Mister Negative Detailed Deck Guide: Marvel Snap in Black and White

Mister Negative is one of the most iconic cards in Marvel Snap. It exists in some form or fashion in every metagame, and it forms alliances with a ton of cards along the way. If you take any particular card with a higher cost than its power, there is a good chance someone has tried it alongside Mister Negative at some point.

The Black and White card has a few favorite companions, of course. Iron Man and Mystique are popular inclusions in the archetype because they can fit with seemingly any win condition as long as they are paired with Mister Negative. Psylocke and Zabu have established themselves as staples in order to play Mister Negative on Turn 3. Bast could also be seen as a staple as it provides another way to grant power to otherwise weak cards.

Apart from these few cards, Mister Negative is often considered one of the most flexible shells in Marvel Snap, and it leads to a ton of different possibilities when it comes to deckbuilding.

Black Panther, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Wong, Shuri… The results may vary when it comes to win rate and cube rate, but one thing is undeniable: Mister Negative is one of the largest sand boxes in Marvel Snap. Today, let’s take a look at one of the most flexible archetypes in the game. One that has survived through every metagame, each time with a different deck list rising to popularity.

Deck Presentation

Base Negative

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 1-14

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Concept and Strategy

Play Mister Negative as early as possible and benefit from the strongest cards in the game as a result. The general strategy doesn’t get much more complicated than this. In that sense, Mister Negative embodies the concept of a “Snap and Retreat” deck very well. If everything looks like it will go according to plan, you could snap on Turn 1. If you can’t find your signature card by Turn 4, just play for the fun of it – as long as your opponent doesn’t pull the trigger on the snap button.

In reality, although there are some important decisions during each game, Mister Negative decks are mostly about deckbuilding (and finding the cards you are looking to abuse). Once you have an idea as to which cards deserve being the spotlight of your deck, the play patterns should appear rather obvious as you use the deck.

Typically, your biggest concern with Mister Negative in hand is how you want to play your low power cards (Zabu, Psylocke, etc). They will often take up a space on a location with little to no contribution in the points department. Knowing this, you can either play all of them in the same place and abandon that location (unless your opponent isn’t investing there either), or try to separate those cards and contest all the locations, even if you only have three slots available to do so.

Apart from this space issue created by our low power cards, navigating a game with Mister Negative is mostly about trying to determine if our opponent has a way to counteract our combo. If you anticipate they do, a contested game is on the horizon. If you think they can’t, snap and raise the stakes before they realize they have already lost.

Core Cards

Mister Negative decks are based around two distinct cores of cards:

• Mister Negative and ways to play it as early as possible, with these three cards being the true core of the archetype.

Variants

Mister Negative

On Reveal: Swap the Power and Cost of all cards in your deck.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mister Negative

Variants

Zabu

Ongoing: Your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Zabu

Variants

Psylocke

On Reveal: Next turn, you get +1 Energy.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Psylocke

• The most common inclusions in Mister Negative decks, as these cards tend to be flexible enough to enter any shell you might have in mind and contribute to it in some way.

Variants

Iron Man

Ongoing: Your total Power is doubled at this location.

Starter Card

view card details Start a deck Decks with Iron Man

Variants

Mystique

On Reveal: If the last card you played has an Ongoing, copy its text. (if it’s in play)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mystique

Variants

Bast

On Reveal: Set the Power of all cards in your hand to 3.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Bast

This leaves at least six available slots to be creative, and you will see some builds even cut Bast and/or Mystique at times. Cut the former when you aren’t playing cards with such a weak base power or do not believe Bast can salvage a start without Mister Negative. Cut the latter when you can’t find other Ongoing abilities you might want to copy – something extremely difficult to do when you have Blue Marvel and Wong working great inside the archetype in many builds.

Cards Substitutions

As stated in the introduction, Mister Negative has been paired with a lot of win conditions, and basically any card with a higher cost than its power can make sense in the deck. As a result, instead of offering a list of cards you could substitute in the base list, here are several variations of Mister Negative decks you can use.

Negative Surfer

Negative Surfer

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

3

1x Collection Level 1-14

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Here we are abusing Mister Negative for some Silver Surfer synergies because there are many low power 3-cost cards in the game. We also benefit from Wong and Absorbing Man being decent targets for Mister Negative.

Negative WongKanda

Negative WongKanda

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When a three card combo (Black Panther, Arnim Zola, and Taskmaster) includes two cards with no power, you know Mister Negative will get involved one way or another. In this deck, the idea is to be able to play Black Panther plus Taskmaster or Arnim Zola during the same turn. This denies our opponent the chance to counter our combo with a Cosmo or Aero play.

High Roll Negative

High Roll Negative

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

4

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

7x 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+

There isn’t a precise combo here apart from Jane Foster Mighty Thor drawing our entire deck of Negatived cards since they almost all become 0-costs. Just get a hand full of free cards to play on Turn 6 and smash an opponent who has no idea what is coming next.

Snap and Retreat

Mister Negative bases its snap strategy almost entirely on the appreciation of your hand’s quality. It is, however, very important to accept the fact that the archetype will push you to snap when you have Mister Negative plus Zabu or Psylocke, and sometimes with just Mister Negative.

Unfortunately, as the games where you don’t draw your signature card are as good as lost, the win rate will never be outstanding. Thus, Mister Negative can only end up with a positive cube ratio if you snap and retreat wisely in order to get many more cubes from your good draws than the ones you lost with your bad ones.

