Silver Surfer Guide and Best Decks

While I was afraid Silver Surfer would just be another card among the batch we got with Series 4 and 5 cards last week, I have to admit I am surprised at how popular the card quickly became. Obviously, being a Season Pass card helps with popularity, as anyone could have Silver Surfer on Tuesday, when most people got one or two of the sixteen new cards during the first week. As a result, the new Silver Surfer has immediately made his presence felt in Marvel Snap, inspiring a lot of players, and pushing a lot of decks to include more 3-Cost cards than they used.

Variants

Silver Surfer

On Reveal: Give your other 3-Cost cards +2 Power.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Silver Surfer

From the first theorycrafts before the card was released, it appeared crystal clear that Brood would be a powerful ally to Silver Surfer, generating three targets with one card. But actually, the amount of good 3-Costs cards in Marvel Snap is impressive, and the consensus on how to build around the card looks far from complete. Outside the logical inclusion of a lot of 3-Cost cards, the usual suspects when it comes to milking the full potential of a card, such as Sera, Mister Negative or Wong also regularly appear alongside Silver Surfer.

In this guide, let’s explore how many decks the newly released Silver Surfer managed to impact, and take a guess at how many of those decks might keep the card in their build in the long run. Probably not all of them will, but considering how many archetypes this new card managed to fit into, I can guarantee he will stay a good card for at least a couple of them and be a card to keep in mind when you climb the ladder.

Negative Seratonin immediately exploits the Surfer

Negative Surfer

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

12

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Already theorycrafted by VinKelsier before the card was released, Negative Seratonin had everything to make the Silver Surfer work. A lot of 3-Cost cards already in the deck, lots of potential highrolls with Mister Negative or Sera, and a flexible game plan, allowing to adapt depending on whether we draw into Silver Surfer or not.

For now, this deck looks like the best one with the Season Pass card included in it, although I wouldn’t recommend it while Lamentis-1 is the Featured Location. In a traditional setup, the deck just feels like it is clicking, and creates incredibly strong turn six, even if you aren’t drawing both Mister Negative and Sera.

Indeed, drawing only one of our signature cards will usually lead to being able to play three 3-Cost cards on the last turn of play, most of the time for a solid double-digit amount of points. Also, even if Mister Negative leads to bigger high rolls than Sera, Bast being a new staple in the deck helps a ton in that regard. A classic play pattern with the card would be to drop it on turn four alongside a 3-Cost, into playing Sera and then playing three 3-Cost cards on turn six, Silver Surfer being the last one.

Wong finds another On Reveal ability

Greedy Surfer

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

7

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

As another On Reveal ability joins the game, Wong is obviously somewhere close to see if it might be a new card to pull some crazy combos with. Looking at many decks using Silver Surfer, especially this greedy build, originated by Bynx, it sounds like they make quite the pair.

In this build, we are trying to maximize the On Reveal ability of Silver Surfer through Wong, but also Mystique. We are playing seven other 3-Cost cards, making the Silver Surfer an easy double-digit contributor when things go right. Because we are trying to combo, we have the duo of Sera and Magik to buy us more energies and do more things.

This list feels like one that should reveal the full potential of the Season Pass card, yet, it could be one easier to counter than other decks on our list as well. Indeed, if the build appears unstoppable when things go right, a timely Cosmo on our Wong lane can ruin the entire deck.

Overall, I expect this deck to be a solid start to how to use Silver Surfer, but probably a bit too much if we are looking for something balanced overall.

Is consistency the way to go with Silver Surfer?

Mogwai Surfer

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

4

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Let’s take a look at a completely different opinion on the card. Well, not completely different, as Sera is once again included in the deck. Yet, this time, the creator of the deck, Mogwai claims that consistency is key and there is no need to run Wong or Mister Negative to find value in the Silver Surfer.

One card that particularly caught my eye in this deck is Goose, which feels like genius idea in a deck filled with 3-Cost cards. Although Cosmo isn’t in the deck, likely because it would derail the basic gameplan around the On Reveal cards too much, these two could form a solid disruptive pair in the future if the 3-Cost archetype sticks. Imagine if Silver Surfer manages to make Goose the new Armor, what a timeline that would be!

