Deck of the Day – Phoenix Surfer Rebirth

Hello everyone, and welcome to Deck of the Day! I’m Glazer of Snap Judgments: The Official Marvel Snap Zone Podcast, and every weekday I’m going to be highlighting a different deck for you to try out!

If you bought the last Season Pass card, Ghost-Spider, and this Season Pass card, The Phoenix Force, then you’re good to go to try out this deck. In fact, I’m not entirely sure you even need Ghost-Spider!

Intro + Disclaimers 

I think this deck is very likely to be great and capable of reaching Infinite. However, this article is being released only a few hours into the new season, so it is, up to this point, relatively untested.

Sometimes the decks featured in this article will be Tier 1, the most competitive decks in the metagame. Sometimes they will be fun tier. Often, they will feature Series 4 and 5 cards (which is hopefully less of an issue with the Card Acquisition change), but sometimes they will be Series 3 or even lower.

Additionally, these decks can come from anywhere — they could be homebrews, a really cool idea from your favorite content creator, a tried and true meta deck, and sometimes, well, we won’t really know where the deck came from. We endeavor, however, to credit original deck creators whenever possible, so if we miss one, please do let us know! Want to submit a deck for consideration? Email me [email protected].

The Deck

Glazer’s Rebirth

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 10 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck History

The history of Silver Surfer decks was covered last week when we discussed den’s Silver Surfer list — a list at least two people hit Infinite with, one of whom is the Brilliant LaurenWhatever. Rather than rehash that, let’s talk Move.

Move decks in Marvel Snap are a staple of the Series 1 and Series 2 metagame. As you’re learning the game, the early tools offer enough power to compete with other archetypes thanks to Forge and Hulkbuster having great synergy with Multiple Man, as well as the power of Vulture. In addition, most of the move enablers — Iron Fist, Cloak, and Heimdall — are early pool cards.

Variants

Forge

On Reveal: Give the next card you play +2 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Forge

Variants

Hulkbuster

On Reveal: Merge this with one of your cards here.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Hulkbuster

Variants

Multiple Man

When this moves, add a copy to the old location.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Multiple Man

Early Series 3 players are often excited to add the seemingly powerful Dagger and Human Torch to their arsenal, only to find out that the power jump of the new Series has pushed the archetype to the very borders of playability.

The most recent season in Marvel Snap, Spider-Versus, was intended to give Move a jolt. It added an enabler in Ghost-Spider as the Season Pass card, and it also added a payoff — Spider-Man 2099 — as one of the first cards ever released into Series 4. In addition, Silk was released and, even though it isn’t for every move deck, the card does pump up Kraven and enable Miles Morales quite effectively.

Variants

Silk

After ANY card is played here, this moves to another location.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Silk

Variants

Kraven

When a card moves here, this gains +2 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Kraven

Variants

Miles Morales

If a card moved last turn, this costs 1.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Miles Morales

Still, while the Season did produce one tournament-winning Move deck, the archetype remains at the periphery of the metagame. Thus, it’s pretty good that the first two cards of the new Rise of the Phoenix Season also support Move. The Phoenix Force has the Vision effect (i.e. it can move each turn), and the upcoming Jean Grey demands that the first card each turn be played into her location, which is especially good with move cards since they can be played there before being moved elsewhere. We’ll talk about Jean Grey more next week, but this week, let’s see how to play The Phoenix Force with another rising archetype: the aforementioned Silver Surfer.

How to Play

This deck is built around using early move cards like Human Torch, Dagger, and (sometimes) Vulture to secure power. Once played, they can be destroyed by Venom, Deathlok, or Killmonger, only to be resurrected and merged with The Phoenix Force on Turn 5. At that point, the Phoenix’s built-in move can be utilized to give even more power to the merged card — up to +8 with Dagger, +5 with Vulture, or just doubled to at least 16 with Human Torch.

Variants

Venom

On Reveal: Destroy your other cards here. Add their Power to this card.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Venom

A few notes before we get to the play lines. First, the ideal destroy card is usually Venom since it allows a direct destroy and Venom itself will absorb the power. In addition, as a 3-drop, Venom will benefit from Silver Surfer on Turn 6.

