Table of Contents
In Marvel Snap, you collect and unlock cards by increasing your Collection Level by upgrading your cards with Boosters or purchasing cards from the Token Shop with Collector’s Tokens. Each card is assigned to a Pool or Series of cards. These vary in set size, which you can see in the table below:
| Series | Collection Level # | Card # | Decks | Tier List |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pool One | Collection Level 18 - 214 | 46 cards | Decks | Tier List |
| Pool Two | Collection Level 222 - 474 | 25 cards | Decks | Tier List |
| Pool Three | Collection Level 486+ | 104 cards | Decks (Beginner) Decks (Advanced) | Tier List |
| Series Four | Collection Level 486+ - Rare | 24 cards | Decks | Tier List |
| Series Five | Collection Level 486+ - Ultra Rare | 30 cards | Decks | Tier List |
| Unreleased | Release and Series Drop Schedule | 34 cards |
Here is our tier list and rankings on all the Ultra Rare cards from Series 5, to help players make decisions when purchasing them or build better decks based on their collection and compare the power levels of individual cards inside each pool.
Series 5 Card Tier List: Preliminary
| Tier | Card | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Valkyrie | 10/10 |
| Tier 1 | Bast | 9/10 |
| Tier 2 | Galactus | 8/10 |
| Tier 2 | Shuri | 8/10 |
| Tier 3 | Super-Skrull | 6/10 |
| Tier 4 | Thanos | 3/10 |
The new gems in the Marvel Snap collection are coming. The Ultra Rare Series 5 cards feature some of the most iconic characters in Marvel lore and will also be the new initial landing point of Season Pass cards after their paid period. They will cost 6000 Collector’s Tokens to get and tough decisions will have to be made on where player’s prioritize these cards.
DISCLAIMER: No one can be sure on just how much impact any card will have on the meta. Card games have lots of moving pieces and what is popular can dictate what is strong.
So I am here to provide an “Potential Score” for every card. This score is based on the current and future potential of the card. To create this score we used a very scientific approach of listing out ideas of how to use the card and then considered the impact and power the card has based on these interactions. We also considered the potential strength of the effect by itself.
So in no specific order let’s start the preliminary reviews, analysis and their ratings for all Series 5 cards! For a different perspective, you can also find Den’s theorycraft decklists:
Galactus
Decks with Galactus
The man from Taa finally arrives to eat some worlds and destroy some dreams at the hands of the player base. Galactus has been around since the start of the game as a random effect from cards such as Agent 13. At times, he has just felt like the generation low roll BUT if like me you have pulled of the Galactus victory the potential is apparent.
If played earlier than turn 6 in the game, he completely flips the script of the game. As the player you can pick which lane your going for and negate everything your opponent did to that point. Then you just need to beat your opponent in one lane over the remaining turns.
It can be countered, Goblins and Rocks or even random Squirrels (was this intended Second Dinner? this is probably the best lore interaction yet, did you know Squirrel Girl once beat Galactus?) but a lot of games on turn 4 (when we envision is the time Galactus his the board) having one open location isn’t that difficult. If it is everywhere though, the answer exists.
One final mark against Galactus is how telegraphed the playlines of decks playing into it heavily may become. It might become a 1 Cube deck or your opponents may be able to start developing the location before you get into it, leaving you behind with little time to overcome their power level.
Cheating Galactus out early is the name of the game. You then follow it up with heavy hitters. Wave is the premium as it guarantees on Turn 4, but Psylocke and Electro will be other potential ways to take advantage. Also Electro on a lane being destroyed by Galactus just gives you more energy to fill the lane up later.
Death will be reduced in power for every card destroyed on neighbouring lanes. This has huge potential with Galactus as this may allow for bigger Turn 5’s and 6 which result in you pushing more power than your opponent. Pairing this with Wolverine and Sabretooth which benefit from said destruction has potential.
On Wolverine, you can potentially try to buff Wolverine throughout the game and when Galactus comes down he will leap to the same location. Forge, Hulkbuster, Okoye or even Shuri may achieve this. Added bonus of potentially buffing Galactus also.
Also Leader for a Turn 6 finish, copying the exact cards your opponent plays but leaving you ahead because of the 4 power Leader may be one way to go.
Then is that Mister Negative‘s theme music. Could we have a new super expensive deck with this and Super-Skrull getting inverted? Inverted Mister Negative cards push a lot of power and may be the way to truly abuse this. Invert Galactus and on 5 blow a lane up and follow up with your inverted madness. Seems inconsistent but maybe.
