent should have 3 cards in their deck by the end of the game. This places it below cards like Jessica Jones, Crossbones, Rescue, and other conditional 4-Cost cards (including Sentry that will join Series 5 at the same time).

So here we are, at the end of the introduction, and already I convinced you to not go after Darkhawk and instead keep your Collector’s Tokens for a more valuable card. Hold that thought, as Darkhawk has one big upside to it: Because its effect is something that didn’t exist in Marvel Snap, it could push new synergies and play patterns around it. That alone can be enough to make a few players believe you could be a lot of fun to experiment with.

For full details on upcoming new Marvel Snap cards, you can check out the dedicated schedule guide, and the strategy guide on the other card being released at the same time, Sentry:

Gameplay and Synergies

This is likely the easiest part to figure out about Darkhawk: The card wants to be paired with cards that make the opponent’s deck bigger. Although we don’t have many to pick from in Marvel Snap currently, there is a trio that perfectly fits the bill:

Variants

Korg

On Reveal: Shuffle a Rock into your opponent’s deck.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Korg

Variants

Rockslide

On Reveal: Shuffle 2 Rocks into your opponent’s deck.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Rockslide

Variants

Black Widow

On Reveal: Add a Widow’s Bite to your opponent’s hand.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Black Widow

These three cards should be the foundation of any Darkhawk deck at first, pushing for a deck that would be looking to disrupt the opponent’s draws with Rocks and Widow's Bite. Power wise, both Korg and Black Widow represent a +2 to Darkhawk‘s power, while Rockslide is a +4.

This gives us a nice shell to start tinkering around the new card, and fortunately enough, all three support cards are also On Reveal abilities, meaning we can use similar cards to support them. If the first round of support cards only saw three come to mind, once we open the search to the On Reveal synergy, there is a ton of candidates to consider.

First, we have the cards that will allow us to double the effect of an On Reveal card, through doubling, copying, or replaying the said effect:

Variants

Wong

Ongoing: Your On Reveal abilities here happen twice.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Wong

Variants

Odin

On Reveal: Activate the On Reveal abilities of your other cards here.

Collection Level 1-14

view card details Start a deck Decks with Odin

Variants

Absorbing Man

On Reveal: If the last card you played has an On Reveal, copy its text. (if it’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Absorbing Man

Variants

Beast

On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. They cost 1 less next turn.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Beast

Variants

Lockjaw

After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck. (once per turn)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Lockjaw

• In the current metagame, Wong is having a terrible time. Cosmo, Aero or even Magneto are popular cards, and are bullying the monk, often preventing us from being able to use its Ongoing effect.
• Odin might be a bit expensive, but the timing of shuffling the Rocks doesn’t matter too much for Darkhawk. The card won’t work with Black Widow, unfortunately.
• Beast and Absorbing Man seem to be the best options currently, as both are flexible enough to work with all three cards and can be played at various turns of the game.
• Falcon can also join Beast to maximize Korg efficiency, as it is a 1-Cost card.
• Lockjaw can potentially allow us to get some effects triggered twice during the game. Also, it helps to cycle Korg and Black Widow back into the deck, replacing them with a stronger card to contest the lane.

Already we can see that there are several ways to support Korg, Black Widow and Rockslide‘s On Reveal’s abilities, meaning we might be able to build around Darkhawk in the end. If we manage such a feat, it begs the question: How much can we get away with taking advantance of the card?

Variants

Mystique

On Reveal: If the last card you played has an Ongoing, copy its text. (if it’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mystique

Variants

Onslaught

Ongoing: Double your other Ongoing effects here.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Onslaught

Variants

Taskmaster

On Reveal: Set this card’s Power equal to that of the last card you played. (if that card’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Taskmaster

While there were quite a lot of cards that could help in growing Darkhawk, there aren’t that many that benefits from it being huge, apart from Mystique and Taskmaster in order to copy its power, or most of it in the cast of Mystique.

Onslaught could make sense to grow Darkhawk simply as a +6 outside the Rock synergy. For example, if we have Klaw or Mister Fantastic on the location, it can be worth to have Darkhawk to secure points while Onslaught also helps to buff the other ones as well. Up until this point, it was usually Iron Man that was used in the role of the big points on the location, but Darkhawk being a 4 mana card, it would allow playing Klaw on turn five instead.

