Legion Lockdown Detailed Deck Guide: Get Ahead Early and Win!

So, Legion kind of came out of nowhere huh? When the new cards for July were datamined, everybody was hyped up for Jean Grey and saw some tech potential in Echo, but Legion was pretty quickly dismissed as the weakest card of the month. While at the time of the datamines, people may have been right to doubt him. However, there were two major things that happened leading up to his release that changed the game… literally.

First, Bounce was nerfed in the July 20th OTA patch which opened up the metagame to being able to play just eight power on turn five without having to worry about specifically countering the overwhelming force of a bounce mid/high roll.

Second, and this is the reason we’re here, it was confirmed before Legion‘s release that playing him into a Flooding location would make all other locations locked down for the rest of the game. Storm, Spider-Man, and Professor X all say “You can’t play here” but the turn four Storm into turn five Legion takes that to a whole new level.

Control (or Scams as the cool kids call it) is my favorite archetype in Marvel Snap and after playing with Legion nonstop since his release he’s quickly become one of my favorite cards in the game. I’ve only ever purchased two variants from the shop, but I’m so committed to this guy I blew four Spotlight Caches to get his variant and have no regrets.

So without further ado, let’s get into the new Legion Lockdown package that’s won me a bunch of Infinity tickets and eight Cube wins on the ladder so you can do the same!

Overarching Strategy

With a Legion Lockdown deck, we want to develop our board early with low-cost cards with high power or scaling potential. Then come turn four we play Storm and Legion into the Flooding location on turn five effectively ending the game by making all locations unplayable. In a real perfect world, we’ll be able to save Jeff the Baby Land Shark for turn six in case our opponent thinks they’re still able to narrowly win a location.

Now I know some of you are thinking that this sounds like a high roll scenario and not one that’s reliable to consistently win games on the way to Infinite rank or in Gold or Infinity Conquest. The beauty of Legion Lockdown is that we don’t have to nail that exact gameplan every match to win, but always can develop into a turn five shutdown if we identify that as the best way to win.

The greatest Legion Lockdown decks, including the ones we’ll cover today, are decks that benefit from the Storm and Legion package but have alternate win conditions if we don’t draw into Storm and Legion by turn four.

The real thing to love about Legion at the end of the day is even at his worst, he’s a high-powered tech card that can win you the game in genuinely unpredictable ways depending on your knowledge of locations and how they benefit you and hurt your opponent.

The Wombo Combo

Variants

Legion

On Reveal: Replace each other location with this one.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Legion

Variants

Storm

On Reveal: Flood this location. Next turn is the last turn cards can be played here.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Storm

This is what allows us to shut down the game on turn five. Playing Storm on turn four, then Legion in the same location on turn five enables a win condition in any Legion Lockdown deck.

In every deck that we cover today, Storm will be a valuable turn-three play if we identify that the Storm + Legion combo isn’t going to win us a game.

Legion can be incredible outside of the lockdown combo on turn five or six depending on what locations are present. Does your opponent only have a few cards on the board and one location is mojo world? You know what to do on turn six!

The Man the Myth the Legend

Variants

Jeff the Baby Land Shark

You can move this once. Nothing can stop you from moving or playing this to any location.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Jeff the Baby Land Shark

At this point, it feels mandatory to own Jeff as he goes into so many different decks. He’s arguably the best two-drop in the entire game and shines even more in a lockdown-style archetype like this.

While he’s fine to play on turn two or three, if you’re going for the Storm + Legion combo win condition he’s even better to save until turn six. If it looks like your opponent is going to narrowly win two of the locked-down locations they’re more likely to stay in on the final turn where you can slap Jeff down and juice them for eight Cubes!

Cheap Scaling Power

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

Variants

Nebula

Each turn your opponent doesn’t play a card here, +2 Power. (except the turn you play this)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Nebula

Sunspot can borderline solo a location if we’re executing on the Storm + Legion combo since he’ll scale by six full power on the last turn of the game (or four if you play Jeff). He’s common enough of a card that he isn’t an immediate giveaway of your lockdown ambitions too. This is the card you want to see more than anything else in your opening hand to maximize scaling potential.

Nebula plays a similar role to Sunspot in that it’s a cheap card that naturally scales and will automatically scale an extra two power on turn six if everything is locked down from the Storm + Legion combo (unless the opponent plays Jeff into that location). However, an understated use for Nebula is to place her in a location you don’t intend to win and encourage opponents to play into her location to stop her effect from triggering. This bait and switch is especially valuable in conquest after your opponent understands the initial game plan behind your deck.