But let’s go back to the original topic here, and look at the tools Mogwai uses to make the deck more consistent. One big difference I see is Absorbing Man instead of Wong, allowing to keep that multiple buff ideas going, but doing it with a more flexible card. Considering most 3 costs cards are On Reveal abilities, it could actually make a lot of sense to run Absorbing Man. For example, replaying Brood seems fun to generate even more targets to Juggernaut to prevent an opponent from contesting a lane.

It might be too early to say if this is a better route compared to the more highroll oriented greedy list, but some concepts are fascinating here.

Discard gets an additional highroll!

Discard Surfer

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

11

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Did you know the Discard synergy had so many 3-Cost cards ? And with Lockjaw becoming somewhat of a staple in the archetype, we get another one for free, and this one feels great with Silver Surfer. The idea is to play our buffer behind Lockjaw, so we get the bonus, but aren’t stuck with a 0-power card on the board. If you play Silver Surfer before turn six, you could also draw it again and be able to get a second round of bonuses.

Wong is another card that is playable in a discard build, it might make the deck too greedy here, but duplicating discard effects is also pretty sweet. In addition, Gambit or Moon Knight can be game winning when they snipe the right card, so might as well have two chances for it.

Lastly, and this is probably my favorite thing out there, including Silver Surfer does not change the nature of the discard deck one bit. Previously, I was running Wolfsbane in that slot, filling a similar role of a nice card with Lockjaw, contributing to the overall points total. Silver Surfer fits the bill in that sense, and doesn’t require me to adapt my deck too much, apart from Wong being included over an America Chavez or a Hell Cow for example. But even then, I could remove Wong and still have Silver Surfer feel like a pleasant contributor in the deck.

Basic On Reveal decks work just as fine too!

On reveal Surfer

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

2

3x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Not the type to like combo oriented decks? You’d rather play a simpler gameplan, that progresses towards victory turn after turn, than trying to blow out your opponent on turn six? Why not try the card in a basic On Reveal build suggested by SafetyBlade? We added Brood in the deck because he is too good with the Silver Surfer, but the rest of the deck feels like a solid core, that could have been played before this season.

Compared to all the decks above, either playing with Sera or other combo oriented synergies, this one is probably the easiest entry point to testing Silver Surfer as a card. Obviously, the ceiling for the card is lower compared to other deck on our list. However, this deck also feels much easier to play, and perhaps more surprising to an opponent that saw Sera and Silver Surfer being paired together a few times already. For example, you might be able to dodge Wave on turn five to counter Sera, and be able to drop Odin for a similar amount of points in the end.

Lastly, this archetype feels less rigid than the other ones on our list, who have committed to build around the new card, and might not have so many flexible slots in the list. Here, although the On Reveal archetype has many strong cards in it, there are a lot of cards to pick from if you want to adapt your deck a little.

Closing Words

The 3-Cost slot in Marvel Snap might be amongst the strongest one in the entire game. So it is only fitting that Silver Surfer, a card that reward for playing a lot of these cards, performs immediately after being added to the game. The card embodies what a good Season Pass card should be in my opinion. It pushes new play patterns to be explored for various synergies, but isn’t a mandatory card to buy either, as it isn’t warping the whole game around it.

There are concerns that the card could be too strong, and I understand these to be fair. In the future, Silver Surfer could be nerfed to grant +2 only, and I don’t think it would kill the card, if we look at all the support existing around it. However, considering Series 4 and 5 were added just a week before to Marvel Snap (with more being added every week), it was important for the Season Pass card to also make an impact when available.

Lastly, even if a lot of decks have emerged with Silver Surfer, all of those decks revolve around a similar idea. Down the line, even if Discard keeps playing the card, there probably will be two, maybe three archetype with Silver Surfer feeling like a staple in the deck. I think this is a nice balance for a Battle Pass card.

Are there any brews that were not featured in our list? Think you have a better Silver Surfer deck and want to share it with us? Join us on Discord, or tag me on Twitter with your sweet creation! Also, I know a lot of people have been asking for the new Tier List – it should come soon, as the metagame is now slowly stabilizing. Thanks for the patience and Good Game Everyone!