Mobius M. Mobius – The Most Important Tech Card in Marvel Snap?

Mobius M. Mobius is a card that has long been a major part of the Marvel Snap meta and has fairly consistently been embroiled in controversy. Since the card’s release, it has been changed twice, bounced in and out of the meta, and landed as a staple card that’s likely to win you far more games than flashier tech cards like Shang-Chi or Enchantress.

Variants

Mobius M. Mobius

Ongoing: Your Costs can’t be increased. Your opponent’s Costs can’t be reduced.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mobius M. Mobius

Card Meta History

Mobius was released as a [2/3] at the end of the September 2023 Loki For All Time Season, as a Series 4 card, and was immediately beset by controversy. Not only did the card completely destroy archetypes like Sera and Mister Negative, but it severely neutered strategies like double She-Hulk or Destroy with Death and the plethora of Darkhawk Zabu decks that had been part of the meta for ages.

Making matters worse, Loki was clearly the strongest card in the game at that point. Creating a card to rein Loki in so soon after releasing a (somewhat surprisingly) utterly broken Season Pass card was frustrating.

To make matters even more worse, there was a huge Gold bundle with which to obtain Mobius M. Mobius, so players didn’t even need to spend Spotlight Keys for that meta staple. This is the only time that kind of bundle has ever been released for a new card, so it was doubly punishing when a short time later, Mobius was nerfed.

The first nerf of Mobius, to a [2/3] On Reveal infuriated the player base. The idea that this was planned all along made it feel like a bait and switch to get players to buy the card, then yank the rug out and make it useless.

Second Dinner, to their credit (though the problem was one of their making), quickly reverted Mobius to an Ongoing ability and made his cost 3, which is how the card remains today.

The Card Now

For a while, Mobius M. Mobius wasn’t really a presence in the Marvel Snap meta. That began to change with the Revis Sera Deck.

Revis Sera

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

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2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

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4.4

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The meta at this point was full of decks that went huge and were hard to interact with, like the original Hela Enjoyer Living Tribunal Ongoing deck, and Mobius early could completely shut those decks down. Once the flood gates were opened though, the uses for Mobius shot through the roof.

Destroy and Zabu decks had returned to the meta in force, and neither was as much of a threat with Mobius turning off key cards. The same was true of the new style of ongoing decks that ran both Zabu and Ravonna Renslayer – they had far more trouble when they couldn’t cheat out cards. Returned to the meta was staple card and deck InSheNaut, which relied on a 0-Cost She-Hulk on Turn 7 to play with Hulk or The Infinaut. Well, without She-Hulk, that strategy is just a bad deal. And even in the Sera mirror, an early Mobius often proved the difference.

As the meta has developed, the use case for Mobius has only increased. Second Dinner released another Season Pass card in Black Swan that is just completely turned off by Mobius. The top deck last season in terms of play rate was a Mister Negative Ongoing List and the # Deck on Infinite Ladder was a pure Mister Negative deck. The answer? Mobius and Mobius.

Less Tilting Tribunal – Hela Enjoyer

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.9

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2.7

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BBAK Negative #1 February

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

4.1

Cost

0-
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1.9

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Hope for a Counter/Offensive Mobius

With Mobius being so terminal for cost reduction, there was *ahem* hope that ramp would spell the end of Mobius being such a strong counter. Unfortunately for those clinging to Hope Summers as an answer, she often goes in decks with more cost reduction whether it be a Sera deck with Wasp, a High Evolutionary deck with She-Hulk, or a Bounce deck with Beast and/or Zabu.

Variants

Hope Summers

After you play a card here, you get +1 Energy next turn.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Hope Summers

Variants

Pixie

On Reveal: Shuffle the base Costs of all cards in your deck that started there.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Pixie

Moreover, released with Hope Summers is the brand new Spotlight Cache featured card Pixie. Since Pixie randomizes your costs, Mobius is absolutely perfect to make sure you get all of the upside of high-cost cards being cheaper and none of the downside… but there is a downside. Mobius from an opponent makes Pixie all downside, and a Mobius on both sides means Pixie is just a bad [2/1]. Given Pixie‘s power, Mobius’ value is just going up, but the Offensive Mobius is not limited to just Pixie.

Cards like Iceman and Spider-Ham are staples in Bounce decks – Mobius helps them ignore the Iceman downside, and while Spider-Ham will remove abilities, Mobius will make the Pig Cost Zero. There are a ton of interactions like that, but most notably, Mobius is an absolute Snap condition on locations like Dream Dimension or Elysium among plenty of others.

