Ravonna Renslayer Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide: More Cost Reduction = Good

Ravonna Renslayer is a Series 4 card for the September 2023 Season Loki For All Time. It is a 3-Cost, 3-Power card that reads Ongoing: Your cards with 1 or less Power cost 1 less. (minimum 1). Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Ravonna Renslayer represents our second energy reduction card this month. The pool of cards this interacts with is limited to only cards with a base power lower than one, which seems like a big limitation. However, when we count the cards that interact with this card, there are 26 cards (27 if we include Knull since it could end up being consistently impacted), which importantly include:

• Iron Man
• Mystique
• Cerebro
• White Tiger
• Wolfsbane
• Ironheart
• Jubilee

Just to name a few. Energy reduction cards need to be respected because, if the right combinations can be found consistently, reducing cards by one energy wins games. Before we dive into the positives for this card, we will quickly outline the downsides.

First, the effect is attached to a 3-Cost card that is below the curve with only three power, and it has to be played. The second downside is actually the small pool of cards she interacts with. The third downside is that the effect is Ongoing. Think back to how you play Zabu, a below curve card that hits a pool of cards, and these downsides and any concerns about them should fade away.

She is a playable 3-Cost card that neatly curves into reducing several 5-Cost cards and allows for combinations on later turns that were previously impossible or took significantly more work. Yes, there is an elephant in the room being released next week (Mobius M. Mobius) that could change the effectiveness if your builds are too heavily leaned into this card, but cost reduction is usually good and this one is probably no different.

Mister Negative decks have a cross synergy with Ravonna since those decks are often built with cards that have a base power below one. These get discounted by Ravonna if you miss on Mister Negative. You can play Ravonna on Turn 3, reduce the cards you’ve already drawn, and then Mister Negative can flip the rest of deck on Turn 4. This allows for more flexibility and should raise the power level of these decks.

However, these decks remain draw dependent and can easily lose to locations or key tech cards like Cosmo. The fragility of this deck is slightly reduced by being able to reduce the brick draws by having a second way to get key reductions to set up combinations. At the end of the day, Mister Negative are not consistent, and Ravonna Renslayer may not do enough to bring the archetype back.

The On Reveal package may be overlooked by many who would immediately jump to Mister Negative synergies. When we consider the cards that benefit from Ravonna, most of them have On Reveal effects – and, most importantly, Ironheart. Ironheart as a 2-Cost from the Ravonna discount is an incredible upgrade, and it allows Ironheart to be played on the same turn as Absorbing Man, which could potentially be on the same lane as Wong.

Forge isn’t the most exciting On Reveal beneficiary, but this one could be big. Why? With Ravonna down, Forge can be played on Turn 5 alongside Iron Man. An extra three power on key cards like Black Panther can also have additional benefits.

Hobgoblin for four energy could easily win games on its own. Hobgoblin is a card that is held back by its high cost, which makes it harder to use and more likely to be countered. More often than not, Hobgoblon landing results in a lane victory, so the ability to play it on Turn 4 makes it less likely to be countered. This could be a major upgrade for Junk decks, as you can try to fill the locations earlier.

Green Goblin receives the same benefit, but to a lesser degree. The potential of playing Green Goblin on Turn 5, for example, alongside another three energy play is enticing, which leads us to Galactus. Wave and Green Goblin on Turn 5 could be something worth trying in Galactus decks that want to play for Turn 6.

Finally, the reason to be most excited to try this card: a 4-Cost Iron Man. This card alone should be worth exploring the possibilities for Ravonna Renslayer. If we combine this with Darkhawk (another card reduced by Ravonna), we can conceivably start playing Iron Man in midrange strategies and potentially even double the effect with Mystique.

Cerebro and Mystique are both reduced by this card. Making these cost four energy together means you can play this alongside other cards on the final turn. This is a big deal, as we can conceal our power for longer and play more of the other cards.

The Verdict

Energy reduction is an effect that should never be underrated – especially in Marvel Snap. The most powerful effects in the game often have low power levels as a base and higher energy costs. We are yet to see an energy reduction card that has not upended the metagame. While this one might not be as obvious, it works with some of the most powerful card effects in the game.

Ravonna Renslayer may not seem as obviously flashy as some of the other cost reduction effects we have had in Marvel Snap, but the ability to play Iron Man on Turn 4 alone makes the card stronger than it appears on the surface. The discounts for the On Reveal package may also allow for significant power output across the board.

Potential Score:

On Reveal

Leading with the On Reveal package, this deck is based around triggering Ironheart as many times as possible. To support this, we have Zabu (to reduce the 4-Cost cards) and Ravonna Renslayer (to reduce everything else). The two cards serve a double purpose since the deck wins by having cards on locations to receive buffs. It is very common to see Iceman or Zabu reach 12 to 14 power with this deck.

The addition of Ravonna allows for Wolfsbane to take the “go tall” spot in the deck, too. Reducing the cost of Wolfsbane or Ironheart also allows for them to be played on Turn 6 with Wong or Absorbing Man without Zabu, increasing the flexibility of the deck.

Mister Negative

As mentioned at the start of this post, Mister Negative is likely to see the most experimentation. Still, the deck’s weaknesses remain. There are, however, a few ways to build the deck to give yourself the best chance. This first one is the classic Arnim Zola + Black Panther direction. For all the unique ways to build Mister Negative, having the clear back-up line of Wong, Black Panther, and Arnim Zola has stood the test of time.

