Spotlight Cache Week of November 19, 2024: Are Fenris Wolf, Werewolf By Night, and Annihilus Worth It?

Welcome back to our new weekly series Cache-ing In! Each week, we break down what cards will be available in the new Spotlight Caches, as well as the Spotlight Variants! The goal is to help you determine if you should “Cache in” for the content, or hoard for a better week.

Spotlight Cache Week of November 19, 2024

This week, we get the newest Series 5 card Fenris Wolf! Joining him will be the return of the Series 5 cards Werewolf By Night and Annihilus!

Fenris Wolf

We have now entered the back-half of the season, and this week we get the newest card Fenris Wolf! He is a 2-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability “Activate: Resurrect your opponent’s highest-Power discarded or destroyed card on your side of this location.” Developers have confirmed that after you activate the ability, any resurrected card will be removed from your opponent’s graveyard. So if you see they discarded The Infinaut in a Hela deck, your activate will steal that The Infinaut and Hela won’t be able to bring it back.

Fenris looks like a simple, yet very effective card. The activate ability makes him playable on curve (or any turn before 6), and a 2/3 is a fairly standard stat line. This means even if you don’t get to successfully activate him, you don’t fall too far behind with a setup card. The activate functionality means he only has Red Guardian that can stop his ability.

This card has obvious synergy with Shang-Chi. You can destroy a big card and immediately activate if you want for a huge Power swing! The game offers a small collection of cards you can use to both destroy and discard your opponent’s cards. The question is, how do you utilize these kinds of cards outside of the standard Shang-Chi tech?

Possible Meta Deck

Sera Control has always been a relevant deck in Snap, with a range of high and low points of popularity. This deck goes the route of Ms. Marvel for outputting Power, while heavily focusing on tech cards. You have a few options to trigger a good pull for Fenris. First, you can use Gladiator to pull and destroy a card. If he can’t destroy it, Shang-Chi can clean it up. This guarantees a card for Fenris. You also have Negasonic Teenage Warhead, who can destroy a much wider range of cards. Killmonger is your final option, though he will often give less value than the other cards.

With the activate functionality, you can target when to revive your card. If you want to play Shang-Chi and Killonger on the last turn, but want to maximize value, play Shang-Chi, use Fenris Wolf’s activate, then use Killmonger. This sequencing will let you destroy more cards while keeping your primary target a guaranteed pull.

Low Collection Level Decks

As I stated before, Fenris Wolf is a card you want to pair with Shang-Chi. You don’t have to have a full build around deck for that combo to work, so there’s no need to feature a low CL deck when you can slot these two cards in. When you put Fenris in a deck you already use Shang-Chi in, you will open up a huge power swing opportunity! You can also use Killmonger or Yondu for a guaranteed trigger on Fenris Wolf, but the value if your revive will likely be much less.

Fun Fenris Wolf Deck

Utilizing the other half of Fenris Wolf’s ability, this deck wants to discard your opponent’s cards. This deck never gained popularity, but Fenris could push it just enough to be competitive. Moon Knight, Silver Samurai, and Black Bolt can all discard your opponent’s cards to give Fenris value. Combining that with Stature can give you a high potential Power swing. The rest of the deck focuses on discarding your own cards, and using Ghost Rider to bring back Black Cat or any other unintended discards you may have.

Fenris Wolf Prediction

I am very excited for this card, but I don’t want to overhype it. It has all of the makings of an excellent card, and he pairs well with popular tech cards. He is also difficult to disable, making him very playable early game. He does have the downside of telegraphing Shang-Chi to your opponent though, which could make them play more cautiously. At the same time, it can also create mind games where your opponent has to consider the possibility of both losing a card AND having that card be placed against them.

I think Fenris will be good in the same metas where Shang-Chi is good. When the meta is good for Shang, Fenris will frequently find value and be an auto include in many decks. If the meta is more focused on smaller cards or dodging priority though, Fenris will often see no value and be cut from lists.

Simply put, I think Fenris Wolf will create incredible highs, but also suffer from many low points. This inconsistency may drive players away from him, but that doesn’t discount the strength of his ability. I think this is a card worth owning, you just may have to be patient for metas (like this Surtur one) that can make him shine.

Best Fenris Wolf Decks to Try on Day 1 and Strategy Guide

Werewolf By Night

Joining the cache this week is the return of Werewolf By Night! This is an interesting card that sees no real play anymore. The only deck Werewolf saw play in was bounce decks, but they have evolved past needing Werewolf for Power. Most decks prefer to use Hit Monkey as he is equally explosive, but doesn’t require careful board management to work successfully.

This bounce list uses Werewolf in the typical fashion. Play On Reveals, bounce them around, and make Werewolf gain Power throughout the match. Your trickiest challenge is planning ahead. You never want to bounce Werewolf because his Cost is too high to play again, so you have to ensure he lands in a place where you can pickup your 1-Costs and not him.

Werewolf is definitely playable, but not nearly as easy to use as Hit Monkey. He is only really usable in bounce decks, so you don’t get much diversity of decks from owning him. When he first released, he was a must have. At this point, however, he is a very skippable card if you already own Hit Monkey.

Annihilus

Wrapping up this cache is the return of Annihilus! This used to be the most feared card in the game, but now he is virtually non-existent. What happened? Well first of all, the clog archetype got nerfed out of existence. Second, Sentry got a Power decrease alongside The Void. Finally, too many counter cards exist in the meta that negate the impact Annihilus creates, such as Cosmo, bounce, and destroy. With that said, he is still a playable card.

This deck tries to revive the clog archetype by combining Mysterio and Debrii with Typhoid Mary and Hazmat. This lets you put negative Power on your junk, which then can be sent to your opponent’s side. Annihilus is the main target for removing the negative Power from your side, and Sersi is a backup plan for spinning a location to your favor. Ajax is also a finisher for the deck, capitalizing on all of that negative Power.

Annihilus is in a weird place, as he is a good card that has been stripped of good support. He could easily see a return to the meta with the right cards added or buffed, but as he stands, he just isn’t the beast he once was. If you don’t own him, I wouldn’t recommend aiming for him at this time around.

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 only become available again after one full year has passed.

Daily Offer – How to Purchase Variants

After one year, these Spotlight Variants will be available for purchase from the Daily Offer section of the shop. They will cost 2,400 Gold per variant. So, 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!

For this month’s featured artist, we have Andrea Guardino releasing their Fenris Wolf variant!

Artist Sean Galloway showcases his Werewolf variant in his signature cartoon style!

The wildly popular artist InHyuk Lee launches their Annihilus variant this week!

Should I Cache In?

This week continues the 3 Series-5 card streak for caches. Werewolf By Night is a fun bounce option, but is often overshadowed by Hit Monkey. Annihilus is a great clog card, but clog has been nerfed so hard lately that Annihilus never sees play. Fenris Wolf looks like an incredibly powerful card, but he may be incredibly meta dependent.

My recommendation this week is to Hoard Your Caches. This cache has a card value, but the abilities of the returning cards are too unhelpful in the current metagame. Unless Hit Monkey proves less reliable or clog gets more support, these cards will simply sit in your collection most likely. Fenris could be a must have, but his possible meta dependency makes me cautious. That makes this week a good time to save up for some more meta-relevant cards.

Wrap Up

Do you think Fenris Wolf will be a good card? Will you be Cache-ing In this week? Let us know in the comments! For the full schedule, check out our guide below:

Marvel Snap New Card Release, Spotlight Cache, and Series Drop Schedule