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Dormammu is the fourth Series 5 cards joining Marvel Snap for the June 2025 Season, Masters of the Arcane. It is a 7-Cost, 11-Power card that reads: Game Start: Begin a Summoning Ritual. (Add step 1 to hand.)
Today, let’s explore the new card strengths and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Dormammu
Decks with Summoning Ritual 1
Decks with Summoning Ritual 2
Decks with Summoning Ritual 3
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
Before we can analyze the card, we need to understand it. From the information I could gather (Thank you ReZSnapper), Dormammu‘s cost is quite irrelevant, as we summon him if we complete all three rituals. We could pay 7 Energy to get the card on the board the good old way, though. Yet, I’m going to consider Dormammu is a 4-cost card for this article, as the Summoning Rituals are priced as follows:
- Ritual One: 0
- Ritual Two: 1
- Ritual Three: 3
Its Power however, represent the base from which he will grow, gaining Power from Summoning Ritual 1 and Summoning Ritual 2.
Amongst the three rituals, the first one is the most challenging. Indeed, until we have destroyed a card to use for Summoning Ritual 1, we can’t move on to the next step.
Decks with Nico Minoru
Decks with Kid Omega
Decks with Carnage
Decks with Venom
There is a decent amount of cards available to secure that first step around turn three. As they do not have a listed cost, I’m expecting the Summoning Rituals to be free, as long as their condition is met. Then, not only we can destroy and complete the first step on the same turn, just be careful about your card ordering. It seems we can complete all steps by turn six as long as Summoning Ritual 1 has been played by turn four. Furthermore, nothing prevents us from playing Summoning Ritual 2 on turn five, and close the match with Summoning Ritual 3.
Nothing in terms of game mechanics, but our opponent might have a say in all of that process.
Decks with Gorgon
Decks with Winds of Watoomb
Decks with Spider-Man
Decks with Juggernaut
Decks with Polaris
Just like we have plenty of cards to Destroy, we have as many to prevent our opponent from doing so. I also included Gorgon just to make our opponent pay their Summoning Rituals if need be.
There is another thing to keep in mind in terms of possible disruption: Destroy opponents.
The Summoning Ritual 3 requires us to have two targets to sacrifice in order to summon Dormammu. Against an opponent with Killmonger or Lady Deathstrike, they could destroy our cards before we can sacrifice them to complete our last summoning ritual.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about those except be flexible, and focus on progressing our summoning rituals rather than aiming or the best case scenario all the time. Destroy has been around forever, and we all know its potential when things go according to plan. Yet, the reason it has not been very competitive for a while is due to how predictable it is. I don’t expect Dormammu to change that dynamic too much, regardless of the card’s raw power.
Still, the fact we get a guaranteed big card to summon on game’s end through completing the ritual should represent a huge boost to all those decks able to reliably go through the three steps.
The Verdict: Should You Buy Dormammu?
Dormammu has most players excited, so I don’t think I have to convince anyone. However, all the excitement does necessarily equal a great card.
I expect it to be great, from a raw power standpoint. Indeed, Dormammu represents a brand-new way to build a game plan, and could arguably have been a Big Bad card. However, I also can’t shake how fragile the destroy synergy is when the metagame starts running some annoying cards.
I am not preaching for it, but the likes of Scream Move or Thanos Ongoing with Armor and Cosmo in the mix could represent big party poopers.
Pre-Release Score:
Dormammu Decks
I expect Dormammu to represent a way to get a lot of points more than anything. As such, flexible decks probably are the most suited to welcome the new card. Not only they should be able to navigate the summoning rituals requirements and cost better than straight-forward destroy decks, they also are the ones with the biggest need for an influx of points.
Here are all the ideas I could gather in that regard. There is a bit of every archetype using the destroy synergy at the moment. In our last Tier List, On Reveal Destroy put on a fantastic performance, but Dormammu representing a new direction, I’m not sold on that particular deck being the best for the new card.
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Due to the summoning rituals cost, especially the third one, I feel like our deck should be flexible in the later turns to be able to pay 3 Energy. However, I cannot ignore the possibility to summon Dormammu on turn five and use Arnim Zola on it to close the match.
Here are two decks able to do so:
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Variants
Conclusion
Dormammu is a must-have card in my opinion, just from a game play standpoint. You don’t necessarily need to have the card right away, and I don’t dismiss the possibility it could get countered early on.
However, Dormammu joins the likes of Thanos, Galactus or High Evolutionary, it opens a different way to build a Marvel Snap deck, that I absolutely love. The card would have been a “Big Bad” if Second Dinner had not dropped that concept, which really didn’t mean anything except for Series Drop.
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!
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