January 2024 Series Drop Guide: A Ranking of Which Cards to Target

Series Drops have returned to Marvel Snap and they are… controversial. While it’s undoubtedly good the game has gotten cheaper, almost every powerful card was kept in the same Series. While that’s frustrating for those who have been waiting six months for, say Darkhawk, Zabu, or Knull to drop, there are also now a plethora of underused cards that will be in more players’ hands.

Marvel Snap Series Drop January 2024: Get Ready for the Drop!

Ages ago, when Stature dropped, the meta was shaken and new archetypes were born. Can that happen again? Let’s take a look at each card, a deck for each, and rank them from the ones you should target first to last.

Cards Going from Series 4 to Series 3

5 cards are going from Series 4 to Series 3, which means they go from purchasable with 3,000 Collector’s Tokens to available in one of the three following ways:

1. You can get them from a regular Collector’s Reserve.
2. You can use the random 1,000 tokens for a Series 3 card.
3. You can use the free monthly Series 3 card on one of these.

Way #1 is entirely random, and it’s not efficient or suggested anyone use precious Tokens on way #2. That leaves the free Series 3 pull. If you’re early or mid-Series 3, there are far better pulls (She-Hulk, Beast, Shuri, etc) than even the best of these cards, but as you near the end of your Series 3 journey, these may prove valuable in completing a deck. Here are the rankings for each of the new Series 3 cards.

5. Spider-Man 2099

Spider-Man 2099 seems really enticing. He’s a [4/6] that kills a random card the first (and only the first) time he moves to a location during the game. That makes him often, in effect, a [4/8] or more. The issue is that without a built-in way to move him, he requires another card to work, and his random kill makes him quite hard to plan around. I’ve hit Infinite with him, and he can be fun, but it’d be a stretch to call him much more than that.

4. Stegron

Stegron is a really fun surprise card, but not one with a real home in the meta. The card was recently changed to only affect revealed cards, and it gained one power to compensate. That makes it a good deal worse at winning locations that are Stormed, but it can still be a frustrating card for combo decks to play against. It feels like one day this card will have a really strong home, but that day is not on the horizon.

3. Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Negasonic Teenage Warhead is a solid to good card that, stop me if you’ve heard this, doesn’t have a great home. It requires priority to be effective most of the time, but opponents can often get around the card with strong On Reveal effects or cheap cards.

Still, priority and lane control decks and Silver Surfer decks like the card – there are just other cards they usually like more. Our friend Combat Marvel Snap loves Negasonic and is probably the best player in the world using her.

2. Master Mold

Master Mold is tentatively at #2. This card is designed to work with Ronan the Accuser, who just got a buff, and is further improved by the newly [2/6] Maximus.

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These buffs may make Ronan a meta deck for the first time, but remains more likely that thanks to essentially being Loki food, the deck falls short of lofty expectations. Our friend, GamingwithFlashX has been one of Ronan’s biggest proponents, so here’s his current build.

1. Stature

Stature is the only card on either of these lists that’s ever been the in #1 deck in the game, SafetyBlade‘s Darkhawk Good Stuff. Since then, it was nerfed from 7 to 6 power and has been a regular old good card. That said, we’ve seen proof of concept for this being a top card, and it wouldn’t be surprising to, sooner or later, find this in a top deck.

Cards Going from Series 5 to Series 4

The list of cards going from Series 5 to Series 4 is 9, nearly double that of the 4 to 3 group. There’s more to like here, including numerous former Season Pass cards that have found homes in strong decks, and Kitty Pryde, who has at times been the strongest card in the game. Now, though, these cards are just a collection of good, but not meta cards.

Notably, they aren’t much easier to acquire. You still have a relatively similar chance of getting them in Spotlight Caches (though a greater chance to get them with your mystery Spotlight). The real way that these cards are easier to acquire Series 4 cards though is through Collector’s Tokens. I don’t think any of these are top token buys, but instead, they are purchases if you want to play the specific decks that they are home to.

9. Howard the Duck

Howard the Duck is simply never a card you need to have. His ability has some use with Jubilee and Iron Lad and can help snapping and retreating in some occasions, but as a 1-2? He’s just usually a filler card, quite easily replaceable. Howard is, however, very cool, and very fun, as well as being the very last card several content creators don’t own. Try this deck with Howard from our own LaurenWhatever.

