Kitty Pryde Theorycraft, Strategy, and Decklists: Jump Around!

SafetyBlade usually takes care of the new card theorycraft column, but on some occasions he is nice enough to let me have some fun and give my perspective on new cards. As an absolute fan of the Bounce archetype in Marvel Snap, I am delighted we are finally getting some support for it! With Kitty Pryde releasing on March 28 and the next Season Pass featuring Hit Monkey, the archetype might go from an afterthought, barely representing 1% of the Marvel Snap metagame, to the coolest kid on the block and the deck you face the most on your climb to Infinite.

Variants

Kitty Pryde

When this returns to your hand, +1 Power. Returns at the start of each turn.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Kitty Pryde

I have been saving Collector’s Tokens for Kitty Pryde for a while now, and I am pretty excited about it. Let me explain why!

How the Kitty Pryde Card Works

Before we even talk about the card and her synergies, it is important to understand how Kitty Pryde works, and why some people believe she might be among the best 1-cost cards Marvel Snap has seen yet.

First, here are some important rules around the card:

• You can only use her ability to return her to your hand once each turn.
• Returning the card to your hand in another way (Beast, Falcon, Luke's Bar…) would not give Kitty Pryde +2 power.
• You can return and play Kitty Pryde during the same turn, but you cannot play and return her. In order to be able to return her to your hand, she needs to be in play already.
• The only way to “undo” your actions with Kitty Pryde while playing cards is to use the “Undo All Actions” button accessed by tapping your energy meter.

Based on this information, and with the simple math that each energy is worth two power on the card, we can have a reasonable guess as to how big we can get Kitty Pryde:

• If played on Turn 1, then bounced and played every turn, Kitty Pryde would be a 10 power card and cost a total of six energy.
• For each turn you are not bouncing the card, remove two power and one energy from this total.
• The quick formula for this would be: Energy invested * 2 – 2.

If we look at the card from a pure energy to power ratio, Kitty Pryde ends up being quite weak in the end. She is a 1/0, a 2/2, a 3/4, a 4/6, a 5/8 or a 6/10, so only weaker numbers compared to the power of cards for this cost.

But here’s the trick: this is the worst case scenario for Kitty Pryde. Let’s dive into all the times when the card makes sense and represents a much higher score that what you paid for.

Strategy and Potential

The Sunspot comparison

Variants

Sunspot

After each turn, gain +1 Power for each unspent Energy.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Sunspot

Thanks to its ability to store unused energy, Sunspot is regarded as the best 1-cost in Marvel Snap right now. Sunspot is praised for its ability to keep you in games where you drew poorly, alongside giving you flexibility on your points total on Sunspot’s location. Arguably, Kitty Pryde could be doing these two things too.

When it comes to helping your energy usage, Kitty Pryde basically gives you the opportunity to transform one energy into two power each turn, a better ratio than Sunspot, although you can only make this trade once per turn.

As for space management, Kitty Pryde might even be better than Sunspot, but this one has many more exceptions to look at like Professor X locking the lane. First, she is able to grow your power on a location like Sunspot as you can bounce and replay her to the same lane in order to increase your power by two. It is more predictable for the opponent, but the flexibility lies elsewhere. Indeed, while Sunspot can only grow the power of the location he is played on, Kitty Pryde can take her power anywhere you have space. Also, you can bounce Kitty Pryde back to your hand and replace her with another card!

This last part could be particularly strong, and it opens some incredibly big brain play patterns alongside cards like Viper, Mojo, and Titania. You could also use Kitty Pryde to clog your own lane and then take her back when you need to play another card, making sure the opponent can’t throw a goblin at you in the meantime. She can also serve as a Galactus bait, or be copied by Moon Girl once buffed later in the game.

Variants

Titania

After ANY card is played here, this card switches sides.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Titania

Variants

Viper

On Reveal: One of your other cards here switches sides.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Viper

Variants

Green Goblin

On Reveal: Switch sides.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Green Goblin

Variants

Mojo

Ongoing: If both sides here are full, +6 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mojo

Variants

Galactus

On Reveal: If you’re winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Galactus

Variants

Moon Girl

On Reveal: Duplicate your hand.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Moon Girl

The Collector, Angela, and Bishop super synergy!

Variants

The Collector

When a card enters your hand from anywhere (except your deck), +1 Power.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with The Collector

Variants

Angela

After you play a card here, +2 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Angela

Variants

Bishop

After you play a card, this gains +1 Power.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Bishop

Remember the math around Kitty Pryde and how she wasn’t so impressive compared to other cards at the energy cost you would end up paying for her? If we add one of these cards, Kitty Pryde immediately jumps to one of the best cards at each cost.