Locations

Mister Negative isn’t a deck that cares much about locations. There are some good and bad ones, of course, but not so many that will push you to snap without Mister Negative in hand. On the other hand, most locations that can break your synergy will be quite harmful, making Mister Negative a deck which is fine with low impact locations.

Here are the most positively impactful locations:

• Cloning Vats → We can get copies of our Negatived cards like Iron Man.
• Attilan → If you can play Mister Negative on Turn 3 and snap early, your opponent will leave once they understand what is going on.
• Elysium, The Superflow→ Another way to play Mister Negative early, but this isn’t a big one.
• Kamar-Taj → Mister Negative decks are usually using On Reveal abilities, but don’t play Mister Negative here!
• Limbo → An extra turn means an extra draw of a Negatived card.
• Onslaught's Citadel → We usually have some good Ongoing effects to abuse.
• The Peak → Mister Negative on your hand!
• Bar With No Name → Mister Negative can win this one on his own.

There aren’t a ton, but these locations could push for an early retreat:

• District X → Your deck is based on synergizing with your deck!
• Ego → Ego playing a highly synergistic deck?
• Kyln, TVA → The deck has a hard time getting points early in the game.
• Lamentis-1 → Instant retreat a lot of times; see District X.
• Lemuria → Can be a disaster if it appears the turn you planned on playing Mister Negative.

Matchups

Although it has already been stated, it’s important to highlight the fact that most of the snap and retreat strategies with Mister Negative are based on your opening hand. There will be scarce scenarios where you should leave with a good hand or play with a below average one. Still, it is hard to call any specific match up a good one when you don’t find Mister Negative in time, nor is there a deck you cannot beat if you get a nutty hand.

There are a few cards to be careful about, namely Cosmo, Rogue, and Enchantress. Otherwise, most of your worries with the deck when you get a hand worth playing should be about points and putting the emphasis on your ability to anticipate both your and your opponent’s points potential.

Variants

Cosmo

Ongoing: On Reveal abilities won’t happen at this location.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Cosmo

Variants

Rogue

On Reveal: Steal an Ongoing ability from a random enemy card at this location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Rogue

Variants

Enchantress

On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Enchantress

Turn by Turn Breakdown

Turn 1

Apart from Bast, you shouldn’t have any play on the first turn. Focus on the locations and see if there is one where you might want to play valuable cards. If not, find the location you can use as a dump for Mister Negative and other low power cards.

Turn 2

If you have either Zabu or Psylocke, play them to set up Mister Negative on Turn 3. Otherwise, you probably won’t have a play here either.

Turn 3

If possible, play Mister Negative.

Otherwise, play a non-committal card if you have one in hand. If you had Bast earlier, you should have some three power cards in hand that aren’t necessary to keep for future flexibility. It will give your opponent some information, but it is often better than just accepting to passively fall behind.

If you have to pass again, and without Mister Negative in hand, it would be a good time to think about retreating as soon as the opponent snaps.

Turn 4

Play Mister Negative if you can. If you haven’t by now and your opponent snaps, you should definitely leave.

If you haven’t drawn into Mister Negative and your opponent didn’t snap, try to be creative as to how to win the game. For example, completely abandoning a location to have a shot at the other two.

Turn 5

Unless you suspect your opponent has a way to disrupt your hand (Leech, Sandman…), there is little reason to play recently drawn Negatived cards (outside of energy management reasons).

Most of the time, you would likely play Iron Man this turn if the card wasn’t Negatived. Otherwise, just plan your Turn 6 and see which cards need to be played now since they won’t fit on Turn 6.

Turn 6

This is the turn where you go nuts and play everything you can. If you didn’t see her on Turn 5, be careful about Aero pulling key cards to the same place, especially if you played Iron Man or Mystique.

You should have two to three Negatived cards to play this turn, all of which represent a huge burst of points. This is something that is extremely difficult for your opponent to plan. Depending on how much you managed to develop up until this point, you should have a solid lead on two locations. It can be tempting to spread your points across three locations, but that is usually a way to lose a lane we would have won if we didn’t spread our points.

Closing Words

In my opinion, Mister Negative is a concept deck. It can be very simple to abuse if you laid a clear plan during the deckbuilding phase, and then you should be able to easily recognize the situations where you want to snap and where you want to cut your losses to a minimum. Simply compare the current game state with the theory you had in mind when creating the deck.

It has been quite some time since Mister Negative managed to shake the metagame and represent a real threat. But considering how flexible the card is, the archetype could make a comeback out of nowhere during featured locations or when a new low power card is added to the game.

For example, the next season pass card, Hit Monkey, is quite strong alongside Angela and Bishop. Both of these cards also work well with Mister Negative, so it isn’t so far-fetched to imagine a deck based around the idea of playing a ton of cards on Turn 6 thanks to Mister Negative reducing their cost. This, in turn, helps Hit Monkey grow enough to challenge a lane on its own.

Another possibility is using Mister Negative alongside Valkyrie, Shang-Chi, or other reactive cards that are usually best when played on Turn 6. In that scenario, Mister Negative could transform strong counter cards into home runs once their power and cost are inverted, and it can even give extra energy for proactive plays in the process.

The glory of the 4|4 Mister Negative days are long gone, but we never know when a Mister Negative build could resurface.

Have any questions or want to share your take at the Negative archetype? Feel free to reach out to us on Discord, or find me directly on Twitter.

Good Game Everyone.