High Evolution Base Card Art

20 High Evolutionary Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: Time to Evolve Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap's newest Big Bad Series 5 card High Evolutionary is set to be the most hyped release to date! With 8 different cards to assess, can it turn the meta upside down? Here is our strategy guide on how to best use High Evolutionary, with 20 potential theorycraft decks!

High Evolutionary has arrived in Marvel Snap. This may be the closest we ever come to a set of cards being released into Marvel Snap, as High Evolutionary changes the abilities of all seven No Ability cards in Marvel Snap. The only requirement is you must also play High Evolutionary in your deck alongside whichever of these cards you want to play. You can play one, or all seven.

The evolved versions of each card are:

  • Evolved Wasp – [0/1]: On Reveal: Afflict 2 random enemy cards here with -1 Power.
  • Evolved Misty Knight – [1/2]: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, give another friendly card +1 Power.
  • Evolved Shocker – [2/3]: On Reveal: Give the leftmost card in your hand -1 Cost.
  • Evolved Cyclops – [3/4]: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, afflict 2 random enemies here with -1 Power.
  • Evolved The Thing – [4/6]: On Reveal: Afflict a random enemy card here with -1 Power. Repeat this twice more.
  • Evolved Abomination – [5/9]: Costs 1 less for each enemy card in play that’s afflicted with negative Power.
  • Evolved Hulk – [6/12]: Ongoing: +2 Power for each turn you ended with unspent Energy.

Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card until the next new card release, or opened via the Collection Level Track at a 0.25% drop rate in Collector’s Caches and Reserves.

This card is classified as one of the “Big Bad” cards, that will indefinitely stay in Series 5 and not be downgraded. The Big Bad cards are:

For a full new card release and Series Drop schedule and how it all works, check out our dedicated guide.

Strengths & Weaknesses

This is it! The High Evolutionary joins Marvel Snap and it’s not an understatement to say this could be the biggest release we have seen to date. It is hard to contain the excitement and assess this card without bias. We are however assessing not 1 but 8 different cards and how they interact with each other and other cards. So let’s dive right in.

The card activates at the start of the game, we have no draw requirements on the card. This power on the card also makes the card infinitely flexible. As we first get the card we are likely to hit the No Ability, select all 7 cards and put in this card. Over time however we may find ourselves playing just High Evolutionary and 1 or two key cards in many different types of decks.

The cards lean towards two sub archetypes which tend to synergise well together. Skipping energy and reducing power. This leads to some clear directions to build around if you put all 8 cards in. You will only have 4 additional spots if you go all in.

This starting point alone is one of the most flexible set of cards we have in Marvel Snap. This is both exciting and concerning. Let’s continue to focus on the exciting parts for this article though.

Although I won’t explore all the directions in this article (I will however have lots of deck builds featuring some of these below) here are a few to think about:

  1. Shocker, Wasp, The Thing, High Evolutionary with Sera, Zabu and Hazmat.
  2. Lockjaw, Wasp, High Evolutionary and The Hulk
  3. Abomination, High Evolutionary, Debrii and Hazmat.
  4. Shocker, High Evolutionary with Wong deck.
  5. High Evolutionary and Cyclops in a Lockdown deck.
  6. High Evolutionary and The Hulk in a Hela Deck.

We are not pigeonholed into having to play all these cards. We can in fact play two to 3 of these cards with High Evolutionary and open up endless possibilities.

The downsides of the card are the below rate power 4 cost card you have to put into the deck which will have no other synergy with the rest of your deck.  He is a 4 energy, 4 power card. This is a significantly below rate 4 energy card for the power. There will be times you draw the High Evolutionary instead of the synergistic card you need but this is a card game. . One thing this may disincentivise is using the card with America Chavez. As you are already running 11 cards and one you don’t necessarily want to draw, making this 10 cards with one that could be drawn earlier could be a downside to deck building.

There is also the strict requirement to include the No Ability cards which take up spots in your deck. This means you will need some synergy with the other directions your looking to include in your deck.

In short, the downside will sometime be felt in game. However the true power of the card is going to come from the packages in the Evolved No Ability cards. If these packages don’t make an impact or fall short then the card falls short. However as we already mentioned, there is endless possibilities and packages to try here.