The added benefit here is that we can potentially get Iron Man and Ironheart cheap enough to be played alongside each other on Turn 6. This combo could add a surprising amount of power to the board and win second lanes or help you go wide.

Negative Lad

The second direction is to lean heavily into lots of good 4-drops to get value. Zabu reduces the costs on these cards, and Ravonna Renslayer reduces the costs on your zero power cards. This can reduce the cost of most of the cards in the deck by at least one energy on curve.

We can also use Iron Lad or Jubilee as another chance to get Zabu, Mister Negative, or Ravonna Renslayer down if we missed them with our early draws. The power ceiling is lower since you are relying on Ironheart, Wolfsbane, and Arnim Zola to create power, but the consistency is much higher since this is, effectively, a Zabu deck.

Negative Reveal

The third direction for including Ravonna Renslayer in Mister Negative is going all in on On Reveal. The benefit here is there are only three cards that Ravonna will not reduce (Zabu, Wong and Jane Foster Mighty Thor), so hitting the Ravonna activates a lot of the combos in the deck.

Note on Taskmaster: Wolfsbane on Wong is usually 14 power, and Taskmaster can be played on an alternate lane for four energy alongside Wolfsbane without Negative reductions. This may not seem as high as the crazier combinations, but 14 power on two lanes on Turn 6 (as a low roll) isn’t bad and certainly worth experimenting with.

Negative Surfer

The fourth and final direction is Silver Surfer (Ravonna Renslayer is a 3-drop, after all). There’s not much in the way of innovation in this list, but you do have another enabler for Mystique, Ironheart, Wolfsbane, which could lead to a higher power spike after Silver Surfer.

The Living Tribunal

This is a simple one. If we consider what deck can get the most benefit from a 4-Cost Iron Man, it is most likely the generic The Living Tribunal deck. We can also use Forge to add power to the The Living Tribunal lane for one energy thanks to Ravonna Renslayer.

The main downside remains: we need to get The Living Tribunal out. So, Jubilee and Iron Lad make an appearance to help see more of the deck, both Armor and Cosmo are here to protect the combo.

Darkhawk

Another deck that may be overlooked is Darkhawk, which gets a major benefit from Iron Man and Mystique. This list gets extra value from Mystique being able to copy both Darkhawk and Iron Man, and Iron Lad has lots of good hits.

We can also include plenty of cards that are just “good”. The current downside is that Loki may take our cards and just do our plan better.

Surfer Brood

Patriot is yet another card that benefits from Ravonna Renslayer and may be overlooked. Here we set up for a cheaper Forge, Ironheart, and Wolfsbane, alongside the Brood and Mister Sinister package for Patriot.

The reductions here all work towards the goal of playing lots of stats, and we can include Iron Man here comfortably to go tall on any lane. On paper, the stats this deck puts out could be enough to make Ravonna Renslayer a powerhouse card.

Cerebro

Cerebro! Long time readers may notice I usually avoid the inclusion of a Cerebro deck with every new card, and this is because I rarely believe any one card will improve the archetype enough. However, in the current metagame, Cerebro is in a strong position, and Ravonna Renslayer appears to clearly improve the deck.

The energy reduction hits some key cards in the deck, so the reduction isn’t just a nice-to-have here. It allows for both Cerebro and Mystique to be played on Turn 4. I went with the risky strategy of including Bast since hitting one of Cerebro or Mystique with Bast still makes the duo playable for five energy. Plus, it adds power to games where we don’t draw Ravonna Renslayer in time.

Trash and Goblins

When we consider the Goblins, we have to consider just how powerful the two cards are in a vacuum. The Goblins don’t just add power – they reduce the flexibility of your opponent by reducing their board space, which is one of the key in game resources.

Here we include cards like Sentry and Iron Man to add power, as well as the newest toy Alioth as a finisher once the game is limited to one location. Ravonna Renslayer into Hobgoblin may turn out to be a lane winning combination, and then we only need to win one more lane.

Galactus

With Galactus, we can potentially move away from Electro and run a solid Goblins and Destroyer package alongside the Galactus plan, all of which is enabled by Wave. If we land both Goblins in a lane, we may have all but guaranteed a Turn 6 Galactus. Without Galactus, we should have reduced the power on the lane enough for a Turn 5 Nimrod into Turn 6 Destroyer to win the game.

Forge is also great with Nimrod, Destroyer, and Galactus, and can be played for one energy alongside Hobgoblin on Turn 5. Wave and Green Goblin could also make up your Turn 5, limiting the game to one card on Turn 6 while junking a spot on the board.

So, yes, Galactus is in this deck, as is Alioth, but this is really just a Destroyer deck in disguise.

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Closing Thoughts

When you dig into the decks, Ravonna Renslayer looks to enable some truly ridiculous turns and raises the potential ceiling of a surprising amount of archetypes. Cost reduction in card games is the most powerful effect that can exist.

Although a lot of players are writing Ravonna Renslayer off as being too narrow, the cards it supports are inherently powerful by nature with game-winning abilities. That alone could be enough for it to change the game once again this month (at least until next week when we find out if a tech card Mobius M. Mobius is really enough to control the metagame).

Good Luck, Have Fun, and Stay Safe!