Table of Contents
Ms. Marvel is the Season Pass card for the November 2023 Season Higher, Further, Faster. It is a 4-Cost, 5-Power card that reads: Ongoing: Adjacent locations where your cards have unique Costs have +5 Power. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Ms. Marvel
Season Pass cards can be obtained by purchasing the Premium Season Pass. When the season ends (first Tuesday of every month), it immediately becomes available as a Series 5 card, and can then be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop as a Weekly Spotlight card.
It can also be featured in a Spotlight Cache that is found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Ms. Marvel seems to do a lot for very little investment. It only costs four energy, and it can potentially add 15 power across the board – as long as the rest of your deck supports the ability and you can play it in the middle lane. Is the limitation of where the card must be played and what needs to make up your deck enough to stop it from having a huge, across-the-board impact?
While four energy for 15 power sounds like a lot, the card does have weaknesses, and we should analyze them. First, you have to play it in the middle lane to maximize the power. This should not be too difficult in most circumstances, but it will be relevant.
Second, you have to play the cards in adjacent lanes to support the effect. You have to think about this from Turn 1 to avoid bricking your Ms. Marvel, even without it in hand. You can’t play two 1-Cost cards in a location, for example.
Third, it is an Ongoing effect and can be hit with Enchantress or Rogue.
Last – and the point that is likely to limit the type of deck that can find success with the card – you have to have at least one card at the adjacent location for the buff to occur.
The biggest barrier with this card may be the unique cost requirement. This could be a severe limitation to what decks can make effective use of it and how you can play every turn. If the plays become too predictable and linear, the deck will likely remain niche. However, 15 power is a lot… but is it enough for decks to make use of the new card?
The first synergy to highlight are the general Ongoing decks. These decks tend to play on curve with plenty of unique cost cards on their final boards. This allows cards to be played in the locations to support the effect, and you can include cards like Onslaught or Spectrum to spread power on later turns.
The pure numbers this could be capable of make Ms. Marvel appear worthwhile. Consistently activating its effect could lead to competing for all three lanes and, potentially, overpowering the opponent. You need to account for the four energy in the middle lane, though, and the ability to play cards on the other two lanes to receive the buff.
Decks with Attuma
This leads to considering cards like Namor, Attuma, and Orka. These three cards provide overstatted power and can compete for lanes on their own. You can then focus your early game on the middle lane and use these big cards to compete for the adjacent ones.
Decks with Storm
Decks with Professor X
This could also be extended to considering Lockdown cards like Storm and Professor X since you can use their effects as a way to add power later to the lane. Lockdown often has cards of varying costs to support the locked lanes, and that automatically activates Ms. Marvel when played.
The Verdict
The power output from Ms. Marvel is high for a 4-Cost card, but it comes with its limitations. Those limitations can be worked around by being conscious of what you play and where you play it, and you may find that the effect is not so difficult to activate. It seems to slot into several shells from day one.
Using the effect to improve random decks may be more difficult than it seems on the surface. Many decks would like to play multiple cards with the same cost on lanes for combinations. Playing in the way that activates Ms. Marvel across a range of decks may be inefficient, but the pure power may just be high enough that you should be trying to include her.
Consistently triggering the effect to win two lanes may be the tipping point for the card, as you have to play with the ability in mind from Turn 1. Once it is activated, you need to be able to use it to win two lanes. While it is comparable to Doctor Doom in power, the requirements to get the same impact are higher and make your deck more linear.
Still, 15 power is a lot.
Potential Score:
One Lane
SafetyBlade
The Atlanteans may often be overlooked, but the big stats on these cards have been close to being able to compete before. They perfectly synergize with Ms. Marvel because they are supported by cards at different costs, and the extra five power from the Season Pass card’s effect will make the lanes threatening.
I included Nightcrawler and Jeff the Baby Land Shark as ways to relocate cards and make sure the effects of Namor, Orka, and Ms. Marvel are activated, as well as to not be forced into such a linear early game. Consider playing Namor with Jeff, for example, and moving the shark later to activate the effect without being as easy to counter.
Ongoing
SafetyBlade
With Ms. Marvel requiring a card on each location to activate the effect, you need some good low-cost cards to hit other locations. Here I choose Nebula as a card that can scale and be protected on Turn 2 by Armor. Zabu is another excellent card to place on the other lanes since it allows you to reduce the cost of not just Ms. Marvel, but also the other 4-Cost cards that are included to support the deck.
This version includes Super-Skrull and Omega Red as ways to spread power and potentially use the opponent’s Ongoing decks against them. These two slots would be flexible, and it may just be better to play Namor and Attuma (or the tried and true America Chavez).
SafetyBlade
Here is a take on the Spectrum deck with Ms. Marvel. This deck includes Howard the Duck, but it is definitely not core and just serves a role as an Ongoing 1-drop.
The goal here is simple: play cards in the adjacent lanes for the effect and stack the middle location. Finish with Spectrum or Onslaught, depending on whether you successfully stacked the middle or had to spread your power.
Lockdown
SafetyBlade
The Professor X and Storm direction may end up being an efficient way to play Ms. Marvel. Here you have Storm and Professor X along with good, value 4- and 5-drops that can support the locked lanes. Ms. Marvel can then come down and send another five power to the locked down lanes as well.
den
There’s also this take on a Lockdown deck courtesy of den. This one has Medusa to help fill the middle lane with power and aims to lock down the right and/or left lanes. You can go wide with plenty of cards here, and, if we do get the lockdown on the side lanes, Alioth acts as your final checkmate.
Darkhawk
SafetyBlade
Darkhawk may be able to support the Ms. Marvel game plan. You have several 1- and 2-drops that you can play on the adjacent lanes to get the effect active. You can then try to build up the middle lane (or the lane you want to target) with support with cards like Onslaught.
Variants
Closing Thoughts
Ms. Marvel seems to not only support and raise the viability of some underplayed cards, but it can also slot into some already supported archetypes. However, it does not appear to be universal in application. Many decks will struggle to support the requirement and push for two lanes, so (unlike some of the recent Season Pass cards) its use cases may not be so omnipresent.
Still, 15 power is a lot, and adding this power to decks that can support Ms. Marvel is likely to be worth exploring. We will just have to wait and see how consistently the effect can be activated.
Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!
