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It might be my anticipation of certain cards being changed to Activate talking, but even though this OTA has many changes—which I absolutely support—there aren’t many that are particularly exciting.
Don’t get me wrong, I do think Mockingbird deserved another slight nerf, and all the buffed cards were definitely in need of some form of help. However, apart from War Machine (which is now more than a gimmick combo on Turn 6 and makes me want to build some decks to see how good it can be), one extra power to a few support cards doesn’t spell “brand new meta” to me, rather “slot these into an already strong deck and see how good it is”.
That is kind of my main concern with this OTA; the reasons why these changes might fail come to me more naturally than why they might succeed. But I don’t like this feeling, so let’s try to get rid of it with some cool deck ideas!
Overall, I see three changes that could have a substantial impact in this OTA:
- Sandman might be dead on the spot since it now gets checked by Mobius M. Mobius (and is simply a much worse card). Naturally, this makes the Midrange Sandman deck one you shouldn’t see as much of, which takes cards like Makkari and Leader to the grave with it.
- War Machine could now be a solid card, as playing it on Turn 4 gives you the opportunity to play plenty of cards on the last two turns. Cards like Ebony Maw, Crossbones, The Infinaut, and Giganto got a lot better with this change. I could also mention the ability to easily win unplayable locations, but we are in a Move themed season so that feels less impactful.
- Mockingbird becoming a 9 power card changes the dynamic of the “10 Power” archetype around Skaar much more than just removing one card from it. Indeed, Mockingbird formed a trio with Mysterio and Sasquatch, while also making Squirrel Girl a great 1-Cost and therefore Marvel Boy a good 3-Cost. No more Mockingbird shakes the archetype to its very core, and it could have shut it down entirely—even with the ten power Aero that the devs gave us to mitigate the impact.
In other decks however, Mockingbird now dodges Shang-Chi, so can be slammed on board whenever you have the energy available for it.
As for the rest of the changes, I don’t really see Ghost Rider or Moon Girl as any differently from where they were before. If their abilities make sense in a deck, you’ll play them. Otherwise, a slight power change doesn’t really make them more appealing. Two power might have tilted the balance, though, especially for Moon Girl.
I have some hope that Ghost Rider and Black Knight could make sense in a War Machine deck filled with high power cards. So let’s stay optimistic and say the power change reminded me of that synergy, which is one of the great things about an OTA; reminding the community of certain cards that tend to be forgotten is not nothing. Black Cat wouldn’t be bad in that deck either now that I think about it, so I’ll take that power buff as, well… Wait… I’m starting to see how just one power might be enough for most of these cards to see play again… Is this a good OTA after all?
War Machine and Discard
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War Machine is by far the most exciting change in this patch. It now synergizes pretty well with the Black Cat and Ghost Rider changes through their connection with Black Knight. Indeed, both the 1-Cost and the now Ongoing card want to play with high power cards, even if they have huge limitations attached to them.
And even though War Machine could be played with Madame Web to move cards behind Ebony Maw, I feel like the discard build has more gas.
In the first list, I went all in on developing power at the cost of Shang-Chi being a disaster for the deck. You want to play War Machine or Shuri behind Hope Summers to open some crazy play patterns on the last two turns. Some of my favorites include The Infinaut or Giganto into Taskmaster, or passing six energy on Turn 5 to boost Sunspot and allowing you to play She-Hulk plus any 6-Cost.
In the second list, you have more support with Armor and Cosmo, which means you should be much harder to disrupt. However, the more synergistic nature with the discard synergy means that you might have difficult hands a bit more often. This one feels like a Snap oriented deck with Black Knight acting as the tiebreaker.
Moon Girl
I can’t figure out which deck would play Moon Girl at five power when it didn’t at four power. I thought about Arishem, but that feels more like playing roulette than anything else, especially with all the reliable builds available already. As such, I went to the only archetype that deeply cares about the power written on a card: Cerebro.
There’s nothing crazy here. Use Moon Girl to duplicate your 1-Cost cards and get ready for some fireworks on Turn 6—especially if you managed to play Black Swan on Turn 5. This one should be much, much stronger once Black Swan becomes an Activate card, and that’s something the community expects to happen in next week’s patch.
I included Doctor Doom out of habit, and to give the deck another play pattern if you don’t find Moon Girl or Black Swan. You can just drop your 1-Costs on Turn 5 followed by the 6-Cost. Enchantress, Omega Red, or other cards that are able to carry a match can replace that slot since Doctor Doom won’t do much but sit in your hand until Turn 6, limiting your ability to manage your hand for Moon Girl.
Aero
Aero as a ten power card makes it better, obviously, but I mentioned in the introduction that I don’t believe it will keep the “10 Power” archetype alive. And considering I lost hope in the “move your opponent’s cards” archetype, Junk is probably the synergy that is most able to do something with the new Aero.
There’s nothing fancy here; you have a high power card that helps you win a lane while contributing to the core idea of clogging your opponent’s space on the board. There are plenty of ways to build around the Junk synergy, so feel free to adapt this deck to your own play style. I’m a sucker for Bounce, hence why I decided to feature this list (which was originally running Sersi instead of Aero to evolve the low power cards).
Closing Words
Overall, this OTA feels like it killed two archetypes in Midrange Sandman and the “10 Power” deck built around Skaar while only giving us one field of experimentation with War Machine. I don’t mind it too much, though, as the new cards are shaking things up with the Move synergy making strides. Plus, we should (hopefully) get several cards changed to Activate early next week.
With this in mind, I didn’t expect this OTA to be a ground-breaking one, and the nerfs to Sandman and Mockingbird are actually more than I anticipated. War Machine was a very pleasant surprise, though.
I hope for more to innovate around in the future, but the more I think about this OTA and the context it comes out in, the more I like it.
I hope this breakdown helped you get a better grasp of what to expect once the OTA goes live on Thursday. As usual, you can find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord to chat, or use my Twitter page for a direct message.
Good Game Everyone.
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