Table of Contents
Marvel Boy is the first Series 5 card to join Marvel Snap in the Young Avengers Season. It is a 3-Cost, 2-Power card that reads: After each turn, give 3 of your 1-Cost cards +1 Power. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Marvel Boy
Spotlight Cache
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).
Strengths and Weaknesses
Marvel Boy is the newest scaling card to join Marvel Snap. This one adds power at the end of every turn, but only to three of the 1-Cost cards you have on board. In addition, Marvel Boy is 3-Cost card with only two power. So, will the lower base stats hold back Marvel Boy, or will this be the card that pushes Zoo over the edge?
Decks with Squirrel Girl
Decks with Mockingbird
Decks with Shanna
The first point to consider is that the buffs only work on 1-Cost cards that are on the board, and the earliest Marvel Boy can come down is Turn 3. Most “flood” decks are putting cards down late into the game, but this card is asking you to have three 1-Cost cards on the board by Turn 3. This means that the new card doesn’t synergize with the most efficient way of utilizing your 1-Cost cards. There is one card that fulfills the requirement by itself: Squirrel Girl. Rather than a full flood package, this one card can activate the ability on its own, and it synergizes well with cards like Mockingbird. Shanna can further support Mockingbird while also ensuring there are lots of targets for Marvel Boy.
In order to maximize Marvel Boy‘s value, you need to start activating him on Turn 3. As the game progresses, playing Marvel Boy gets significantly worse.
- Turn 3: maximum 14 power
- Turn 4: maximum 11 power
- Turn 5: maximum 8 power
- Turn 6: maximum 5 power
There’s an additional issue that arises when you have more than three targets as well since could hit the wrong locations with the effect. The low base power means you really want to play this as early as possible, but the investment to get this payoff is not huge. However, if you play Marvel Boy on Turn 3 with just Squirrel Girl, you get 14 power spread out across the board for only four total energy.
Decks with Thanos
Decks with Black Swan
If you’re not only looking at Squirrel Girl,
Decks with Nico Minoru
The two best generic 1-drops to try alongside Marvel Boy are possibly Nightcrawler and Nico Minoru. Nightcrawler will allow you to relocate the power wherever you need it, and Nico Minoru gives you access to her unique effects and can become a scaling threat when Marvel Boy comes down.
Debrii could also be used as a consistent activator, and your Rocks would become asymmetrically stronger than the ones clogging your opponent’s board. But be warned: this could be very bad in mirrors.
Decks with Red Guardian
Killmonger has to be mentioned when discussing one drops, but you do have Caiera to make Killmonger less of a threat. Also, Marvel Boy is not an Ongoing card, so Red Guardian is the only direct way to interact with it (and you’re usually guaranteed your first activation). The stock Silver Surfer deck may be the best way to counter this card.
The Verdict
The scaling from this one card when it’s played on curve is hard to ignore. The only thing holding it back is the counter via Killmonger and requirement to have the three cards in play from Turn 3 to hit the ceiling.
These are not hard issues to resolve with deckbuilding, so Marvel Boy therefore has a lot of potential. It could be better in a deck that is all-in on 1-drops without the weakness to Killmonger (but these are better with Caiera), but it’s hard to ignore the numbers for a full package that is not large.
Pre-Release Score:
Squirrel Girl
SafetyBlade
This deck uses Squirrel Girl as the main way to use Marvel Boy‘s buffs. This combines with some hand buff cards and Mockingbird to create a deck that hits the board fast, has lots of options, and still has room for cards like Nocturne and Shang-Chi. The “downside” here is that you are weaker into Killmonger and playing Caiera is not very easy for this style of deck. However, if the buffs turn out to be effective enough, dropping Nocturne for Caiera may end up being worthwhile.
Sandman
SafetyBlade
With the recent meta trend towards Patriot and Sandman, you can still try to include this card within a deck that is focused around playing Sandman on Turn 5. The difference here is that you’re aiming to get ahead early with cards like Squirrel Girl and Nightcrawler with the buffs. Playing Sandman on Turn 5 followed by Ultron still fills the rest of the board, and you also get the Marvel Boy buffs on top at the end of the game. The big question for this deck will be if Brood is required or if Cassandra Nova should be in that slot. You have other ways to fill the board later on, so you can likely make this change or look to add Blink in that slot.
SafetyBlade
If you want to run Caiera with the Sandman and Blink combination, try this version. Just swap Hydra Bob with a better 1-drop before you start playing games.
Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel
SafetyBlade
Finally, as with
Variants
Closing Thoughts
Marvel Boy is the sort of card that is really easy to write off, but when you consider how easily you can reach the three 1-drop requirement while supporting other game plans the potential becomes clear. However, his low base power and the tempo hit required to play him may limit the decks he can find success in.
Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!
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