Making Darkhawk Work After the Zabu Nerf – Three Decks Poised to Take Over The Meta

In the face of the recent Zabu nerfs, Darkhawk, who was king of the meta in January, finds himself in a more harsh environment.

Variants

Darkhawk

Ongoing: +2 Power for each card in your opponent’s deck.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Darkhawk

Variants

Zabu

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Zabu

Let’s be clear: No one is mourning the end of the Zabu-dominant meta. The game is in a much better place when you’re not staring at a double Spider-Man play on turn five. For those of us who spent 6,000 Collector’s Tokens on Darkhawk (or even the few lucky enough to pull him from the Collection Level Track), we’re left wondering how to continue to get value out of him in a post-nerf world.

After hitting Infinite in the first three days of the season, I’ve been committed to finding the best ways to make Darkhawk-centric decks work in the competitive landscape of high Collection Level, Infinite-rank matches. So before you put Darkhawk on the shelf, take a look at these three decks that build around the power of Darkhawk.

Deck #1: Rockjaw

Rockjaw

Created by kickerofelves

, updated 1 year ago

2

Infinite

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Overview

When I was brainstorming Darkhawk deck ideas, I wasn’t sure how this was going to come together, but after testing the deck in a number of matches I learned that it’s shockingly effective. Affectionately dubbed Rockjaw, the deck looks to create two Darkhawks with the help of Mystique and to overwhelm another location by confusing the opponent with Lockjaw antics.

The Cards

• The Usual Suspects: Darkhawk, Zabu, Mystique, Korg, Black Widow, and Rock Slide are all familiar faces to anyone who ran a Darkhawk deck in January. Zabu helps us get down Darkhawk at a lower cost, Mystique copies Darkhawk’s ability, and Korg, Black Widow, and Rockslide fill up our opponent’s hand and deck with junk to empower our Darkhawk.
• The Lockjaw Package: Lockjaw paired with Yellowjacket and Wasp gives us the opportunity to flip into some crazy plays for only three energy. While Yellowjacket isn’t featured in many of the standard Lockjaw lists because of his On Reveal ability, that can be minimized by playing him as the first card after Lockjaw.
• The Big Bois: Doctor Doom and America Chavez are both ideal flip targets for Lockjaw, and each represents a powerful turn six play in its own right. Doctor Doom’s unprecedented ability to go wide and reach locked-down locations can be especially valuable in winning those four- and eight-cube games.
• Mr. Backup: Wong is here as another target for Zabu that can either supercharge Darkhawk by doubling the effects of our disruptive cards or push 10 power into both other locations with a surprise turn six Doctor Doom play.

How to Play

Early in the match, your plays will look just like a classic Darkhawk deck with Korg, Zabu, or Black Widow being ideal cards in the first two turns. If you were able to get Zabu down on two, playing Darkhawk and Mystique turns three and four is a great way to trick your opponent into believing you’ve revealed your entire game plan. From there you could go with a straightforward plan of dropping Wong on turn five and something like Rockslide and Korg on turn six to turbocharge your Darkhawk and Mystique… but where’s the fun in that? Let’s talk Lockjaw shenanigans!

In a perfect world, you’re saving Lockjaw for as late in the game as you can, preferably after both Darkhawk and Mystique are on the board, because Mystique is really the only bad target for Lockjaw to pull into. Suddenly slapping Lockjaw, Yellowjacket, and Wasp onto a location will always catch your opponent off guard, and it can either generate free support for your Darkhawk and Mystique by flipping into cards like Rock Slide, Korg, or Black Widow or pull in massive power plays like Doctor Doom and America Chavez.

Like all Lockjaw decks, make sure to keep a mental note of what cards you still have in your deck when playing into him. As much value as a good surprise factor adds in a game of Marvel Snap, using the Lockjaw combo isn’t going to win you any games if you end up pulling Wong and Yellowjacket back onto the board on turn six.

Deck #2: Hawkmoon

Hawkmoon

Created by kickerofelves

, updated 1 year ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Overview

“One day, young hawk, thou shalt sail beneath the silvered moon.”

Get it? It’s a Destiny reference! Anybody? Anybody? No? OK, let’s move on then. Similar to Rockjaw, in this deck we mix a straightforward Darkhawk gameplan with the surprise factor of Magik enabling a turn seven where we can play two copies of She-Hulk and The Infinaut to overwhelm our opponent.

While you might be thinking “you couldn’t pick a worse card than Magik to pair with Darkhawk,” the explosive power potential a turn seven can offer in this deck more than makes up for the minus two or four power from Darkhawk and Mystique. 

Moon Girl is the conjoining force between these two styles and is regularly the card that defines the rest of your play lines in a match.

The Cards

• Pure Darkhawk Mode: Korg, Zabu, Darkhawk, Mystique, and Rock Slide do their job of supporting Darkhawk incredibly well as usual!
• Turn Seven Mode: Sunspot, Magik, She-Hulk, and The Infinaut are the crux of a bonkers turn seven play. Magik enables a turn seven, Sunspot soaks up the energy from a skipped turn six, and then we play The Infinaut and She-Hulk together on turn seven.
• Bridging the Styles: Moon Girl pair incredibly well together and serve to tie together these two disparate styles of play. In Darkhawk Mode, they allow us to get multiple copies of Darkhawk or support cards like Korg and Rockslide to charge up a single Darkhawk/Mystique. In Turn Seven Mode, they let us get the high roll of two copies of She-Hulk to slap down on along with The Infinaut.
• Spider-Man: Remember how at the beginning of the article I said the game is a better place without double Spider-Man on turn five? Well, if you’re the type of mad man that wants to bring that back, this deck can do that with the play line of Quinjet into Zabu into Moon Girl with Spider-Man in your hand. It won’t be a reliable option all of the time, but sometimes you just need two cubes to rank up or you want to scam a bot out of eight cubes!

