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Stardust is the first Series 5 cards joining Marvel Snap for the August 2025 Season, Heralds of Galactus. It is a 4-Cost, 7-Power card that reads: Ongoing: Cards can’t be added to locations except by playing or moving them.
Decks with Stardust
Today, let’s explore the new card strengths and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Series 5 cards can be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop as the latest Seasonal Spotlight card. They will be also be included in the Seasonal Series 5 Snap Pack for 5,000 Collector’s Tokens during their season and the following one.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Stardust is a counter card, designed to stop certain synergies. In the current metagame, plenty of cards should be scared about the new 4-cost card’s arrival:
Decks with Squirrel Girl
Decks with Fenris Wolf
Decks with Mysterio
Decks with Mister Sinister
Decks with Gladiator
Decks with Makkari
Decks with Viper
Decks with Doctor Doom 2099
Decks with Scarlet Spider
Decks with Malekith
Decks with Proxima Midnight
Decks with Annihilus
Decks with Doctor Doom
I only took the ones from the strong current decks, and we can already find plenty of targets. To that list could be added Lockjaw, Blink, Hela, Dormammu… Stardust might be niche, but it is a pretty large one.
Now, because the card doesn’t synergize with a specific deck, let’s take a look at the cards we could it with:
Decks with Goliath
First, we have direct synergies. Zabu comes to mind first, as Stardust is a 4-cost. Then, the Ongoing tag connects to a few cards, but stops at “Stardust is an Ongoing”, nothing really synergistic here.
Decks with Sentry
Decks with Doctor Octopus
Decks with Gladiator
A more interesting area to explore are high power cards adding another one to the board. Typically, we use those in very synergistic decks, to make sure we can leverage that ability to our advantage. Stardust could represent a way to cancel those abilities, making the likes of Sentry or Doctor Octopus simply high power cards for their cost.
Overall, there aren’t many cards we want to run alongside Stardust. Rather, the card will be added to an already built deck, in order to solve a problem other decks might pose. In that sense, Stardust looks like a true tech-card, and a pretty difficult one to stop.
Decks with Enchantress
If we look at the typical counter cards for Ongoing abilities, only Enchantress really works as a counter. Indeed, Rogue does not remove the ability, and the Stardust player probably does not care as long as it exists, while Red Guardian might not often be able to hit a 7-power card. This should make the new 4-cost quite reliable at doing its job.
The Verdict: Should You Buy Stardust ?
I believe Stardust will be an impactful card one way or another. We have a good amount of targets in the current metagame, while there will be a moment where that ability will dismantle certain decks, just like Mobius M. Mobius or Enchantress can do.
Then, I feel like Stardust is a card one wants to have available in its collection. However, I’m not certain you have to spend your tokens to get it right away, if you have other targets in mind.
Pre-Release Score:
Stardust Decks
There aren’t many decks to build around a counter card, but Stardust still has a few synergies we can discuss.
den
First up is the “Onnoying” Thanos as I like to call it. This deck simply packs all the best disruptive cards in the Ongoing keyword, and leverages the snap and retreat mechanic depending on if the opponent is weak to those cards or not. This is more flexible than one might think, with Rogue, Captain America, Dazzler, Speed amongst other Ongoing cards to consider.
den
As long as Zabu is part of Marvel Snap with this ability, a new 4-cost will have its Good Cards build. Here, I had to remove Brood and The Thing First Steps from the deck to comply with Stardust, but Captain Marvel is a great buff target as well.
Clog is part of those archetypes everybody knows very well, meaning the snaps and retreats are pretty sharp against it. Stardust could provide a bit of surprise, turning Doctor Octopus, Gladiator, and Sentry into high power cards with no ability, on top of shutting down certain decks based on summoning cards with ability.
Variants
Conclusion
Overall, I really like Stardust. The power-to-cost ratio is good for a disruptive card, while there are niche synergies we can include Stardust into to make it more than a standalone inclusion for counter purposes only.
The new card isn’t mandatory, and decks might be better off focusing on their development rather than including a tech card at the moment. Indeed, we have a very strong disruptive package with Fenris Wolf, Gladiator, Shang-Chi and Negasonic Teenage Warhead available. Yet, the fact Stardust stops Fenris Wolf might exactly be why the new 4-cost has a chance to shine.
I hope this review of the new card was helpful. 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!
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