Protection and Disruption in One

Variants

Armor

Ongoing: Cards here can’t be destroyed.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Armor

I cannot overstate just how valuable Armor is for Legion Lockdown decks. We absolutely hate to see Killmonger, our 1-cost cards are so important to winning locked-down locations that leaving them out in the open is just plain not a good move.

Additionally, Armor offers us some good disruption against Destroy decks in general whose high tempo early game can make it difficult for us to go for our Storm + Legion combo.

Low-Cost High-Power

Variants

Ebony Maw

You can’t play this after turn 3. Ongoing: You can’t play cards here.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Ebony Maw

Variants

Silk

After ANY card is played here, this moves to another location.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Silk

Variants

Lizard

Ongoing: -4 Power if your opponent has 4 cards here.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Lizard

Ebony Maw is a bit of a slept-on card in this meta. You almost never want to play him on turn one, but if you can get him into the same location as Nebula on turn two for example you’re forcing your opponent to make a big commitment to win that location or to abandon the location entirely. Of course, the adorable Jeff can be played into his location at any time.

Silk‘s downside is more of an upside to us here, since we’re not going for huge power plays to win games her five power can make a substantial difference in any location that she ends up in.

Lizard is essentially a “big Nebula” here. He’s a cheap high-power card that can also tempt your opponents to play into his location when you have no intention of winning it! He also makes for a budget replacement for Nebula if you don’t have her.

Lockdown Backup

Variants

Daredevil

On turn 5, you get to see your opponent’s plays before you make your own.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Daredevil

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

Spider-Man

On Reveal: Move to another location and pull an enemy card from here to there.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Spider-Man

Daredevil can end up being cut in most lists once you’re comfortable with the play style. However, since the Storm + Legion combo seeks to effectively end the game on turn five, Daredevil objectively lets us know if locking down the game will actually win the game for us (always consider if your opponent could play Jeff on six).

Professor X and Spider-Man both serve the same role of telling the opponent “You can’t play here anymore”. We don’t have that many big power plays available to us so if we decide against the Storm + Legion combo we still have options to interact with our opponent’s gameplan of… well… actually playing the game.

Locations

Good Locations

• Wakanda: We love one cost cards and we hate Killmonger so Wakanda is a lovely location to see while we’re developing our board leading up to our Storm/Legion lockdown. 
• The Vault: This location lets us do the same thing as a Storm into Legion play without needing to play Storm so we’re happy to see it. 
• Mojoworld: we run a good amount of low-cost cards and depending on our opponent’s deck, suddenly changing everything to Mojoworld on turn six can get some cheeky wins!
• The Nexus: This gives us ramp and can let us accelerate the lockdown game plan by letting us play our Storm/Legion combo a turn early, giving us even more opportunities to let Sunspot and Nebula scale. 
• Rickety Bridge: This is a gamble but if nothing else is going your way, just play Spider-Man into Rickety Bridge on turn five then Legion into that location on six. Unless they’re sly with a Jeff move or are one of the four people running Colossus you’ll win the match with Legion being the only card on the board. 
• Bar With No Name: Yet another scammy way to win if you have Legion in your hand, simply play nothing (or only weak cards) the entire game and then play Legion into this location for a truly rage-inducing moment for your opponent. 

Bad Locations

• Crimson Cosmos: We need space to spread out our low-cost cards early in the game, Crimson Cosmos naturally makes that more difficult for us. 
• Subterranea, Lechuguilla, Vibranium Mines: If we’re really banking on a Storm/Legion combo to win the game for us then the last thing we need is junk cards filling up our deck and decreasing the chance we draw our important combo pieces. 
• IF YOU DONT LIKE A LOCATION JUST MAKE THEM ALL FAVORABLE/NEUTRAL WITH Legion: Okay, that isn’t a location but Legion is such a great way (the only way?) to reliably get rid of bad locations for your deck.

With all of those details in mind, let’s cover three different effective approaches to the Legion Lockdown deck. For each deck, we’ll cover how it works to go for the Storm/Legion win condition and how you can win h the deck without hitting that exact combo.

Thanos Legion Lockdown

Thanos Legion Lockdown

Created by kickerofelves

, updated 9 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

How This Deck Helps Achieve the Turn Five Legion Lockdown Win Condition

Like any good Legion Lockdown deck we have Armor to protect our one-cost cards and Jeff to bring in some unpredictability and the ability to play on a flooded board. However, the stars of the show here are Thanos Infinity Stones.