The addition Storm here adds extra viability, as she can lock a lane away from the opponent. Since this deck has cards that can move at will, that lane is not totally locked away from you while it might be unattainable for your opponent. If necessary, The Phoenix Force can move there with its extremely high power to take the lane over. Storm may also signal that this deck wants Juggernaut, but we’ll get there when we discuss card replacements in the next section.

Variants

Storm

On Reveal: Flood this location. Next turn is the last turn cards can be played here.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Storm

Here are the typical play lines

• Turn 1: On Turn 1, you want to play Human Torch. It’s the only 1-drop in the deck and it’s worth getting down as soon as possible. If you have a move effect in hand and a safe first location, I suggest playing the Torch blind.

• Turn 2: If you played Human Torch, a move effect here would be ideal. Either Cloak or Ghost-Spider is great. If you didn’t play Human Torch, the priority here is Dagger. Save Ghost-Spider and Cloak if you don’t have one of your move cards.

• Turn 3: If things have gone well, you have several options. If you have Storm, I suggest using that in a relatively empty lane. If not, play whichever one of the 3-Cost destroy cards is most relevant to your situation. Venom, again, is usually the choice, unless you can get great value from Killmonger on the opponent’s side of the board. Another good play for scenarios where you didn’t get a move amplifier out yet is playing Vulture now in preparation for destroying him next turn.

• Turn 4: If you Stormed, this is your destroy turn; leave the Flooding location lightly contested and encourage your opponent to Snap. If you used a destroy card, then you are just dropping the best 3-Cost you can. If you have Cloak or Ghost-Spider and another move card that you didn’t destroy (and you destroyed on Turn 3), this is a great time to get value out of those cards.

Variants

The Phoenix Force

On Reveal: Revive one of your destroyed cards and merge with it. That card can move each turn.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with The Phoenix Force

• Turn 5: If everything went according to plan, this is your time to play The Phoenix Force. Once it goes off and brings back a move card, don’t forget to use it to move and gain power on Turn 6! If you didn’t draw The Phoenix Force, this is an excellent time for several move cards. You can Human Torch, Ghost-Spider, and Cloak, for example, to make a [1|8] and drop a total of 15 power. You could also do the far simpler play of Vulture and a move effect for 11-12 power, or even Dagger and Human Torch with Cloak to move them both and rack up power. If all else fails, drop Brood.

Variants

Human Torch

When this moves, double its Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Human Torch

Variants

Cloak

On Reveal: Next turn, both players can move cards to this location.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Cloak

• Turn 6: Silver Surfer is basically always the goal this turn. Remember to move cards as needed to gain power and amp up all the three cost cards you played along the way. Also — a Surfer-buffed Storm will now match Doctor Doom‘s Doombots.

Card Substitutions

If you don’t buy The Phoenix Force, just play the version of the deck from last week! Ghost-Spider is very good in the deck, but I’m not sure she’s better than just running Juggernaut. The latter functions both as a play after Storm and a play on the final turn that can close out a game.

Variants

Juggernaut

On Reveal: Move away all enemy cards played here this turn. (including unrevealed cards)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Juggernaut

You’ll need Silver Surfer to make the deck work, and I wouldn’t suggest playing it without Venom either. I refuse to play Surfer without Brood, but, if you must, Maximus or Polaris are fine substitutions. You’ll likely need Human Torch and Dagger, but you can try Multiple Man in place of either (The Phoenix Force + Multiple Man does seem really strong).

Other Phoenix Force Decks

If you want to try other decks with the new season pass card, check out these great articles right here on Marvel Snap Zone!

• The Genius Safetyblade has a ton of lists.
• The Legendary den never rests, and here are his lists.

Conclusion + Video

While I don’t think The Phoenix Force will reshape the meta, at least until the next balance patch, I do think that this is a strong deck capable of reaching Infinite as well as a great home for the new Season Pass card.

If you’d like a video discussion of this deck, check my page out.