Potential Score
Galactus has potential to break the game with this effect, but has with any card which can be countered the potential has to be lower. This one will be interesting to watch develop, but the card already as a loyal fanbase of players theorycrafting around it and that may be what eventually pushes it to broken.
Valkyrie
Is it just me or is Sunkeeper Tarim a good card? This seems insane with the potential to get better. The stat line fits right into Cerebro 3 as an obvious starting point. You will set you and your opponent to equal on the lane then Cerebro will buff you over the top of your opponent. But one use does not give a high potential score.
Thankfully Valkyrie is just a good card outside of the Cerebro application. If your opponent played Jubilee into The Infinaut last turn – nopen they played two 3 power cards. That 15 Power Venom over there they want to copy on 6.
Zoo decks often play a lot of low powered cards then buff them. Valkyrie becomes a your side buff and then your Ka-Zar pushes pushes your cards over. Also Valkyrie and Titania on turn 6?
This can be the biggest swing card in the game with potential to take a unit from over 20 power to 3 power. After Sera it costs 4 which can be played with Killmonger for new Sera Control finishes. It can turn off any large card played prior to 6 on priority and off priority sets a lane to equal, and then can win the lane. If you and your opponent have 2 cards on a lane Valkyrie is a win guaranteed.
Potential Score
Pretty sure this is just scratching the surface. It’s not the flashiest card you will ever see but it’s consistent and flexible and should be high on player’s wish lists.
Super-Skrull
Decks with Super-Skrull
Nice tech card. Unfortunately though, it has limited proactive application. You play this on 4 and your opponent will know what Ongoing effects they are giving you and where. As a surprise final card, it’s limited by the meta and potentially outclassed by cards such as Valkyrie and Leader in surprise swing potential.
Inverted the stat line is good for potential Mister Negative revivals and it’s just silly in a mirror or copied by Mystique. However, we struggle to see this as anything more than a specific tech card, and one that may not even get the job done. This one is divisive and you will find views ranging from this to please nerf already, until it plays out we can only speculate.
Potential Score
Not sure how this one pushes the needle in any significant way. Specific counters are okay but when you really think about it, there are very few Ongoing effects you want to copy to win you the game. It can get better with time though holding its potential score up slightly. However in the meta where this is good does Rogue just do more?
Shuri
Decks with Shuri
A lot of cards can do with twice as much power. At a baseline this makes Shuri outperform her base stats consistently. However as a tempo card she seems underwhelming. She has to be played on 4 and just passes the benefit to another card. So although she is good, overall stats for cost her full potential is only reached with specific combos.
One simple line is playing into Black Panther. Unlike the full Wong Combo, this is less counterable as a standalone activator. It also could allow for the rest of the deck to be more flexible as your not preparing for Wong or bust.
Then there are all the crazy full combos enabled by Wong. The maths on these can take cards such as Wasp too astronomical numbers. Then there is Mister Negative, which must be considered for any low stated high energy card. She may have huge potential as an enabler now and into the future in this archetype.
She does not seem busted but she certainly could be a key enabler now and into the future.
Then Mister Negative returns, doubling other inverted cards seems strong. Double inverted Iron Man – yes please. When discussing potential the sky is the ceiling if we are looking at inverting Shuri.
When considering potential of ay 4 power card, consider Sera abuse at some stage. As a 3 power card on turn 6 – what could we so alongside it? It may not be clear yet but the potential is always there (Maybe Shuri, Maximus and Colleen Wing on 6).
Then the bonkers Wong combo routes are endless here. I will not try to outline them all here but:
- Psylocke into Wong into Shuri into Black Panther into Arnim Zola.
- Forge into Wong into Shuri into Odin into Wasp.
This could expand with time.
Potential Score
When we look at current potential, might be a hot take but her current spot doesn’t seem super high. She has uses which can be abused though so we cannot score it low. However her future potential to remain at least at a similar power level if not broken is high pushing her to a higher potential score.
Bast
This one deserves your attention. Nakia was once the most powerful card when it gave a the hand-wide buff of +2 power. This is better. There are 73 cards in the game this represents a buff on currently. In addition, all these cards are lower in stats for a reason! It is also not a negative card to any card which is 3 power. We could also accept losing a point of power on Ka-Zar for example if we get +1 to +2 on 3 other cards.
The only thing holding this card back is the requirement to fit into specific decks, but if the power level of these decks are much higher than everything else, it does that matter.
Bast buffs almost every Zoo card you would want to play. Including buffing cards such as Wolfsbane and Ant Man. Ka-Zar is the only negative buff which is minimal. America Chavez will help draw consistency also allowing for you to hit the good cards often. It also gets buffed by Ka-Zar after.
