Table of Contents
Agent Venom has been the best card in the game since it released. He’s shaping the meta and pushing multiple archetypes. With the recent reinforcement of Toxin, the Season Pass card has never felt so good. Even the developers acknowledged this fact in their paragraph about Shadow King: “Speaking of Agent Venom, the card has spawned a lot of strong decks!”.
Among those decks are two of the best in the game, Good Cards and Bounce. Both are able to grow cards to huge numbers and are fairly weak to Shadow King as a result. However, both are also able to play around Shadow King very well thanks to running Cosmo or bouncing their cards back in hand.
In this context, I feel like the buff to Shadow King is more of a reminder that the card exists and can help against Agent Venom than a real influx of power. Indeed, at the higher levels, the card will do the exact same job as a [2/3] that it did as a [2/2]. The key part is managing to land Shadow King in the first place. Considering the other changes—especially those to Storm and Rockslide—I fear the meta might be headed towards even more of Agent Venom.
With that said, let’s focus on the decks that you might want to test following this OTA. I want to find ways to beat the current rulers of Marvel Snap, and I have a few ideas that might just work.
Are you ready for a lot of Zabu?
Zabu Works With Storm and Rockslide!
The new Zabu isn’t as strong as the old [2/2] Ongoing, obviously, but it still managed to become a solid ally for plenty of good 4-Cost cards. Naturally, with Storm and Rockslide now joining that club, I had to explore their new synergy with Zabu.
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These two archetypes used Zabu in the past, although it wasn’t their best performing build at the time. Following the changes to Rockslide and Storm, however, it only makes sense to consider these lists as the possible new standards.
There is another interesting development with Storm being a [4/5]: you can now cleanly curve her into Legion without being required to play War Machine in between. Sure, this means you don’t get to play on Turn 6, but if your deck has an explosive start or you’re able to move your cards, it might be totally fine for both players to skip the last turn.
And wouldn’t you know, Lockdown already has a decent deck with a much more explosive start and the ability to move cards on Turn 6:
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Misery Will Keep Enabling Disruptive Decks
In addition to the Darkhawk Misery deck, the now [4/8] has a few other tricks up its sleeve. Here are a few decks with solid results right now that are running Misery. I can vouch for the Mill deck, which I used in a tournament recently. The Black Bolt + Stature version isn’t one I used myself, but it has had good numbers lately so it might be worth a try if you want to attack your opponent’s hand on top of their deck. The other decks here are I found scanning the various deck trackers, and they’re performing well enough.
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I have no hope for Electro after this OTA to be honest. The card as a [3/3] doesn’t feel much better than it was with one less power. Still, its synergy with Misery makes the duo gain two power in total, so that might be something!
I was very surprised to see a Thanos deck do well, even if it was over something like 90 games. With the OTA, the deck has gained two power as well, and it also represents an exotic option for playing your newly acquired Toxin.
Daredevil as a [2/3] is Playable!
I have run across Daredevil in Arishem a few times, but I never gave it much credit with Loki, Cable, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, and tons of other strong 2-Costs available. However, I can’t deny that Daredevil in Arishem makes sense, as that deck has access to Alioth on Turn 5.
Removing Blob for Magneto opens yet another way to lock your opponent out by dragging all their 3- and 4-Cost cards to a single location. It might be too much, but let’s think about Daredevil in here, too. You can sprinkle some Juggernaut and Cosmo on top since both of these cards have a ton of upsides if you know what and where your opponent is playing (Negasonic Teenage Warhead is another consideration in this role). Daredevil could be an easy Turn 5 Snap machine after this OTA.
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Typhoid Mary and Annihilus are Best Buds Now!
I don’t really know why this idea wasn’t playable when Typhoid Mary reduced all your cards. I guess it was too much of a drawback, even if it did allow you to send plenty of cards to your opponent with Annihilus. In her new form, Typhoid Mary is obviously stronger as a standalone card, and I could have shared the usual Shuri Sauron deck (but you don’t need me to tell you that). Instead, let’s talk about playing Mysterio and Debrii with Typhoid Mary and sending all the negative cards in a lane to your opponent with Annihilus!
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think that sounds fun.
Naturally, this is the most gimmicky deck in this article so it might require some refinement. In particular, you might want another 2-Cost to stabilize your early game since Hazmat is rarely good at that point in the game. I’m not totally sure what to remove, though, but it’s likely either Ajax or Sentry. Honestly, it’s probably Sentry (even if it makes Sersi much worse). Ajax can be worth a lot more points than a lone Sentry at least.
As for which 2-Cost to include, Daredevil feels perfect in that role. He gives you the information you need to know whether you can play Annihilus that turn or not.
Closing Words
Apart from Electro and Miek (which I believe are kind of the same even with an extra power), the cards in this OTA feel pretty different. I know I started this article by saying the end result might just be more of Agent Venom if Lockdown and Darkhawk lose some popularity, which would be the worst outcome. But I’m not ruling out Daredevil and Misery. If they gain some traction and bring new archetypes along for the ride, that would be the best outcome!
I hope this breakdown helped you get a better grasp of what to expect with this patch. As usual, you can find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord to chat, or use my Twitter page for a direct message or coaching inquiry.
Good Game Everyone.
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