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It doesn’t look like we will play much of Thanos until Second Dinner makes it appealing to spend a significant portion of the match building a 20 power 12-Cost card.
Yes, you read that correctly: in order to play a 20 power Thanos, you have to spend 12 total energy—seven for the Infinity Stones and five for the Mad Titan himself. For reference, you have 21 total energy in a regular match, so this is absolute madness! Plus, the Soul Stone can’t be used as just a nice card anymore, or as disruption for a Cerebro deck. The same goes for the Space Stone, which you used to be able to use to manage your space on the board. If you don’t intend to play Thanos during the match, you are better off holding most of your Stones in hand.
Overall, this new Thanos is screaming for future buffs, such as a revert to a 1-Cost Mind Stone at the very least.
But I am a professional, so let’s try to see the positive aspects of this new Thanos, and how we could maybe use it to start The Celestials’ Finest season to grab some cubes.
Thanos Can Beat Professor X
The Professor X+Cannonball pair has been extremely strong lately, helping several archetypes become Tier 1 staples. So far, there haven’t been many ways to counteract the pair, especially when Professor X locked down a lane on Turn 4 (with Ravonna Renslayer), or even Turn 5. The opponent would typically Snap, and then you knew that was the signal to Retreat if you didn’t want to see your biggest card turned into a Rock.
Apart from Jeff the Baby Land Shark, or Klaw if they didn’t lock the leftmost lane, or Ms. Marvel in certain scenarios, you knew that lane was lost and the game with it.
One of the changes includes the Space Stone turning Thanos into a Jeff, except you can’t move it afterward. That isn’t huge, but the Baby Land Shark has won tons of games on the back of its ability. A 10 power Baby Thanos Shark should guarantee you the win in those difficult or impossible to reach locations.
Thanos Can Beat Shang-Chi
The previous change to the Time Stone allowed you to play Thanos on Turn 5, which had some synergy with Skaar as an example. However, playing Thanos on Turn 5 opened the card to getting butchered by Shang-Chi on the following turn. I don’t like the new Soul Stone, but at least this problem is solved, and you can confidently slam your Thanos on Turn 5. This opens a flexible Turn 6 to play whatever you need to win the game.
Plus, this change also makes Thanos a real location dominator. Indeed, if the Space Stone allows him to reach locked or unplayable locations, the Soul Stone takes care of the destructive ones. Whether it’s Death's Domain, Altar of Death, or Rickety Bridge, you can safely play the Mad Titan there and be almost certain that the location will be under your control.
Thanos Feels Like the Same Card
This might actually be the biggest issue with this balance update. Sure, the change to the Infinity Stones opens a few avenues to explore, but they aren’t anywhere near impactful enough to make me rethink how I view Thanos. A deck based around Thanos will be about the same as it has been these past few months. The only difference is that you are more enticed to play him now that the Infinity Stones won’t contribute to your game plan if you don’t.
With that in mind, here are a few ideas for Thanos. The biggest upside to these changes is the fact you can now play something other than Jeff the Baby Land Shark in the deck because Thanos can fill that role himself.
This opens an extra spot in the deck and allows you to play Okoye in Thanos Zoo, Mobius M. Mobius in Thanos Skaar, or Psylocke in Thanos Control. Considering the changes are more of a first step towards a new Thanos, finding these little changes is as good as it gets… for now.
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Closing Words
I expected a lot more from this balance update; the meta has been slowly featuring the same decks towards the end of the season, especially in Conquest. However, I can’t deny that the new cards have me pretty excited, and they could be enough to throw a few curve balls into the current competitive landscape.
I fully expect these changes to Thanos to lead to something bigger, and eventually the Mad Titan be played like Galactus is where you need to build almost entirely around it. Until then, I am curious to see how good this unstoppable Thanos can be. If it can reliably win you a difficult location and you have the rest of the game to focus on winning another one, I could see the Space Stone change as a very impactful one. Otherwise, I’ll be waiting for the buffs that will make this new Thanos a real consideration.
I wish we had more to talk about in this patch balance wise, but we’ll have to do with Gilgamesh, Thena, and this newish Thanos for the time being. If you need any ideas to climb early in the season, I’m sure the latest Tier List will help, and we also have articles about each new card if you fancy using those!
As usual, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord if you needed anything. You can also reach out through my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
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