Negasonic Teenage Warhead Theorycraft, Strategy, and Decklists: Is It Time to Blow up the Meta?

Negasonic Teenage Warhead will be hitting Marvel Snap on March 21, 2023 as part of the Days of Future Past Season. This card will initially be available as a Series 5 card. Please note, the card has been confirmed to be a 3 Energy cost, 4 Power card when it should be released after the March 2023 patch.

Variants

Negasonic Teenage Warhead

After an enemy card is played here, destroy it. (once per game)

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Negasonic Teenage Warhead

As a reminder, Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens or opened via the Collection Level Track at a 0.25% drop rate in Collector’s Caches and Reserves. Negasonic Teenage Warhead is a 3 energy, 4 power card that has the following ability: After ANY card is played here, destroy this card AND that card.

Strategy and Potential

Negasonic has the potential be one of the most interesting additions to the game since the Token Shop began. This is a big claim, and it’s not one made lightly. This does not mean it is the most powerful card we have ever seen, or even a must buy card, but she does seem to scale in impact based on skill and could be usable in many different styles of decks. This makes her a card worth keeping an eye on.

We should start by noting that the power of this card is also the limitation. This is similar to a card like Titania. When played well, we could see Negasonic do powerful things in a range of decks, but she is also a liability in several situations. We may end up locking ourselves out of lanes or helping our opponent by allowing them to destroy something favorable for them. Additionally, she costs three for only two power, so we have to be certain that what we are going to do with her is worth the tempo loss.

Three energy can be awkward and may require her to be set up the turn before for some combinations, which is usually not preferable in Marvel Snap. There will also be times where not having priority makes her not very helpful to your gameplan or actively hinder you.

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

Variants

Death

Costs 1 less for each card destroyed this game.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Death

With the negatives addressed, let’s look at why this card is exciting in more detail. The real reason she has such high potential is this: she is not an On Reveal or Ongoing card. She goes onto the board and then destroys the next card. That’s it. Armor and Professor X should negate the effect as usual, but other than that the use of Negasonic is in the players’ control. We get to choose where and when she is played, and usually why.

Option 1 is the proactive approach. This involves playing her in Death and Knull style decks to set up for other cards. We can use her to destroy cards like Nimrod, Electro, and even Bucky Barnes. This looks promising because she hopefully allows for more flexible builds for decks that feature Death and Knull; however, if this is your reason for purchasing the card, note that she can be replaced in these strategies.

Option 2 is the reactive approach. This option appears to present the highest ceiling for the card because we can use Negasonic to defend from opposing plays or create awkward board states for our opponent.

Dropping Negasonic on a location where you’re ahead requires your opponent to play two cards to add any additional power there, and that can be a big ask for plenty of different decks. This flexibility could see her added to many different types of decks. Consider this: if you’re slightly ahead in a lane on Turn 5, playing Negasonic on Turn 6, blows up your opponent’s lane-winning play. If your opponent has already played Cosmo on a lane to defend another card, Negasonic played with priority still blows up the card they play behind Cosmo. The situations where you might benefit from playing Negasonic in this way are varied, and this card will create plenty of new scenarios.

Variants

Cosmo

Ongoing: On Reveal abilities won’t happen here.

Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Cosmo

Put simply, the card appears overpowered. As mentioned up top, she is her own limitation, and this could present a steep learning curve to realize her full potential as a controlling tool. If you’re interested in a potentially flexible tool with lots to explore, Negasonic is definitely a card for you. The potential is high here. But, of course, this could be way off the mark if it turns out she is just too awkward to fit into effective control turns, so proceed with caution.

Potential Score

Below are some possible starter decks for Negasonic Teenage Warhead with brief descriptions.

Starter Decks (Theorycraft)

Negasonic – Death

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 1 year ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Her first application is in basic Destroy decks. We can play her into Destroy decks and may be able to change the builds to include cards like Nimrod more consistently. In this build, we want to use Nimrod to go wide with Negasonic as both a defensive tool for lanes we set up early and a proactive tool for setting up our destroy effects.

Knull Wave

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 1 year ago

0

TheorycraftPool 5

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The main goal is playing Electro on Turn 3, Nimrod on Turn 4, and Destroyer on Turn 5, but we can make the tools work in many different ways now that we have Negasonic. She can be another destroy effect for Nimrod or even just destroy Electro if we need too. She also opens up enough destroy effects that we can maybe negate all these plans and play Wave on Turn 5 into Death + Knull.

A notable exclusion from this list is Shuri (or any way to buff Nimrod). This is because we are using Nimrod as a way to flood the board while we play board-wide destroy effects.

Air Control

Created by SafetyBlade

, updated 1 year ago

1

Theorycraft

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Let’s take a stab at using the card as a control tool. You will recognize parts of this package from many different Sera decks. This deck still wants to hit it’s key cards on time like Zabu on Turn 2 and Sera on Turn 5. Unfortunately, we have fewer cards that push power, so instead we are relying on the surprise and control provided by Negasonic, Aero, and Absorbing Man to win lanes.

Early in the game, play your set up cards and set up for Sera or Aero on Turn 5. Then, on Turn 6, we want to play multiple control tools to deny the opponent’s plays and secure the win. Absorbing Man simply allows you to double up on your Shang-Chi or use Aero‘s effect again on Turn 6. The assumption is that Aero will not work with Negasonic, but if she does then this adds even more power to the game plan.

Note: We could try dropping Aero for Juggernaut here. This would be more energy flexible and allow us to use Negasonic easier on Turn 6.

Who is Negasonic Teenage Warhead?

Ellie Phimister (Negasonic Teenage Warhead) is a mutant with the ability to generate explosive blasts from her body who was born in Genosha. Her powers also give her precognitive nightmares and premonitions.

Ellie was a student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and was one of Emma Frost’s (White Queen) students. During this time, she had premonitions of attacks on Genosha by Sentinels, which came to pass and wiped out half the world’s mutant population. Ellie died during the Genoshan genocide, and her death caused Emma Frost to suffer a mental breakdown.

She was later resurrected via the Techno-Organic Virus by Selene as part of the Necrosha event. From there she is hunted by Deadpool’s Mercs for Money on behalf of Umbral Dynamics. Umbral use Ellie to bring Presence back to life. Deadpool and the Mercs for Money save Ellie, and she joins their fight and eventually defeat Presence.

She has also joined the nation of Krakoa and been a member of the X-Men, but only recently had the comic spotlight turned directly on her with her first solo issue on Marvel Unlimited as part of the Infinity Comic line.

Fun fact: Grant Morrison named the character after a real song by the band Monster Magnet.

Good Luck Have Fun and Stay Safe!