Monster Island Hot Location Guide: Strategy, Best Cards and Decks

This week’s Marvel Snap Featured Location is Monster Island: Add a 9-Power Monster here for each player. This is a hot location for Marvel Snap’s April 2023 season, Animals Assemble. For the next 24 hours, it will now have a 50% chance of showing up in games. Let’s find out what the best strategies, cards, and decks are with the new patch!

Variants

Monster Island

Add a Monster-Power here for each player.

released

view card details Start a deck Decks with Monster Island

Variants

Monster

Careful…he likes to mash.

Unreleased

view card details Start a deck Decks with Monster

Strategy and General Tips

Monster Island is a much more disruptive location than it appears on the surface. Any location that interferes with what you can play on the limited spots on the board has to be considered when deciding which decks to play. The effect is mirrored, and even though the Monster has nine power it can sometimes clog the lanes and create more of an obstacle.

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

Variants

Patriot

Ongoing: Your cards with no abilities have +2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Patriot

There are a few clear directions to consider with this location:

1. Patriot‘s buff applies to Monster as it has no abilities.
2. Shang-Chi can easily remove your opponent’s Monster, making him a even more consistent than he already is.
3. Lane control can use the large body to help with filling lanes with junk.

Variants

Sera

Ongoing: Cards in your hand cost 1 less. (minimum 1)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Sera

Variants

Professor X

Ongoing: Lock down this location. (Cards can’t be added, removed, etc.)

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Professor X

So, in short, Patriot, Sera, and Professor X decks get a boost from this location showing up more often. These three archetypes just so happen to be my top three favorite archetypes, and I have covered them several times this month already. Here are some fun builds to try over the Hot location that feature these cards.

Patriot

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 12 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Control

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 12 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sera Control

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 12 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When a location has such obvious decks to play, I do like to try building something different in order to shake things up during the Hot Location. Today, that different direction is Venom and Knull.

Variants

Venom

On Reveal: Destroy your other cards here. Add their Power to this card.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Venom

Variants

Knull

Ongoing: Has the combined Power of all cards destroyed this game.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Knull

Main Deck Feature

Monster Knull

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 12 months ago

3

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The plan is simple: destroy the Monster to buff our Venom. Why no Taskmaster? Well, the rest of the plan involves playing this deck purely as DeathWave. We want to Wave on Turn 5 after a Turn 3 or 4 Venom, and then we can use Knull as our Taskmaster equivalent alongside Death and She-Hulk on the last turn. Avoiding more combo-oriented cards allows us to get consistent Death activations while buffing our Knull for later.

The new Leader can be bad for this deck, but if we play our cards right we should be able to play around it.

Wolverine is flexible here; it could easily be swapped for Deathlok or another large card like Arnim Zola or Taskmaster if needed.

Series 2 and below (pre-CL 474)

Monster Island Series 2

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 12 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Starter Card

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The standard Good Cards deck should do well with (and against) Monster Island. Early priority allows you to remove their Monster with Shang-Chi or protect yours with Cosmo. Cloak can also let you pull your Monster out to contribute points elsewhere.

After Credits

Cerebro-9

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 12 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2x Starter Card

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Monster Island renders everyone’s favorite Cerebro 3 decks with Jeff the Baby Land Shark unplayable… right? Well, why not try Cerebro 9 (featuring Jeff, of course)! Jeff just pops up everywhere, and the little guy cannot be stopped no matter how hard the Monster tries. There is an actual game plan here, if you’re so inclined. You play Nightcrawler and Jeff early game.

These two card are here because they can move away and open up Arnim Zola lines later, or they can buff Rescue and move on. On Turn 3 we want to play Cerebro, followed by Mystique or Rescue on Turn 4. Then, play Wave on Turn 5 and float two energy if you can. On the final turn you should be able to dump She-Hulk and Arnim Zola to spread multiple 11- to 13-power cards. Fun right?

Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!