Best Sam Wilson Captain America Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide – Updated

Sam Wilson Captain America is the next Season Pass card joining Marvel Snap for the February 2025 season, Brave New World. It is a 2-Cost, 3 Power card (sound familiar?) that reads: Game Start: Add Cap's Shield to a random location. Ongoing: You can move Cap's Shield.

Cap's Shield is a 1-Cost, 1 power card that reads: Ongoing: This can’t be destroyed. Give your Cap +2 Power when this moves to Cap’s location.

Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.

Season Pass

Strengths and Weaknesses

If you can play Sam Wilson Captain America on Turn 2, you can move his shield to its location twice (on Turns 3 and 5) at the very least. This would grant the Season Pass card +4 power to make it an effective [2/8]. This already feels like a lot of power, as most 3-Costs don’t even manage to create that much power. We’re talking about a Speed-level contribution here, which is no joke.

On top of that, you also have to account for the many synergies you can explore with Cap's Shield. It is a 1-Cost card, an Ongoing card, and it has the ability to Move (as long as Sam Wilson is on the board).

First off, let’s talk about Kraven. This is another target for extra power and a potential ping-pong partner with Sam Wilson Captain America, moving the shield from one to another. As for Hercules, you basically get a 50% chance to return Cap's Shield to its owner every time you move it to Hercules.

Naturally, the ability to move also has its counters, which will logically be the fun police if the new Season Pass card becomes prevalent.

Moving on to the 1-Cost aspect of Cap's Shield, this opens synergies that are not related to its owner.

On top of being a good target for either Ka-Zar or Marvel Boy, it is important to note that Cap's Shield cannot be destroyed and Killmonger won’t be a problem (for once).

And while I’m on the topic of power buffs, it’s also important to mention that it is an Ongoing card so other cards are able to buff it as well. Plus, Cap's Shield also buffs the original Captain America, making it much more reliable as an addition to any Ongoing strategy.

If you think about it, Cap's Shield might get bigger than Sam Wilson Captain America by the time the game ends.

On top of these basic but typically effective synergies, the ability to move every turn makes Cap's Shield a solid tool against Clog strategies. Simply place it in a location you wish to protect, and move it out when you have a card to play there. It’s also great for winning unplayable locations. This might be sort of a detriment against a Toxic type of deck, though, as it is an extra target for the opponent.

Here are a few other interactions to consider with the card:

As a one power card, Cap's Shield is very likely to take the hit from Red Guardian. At least you can use it as a shield (literally) to protect another card’s ability from being removed.

Proactive disruptive cards like Cosmo require you to have priority to be at their best. It might not look like much, but Cap's Shield can easily win a location with its 1 power early in the game.

One extra power is always a good addition when winning that location means you get to Snap (and often get a cube for very little effort).

Other than Deadpool, Nova, and X-23 (basically, cards that tip your opponent off about the presence of Killmonger in your deck), decks typically don’t run 1-Cost cards when they include the 3-Cost. With Cap's Shield, you can pass your first turn and still have [1/1] on the board that Killmonger can’t destroy.

Giving your one power card to the opponent isn’t that bad if it means locking that location for them. As such, this could make Sam Wilson a good Clog card since it can either be a cheap, high power card or a way to use Viper to give your opponent a card they can’t destroy.

Buffing cards is great, but knowing that they can’t be destroyed by Shang-Chi or Killmonger is even better to plan your total points output.

The Verdict

Sam Wilson Captain America should be a solid addition to any deck with either Kraven or a synergy around 1-Cost cards. I don’t see the card as particularly strong, but it is difficult to ever consider it a detriment either.

When you draw into Sam Wilson early, you get a very strong 2-Cost card, even if it makes you a little predictable. If you don’t draw the 2-Cost, you still get a free [1/1] card that you can synergize with using Ka-Zar, Dazzler, and/or Spectrum.

Pre-Release Score:

Sam Wilson Captain America Decks

KaZoo is known for leveraging 1-Cost cards, so the addition of Sam Wilson Captain America only makes sense. Plus, Cap's Shield also reduces Mockingbird‘s cost, so there are a lot of good synergies here.

You can also give the Thanos Ongoing build a try. It features a very similar play style, but focuses a little more on flexibility compared to Kazoo.

Scream Move has been struggling a bit since Scream‘s nerf, and the recent hit to Move also limited the popularity of a good match up. The new Season Pass card should help build more points through its synergy with Kraven while also helping with early priority when the sole 1-Cost in the deck doesn’t show up.

Control decks love to be flexible because it maximizes their ability to adapt to their opponents. When that extra flexibility comes with points as well, or can represent extra help to win Iron Patriot‘s lane, or is able to seize priority for Alioth, it makes it even better.

I tried to build a Move deck with both Kraven and Heimdall alongside Sam Wilson Captain America, but there just wasn’t enough space to fit everything. The 10 Power archetype has a little more wiggle room, although I had to cut Armor and a 4-Cost to fit everything in. I’m not sure if this is better than the current build of 10 Power, but it should catch a few opponents off guard.

If you’ve just started your Marvel Snap journey and are still collecting cards from Series 2 and 3, here are some budget decks you can try with Sam Wilson Captain America :

Variants

Closing Thoughts

I like Sam Wilson Captain America as a card, and I believe it will be a fine addition to multiple decks. I doubt it will make us forget about Iron Patriot, though, nor do I think it will shake up the current synergistic decks. Still, it might help some archetypes feel more competitive, on top of helping a Move synergy that was nerfed on several fronts during the last season.

I hope this review of the new card was helpful. Feel free to share your opinions and excitement about the card in the comments. 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!