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Diamondback is the fourth and final Series 5 card joining Marvel Snap for the February 2025 season, Brave New World. It is a 3-Cost, 3 Power card that reads: Ongoing: Enemy cards here afflicted with negative Power have an additional -2 Power.
Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Diamondback
Spotlight Cache
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).
Strengths and Weaknesses
Diamondback is straight-forward to say the least: you want to play the card in decks that afflict your opponent’s cards with negative power. When you do, Diamondback should serve as a lane anchor and represent a high power card for her cost. She can be anywhere from a [3/5] to a [3/11] depending on how many cards are impacted in that lane.
Let’s take a look at the obvious synergies with Diamondback.
Decks with Scorpion
Decks with Cassandra Nova
Decks with U.S. Agent
Decks with Rocket and Groot
Decks with Red Guardian
Decks with Spider-Woman
Decks with Bullseye
Decks with Lasher
Decks with Scream
Decks with Kingpin
From this list you can see plenty of cards that are already in the current meta, which is a great sign for Diamondback in a her quest to find strong pairings. Hazmat and her Toxic crew are an obvious synergy to associate Diamondback with. However, there is also an Ongoing theme here with U.S. Agent and Man-Thing sharing the keyword. There maybe something to dig into there.
You can also spot a few strong standalone cards such as Red Guardian and Rocket and Groot, which could mean that Diamondback might have enough support to see play outside of a deck that is focused on solely afflicting opposing cards.
Finally, Bullseye and Scream are each the foundation to two of the strongest decks in the game. Neither are trying to afflict as much as possible, but when you consider that Diamondback only impacts her location it could still be enough for the new 3-Cost to be worth it.
Strength wise, Diamondback comes in as a card with a solid power-to-cost ratio, and she looks like she will synergize with cards well that are already installed in the current Marvel Snap.
There are a few counter cards to keep in mind though.
Decks with Luke Cage
Decks with Enchantress
Decks with Alioth
Luke Cage is the obvious nemesis to any synergy that is looking to afflict its opponent’s cards. Enchantress and Rogue are also very real threats, especially considering the Ongoing synergy is being targeted at the moment thanks to Doctor Doom 2099 still being a very strong card.
Also, Alioth could be a problem because I expect either Diamondback or the card that afflicts the negative power will be played on the last turn. These disruptive decks typically aren’t particularly good with priority, so Alioth could be some good proactive protection against Diamondback.
The Verdict
Diamondback has obvious synergies with several solid decks in the meta, so the card definitely looks playable. In the right deck, she should be a anywhere between a [3/7] and a [3/11], which is more than enough to contend with some of the strongest cards at her cost. The only difference with Diamondback is the fact that you can’t just play her in any type of deck like other strong standalone 3-Cost cards.
However, both Toxic and Ongoing decks are doing great at the moment, so the fact that Diamondback isn’t a standalone card shouldn’t hurt its stock too much.
I’m quite confident that this is a card you would want to spend your resources on to close out this month.
Pre-Release Score:
Diamondback Decks
Obviously, the Toxic synergy is the one everyone immediately thinks of for Diamondback. That archetype could already be enough to warrant spending a few Spotlight Keys to get the new 3-Cost. Plus, you can build Toxic in various ways at the moment, so Diamondback should fit plenty of different playstyles and collections:
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However, Toxic isn’t the only archetype that is looking to afflict the opponent’s cards. Diamondback doesn’t necessarily need Hazmat to function, either; the new card only impacts one location after all. As such, here are a few other archetypes you could consider for the card.
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Variants
Closing Thoughts
Diamondback might get countered early on and look like a bad investment—especially if Luke Cage gains popularity to derail the Toxic decks. However, this feels like a card I would want to have in my collection, as I expect it will be sorely missed whenever it’s time for a Toxic deck to resurface in the meta.
I’m spending some keys to grab the card, and I would recommend doing so to anyone with the necessary resources. If you are on a budget or looking to save for future cards, I don’t think Diamondback will be game breaking, and there are plenty of tools in the game to counteract her if necessary.
I hope this review of the new card was helpful. Feel free to share your opinions and excitement about the card in the comments. 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!
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