Thanos naturally gives us six one drops with powerful effects to fill our board up early, even normally lackluster stones like Power Stone becomes a very exciting move with its 1/3 body when we’re trying to end the game by turn five. Effects like the ongoing ability from Soul Stone help us get a better edge on locations where our opponents have light investment.

Playing Time Stone on turn three also gives us an extra two energy to use during our turn four Storm play which helps us get down Armor or another stone plus nebula to cement our lead when we play Legion on five.

The card draw from our stones also gives a nice way to dig through our deck and know by turn four whether we’re going to pull off the Storm + Legion combo.

How This Deck Wins Without the Storm + Legion Combo

Thanos Control was all the rage in July, but if you were reading Marvel Snap Zone guides back in May you would be ahead of the game thanks to my Scams Thanos breakdown.

Even if we don’t draw into our Storm + Legion combo our deck can comfortably utilize Psylocke and Time Stone on turn three to ramp into Professor X or another powerful five cost on turn four, and then lockdown another location with Spider-Man on turn five.

Storm isn’t a dead draw in this scenario either. With the inclusion of Juggernaut, a genuine surprise card in Thanos lists, you can go for an early turn three Storm into turn four Juggernaut and Infinity Stone + Nebula to shut down a location.

Evolved Legion Lockdown

Evolved Legion Lockdown

Created by kickerofelves

, updated 9 months ago

0

3x None

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

How This Deck Helps Achieve the Turn Five Legion Lockdown Win Condition

High Evolution lockdown decks love to float some energy and we’re aiming to have a turn six where no cards except Jeff can be played! Many of the key cards we’re playing for the Storm + Legion win condition can be played off curve to float energy leading up to our closed-off board state on turn six.

We’re still aiming to get down our Sunspot, Nebula, and Armor out in the early turns of the game, but Evolved Misty Knight‘s ability makes her a welcome early game inclusion to continue to push power around the board.

Evolved Cyclops should go into a location you want to contest on turn 3 that has the most enemy cards to get the most out of his ability in the close matchups since we can usually get two to four points of power reduction on the opponent’s side of the field.

How This Deck Wins Without the Storm + Legion Combo

Thankfully our investment in the Storm + Legion package is a very low impact within the context of the standard High Evolutionary lockdown gameplan.

Our early game of playing and protecting our powerful one-cost cards remain the same, but the mid-late game changes. We want to play Storm on three, Evolved Cyclops on four, Spider-Man into another location on five, and then drop a big Evolved Hulk where we need it most on turn six.

America Chavez is extra important in this version of the list because we want to get Evolved Hulk in our hand as soon as possible post-nerf to get him nice and strong for the potential turn-six finisher.

Sure this deck isn’t the same monstrosity it was in May or June but smart players can still use this play line to make some big wins!

Vanilla Legion Lockdown

Vanilla Legion Lockdown

Created by kickerofelves

, updated 9 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

How This Deck Helps Achieve the Turn Five Legion Lockdown Win Condition

So the name of this deck has “vanilla” in it, but this is anything but a plain deck. Without the common lockdown packages offered by Thanos and High Evolutionary, this deck focuses more on high-tempo cards.

This is maybe the best Ebony Maw has ever felt in a deck for me. If you can set him up in a location with Armor and Sunspot or Nebula it will be next to impossible for your opponent to outpower you by the time you pull off your Storm + Legion combo on turn five unless they’ve invested most of their plays into that location.

Lizard and Maximus both have great power for their cost and even though they both come with considerable downsides the conditions for them are a lot less relevant when we’re going for the Storm + Legion combo: Lizard dropping to a 2/1 requires a full location from your opponent which opens you up to more easily win two other locations, and Maximus’ downside of giving your opponent two cards matters much less when you’re closing down the game a turn early.

How This Deck Wins Without the Storm + Legion Combo

Of all the decks we’ve covered today this list definitely wants to be executing on the Storm + Legion combo the most.

However, our lack of Thanos or High Evolutionary in the deck makes for some great surprise opportunities since the early game plays like Ebony Maw and Lizard don’t scream “This is a lockdown deck”.

If we’re not going for the Storm + Legion combo, we want to Storm on three and ideally win that lane over time with a combination of either raw power from Lizard and Maximus or some light scaling with Nebula and Sunspot. Then we come in with a Spider-Man on five and our turn six options are open with America Chavez for decent power, Doctor Doom to spread things out, or even Legion can be a great play on turn six if changing around locations can give you an edge outside of lockdown.

Conclusion

So now that you have a rundown on everything you can pull off with this wild new card, get out there and Flood some locations! If you want to talk more about Legion leave a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter (X?) @itsthedmc.