The Set

We could be here all day if we broke each card down, so instead I will do a short review of each card on its own below. Then we can get to the decks!

Evolved Wasp

[0/1]: On Reveal: Afflict 2 random enemy cards here with -1 Power.

If this card did not require High Evolutionary, it would be one of the most flexible cards in the game.

Evolved Misty Knight

[1/2]: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, give another friendly card +1 Power.

This card is average by itself. It is not additional power for each point of unspent energy, so it fits best in decks where you’re only slightly off curve and the benefit happens without much input.

Evolved Shocker

[2/3]: On Reveal: Give the leftmost card in your hand -1 Cost.

This could be a good card in combo decks or decks looking to reduce one of two or three cards in a late turn combination to create a late game bomb.

Evolved Cyclops

[3/4]: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, afflict 2 random enemies here with -1 Power.

Similar to Misty Knight, this is not for every point of unspent energy, but you can potentially make this effect result in -6 power. Another benefit the card has is it effects the power in the lane Cyclops is played, making it a more reliable card.

Evolved The Thing

[4/6]: On Reveal: Afflict a random enemy card here with -1 Power. Repeat this twice more.

Potentially a 4/9 with no other requirements. With the way this is worded, it is unlike Cyclops as it can hit one card multiple times. It would likely be one of the best cards in the game if it didn’t need to be in a deck with High Evolutionary.

Evolved Abomination

[5/9]: Costs 1 less for each enemy card in play that’s afflicted with negative Power.

It is not hard to imagine curves where this is free by Turn 5. We have to reduce the power of 5 cards on your opponents side. Wasp can already result in playing Turn 3 Abomination for example alone. This card is the powerhouse pay off of the set.

Evolved Hulk

[6/12]: Ongoing: +2 Power for each turn you ended with unspent Energy.

This one may be underrated at first, but if you skip ANY energy during the game this becomes a [6|14] card. That is insanely easy to activate.

The Verdict

A card with so many directions will be highly unlikely to fall flat. It has endless possibilities for deck building as its not one new card but essentially eight new cards with abilities. These can be used together and also be used in sets.

Regardless of whether one or ten of these decks make an impact, High Evolutionary is sure to change the way we build decks and play Marvel Snap. The tail for a card like this is likely to be long as the deck building potential is explored (much like the release of Thanos), and this could also be justification for adding this card to your collection.

There are sacrifices made to include the packages, and often High Evolutionary and their will be times these versions are just not as good as not including the packages. However, if you’re looking for variety, this card is definitely for you.

Potential Score: 9/10

Rating: 9 out of 10.

Starter Decks (Theorycraft)

It is time for what you all come here for: the decks. As we are getting eight new cards here (seven with useful effects), this one is going to be long, and I have taken the challenge of trying to hit the theorycraft record. We will start with the more all in options and go down all the other places you can try to evolve decks and archetypes.

The Full Package

High Evolutionary – The Full Package
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4x Starter Card
3.3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
5
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Evolutionary – The Full Package v2
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4x Starter Card
3.6
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
5.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Waves
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
5x Starter Card
3.3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.6
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

These decks go all in on both sides of the High Evolutionary strategy. The goal here is to reduce power and skip energy efficiently to activate the effects of our top end cards. We also can build this with and without Enchantress, which we may be able to hit an early Luke Cage play. Luke Cage is only useful if it is played before Turn 6 against this strategy, so I assume we have to be mindful of Turn 5 Luke Cage plays.

As for the other cards. Spider Woman is their as your Turn 5 reduction card which now has an amazing potential pay off card in Abomination. We are including Debrii also. She will guarantee us some targets for Wasp and Cyclops in particular. Scorpion is included as a way to make every card in hand a potential reduction on Abomination also. Sunspot and She Hulk benefit from turns where we float energy and Nebula forces plays in the location which can be targeted with the reduction cards.

We can be dropping over 18 power on Turn 6 with the first two lists (Abomination and Hulk or some combination of what is left in your hand).

The third version aims to play Abomination alongside Wave on 5, leading into Hulk or Doctor Doom on 6. It is essentially a Mid Range deck, so we include Shocker to get a little extra value early game and buff our Abomination and Hulk.