Mister Negative traditionally plays low power cards with high energy. Well, lets mitigate the downside by setting the cards we draw pre Negative too 3 power.
Bast sets Carnage to 3, The Hood to 3, Venom to 3. It may end up being a more of a flood playstyle but there are lines where Bast setting these three cards to 3 has future potential.
Set tech cards which cost less than 3 to 3 so Cerebro will buff them also. Consider Daredevil, Iron Man and Cerebro itself as 3 cost cards. We may be able to get more flexible with our Cerebro deckbuilding. Maybe even a Cerebro 2 with Bast to transform it into a Cerebro 3! On the flipside, it could be used to REDUCE other cards to 3 so they fit Cerebro 3 – imagine a 3 power Sera on 5 follow by Cerebro, Mystique and Brood. These may seem off the wall but it demonstrates the full potential Bast has.
Potential Score
Bast is strong yes, but it does have the downside of having to be built around. Zoo decks will rejoice and there are plenty of other ways to abuse this now and into the future leading to the high score. However it is not the second coming of Nakia as it is not as flexible or abusable as a full hand buff. It will however be frustrating and annoying to play against and it will win games. It will feel strong to play and make for interesting decks.
Thanos
Decks with Thanos
The reason we went with potential scores instead of measuring the power is this card. This is the most unique card in Marvel Snap and unlike Galactus we have no idea how this will play out yet. At a baseline though, shuffling 6 cards into your deck in Marvel Snap is bad. So before we look at the stones themselves, we have to start from the premise, this is bad.
Decks with Power Stone
Decks with Reality Stone
Decks with Space Stone
Now if we draw the stones in certain orders, they become much better. The Mind Stone draws two stones, Reality Stone draws a card, Soul Stone draws a card, Space Stone draws a card and the Time Stone draws a card.
Then you consider the effects they all have on the board and game state, they are all powerful for 1 energy. Here’s the problem though – they are 6 energy all together AND 6 board spaces. Only 2 of the stones add anything more than 1 power (the Power and Soul) and 1 of them is dependent on drawing and playing Thanos AND all 5 other stones. Any locations that limit board spaces or make playing into them bad for you are almost instant losses. Not drawing the stones in a favorable order is an auto loss and Killmonger can destroy every stone (what if…?).
After all this we get a 18 power Thanos (is that even worth it? Skip Turn 5 and you have a 20 power The Infinaut…). So we have a real deckbuilding challenge here! There are plenty of ways to approach this. See Den’s Theorycrafting article for more on this, but deckbuilders rejoice, the real challenge starts now.
Quinjet will make every stone cost zero and have an effect. This will help you cycle through them as quickly as possible without having to invest in the energy.
Every stone will be buffed +1 by Ka-Zar. This could fit well into a Zoo deck with the usual suspects. We could pair this with Okoye or other buff cards (Bast?) to try and actually use the stones and the effects to win the game regardless of Thanos. These seems to be a promising way forward as it is aiming to use the stone to win the game, not just to get to Thanos.
Also Lockjaw the stones back to get… More stones. Seems like a long shot, but maybe.
Thanos obsession with Death brought him to the Infinity Stones in the first place, so it’s only fitting one of the best potential ways is to use the stone in a Destroy deck. Then they are Destroy fodder and can keep your drawing through your deck to get Death and Wave down. Pair this with a Power Stone on the board and Thanos for gigantic turn 6.
Potential Score
For all the hype, and the possibility of the Infinity Stones, I on a personal note just don’t see how this will outshine what we can already do and how a more efficient deck with easier conditions is not at all times going to outclass this. I will be trying this as soon as I can but cannot recommend anyone chase this dream. There are definitely possibilities but the payoff after the possibilities is you may win 50% of your games (even more lore wins) with a harder to pilot deck with questionable payoff compared to almost any other deck. It is also a combo which needs to start from turn 1.
It is simultaneously the most interesting deckbuilding challenge yet and I could be off the mark here initially, but when we look at the potential, some major enabler would have to be printed to lift this higher. As more strong decks and cards come along, Thanos is only likely to get worse in Marvel Snap without 12 card decks and 12 board slot to play into. Will be more than happy to be wrong here but let’s see.
Conclusion
That’s it! All Series 5 cards coming to Marvel Snap in the first release, rated on their potential alone. Marvel Snap is an unique game, and these cards can lead to different variants and at times you may just like a certain character more than others. So a final disclaimer – chasing the card you want with your heart instead of you head is not wrong.
Have we missed any ideas which raise or lower the bar for these cards? Let us know below or our Discord server.
Looking forward to seeing what the community does with these cards and revisiting this too see just how wrong I was in a few weeks time!
Good luck out there!
