Table of Contents
Nightmare is the third Series 5 cards joining Marvel Snap for the June 2025 Season, Masters of the Arcane. It is a 3-Cost, -1-Power card that reads: On Reveal: Replace the text of each card in your hand with text from a random card of the same Cost.
Today, let’s explore the new card strengths and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Nightmare
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop as the latest Seasonal Spotlight card. They will be also be included in the Seasonal Series 5 Snap Pack for 5,000 Collector’s Tokens during their season and the following one.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The first thing I thought about Nightmare was I just have to throw this in Small Good Cards so it becomes a 3/3, and it’s fine. But then I realized that all the other cards in that deck are low power because they have a powerful ability and I wouldn’t want to change their text.
I tried to take the opposite route: Nightmare is a Sauron card I guess. But it’s same thing here, it feels weird to add a negative power card into a deck that is aimed at producing a ton of power. Is it really worth it to play Nightmare over Surtur on Turn 3 to remove the text of Red Skull and Typhoid Mary? And what happens if you have Skaar in hand?
So I started listing the cards with text I would like to change to see if there was something they had in common:
Decks with Ebony Maw
Decks with Martyr
Decks with Titania
Decks with Starbrand
Decks with Attuma
Decks with Crossbones
Decks with Cull Obsidian
Decks with Typhoid Mary
Decks with Agatha Harkness
Decks with The Infinaut
There are a few more, but these are cards that wouldn’t lose me the game if they didn’t get hit by Nightmare (as opposed to, say, Destroyer).
That is precisely Nightmare‘s biggest weakness: the card wants you to play a high-risk, high-reward game. In my opinion, if you aren’t a wonderful Snap and Retreat strategist, Nightmare won’t net you any type of positive result. You have to think in terms of Cube Rate with the new 3-Cost and accept a decent Win Rate at best, similar to Mister Negative and other decks like that.
With that in mind, maybe we should look for other cards that benefit from this type of card to help with their deck’s reliability a bit. Just in case you don’t draw Nightmare on Turn 3 every game.
Decks with Sauron
Decks with Black Knight
Decks with War Machine
These three are notorious for working with high power cards, so I would expect Nightmare to pair with their already existing synergies very well. Combining the new 3-Cost with one of these will likely be the way to make Nightmare decks reliable enough; just capitalizing on drawing it on Turn 3 every game is playing a 50-50 roulette. Nightmare has an appealing ability, but we aren’t quite in Mister Negative territory.
However, because Nightmare isn’t as demanding as Mister Negative, there’s a lot more room deckbuilding wise. Let’s explore some of the cards you could include in order to make Nightmare a little more appealing from a power perspective:
Decks with Merlin
Decks with Annihilus
Decks with Sersi
Because you play it on Turn 2, Merlin should not be a problem to run with Nightmare. The two 5-Costs might be a little trickier, but the fact that you have two at your disposal increases the chances of still having one in deck when Nightmare is played. Plus, 7 and 8 power isn’t so bad for a 5-Cost, so Sersi and Annihilus might still be playable with different text (depending on which one you get).
There are a few fantastic Ongoing cards in the 5-Cost slot (Iron Man, Blue Marvel, Klaw) that I wouldn’t mind grabbing the ability from when playing Nightmare.
The Verdict: Should You Buy Nightmare?
Let’s be honest for a minute. Nightmare is not a card you go after for competitive purposes. Instead, the new 3-Cost opens a new dimension filled with shenanigans, high rolls and bluff Snaps. If you enjoy that type of gameplay, Nightmare is the perfect card for you and easily worthy of a 10-star rating.
If you like a more disciplined deck that you can pilot using similar play-patterns game after game, perhaps Nightmare isn’t a card for you.
As for the impact I believe Nightmare will have, I have faith. Indeed, I expect the new 3-Cost to not be super impressive early on, at least until we figure out a somewhat reliable deck using its unique ability. Once we have that, though, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Nightmare in a Tier List in the future. After all, there is already enough support for it in Marvel Snap.
Plus, the card looks like a big risk due to its -1 Power. If Nightmare was to fail, a bit of extra power would remove that problem so there is at least a very simple way to buff it if necessary.
Pre-Release Score:
Nightmare Decks
These decks are scary just looking at them. Not because I expect them to dominate, but because I feel neither player will know what to expect.
Let’s look at the Agatha deck for example. Here, the deck could produce a 14 power Ebony Blade on Turn 3 and play for points from that point on with Ebony Blade or Ghost Rider on Turn 4.
In case you don’t find Black Knight or Ghost Rider early, limiting the appeal of the discards, you could also play Nightmare to change Agatha’s ability. Then you just hope to draw either Sersi or Annihilus to get rid of the -1 Nightmare later on.
I feel like most of Nightmare‘s decks will pose that type of puzzle: one with a game plan when you draw into Nightmare, and one when you don’t.
den
Sauron is the obvious pairing for Nightmare considering the now 1-Cost only works with “high power, risky ability” cards. I had to include Merlin in the mix in the hopes of Polymorphing Nightmare, but you could also replace it with Attuma.
A similar idea to the Agatha Harkness deck, except I included the War Machine trio in this version. The Infinaut with a different ability is likely one of the strongest things to do with Nightmare, so I figured this one had to be tested eventually.
den
The 4- and 5-Cost Clog cards have a pretty good power-to-cost ratio. If the opponent played Merlin early or has a Destroy deck, you could just drop Nightmare and play an entirely different game plan.
Variants
Conclusion
Nightmare should be purchased for fun purposes first and foremost, but I am not dismissing the possibility of a good deck coming out of that card.
With War Machine, Sauron, or Black Knight, there are already a few known foundations to fit plenty of high power cards in. On top of those, Agatha Harkness and Annihilus also have some interesting synergies with the card.
Nightmare has a cool enough ability to be appealing, and we have enough in the game to give it a real try. If the new 3-Cost ends up being a strong card, that will be the icing on the cake.
I hope this review of the new card 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!
More Content