High Evolutionary – The Budget Package
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
1x Collection Level 1-14
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
6x Starter Card
3.6
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
5.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Now you may say, the full package as some expensive cards, which it does, and you could also experiment with cards like Iron Lad or Thanos in the same builds to create even more expensive decks (Some of these variations will be explored below), however as a starting point here is a package where only High Evolutionary is above Series 2.

We are featuring this this to give everyone a starting point which doesn’t expect you to have a full collection of cards. I have gone with Odin as the 12th card. The Thing and Spider Woman can be great retriggers and Odin played alongside Abomination could be a strong play alone.

Reduction

High Evolutionary – Hazmat Combo
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
3x Starter Card
3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.9
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This version of the deck focuses on reducing power throughout the game so we can to reduce the cost of Abomination. We also have ways to combo cards with Hazmat to reduce power on the final turn if we need to go with this option.

The controversial change is dropping Wong for Absorbing Man. The High Evolutionary package has The Thing and Wasp which could also be great targets for Absorbing Man either early or late.

We can also use to Debrii to guarantee targets. Using this we can aim to play Abomination with Hazmat on final turns.

High Evolutionary – Hazmat & Shocker Combo
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
5x Starter Card
3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The inclusion I could not decide on was Scorpion or Shocker.Shocker may not seem to naturally fit here, but he could result in key reductions. He is also another great Absorbing Man target. This version includes Hulk at the top so have also went back to Sunspot to show how we could go this direction if we find Debrii isn’t required to find targets.

An added advantage for this deck is playing Luke Cage as part of the strategy. This helps invalidate mirror matches and potentially plays well into the greedier versions of the deck.

Lockdowns and Junk

High Evolutionary – Rocky Times
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4x Starter Card
2.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This deck looks to improve on the classic junk style decks. Unlike an all in lockdown deck, we are relying on Debrii, Nebula, and Co. to provide the locks. In particular, Cyclops and The Thing could result in large swings of power by reducing the Rocks you send over, and Wasp is a massive upgrade for this deck as free power we can use at any stage that works.

Unfortunately, Enchantress is missing here, but hopefully your back up plan is just to lock lanes with Rocks and win on pure power from The Thing, Abomination, Titania and The Demon token.

High Evolutionary – Toxic Sera 2.0
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
2x Starter Card
2.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.1
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This deck looks to use the classic Sera shell along with Hazmat, Luke Cage, and the most efficient reduction cards in the package. Similar game plan to the Toxic Sera archetype of old but we don’t include Abomination as we can fit as many cards as possible .

Lockjaw

High Evolutionary – Lockjaw
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
1x Collection Level 1-14
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
1x Starter Card
3.7
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
6
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Lockjaw is potentially a big winner with the new Wasp. This version is a clear upgrade on the original Wasp (and arguably worth the inclusion alone). Playing Wasp on the lane and reducing the opposing power by two before pulling a card . We then potentially get to replay her later thanks to Jane Foster Mighty Thor and do it all over again.

High Evolutionary – Thanos Lockjaw
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4x Starter Card
3.7
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
5.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This one feels like a potential upgrade as well, and there are plenty of combinations of cards we can go with here. With Hulk gaining an Ongoing effect and the high likelihood that you will drop energy during the game with this deck, this is an excellent combination. If you could play Sunspot in a Thanos deck with Killmonger, you would probably try it.

Wave can still work here as a way to limit the final turns or ramp to one of your bigger cards earlier. Soul Stone impacting cards should count towards Abomination also.

High Evolutionary – Ongoing Lockjaw
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
2x Collection Level 1-14
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
2x Recruit Season
3x Starter Card
4.3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.9
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Abomination should cost one if Soul Stone impacts a full lane, right? So this hybrid Ongoing Lockjaw deck tries to use this interaction for a cheap card as well as a strong Ongoing package that we can buff with Spectrum. The additional flexibility is key here, but it comes at some consistency cost with fewer Ongoing cards.

