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Fenris Wolf is the next Series 5 card joining Marvel Snap for the November 2024 season War of the Nine Realms. It is a 4-Cost, 6-Power card that reads: Activate: Resurrect your opponent’s highest-Power discarded or destroyed card on your side of this location. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Fenris Wolf
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
Discard and Destroy are two iconic synergies in Marvel Snap, so a card with both abilities written on it has plenty of decks that it needs to be tested in. So far, Destroy leads 2-0 in the battle of winning those cards over, as Wolverine and X-23 picked the same side. But, because Fenris Wolf looks at your opponent’s cards, it might be easier to discard rather than destroy them.
Decks with Shang-Chi
Decks with Gladiator
Decks with Yondu
Decks with Lady Deathstrike
Decks with Cannonball
If you look at the destroy synergy, I immediately think about Shang-Chi to go with Fenris Wolf. However, that interaction isn’t so simple due to Fenris Wolf being an Activate card because that denies the ability to play both cards on Turn 6. Plus, your opponent can potentially block your Shang-Chi, which would ruin everything.
Lady Deathstrike is more of a disruptive card, and I believe you would want to resurrect something with more than three power anyway. It’s kind of the same for Gladiator, although that one at least gives you information early in the match and it might work out for priority purposes and such.
The last two I have more faith in, as both Yondu and Cannonball can be flexible in how you use them. For Yondu, I would think of a Bounce or Mill shell where the card could ultimately destroy up to 4- or 5-Cost cards. Because Fenris Wolf takes the highest power card, it will act the same as Baron Zemo does with Yondu, so the targets only get better as you remove cards from their deck.
Cannonball can run into the same issues as Shang-Chi, but the play is less telegraphed. And if Armor or Cosmo are played on a lane, you can just destroy something else. This pushes for a Junk oriented deck, which is a synergy we haven’t seen in a while (and it might be a long shot).
Decks with Gambit
Decks with Moon Knight
Decks with Black Bolt
Decks with Silver Samurai
The discard synergy is basically guaranteed to give you a target for Fenris Wolf because it is much harder to block a Gambit or Moon Knight. However, these cards will also be much weaker (and often random) compared to destroying cards.
Fenris Wolf is a cheap card, so it could end up being a Turn 2 play in a Discard deck and compete with the likes of The Collector.
Overall, the destroy direction has more potential when it comes to summoning a high power card; however, the discard synergy seems more reliable for consistently getting something out of Fenris Wolf. In both cases, the weaknesses will be protective cards such as Cosmo, Armor, and Alioth because they’re able to deny the cards that are supposed to feed Fenris Wolf. On the flip side, Destroy and Discard decks might lose a ton of momentum because of the new card, as they would end up giving you a big Deadpool or Apocalypse.
The Verdict
I feel like Fenris Wolf would have been much stronger before the OTA when targets for Shang-Chi were abundant early in the match due to the 10 Power archetype being dominant. That deck still exists, even if it’s not as popular. Also, due to the Activate keyword, you need to set things up a bit for the card to work well.
First, Fenris Wolf needs to be played before Turn 6, so you can’t pair it with Shang-Chi on the same turn. This already forces you to tell your opponent that you have Fenris Wolf since it will sit on the board, or you’ll have to destroy their card on Turn 4 in order to have time to play Fenris Wolf on Turn 5 and Activate on Turn 6. In both instances, you give your opponent information they can use to adapt, and I’m not sure if I like that.
Overall, I have my money on Yondu or Cannonball making Fenris Wolf shine. I think they might be the most reliable ways to get a big card destroyed after just playing the 2-Cost early on. This might lead to a complex deck to play, but the Activate keyword hasn’t been easy to leverage up until this point anyway.
When you combine all these elements, Fenris Wolf comes in with a lot of potential, but it also has a lot to prove. Also, let’s not forget that the card could single-handedly stop Destroy and/or Discard decks, which would be extremely powerful on its own.
Pre-Release Score:
Fenris Wolf Decks
den
If I was a betting man, I would put money on this deck being fantastic with Fenris Wolf. Yes, I am absolutely biased here; I love to play Mill and even won a tournament with a version of this deck last month. Still, Yondu is the card I have most faith in when it comes to pulling a big card with Fenris Wolf, and you can throw Shang-Chi into basically any deck as well.
Disruptive decks have always been stellar when they have a way to cheat some power to win a location instead of being forced to counter their opponents completely. Not only can Mill deny a synergy when you go off early, you also have found that power cheating card with Fenris Wolf.
den
Similar to the deck above, Junk has Cannonball to use alongside Fenris Wolf (and Shang-Chi easily tags along for the ride). Depending on the structure of the meta, this could be a nice alternative to Mill. Especially if Thanos and Arishem become popular in the near future, which is a very probable event.
den
You have to run both Gambit and Moon Knight for consistency, but this is likely the best way to test Fenris Wolf for its synergy with discard abilities. Be careful, though, as this deck might become a liability if you face a lot of Fenris Wolf.
Since Rockslide became a 4-Cost, the Stature Darkhawk deck disappeared from everyone’s radar. The recent change to Black Widow to be an Activate card didn’t help, either. As such, here is a revision of that concept without the Darkhawk package and more discard added to the mix. The goal is to help Fenris Wolf consistently find something to summon back to your side of the field.
den
This article wouldn’t be complete without the iconic Shang-Chi deck: Sera Control. Sure, that deck hasn’t been using Shang-Chi lately, but with Agent Venom nerfed it might be a good time to explore new horizons. For example, why not try a destroy oriented build with Nova as the card of choice to spread power, just like old times.
Variants
Closing Thoughts
Fenris Wolf isn’t as simple to use as one might think, and Shang-Chi alone definitely isn’t enough to make the card work. However, because the 4-Cost is so simple to include in a variety of decks, Fenris Wolf immediately has a second support card once you find the first one.
This, coupled with the fact that Destroy and Discard are iconic archetypes, might make Fenris Wolf the most impactful card of the month, especially in the lower ranks. This is absolutely a card to grab in my opinion, but, once again, I’m a big Mill fan.
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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