Best Eson Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Eson will kick off the new Series 5 cards joining Marvel Snap for the March 2025 season, Prehistoric Avengers. It is a 6-Cost, 10 Power card that reads: After each turn, put a created card from your hand here.

Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.

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).

Spotlight Cache Week of March 4, 2025: Are Eson, Wiccan, and Beta Ray Bill Worth It?

Strengths and Weaknesses

Eson looks like a card that can solo a location if you fulfill both of its (implicit) conditions: play it early and generate some cards worth summoning. Obviously, we are all thinking about the same card here, so let’s get it out of the way.

Unless the developers pull a fast one on us, Eson should summon cards from any source considering it doesn’t say “cards created in your hand” like Victoria Hand does. As such, an Arishem deck that is able to play it on Turn 5 should get two summons out of it. Even if you get cheap cards, this would still easily make Eson a [6/15]—and that’s the bad outcome.

On top of that, Eson would have a few cool side effects in the Arishem deck:

• Summoning created cards reduces the cost of Mockingbird
• More power in play means a better shot at priority for the likes of Alioth and Cosmo
• This ability would bypass cards like Gorgon and Mobius M. Mobius
• If you lost Iron Patriot‘s location, you could still summon that card for free

Arishem kind of allows you to bypass the get Eson out early part, so let’s just focus on what it could summon for you:

Unfortunately, 3-Cost cards are a bit weird in Arishem since the deck typically skips that specific energy cost. I would turn to Nick Fury, Iron Patriot, and Valentina as priorities since they fit Arishem‘s curve better. However, because White Queen and Agent Coulson create expensive cards, they should represent good value alongside Eson.

Now that the celestial in the room has been addressed, let’s now explore the rest of Marvel Snap to see if there are some other synergies that would welcome Eson.

First of all, how do you cheat the card out early?

Apart from Wave or a Turn 3 Wiccan (through Zabu or Psylocke), it looks like it will be difficult to get Eson out before Turn 5. That would still get you two summons, though, so it honestly isn’t even that bad.

You also need to create the cards for Eson to summon, so the 6-Cost doesn’t have to hit the board too early. Let’s assume you can get it out on Turn 5 and one of your turns is dedicated to creating the extra energy needed; what are your options for creating cards worth summoning during the remaining turns?

These seven are the best card creators you can play on or before Turn 4, which is probably the turn you will use to gain the energy to play Eson on Turn 5. As a 4-Cost, Nick Fury is naturally the hardest one to play, but you can use Zabu to lower its cost in a Wiccan deck or play it behind Hope Summers. I think there’s some potential here.

Apart from Agent 13 (which is fully random) and Peni Parker (which creates a known [3/3] Sp//dr, and honestly the only reason I included her is because she allows you to move Eson the next turn and that is potentially bonkers), the others generate high cost cards. This is exactly what you want Eson to drop on your side of the battlefield.

In terms of weaknesses, I only see two cards that could potentially be a problem, and neither of them should be very popular unless countering specifically Eson becomes important.

As a ten power card, Eson is naturally a target for Shang-Chi, which is part of why I like the synergy with Peni Parker and Sp//dr to move the 6-Cost. However, once Eson summons just one card, your opponent is forced to pay four energy to develop three points while you got a whole extra card for free (unless that one also dies to Shang-Chi). That doesn’t sound ideal honestly, especially now that the nerf to the 10 Power archetype impacted Shang-Chi‘s stock.

As for Leech, it has been a long while since we have seen the card in a competitive deck; however, now could be the right time to play him if you expect Eson to come down on Turn 5. I would be shocked if Leech became a thing because of Eson, but that’s the beauty of card games sometimes.

The Verdict

Eson isn’t a card for every deck, and I believe Arishem would still be strong with Alioth and Magneto as the default 6-Costs. Yet with Arishem and Iron Hand as the potential best landing spots for the new card, I have to assume Eson will be part of the meta one way or another—even if it doesn’t become a super popular thing. If you enjoy either of those decks, you probably want to spend some resources on the new 6-Cost.

Pre-Release Score:

Eson Decks

Arishem is the obvious #1 archetype to slot Eson into. You don’t even have to build around it, so cards like Nick Fury are probably overkill. Still, I chose to build with Eson in mind here instead of just throwing the card in and calling it a day. Whichever route you choose, you can probably rank up to Infinite in the new season with Arishem and Eson.

Iron Hand is much harder to build for Eson, especially when it comes to finding the balance between generating cards, gaining energy, and playing generally good cards.

I built two different decks here because I really don’t know which direction will be best. One option is to work really hard to get Eson out and have the entire deck centered around that game plan, like the first deck. That one focuses on bringing Eson out on Turn 5 as often as possible and generating your cards before that part of the plan. I expect Eson to dominate its location, so when the plan works out you really only have one more lane to win.

The second option is more high roll based, but it could play without Eson showing up. Indeed, through Quinjet reducing the cost of your created cards and the possibility of getting Wiccan out on Turn 3 with Zabu or Psylocke, you should be able to play whatever cards you created and improvise something.

In both decks, I wish I could have included more disruptive cards. Eson unfortunately requires you to really build around it, so I guess the “flexible deck” for the new card will be Arishem. I expect your main source of flexibility will be the Snap and Retreat mechanic. Eson should be good enough warrant a Snap whenever you’re able to get it out early, and then the hope is that your opponent can’t do something even better than a [6/10] that summons cards for free.

Maybe there’s room for one counter card if it gives you an edge in a super popular match up. The first deck already has Red Guardian, and the second one can replace Iron Lad for a card like Enchantress or Shang-Chi.

Variants

Closing Thoughts

I like Eson because I think it pushes us towards some creative deckbuilding, but I also expect the “best deck” to be the norm once it is shared online. Sure, Arishem has always been around—even with multiple nerfs—but that archetype hasn’t been oppressive in a while. Iron Hand showed good things in January, but it never really became a top tier deck.

Maybe Eson won’t be super fun to play against, as the card has “Snap me, Snap me” written all over it. As long as it doesn’t completely take over the meta, I believe it should be a fun addition to the game.

For anyone who enjoys cards that offer a unique deckbuilding perspective, Eson should be a solid purchase.

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!