Professor X

High Evolutionary – Professor X Variant
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4x Starter Card
3.2
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Evolutionary – Professor X
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
1x Recruit Season
3x Starter Card
3.3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.1
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Professor X is potentially an excellent card with High Evolutionary packages. The Skip and Reduce packages both synergize with the plan of locking down lanes and getting extra value. Here, we may not actually need Abomination, so I have included a Gamora version as well. This is in case Luke Cage does become too popular and we just need more power.

Hulk may not seem to have much support, but this demonstrates just how strong this version of Hulk is. Similar decks have included cards like Destroyer at 15 power, but we only need one turn without full energy use for Hulk to be 14 power AND we don’t need to be as careful with Armor and Professor X plays, opening up a ton of flexibility.

Silver Surfer

High Evolutionary – Silver Surfer
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
1x Collection Level 1-14
7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
2x Starter Card
2.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.2
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Was this one on your bingo card? The new Cyclops is a major upgrade to this archetype; similar to the Silver Surfer Patriot lists of old, this version looks to use Cyclops and Shocker from the High Evolutionary package. The reason for Shocker is playing it on Turn 2 to reduce the power of almost any other card in the deck is beneficial. It will allow you to more easily play what you need to for the overall game plan.

Jeff the Baby Land Shark is only included as a good two drop for early power – this can be Lizard or another 1-drop (potentially Misty Knight), but I felt like we needed another lower curve card. There is a lot to experiment with here, but starting with Debrii and Wolfsbane for pure stats and synergy with Cyclops and Wasp can’t go wrong.

Hela

High Evolutionary – Hela
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
1x Starter Card
4
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
6.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Evolutionary – Hela and Sandman
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
1x Starter Card
4.2
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
5.6
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The new Hulk with Sunspot is an excellent combination, and both can fit into the Hela archetype. High Evolutionary may actually be a boon for Hela, and this version takes a basic shell and fits in Hulk and Sunspot.

We can also try and combine the new Hulk with a Ramp package to buff Hulk further and set up for potential explosive turns.

Monkey Drop

High Evolutionary – Monkey Drop
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
3x Starter Card
2.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.1
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Evolutionary – Bounce
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
2x Starter Card
2.9
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Evolutionary – Bounce
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
2x Starter Card
2.9
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.5
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hit Monkey may benefit from using the energy cheating parts of the package to reduce costs and discount Abomination. Similar to the all in style deck, this one is all about setting up a double She-Hulk, double Abomination, and double Titania play on Turn 6.

We can also try the Bounce direction with Beast, but this limits our ability to reduce Abomination significantly. As you can hopefully see from the examples here though their is a surprising amount of variation we can make to try make this archetype work.

Shuri

High Evolutionary – Shuri
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 12 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
3x Starter Card
3.1
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
High Evolutionary – What Can I Replace Jeff With?
Created by SafetyBlade
, updated 11 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
3x Starter Card
3.1
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Shuri makes cards bigger and better, and it is already a great pairing with She-Hulk. So if we can somehow reduce another card to potentially combo with Shuri, we can create a version that may not rely on the negative Ongoing cards at all.

Closing Thoughts

I do not believe it is an understatement that this is the most ambitious drop we have had since Thanos and Galactus. This card not only creates new archetypes it provides some new support packages. How powerful these directions are could take some time to be fully realized but we hope this article helps to show the potential here and what can be explored with this set of cards.

Who is High Evolutionary?

Herbert Wyndham was a brilliant geneticist who became obsessed with the idea of evolution and the creation of new life forms. In his quest to unlock the secrets of evolution, he developed a machine that could accelerate the process, but in doing so, he unwittingly transformed himself into a new form of life, the High Evolutionary. With his new powers and knowledge, the High Evolutionary set out to create perfect beings, starting with his own race of New Men, and later expanding to other species and even entire planets.

High Evolutionary, Herbert Wyndham possesses vast god-like powers, including the ability to manipulate matter and energy at a molecular level, control the flow of time, and even create entire universes. He is also incredibly intelligent and has a deep understanding of science and technology, particularly in the areas of genetics and evolution.

Good Luck Have Fun and Stay Safe!

Captain Marvel Artgerm

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SafetyBlade
SafetyBlade

SafetyBlade is an reformed Hearthstone addict and Marvel Fanboy from Australia. Needless to say Marvel Snap is the perfect game for him!

Articles: 214