Here’s the math with Angela:

Kitty Pryde would be played on Turn 1, and then bounced and played on each turn from three onward. This leaves us with a 5/8 Kitty Pryde – not remarkable, but much better when you consider a bonus of eight power to Angela if she was played four times behind her. Let’s remove one of those times since any card would trigger Angela‘s ability; we still added six power to Kitty Pryde, and her ability powered Angela like no other card could. Now she is effectively a 5/14. That’s bigger than Red Skull (just saying).

Alongside Bishop and The Collector, the numbers are a bit lower because those get only +1 every time we bounce and replay Kitty Pryde. With Bishop, it would be a bonus three power if we play Kitty Pryde on Turns 4, 5, and 6, and a bonus four power for The Collector. Even if we remove one from those numbers, as another card could have done it, we still get a 5/10 with Bishop or a 5/11 with The Collector.

I could elaborate and do the math if we get two of these cards, particularly Angela on Turn 2 and Bishop on Turn 3 (it’s a 4/12 total if you are wondering). Yes, those are Darkhawk numbers, with Rockslide and Korg played during the game.

Are you starting to feel why Kitty has me and other players excited now?

If you aren’t in the Kitty Pryde fan club yet, that’s fine. I got a bit more left to convince you!

Beast!

Variants

Beast

On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. They cost 1 less next turn.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Beast

Remember all the math we did with Kitty Pryde up to this point? We said she was already pretty good as is and might compete with Sunspot for being the best 1-cost card. Well, if you use Beast on Turn 2 and reduce the cost of Kitty Pryde to 0, we might be talking about the best card in the game.

Even factoring in Beast‘s low power contribution, both cards would combine to be a 3/12 together. Also, with Kitty Pryde as a 0-cost card from Turn 3 onward, all the synergies we mentioned above get greatly boosted.

It could even open new synergies in the process. Cards that may have been too expensive to run before in the bounce archetype could now be a consideration as they could have a high power 0-cost card to help. Here are a few cards to consider:

Variants

Professor X

Ongoing: Lock down this location. (Cards can’t be added, removed, etc.)

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Professor X

Variants

Arnim Zola

On Reveal: Destroy one of your other cards here to copy it at the other locations.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Arnim Zola

Variants

Valkyrie

On Reveal: Set ALL cards here to 3 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Valkyrie

Variants

Taskmaster

On Reveal: Set this card’s Power equal to that of the last card you played. (if that card’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Taskmaster

Variants

Rescue

On Reveal: If you play a card at this location next turn, +5 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Rescue

Theorycraft Decklists

When it comes to where we could include Kitty Pryde, the bounce archetype obviously springs to mind. Still, there are other archetypes where the card could be valuable, either because Angela and Bishop are already included or because the archetype tends to float energy often enough to make Kitty Pryde worth running.

Kitty Pryde

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

3

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

I do think Bast is an important asset to the Bounce archetype, but the card makes the deck a bit more expensive. If you purchased Kitty Pryde, or are lucky enough to open it while still in Series 3, feel free to include Korg, Elektra, Hawkeye, or Rocket Raccoon to make this list more budget friendly.

Sera Kitty

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

3

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sera Control feels like a good example of decks that float energy during the course of a match. Also, Kitty Pryde is quite a unique 1-cost; it can easily be manipulated to be in our hand when we play Killmonger.

Valkyrie control

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

4

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Valkyrie is another archetype that floats a lot of energy. It also includes Angela in the default build. Buffed up twice, Kitty Pryde could also win Valkyrie’s lane as the last card added there, similar to how Titania or the Demon from The Hood do so in other decks.

Closing Words

I do think there are other archetypes to explore with Kitty Pryde. Considering Angela can still be a 2/6 on its own if you commit to it, both cards could end up forming a new “good cards” pair we see included in decks in the future. They might be a little more unreliable than a pair like Sunspot and She-Hulk, which are stronger on their own, but when drawn together their potential is something most decks should be looking forward to.

Obviously, this article was driven by my huge bias towards the bounce archetype, which might lead to me seeing more in Kitty Pryde than there really is. Nevertheless, I would be very surprised if her and Hit Monkey aren’t the backbone of the Bounce archetype once enough players have the two cards.

Variants

Hit Monkey

On Reveal: Gain +2 Power for each other card you played this turn.

Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Hit Monkey

As far as purchasing the card goes, I will keep the advice I always give when asked: Go with the card you will get the most fun or play time out of. I personally believe I’m going to play Kitty Pryde a ton, and I’ll have a lot of fun once I grab Hit Monkey as well. If you don’t have the same feeling, or have another card in mind, that’s completely fine as well.

If you want to discuss the card more or share your deck using Kitty Pryde, you can do so in our dedicated Discord server. You can also tag me on Twitter, or message me for coaching or inquiries.

Good Game Everyone.