8. Lady Deathstrike

This card has usually been better in the meta than Howard but is less fun. It had a bit of a moment killing Mobius M. Mobius when that was everywhere, but beyond that play, it’s just not been consistently strong enough against the meta to see much play at 5 cost. It works amazingly at 4, but ramp options are limited, and if one is ramping, then Professor X is usually just a better option.

7. Echo

Echo is a solid Ongoing counter-card whose main power is stopping Ms. Marvel from being played mid. Maybe that warrants a higher placement since, after recent nerfs, Ms. Marvel is likely the best card in the game. An added benefit of owning Echo is that she has no warning animation, so in the heat of the game opponents often forget she’s there and just waste ongoing cards on her.

Of course, when Shuri Red Skull decks are good, she can be a liability, turning off Lizard, Ebony Maw, Red Skull, or Typhoid Mary. Still, she’s a nice utility piece to have.

6. Kitty Pryde

Kitty Pryde was the best card in the game for months, a near Loki power level before (and during) Loki. Nerfs to Kitty, Angela, and, eventually, Elsa Bloodstone knocked Kitty off her perch, and now she’s middling.

Still, she’s a good synergy piece and enabler, and not much off being a meta card again at any given time. I can see her taking over the meta gain down the line, but since that’s not imminent, I’m happy she’s easier to get for those who weren’t playing back when she was given to everyone freely.

5. Ghost-Spider

Ghost-Spider is the first of four Season Pass cards that were dropped to Series 4, and the most niche. While she’s had obvious homes in move decks, most notably The Phoenix Force to avoid Alioth, she’s also been good at repositioning turn 5 power plays like Red Skull and Doctor Octopus. She’s, like Echo before her, a strong utility piece to have access to.

4. Silver Samurai

I love Silver Samurai, but he can be difficult to play. As a 4-cost card, his obvious home is the type of good stuff deck that Stature and Darkhawk once made Tier 1. The problem, though, is that the discard will hit a card like Darkhawk, forcing a discard package into the deck that often weakens the overall consistency.

Those decks are still good, though, and Silver Samurai is also great for Hela decks, which are perfectly happy to bring back an Iron Man. Finally, while he often hits chaff like Rocks, in the Shuri matchup, discarding a Taskmaster or Arnim Zola can be game-winning.

3. Daken

Daken, the son of Wolverine, is the next Season Pass card, and probably the most useful current card on this list. He has two strong homes right now, and he’s at least decent in a third. Insofar as Discard decks exist after the America Chavez nerf, Daken is a staple, as a consistent [3/8] power and an extra card to discard to give Mobius +2 is excellent.

With Miek coming next month as a Series 4 card, there’s little reason to think this won’t remain strong.

The other good home for Daken is Silver Surfer decks. There, he can easily become 8 or more power thanks to Surfer buffing him and Killmonger taking out the Muramasa Shard. As an extra benefit, he also gets extra use out of strength buffs like Sebastian Shaw since Daken‘s power is doubled when the Shard is destroyed or discarded, he can get really big really fast.

Daken is also okay in Destroy. That’s not his current best synergy, but it is one worth keeping in mind.

2. The Phoenix Force

The Phoenix Force is the closest thing we have to a build around here in a current top-tier deck. In addition to Safety’s top-notch version, Jeeeeet finished second on the Infinite Leaderboard using The Phoenix Force last season. The deck is really all about the Multiple Man fix, since now it can move 9+ power all over the board. Whatever else fills out the deck, this is The Phoenix Force deck, so this card is probably worth having, even if mere mortals won’t be quite so good with it.

1. Hit Monkey

Hit Monkey isn’t very good right now – it’s got two decks that are around Tier 3 that it’s played in. The first of those is Sera Miracle, where the power Hit Monkey gives prevents the deck from being pure tech. That’s hugely important, especially since Sera Miracle is a very straightforward climbing deck, largely because bots lose badly to Sera.

The other deck is a Thors deck where Hit Monkey with a Mjölnir, Mysterio, Wasp, and Yellowjacket can end the game with a metric ton of late power. Unfortunately, the meta is at an all-time high for lane-winning power, so this isn’t the best thing to be doing right now.

Still, though, Hit Monkey has been an absolute Tier 1 card before in Bounce, and that power potential is still there.

Moreover, the Season Pass card in February is Black Swan, a card that makes all your 1-cost cards zero for the last turn of the game. Black Swan turn 5 into Hit Monkey and a bunch of free cards turn 6 seems completely broken, and you probably want Hit Monkey before that combo comes out and breaks the game.

Conclusion

There you have it! Let us know what you think about this bunch of Series Drops after reading this article, in the comments below.