Table of Contents
The now customary small balance changes for the week are now released, and the community already started buzzing around their implications. Particularly, the extra power awarded to Luke Cage is the big talking point of this OTA patch, as its pairing with Hazmat are already featured in several decks of the current metagame.
Toxic Sera will probably end up being the better deck with Luke Cage in it, but it wouldn’t really speak of the impact of Luke Cage being buffed. It simply is one of the best decks in the game already, and an extra power is nice. However, a deck which could have its fortune affected by this change, is Cerebro 2. Indeed, Cerebro 2 was already running Luke Cage, as it protects the archetype from cards like Scorpion and locations like Necrosha. Also, the card has a natural synergy with Hazmat, which is a two power card already. Now, Luke Cage will be able to receive the Cerebro buff, which makes the card virtually be buffed by three, sometimes five power, instead of just one in that particular deck.
Decks with Luke Cage
Alongside Luke Cage, The Collector and Orka also received some extra power, although it is harder to figure out where these cards can contribute and become a staple. The Collector has an obvious connection with the Devil Dinosaur deck, but will have to fight to compete for a spot, as Zabu is solidly anchored in the deck ever since Darkhawk became the default complementary package. Sentinel is the usual second 2-cost card, and seems even better with The Collector in the deck, meaning we probably have to look somewhere else to find which card to cut to run the newly buff card in the archetype.
Decks with The Collector
Orka has never seen play in Marvel Snap, going as far as being considered the worst card from the original Series 4 and 5 announcements. The card now represents a 16 power drop on a lane, only losing a one on one with The Infinaut. It seems like a stretch to call Orka a good card with just an extra two power. Still, there are a few ideas to explore with the card, at least to see if it manages to get out of the “nobody wants to play you Orka” zone.
With a surefire improvement in Luke Cage, a maybe in The Collector, and a big question mark in Orka, this OTA patch should have a much smaller impact than the one we had last week, when Enchantress and Sandman was changed. Nevertheless, there are a few decks worth exploring in the light of this week’s changes. They will probably be much more gimmicky than those pushed by last week’s OTA, but should at least bring a little fun to Marvel Snap for a day or two.
Let’s explore all those decks, and see which ones might have a competitive future in Marvel Snap!
Cerebro 2, obviously
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I don’t think there is a ton to be said about this one, as Luke Cage was already played in the archetype, so it simply is a straight up buff. If you enjoyed Cerebro 2 in the past, you are probably very happy with this extra power on the card. Similarly, if you never tried the archetype, it might be a good time to see if it is worth anything now, as it will probably be the strongest it has even been.
What I would like to talk about instead, is what could happen if Cerebro 2 actually becomes a strong deck, and one would be looking to counter it. Considering there is Luke Cage in the build, you can’t rely on trying to lower the opponent’s power with Scorpion, Spider-Woman, or the Soul Stone. However, there is one thing Luke Cage does not protect the deck from: Bonuses. As such, I think it would be quite ironic to see Red Skull, and very likely the rest of Shuri Zero make a comeback to be the answer to Cerebro 2 becoming a dominating archetype.
I don’t think it is very likely to happen, but that is a funny scenario that would actually make the Luke Cage buff extremely impactful overall.
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A few decks to consider for Orka
My method when a completely irrelevant card receives a buff is to try in a variety of decks, and see if anything stands out. Realistically, Orka was amongst the worst cards in Marvel Snap, so I don’t expect it to push an archetype to the top of the tier list. In order for Orka to seen some play again, it needs to find a spot in an established archetype, which could see Orka as a potential upgrade. “Potential” being the important word here.
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First, we have Ongoing Destroyer, which actually would ditch Destroyer in favor of Orka. In the end, 16 is stronger than 15, so why not try it.
The archetype is already considered a pretty bad one overall if we look at the bigger picture. However, for those still collecting Pool 3 cards, the Ongoing archetype is amongst the easiest ones to pick up. In this build, I included Nebula and Goose, but I’m sure these two can be replaced, with Nightcrawler and Colossus for example, and make this deck Pool 2 friendly except for Orka.
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This Electro variant is a gimmick I like a lot, where the idea is to use Doctor Octopus on the right most lane, and then have Heimdall to move our cards to the middle, and left locations. In that scenario, and pretty much whenever we don’t want to play Doctor Doom in the end, Orka doesn’t seem like such a bad option.
Of course, I have my doubts regarding the ability of Orka to make us forget about cards like Devil Dinosaur or Magneto in Electro Ramp, but let’s try to have an open mind here.
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One could also try to mix both concepts, and end up with a hybrid deck using the Ongoing Synergy and Electro together. In this scenario, Orka would be able to be supported by Spectrum or Onslaught, buffing Mister Fantastic or Klaw, and likely enough to force a big investment from the opponent to win the location. I think it probably is the better way to use Orka overall, as this deck makes it very easy to visualize where to play the newly buffed card.
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Last on our list, and probably the one I have the most faith in, is Tempo Attuma. I like this deck because it packs several of the upsides from the Ongoing archetype, such as Klaw, or the ability to play on two lanes only for fives turns quite easily. Yet, it isn’t super invested in one, obvious gameplan the opponent could counter with an Enchantress or a Debrii for example.
In this deck, Orka would just represent a second Destroyer, and offer the possibility to challenge an empty lane on turn six. Considering we have Attuma or Professor X to be really strong on one already, Orka could lead to solid play patterns in this particular deck.
The Collector pushes Devil Dinosaur to go solo
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I have seen this idea be shared a bit on social media, and have to agree it actually sounds promising. For numerous months now, Devil Dinosaur was paired with Darkhawk, as there was not enough good card to make a full deck. Also, considering both packages had many 4-cost cards, they would usually meet with both abusing Zabu, leading to a well-rounded archetype.
However, whenever other decks would take a page from the Devil Darkhawk build, it was usually the Darkhawk cards we would consider first. In the Doom Wave archetype, notably, the deck featured in our Meta Tier List has been a Darkhawk variant for some time already. If The Collector ends up being a good enough building block thought, things could change, as Devil Dinosaur would not be alone in carrying the load for the deck.
In this deck, for example, the card has synergies with Storm in addition to the usual “add cards to your hand” crew. Similarly to what is done with Morbius in discard, The Collector can represent an anchor to the lane we expect to Storm, as we can increase its power later on, when no cards can be played there.
With Nebula being the strong 1-cost card we expected, and also synergizing with Storm. The build seems to have a shot at taking the lead early in the match, creating the perfect situation to abuse the Wave – She-Hulk duo in the late game.
Closing Words
In the end, what looked like quite a boring balance patch could have a few surprises in store, and impact the metagame more than we would think at first sight. The Collector and Orka in particular, two cards which I thought were much further than just a one, or two power increase from being playable, managed to get my hopes up as I started searching how to use them now.
Last week, we had some changes which we knew were going to have a big impact, and the curiosity was based on how chaotic the metagame would become. This time, most people doubt anything at all will change, and dismiss this patch as just a step towards bigger things in the future. However, after looking at the various ideas the community managed to come up with, I’m starting to think we could have a surprise if any of these three cards ends up being relevant enough in the near future. As highlighted with the Cerebro deck, sometimes, the domino effect can lead us to situations we would have never guessed were still a possibility.
Obviously, I will monitor all the consequences closely, and report all of it in our next Tier List early next week. Until then, I wish you all some fun on Marvel Snap, and may you find a deck you enjoy in the few I shared today. As usual, join us on Discord to chat with the community, or find on Twitter for daily deck sharing and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
