Best Mole Man & Mad Thinker Decks and Strategy Guide

Mole Man & Mad Thinker are two cards you can unlock from the new game mode, Grand Arena. They both are part of the Series 4 pool, but they will only be obtainable through Grand Arena until they release officially next season.

Grand Arena – Full Event Details & Rewards

https://marvelsnapzone.com/grand-arena-strategy-guide

Today, let’s explore these two cards’ strengths and, of course, the best decks to try them out in.

Series 4 cards can be purchased for 3,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop as part of the rotation amongst cards one misses in that series. They will be also be included in the Seasonal Series 4 Snap Pack for 2,500 Collector’s Tokens for two months after their season.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Mole Man

Every time a new 3-Cost card releases, I tend to think it won’t see play unless the ability is insanely good due to how many strong cards we have available in that pool. Arguably, Mole Man won’t be strong enough to compete as a standalone card. However, there are multiple synergies to exploit with the Rocks that might turn Mole Man into a decent niche card.

Among these cards are three different archetypes: Iron Hand, KaZoo, and Patriot, all of which are interested in the new card for different reasons. All three could reasonably run Mockingbird, too, which has helped plenty of cards shine in the past.

Overall, Mole Man has some great potential pairings in the game. However, there is one more condition to fulfill for the card to be good—deckbuilding. Mole Man comes with two conditions:

• You have to banish a card in order to create the Rocks. This could represent a risk, as losing your deck’s signature cards could immediately be met with a Snap from the other side. Note that this could also advance you toward finding it if you banish a disposable card.
  I don’t mind the cost requirement too much. Indeed, even with two or three power, the Rocks will synergize with your deck and contribute anyway.
• You need to play Mole Man by Turn 5 at the latest so you can play the Rocks on Turn 6. If you want to use the Rocks to discount Mockingbird, you have to play Mole Man on Turn 4, the Rocks on Turn 5, and Mockingbird on Turn 6.

This second condition feels like the most limiting in my opinion. Indeed, demanding five energy during the most important turns in the game—from three to five—makes Mole Man difficult to include in a lot of curves.

Let’s consider a few examples:

• Iron Hand loves to play Victoria Hand plus Frigga on Turn 5, or sometimes Infinity Ultron. On Turn 4, Misery typically comes down if you played The Hood earlier.
• KaZoo has Marvel Boy on Turn 3, Ka-Zar on Turn 4, and Blue Marvel on Turn 5, thus commanding all your energy already. On Turn 6, Gilgamesh would only allow you to play one Rock alongside him.
• If you created cards during the first turns with cards like Hawkeye Kate Bishop or The Hood, will you have enough space in hand to create the Rocks without foregoing your next draw?

These are the obstacles you need to anticipate with Mole Man. If you can fit the card in those already packed decks with established play patterns, it should represent a good niche option to bring the element of surprise.

Mad Thinker

This is a pretty straight-forward card, like many others in Marvel Snap. Think about Miek for Discard or Clea in High Evolutionary: they grow based on a specific synergy. You typically have to fulfill two requirements to make the card worth it:

• Build a deck around the card’s specific condition
• Draw the card early on to start growing its power.

You can’t really pick whether you do or don’t draw Mad Thinker on Turn 1, but, contrary to Clea, the card won’t grow its power while in your hand. Because of this, you really need to play Mad Thinker by Turn 3, maybe Turn 4, to have any hope of getting a meaningful contribution.

Currently, a [1/5] is considered a good deal, so two buffs would already make the card playable. If you can reach [1/7], Mad Thinker becomes a really strong card.

With those numbers in mind, you need to get two to three activations over the course of the game. Turns 1 and 2 are out of the equation since you can’t fill your hand and play Mad Thinker at the same time, so you only have four shots to grow Mad Thinker between Turns 3 and 6.

There aren’t that many abilities in the game that add more than one card to tour hand. With a starting hand of four cards and the requirement to play Mad Thinker, you have to create three cards in order to get the +2 power.

If you did this only with cards that replace themselves, you would start growing Mad Thinker at the start of Turn 5 and it would max out at [1/5]. That’s the lowest acceptable value to even consider playing the card. To get a chance at a [1/7], you need to create more cards than you use during the first three turns.

Fortunately, Hawkeye Kate Bishop, Merlin, and Agent Coulson are all solid cards, and Snowguard is very playable in the right deck. Alongside those cards, I can picture Mad Thinker being a solid 1-Cost.

Mole Man Decks

Mad Thinker Decks

Variants

Mad Thinker has no variants. Booooo.

Conclusion

I didn’t expect both cards to have so many potential landing spots. It’s still going to be an uphill battle for either to become a staple, but at least Mad Thinker and Mole Man seem to make sense in a multitude of builds.

Also, both cards could coexist in the Iron Hand archetype, but I don’t really picture Mad Thinker ever replacing The Hood or Quinjet. I would even run Nico Minoru over the new 1-Cost in that deck.

In the end, it is entirely possible that neither card will make any sort of impact on the meta. Yet, the new Grand Arena mode looks pretty cool, and both cards at least feel worth testing. This is much more than I could say about Cobra, Toxie Doxie, and Astral Projection, the last three Series 4 cards we got from limited time events.

I hope this review of the new cards was helpful. You can find everyone on the Marvel Snap Zone team in our community discord to have a chat or ask any questions.

Good Game Everyone!