How to Play

Turn one of this deck will depend on what mode you feel like your opening hand will develop into the best. If you have Darkhawk, Mystique, and Rockslide in hand, get Korg on the board. If you have Zabu, Moon Girl, and Spider-Man in hand, play Quinjet. And if you’re undecided, Sunspot is a great call. We always want to play Zabu on turn two, but another of our one drops is a solid progression as well.

Turn three is where things start to develop: we want to get Moon Girl down to copy our heavy hitters like Darkhawk and Mystique (or She-Hulk and Sunspot if we haven’t drawn into our Darkhawk Mode cards).

From turn four onward you should be set on your optimal end game plan. In pure Darkhawk Mode, the best play would be Rockslide into Darkhawk into double Mystique. If you’re leaning into Turn Seven Mode then the pre-established flow of Magik followed by a turn six skip and then The Infinaut and She-Hulk will be hard to overcome with anything from your opponent that isn’t Shang-Chi.

If you do plan on adding an extra turn to the game after Darkhawk is already on the board, try to have Sunspot out as well to offset the lower power of Darkhawk. In certain cases, playing a mix of both modes will be ideal due to the surprise factor. If you’ve got both Darkhawk and Rockslide down going into turn five, the absolute last card your opponent will expect you to play is Magik. Using her as location control on an area beneficial to your opponent like crimson cosmos can also turn the tide in your favor while you tee up your turn seven play.

Deck #3: Negative Hawk

Negative Hawk

Created by kickerofelves

, updated 1 year ago

7

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Overview

Mister Negative will always have a special place in my heart. I started playing Snap at global launch so I didn’t get to experience him at his peak power, but he was an essential part of my first climb to Infinite during the December season.

With Zabu now acting as an excellent way to get Mister Negative out on turn three and Darkhawk, Jubilee, and Wong all being excellent Negative targets, there’s never been a better time to get together a Darkhawk-focused Mister Negative list. Like any good Negative deck, we also have plenty of options to win in the event that we don’t play Mister Negative thanks to Bast, Darkhawk, and the multiple targets for Mystique to copy.

The Cards

• Dedicated Hawk Support: Darkhawk, Zabu, Mystique, and Black Widow are the core of building up a strong Darkhawk. Both Zabu and Mystique can be much more flexible in their support of the rest of the deck if we don’t draw into Darkhawk.
• Mister Negative: When he goes off he goes off hard. The real key to success with this deck is knowing when to play him and when you’re better off skipping him to play your cards as is.
• Bast: The single greatest support card for a Negative deck. Acting almost like a mulligan, Bast in this deck makes up for the lack of Korg when we hit Darkhawk.
• Ideal Negative Targets: Ironheart, Wolfsbane, Jubilee, Wong, Iron Man, and Arnim Zola are no strangers to Negative decks and are more than welcome here. Strong cards in their base form that become cracked when negative flipped – with negative Iron Man arguably being the single strongest card in the game.

How to Play

Our “snap on turn one” high roll play line for this deck is Bast on turn one, Zabu on two, and Mister Negative on three. Although, in most cases, we won’t be so lucky.

We’ll often skip turn one, even with Bast in hand, to try to find more targets for her to buff. Always play Zabu on turn two if you can, but playing Black Widow offers great early game disruption – even if you don’t have Darkhawk at the ready.

Turn three is a pivotal point in our game plan for the rest of the match. If we’re able to get one of our reduced four costs on the board, even if it’s not Mister Negative, we’re in a good spot. Playing Jubilee could kick us into Mister Negative, and dropping Darkhawk at this stage is great, especially if we have Mystique in hand (and the same goes for Wong). If you don’t have a good turn three play… you should consider if you can pull off a win with the cards available to you and whether or not you should retreat if your opponent snaps.

Turns four through six are anything but linear with this deck; if you were able to get Mister Negative down by turn four, the negative cards you pull into will dictate what you play and where. So let’s cover some strong play lines for turns four through six where we don’t have Mister Negative:

• Wong into Iron Man followed by Mystique and Ironheart results in a 24 power push if you haven’t spread yourself across all three locations.
• Wong into Mystique and Zabu/Black Widow followed by Wolfsbane and Ironheart provides good disruption at the cost of a slightly lowered points ceiling.
• Darkhawk into Mystique and Zabu/Black Widow and then capped off by Wolfsbane and Ironheart will net a ton of points.
• Arnim Zola, even at full price, can produce some excellent turn six swings if you have a Darkhawk, Iron Man, or Mystique alone in a location. Your opponent won’t be expecting him since we don’t play Black Panther, and you should always take the opportunity to surprise them!

Although Mister Negative wasn’t in many prominent decks last season, February is a positively excellent time to bring him out alongside Darkhawk. Oof that was a bad pun, I’ll be seeing myself out shortly.

Wrap Up

So there you have it. With these decks at the ready, no one should feel like a “bag holder” if they bought Darkhawk in December or January. Go make moves on the ladder and let your soon-to-be first edition Darkhawk soar!