Of course, incidentally turning off one of Loki’s biggest benefits and making Quinjet a dead card helps to the extent that Mobius is played over Caiera in most current Thanos builds, which are likely the very best decks in Marvel Snap.

The Future of Mobius

The impetus for this article coming this week is the realization that Mobius M Mobius is just going to get better. We’re about to be overrun by a meta featuring Mockingbird, a card that can easily be a 2 or 3 Cost for 9 Power.

Variants

Mockingbird

Costs 1 less for each of your cards in play that didn’t start in your deck.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Mockingbird

Mockingbird is just a mediocre, clunky card if Mobius is out, but other upcoming cards are hurt by Mobius, as well. Cannonball looks to have a home in Sera builds, but can Sera exist with Mobius everywhere? Its win rate has plummeted. War Machine certainly wants Zabu but for Mobius.

The April cards make this worse. In Week 1, Baron Zemo goes with Zabu while Red Hulk is a High Evolutionary card, and Mobius turns off She-Hulk. Week 2 has U.S. Agent, likely a Sera card while Week 4 goes with Valentina, a Bounce card. Week 5 though, is the real payoff – Valentina.

Variants

Valentina

On Reveal: Add a random 6-Cost card to your hand. Give it -2 Cost and -3 Power.

Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Valentina

Valentina will be everywhere. She basically discounts her cost and power off any 6, but a Doctor Doom as a 3 that puts 5s in other locations or a 4-12 Giganto are absolutely huge plays. Mobius shuts off your opponent’s discount on these cards entirely, suddenly making Valentina a bad deal.

Second Dinner has built their game largely around the release valves of tech cards, and, as such, will continue to build powerful cards that Mobius utterly hoses.

Mobius vs. Other Tech Cards

Mobius is the best tech card in Marvel Snap right now.

Variants

Enchantress

On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards here.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Enchantress

First, let’s talk about the easy one: Mobius is better than Enchantress. Enchantress is a powerful card. It’s able to shut down the Ongoing Tribunal archetype, the style of play that generally puts up the most points. Of course, though, Mobius really harms the same archetype, particularly the Mister Negative version of it… and without Enchantress, we have Echo and Rogue, not as good, but similar cards that fill similar roles. No such other choices exist for Mobius.

Variants

Luke Cage

Ongoing: Your cards can’t have their Power reduced.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Luke Cage

Perhaps the card most similar to Mobius is Luke Cage. Like Mobius, Luke can be used offensively or defensively and can win the game against certain locations. The difference is largely one of scale. Outside of Hazmat matches, Mobius just stops your opponent from doing far more. A Scorpion might represent a [2/6] in Power in a good game, but Mobius, in preventing a She-Hulk or Skaar is already far more, and that’s without considering the shenanigans cards like Beast, Sera, and Black Swan pull-off.

At best, Luke is stopping a [2/9] or so Abomination, but Mobius regularly stops an opponent from being able to play Shang-Chi and Cull Obsidian together on the last turn.

Variants

Shadow King

On Reveal: Set all cards here to their base Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Shadow King

Shadow King is just not at a place in the current meta where he’s as relevant as any of these cards. He had a moment against Loki Collector and Bounce, but the best archetypes right now, whether Loki or Thanos, just don’t care about Shadow King.

Variants

Shang-Chi

On Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards here that have 10 or more Power.

Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Shang-Chi

Which leads us to the final card – Shang-Chi. Shang is the most important card in Marvel Snap. The entire game is balanced around its existence and every deck is made with it in mind. That said… when it’s in a deck, is it actually better than Mobius? Shang works with far fewer locations. Shang (usually) only affects one lane and (usually) only happens once. Because of his spot on the curve and use, he must be played late instead of something else extremely powerful. Shang being countered, whether by a Yellowjacket or an Armor, is all but sure to lose you the game. None of that’s true of Mobius, right?

Finally, Shang-Chi famously has around a 50% win rate by Second Dinner’s internal metrics. We don’t have those numbers from SD for Mobius, but he has a 58% win rate on play according to Marvel Snap Zone’s stats, which is just about the same as Shang-Chi‘s. If we go through all the relevant sites to compare data, we end up with the idea that, well, these two cards are extremely similar in overall rates.

Conclusion

Given Mobius aforementioned flexibility, then, and that, through Zabu, he counters even Shang-Chi, Mobius M. Mobius is the best tech card in Marvel Snap.