Namora is the next new card for the May 2024 Season, A Blink in Time. It is a 5-Cost, 6-Power card that reads: On Reveal: Give +5 Power to each of your cards alone at another location. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Namora
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop initially as a Weekly Spotlight card, or opened as one of the featured cards in the Spotlight Caches that are found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500 (until the next new card releases the following week).
Strengths and Weaknesses
Namora arrives in Marvel Snap this week. She has an interesting effect that rewards you for playing fewer cards on lanes in a new way, and she may be the centerpiece of a new strategy for constructing decks. But is the effect strong enough for the effort, or will it be too easy to counter and play against to be worth your time?
Decks with Odin
Decks with Echo
Decks with Colossus
At a baseline, if Namora does everything you want her to do then she adds 16 power to the board. That is a lot of power, but to achieve this you need to be able to meet her restrictive requirement. On Turn 5 you need to have only one card on each other lane. Now, in theory this may seem quite hard to accomplish, but is it? Cards like Colossus and Armor, for example, can sit solo on lanes and wait for the bonus power while they’re almost un-interactable. In order for the all in strategy to really work, though, you will need a little more than 16 power. That is where Wong comes in. Wong will double the effect and immediately result in a 26 power play on Turn 5 (which can be reactivated again (and again) on Turn 6 with Odin). Alongside all this there’s the counter for Cosmo with a Turn 1 Echo. The core of the deck almost builds itself, and the pure numbers seem to indicate this will be a real threat.
Decks with White Widow
Decks with Leech
Cosmo can be worked around, but one recently buffed card severely hinders the potential impact of Namora. Leech acts as a hard counter to any heavy decks that are heavy with their On Reveal abilities, and Namora decks are likely to necessitate a high density of On Reveal cards due to how you want to spread your power after the Namora turn. This means any evaluation in the current meta must consider how hard it gets countered by the prevalence of Leech. While she may be the new centerpiece of an all in On Reveal deck, the current meta is not well placed for the release of this card. Some other counters exist that hurt Namora as well, such as cards that force you to have more than one card on a lane.
Decks with Electro
Decks with Jeff the Baby Land Shark
Decks with Nocturne
So, we have a powerful combination that can reach individual numbers higher than almost anything else in the game, but it can be countered with a small set of cards. If left unchecked or uncountered, however, it will be hard to beat. If it wasn’t for the large amount of Leech in the meta, this could have been an easy slam dunk. However, even with Leech in the meta, the condition may not be as hard as it seems to fulfill. Cards like Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Nocturne can hold lanes by themselves before moving after Namora is played. Electro allows you to play big cards on lanes that get bigger with the buff from Namora. And, although he may be laughed at, Namor does start at a base of 11 power. While these may not all be great options for Namora, with time we may be able to see new styles of game play emerge that revolve around landing these buffs.
The Verdict
In reality, 16 power is a lot. While the initial reaction that the condition may be too hard to meet is valid, what may hold this card back on release isn’t the condition but the prevalence of Leech. The condition can be played around in gameplay as well as deckbuilding, much like Ms. Marvel, which means it is likely less limited than it seems on the surface—especially since you can add other cards to the lane after playing Namora. Unfortunately, she is releasing into a hostile environment, so it may take some time for her to find any success.
Pre-Release Score:
Namora
SafetyBlade
This month has been surprising with each new card being able to make a case for the star of a deck, and this week is no different. This direction would be unlikely to exist without Namora. The goal here is simple: set up one card on two separate lanes, then play Namora. To do that, you have two options: Move cards or Armor/Colossus type cards. This deck uses both. This allows you to either relocate your Namora buffs or simply land them onto cards that cannot be interacted with. On another lane you can setup Wong on Turn 4 into Namora on Turn 5 followed by either Odin to go tall or White Tiger/Doctor Doom to go wide.
If your missing Nocturne, try Cosmo.
Namor
SafetyBlade
This shell is an old favorite, but it may need a bit more greed with Wong. The plan is to use the Goblins in conjunction with the cards that stand alone for surprising power. Namor may seem like a strange inclusion, but the buff from Namora can be followed up by adding cards. Although you will lose Namor‘s effect, you have already achieved what you needed from it: maintaining priority for Turn 5.
Ms. Marvel
SafetyBlade
But doesn’t Ms. Marvel need two cards minimum? Well, yes, but this is the best way to illustrate just how easy this effect may be to trigger. Here you have cards that you can stack in lanes while keeping two lanes with fewer cards until after Namora hits the board. Ravonna Renslayer even helps get cards like White Tiger and Iron Man down to four energy, which allows these to come down earlier or in addition to other cards on the later turns.
Variants
Closing Thoughts
Namora represents a lot of power, but the deck she is likely to become a part of is not well positioned in this meta due to Leech. Still, Namora could represent a whole new way to build decks once the meta is a little more suitable.
Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!
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