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In this week’s Marvel Snap Spotlight Cache rotation, Strange Supreme headlines as the latest Series 5 card. Speed also makes its second Spotlight appearance, and U.S. Agent is making another round in the Spotlight rotation.
Snap Packs Are Coming!
Developers have recently confirmed that the major Snap Pack update is launching on April 29th. With its introduction comes the end of Spotlight Caches. You can read more about it in the Developer Q/A on Snap Packs.
With Spotlights coming to an end, this month will mark the end of our weekly series. The final spotlight recommendations will account for the value of saving keys to transform into tokens in the update.
Strange Supreme
Decks with Strange Supreme
Week 4 of this What If… season brings us our newest card Strange Supreme! He is a 2-Cost, 2-Power card with the ability “Gains +2 Power from merging. End of Turn: Merge one of your created cards into this.” Developers have confirmed on the official Discord that he will gain the base Power of whatever card he absorbs PLUS 2 extra Power. So if Strange absorbs a Squirrel, he will gain +3 total Power. If he absorbs a Rock with 0-Power though, he will only gain the +2 bonus Power. They also confirmed that he absorbs cards from ANY location, so it doesn’t matter where he or the created cards are.
This card looks super fun and exciting to me. He is kind of an anti-Mocking Bird card, but he has some fun applications. Token generator cards aren’t often used due to the amount of space they take up. With Strange Supreme, you can play a card like Squirrel Girl or Shanna, get the good value, but clear your locations for more cards. He will be suseptible to counter cards like Red Guardian, Shang-Chi, and especially Shadow King. Since Strange Supreme is an “end of turn” card, you can safely protect him with Cosmo (on curve) and his effect will still go off. One important note about Strange Supreme: If you play Mysterio, he can absorb the real Mysterio and you won’t get the +4 Power as confirmed by the devs.
Possible Meta Deck
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Token decks can be a lot of fun, but locking your board up with Squirrels and Broodlings gives you very little room for other cards. Strange Supreme can clear up that space while retaining the card’s value. If you can use Forge or Galacta on a Brood, Strange Supreme can keep the Broodling buff and clear up a spot. Not to mention, you get an extra +2 Power stacked on that. If you can’t find him early game, Blue Marvel can give you wide board a nice buff.
You can take this deck in a wide range of directions based on your card pool. Gilgamesh could get solid value as a finisher with all of the buffs being used. You might run Ka-Zar and Zabu to get more value out of your 4-Cost cards. Patriot could be useful with those no ability tokens you create. Onslaught is also a finisher option to give your Blue Marvel and nice boost.
Low CL Decks
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Low CL players actually have a nice range of cards that can give them generated cards to play. Devil Dinosaur decks already see frequent play at this level, so Strange Supreme is a nice addition to give extra Power and clear board space. If you play Moon Girl, cards that you duplicate are considered created, so you can get extra value out of cards you already had in your deck! Morph is a silly card that can give you some variable value for fun.
Fun Strange Supreme Deck
There are a number of fun decks Strange Supreme could work with, like Arishem, Loki, and Thanos! This deck is a clog list that gives you ways of mitigating junk on your side of the board, while your opponent has to play around it. Take Debrii for example: Throwing around rocks also clogs your board, but Strange Supreme clears that up and gives you a nice +2 Power as a bonus.
Clog decks don’t have a lot of tools to use, but you have a few substitute options. Grand Master can be used to double up on potent cards like Viper or Debrii. You can use Annihilus and Sentry to send over negative Power, but you have to be careful that Strange Supreme doesn’t absorb The Void and lose a bunch of Power. You can also use move cards like Spider-Man or Polaris to clog locations by moving existing cards.
Strange Supreme Prediction
I think Strange Supreme will be a very fun, solid value card that works in a few different decks. I think his biggest utility will be making board space, and the extra Power will just be a perk. There’s such a range of possible decks he could work with, I’m certain he will settle into at least one that is worth playing long term. You could even make a silly combo deck that tries to pump up his Power as much as possible, then you attach Hulkbuster or Sp//dr so you can copy him with Task Master. Perhaps I’m overly excited about his potential, but I would be shocked to see this card be a total flop.
For a detailed breakdown and review on Strange Supreme, check out our strategy guide:
Speed
Decks with Speed
At Speed’s first release, I didn’t think this card would be that great. While he isn’t the best card in the game or anything, he’s a solid pick for decks that consistently play on curve. The Ongoing text makes him viable to play on any turn, and his stat line can be high enough to warrant his Cost. He does pair well with Quicksilver and Domino to guarantee a perfect curve, but most decks that use Speed don’t even need them.
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This deck is basically a Good Cards / Wiccan list. It offers lots of high value cards that you often play on curve, so Speed will get consistent value. Unlike Wiccan, Speed can be worth playing even if you don’t land a perfect curve as long as you hit most of your curve.
There isn’t a lot to say about Speed since he’s a basic stat stick that only works in decks that operate on curve consistently. Decks he belongs in don’t ever require him to perform well, but he definitely offers a strong enough stat line to warrant using. He is in the realm of what I’d consider a luxury card since he enhances decks, but doesn’t define decks. Either way, he’s definitely worth picking up.
U.S. Agent
Decks with U.S. Agent
U.S. Agent is an interesting utility card that can drastically alter the outcome of a match. As a 2-Cost, it’s a very low investment to play him. You can play him early to steer your opponents toward a different location, or save him until the last turn to swing a location with several high-cost cards. He has several decks that he sees play in, but he is used primarily with Sera Control and Ajax.
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This Ajax list uses U.S. Agent as a way to pump up his Power. You aren’t incredibly upset if you affect your own cards since Ajax gets a buff, but Luke Cage can protect you if you need him to. Agent pairs well with Man-Thing on turn 6 to either overwhelm one location, or target two of their ideal locations. This deck gets hard countered by Luke Cage and soft countered by Enchantress or Echo. Aside from that, it’s a solid list to try out!
U.S. Agent is a solid addition to any collection. You won’t want to throw him into every deck since he also hurts your cards, but plenty of decks work around that downside. I wouldn’t say he is a must have card, but he doesn’t have a good substitute and gives a great stat value.
Spotlight Variants
If you already own the cards the Spotlight Caches offer, one of the variants below will take its place! If you own none of the cards, the variants will appear after you open all four caches. Spotlight Variants are time exclusive to their release week and will not be available again until further notice.
If any of these Spotlight Variants feel like a must have for you, make sure to Cache In if you have enough caches saved to guarantee the pull!
Should I Cache In?
My recommendation this week is to Cache In! You are getting 2 solid cards, and a brand new card that has some exciting potential. In terms of value, you are getting 3 Series 5 cards. With Snap Packs, these cards are worth 6k tokens a piece, or 5k if you roll them in the Series 5 pack. With keys being worth 3k tokens each, caching in this week gives you a 21k token value out of 12k tokens worth of keys (assuming you use all 4 keys and get a duplicate). Needless to say, you are clearly getting a great value this week if you need all (or most) of the cards.
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