Last but not least, there are three cards that seem to have a nice synergy with Darkhawk as a card, not considering its ability, and might be able to use him in some way eventually:

Variants

Mister Negative

On Reveal: Swap the Power and Cost of all cards in your deck.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mister Negative

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

Zabu

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Zabu

• Even without being annoying to the opponent’s deck, Mister Negative hitting Darkhawk creates a 1 energy, 10 power card, a sweet deal.
• Bast just works with any card with less than three power. The card could also buff Korg and Black Widow for what it’s worth.
• Zabu will be the next Season Pass card, coming in January 2023. Just like Silver Surfer made the 3-Cost cards super strong, Zabu seems to look for powerful 4-Cost allies. Darkhawk, but also some support such as Rockslide, Wong and Absorbing Man could work with the new card.

So in the end, although Darkhawk doesn’t look so good on its own, we could find a lot of ways to support, or exploit it. Let’s take a look at some brews that would make sense with the card.

Let’s make ricochets!

Darkhawk rocks !

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This probably is the most common idea around Darkhawk as the Bounce archetype can easily abuse both Korg and Black Widow. The deck needs a bit of tinkering in order to fit Rockslide and Mystique, but ends up as something potentially good.

Here, the idea would be to fit a big threat on each lane, with Angela, Darkhawk and Mystique representing our big sources of points. They can then be supported with the cheap disruptors in the deck, annoying the opponent in their draws and hand management.

Rockslide is probably the most difficult card to play in the deck, as four energy isn’t so easy to fit in a deck like Bounce, especially if we would draw into your other key cards. However, the card still represents six points, so it should still contribute to our overall score, especially with Darkhawk in play.

Lockjaw makes rocking easy!

Fetch me a rock !

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

1

TheorycraftOn RevealPool 5

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Considering Darkhawk should routinely reach double digits of power, as long as we get Korg to trigger twice or Rockslide once, it’s not crazy to consider it on par with some 6-Cost cards that would be played in the Lockjaw archetype, while providing an added bonus of disrupting the opponent’s draw with Rocks.

As such, compared to not so flexible cards like Giganto or Hulk that usually sees play alongside Lockjaw, Darkhawk might simply be a more flexible option while still being a great pull with Lockjaw or Jubilee. This is a card that we are fine playing on turn four before we cycle through our deck with our signature card to find Korg and Rockslide to get it much bigger.

On Reveal madness!

Swole Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

1

TheorycraftOn RevealPool 5

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The On Reveal synergy has so many cards at this point that I could have built this deck in a lot of different ways. Hazmat and Luke Cage, Ironheart, Odin and White Tiger – a lot of synergies can be experimented with in the On Reveal archetype. Zabu will probably take a spot in the list when it releases as well, considering most of the important cards are 4-Cost with Wong, Rockslide, Absorbing Man, and of course, Darkhawk.

So instead of looking at each precise card, let’s focus on the concept this deck is trying to push: Create the biggest possible Darkhawk through shuffling as many Rocks as possible in your opponent’s deck, and then copy it with Mystique or Taskmaster in order to contest two lanes.

While Mystique can copy Wong if we can’t find Darkhawk by turn five, and open a Mystique plus Psylocke to gain four energy and do a nutty turn six with our ten energy. I felt forced to include Wolfsbane in the deck to give Taskmaster a second card to get its power from.

Lastly, Bast just seemed like a great card with every other card apart from Rockslide being low power, and Adam Warlock just came naturally because of Bast, to help with getting an extra card for added consistency.

This kind of build is probably too gimmicky to be considered competitive. Still, I feel like exploring these kinds of deck helps to figure out how we can abuse a card like Darkhawk, and then look for the right balance around it.

Closing Words

Compared to other Series 5 cards, Darkhawk isn’t as shiny as a Galactus or even a Knull in my book, with them bringing an entire playstyle. Despite that, even if I don’t expect Darkhawk to be a card creating a lot of buzz on the let go, I think it can be a solid 4-Cost card. At worst, the card will be played in a deck with Korg, maybe Black Widow or Rockslide as well, and routinely be a [4/9] or [4/11], which is big enough to be a consideration in today’s game. This is especially true if you factor in the little uncertainty surrounding the card for your opponent, as Darkhawk can change its power until the very last turn of a match.

I am unfortunately out of Collector’s Tokens for the time being, so I won’t have the privilege of choosing if I want to purchase Darkhawk or not. However, if you already know you will invest into January’s battle pass, I wouldn’t pass on Darkhawk so quickly, as Zabu surely will make the card even more interesting to build around.

Have an idea with Darkhawk you want to share with the community? Our Discord is open to everyone, come and share your original brews! If you were looking to get in touch directly with me, find me on Twitter @den_CCG for any questions or inquiry.

Good Game Everyone.