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Welcome to Diamonds in the Rough, my series that explores under-utilized cards within the meta and showcases some potential decks that may be well-positioned to take advantage of these cards to great effect! With the new Season Higher, Further, Faster just started, this is the perfect time to explore different options!
In order to be a featured card in this series, an individual card must meet two simple criteria:
- Have 2% or less meta share and inclusion with decks using data from the Marvel Snap Zone Tracker.
- Be well-positioned to significantly improve matchups against at least two meta decks, preferably more.
Super-Skrull Edition
In this edition we’ll focus on a card I believe is extremely well-positioned for an inclusion as a tech option in many different decks: Super-Skrull! As I write this, Super-Skrull is on the rise in the meta—sitting at 1.4% meta usage at the time of writing. With a negative cube rate and <50% win rate on play and draw at the time of writing, it’s easy to see why a lot of players were omitting Super-Skrull from their decks. But in this article, I’ll highlight its strengths and some strategies that it can be included with.
Decks with Super-Skrull
As a 4/2, Super-Skrull has a lot of power to make up for his very below-average power stats. Fortunately, there are more ongoing cards as inclusions for popular decks now than ever, and he is bound to pick up a powerful target or two in each game!
Super-Skrull has a lot of utility right now. He can gather the abilities of cheap staples like Soul Stone, Cosmo, and Luke Cage, and much more powerful effects like Darkhawk, Klaw, Professor X, Blue Marvel, Devil Dino, Iron Man, and Knull. When played proactively or hit with an Iron Lad flip, Super-Skrull can disrupt your opponent’s game plan by incentivizing them not to play their ongoing cards for fear of giving you extremely energy-efficient access to powerful effects.
Super-Skrull‘s drawback in his low power can be offset by understanding the matches that you will want to be proactive and play him in. Against Thanos decks, or other lists that will want to play strong ongoing effects, he truly shines.
One thing to be cautious of, especially when playing Super-Skrull in decks with powerful ongoing effects of your own, is an opposing Rogue. Played too early, Super-Skrull can be countered and can quickly lead to a 4-8 cube loss. Rogue is running around as a somewhat uncommon tech inclusion, but is certainly growing more popular in the current meta where Darkhawk has made an impressive comeback in terms of meta inclusion. Sera Control is one deck in particular that is very likely to run Rogue at the moment.
In many cases, Super-Skrull can be an incredibly surprising reveal against your opponent that can (and will) often catch them off guard. The element of surprise cannot be undervalued in this situation, and Super-Skrull is definitely a card that is not expected within the current meta. Taking advantage of that surprise factor and the ‘spice’ of playing this card in your lists could be the catalyst you need to climb to the next milestone on the ladder!
Paired with Zabu, Super-Skrull plus another four drop like Iron Lad or Shang-Chi can be an explosive turn six play to close out a game. Zabu lends a lot of strength in general to Super-Skrull and makes it a very efficient play in many lists.
Here are four different deck ideas to get you started with Super-Skrull!
Black Knight Control
First up is Black Knight Control, a deck I’ve been brewing and climbing with in the infinite ladder this season. I took heavy inspiration from SafetyBlade’s initial Professor X list (day 1) and have tweaked and tuned it over 300+ games this season.
Emperion
Black Knight Control aims to reanimate a discarded Professor X or The Infinaut with Ghost Rider and has the potential to create a 20-power Ebony Blade when The Infinaut is discarded to Black Knight’s effect.
Tech inclusions like Cosmo and Super-Skrull have the potential to shut out opponents on their own, and Cosmo / Professor X can be used defensively to protect The Infinaut or a 20-power Ebony Blade.
Super-Skrull is currently taking the place of Shang-Chi, so if the meta reverts to one with less Ongoing, it may make sense to swap back. This is a strong control list and is a blast to play!
Iron Patriot
Iron Patriot is a deck that can put up a lot of points in a vacuum. The inclusion of many powerful ongoing effects in other meta decks means that Super-Skrull is a natural inclusion. Picking up an additional Blue Marvel or Iron Man can easily overwhelm the opponent and swing the game in your favor.
Emperion
With a lot less Mobius M. Mobius going around in the meta, this deck has the potential to close out games with the updated Wave + Doctor Doom Combo that now allows you to pair Doctor Doom with either Mister Sinister or Forge.
Wave can also be used as a viable option in earlier turns to put out Doctor Doom, Iron Man, or Blue Marvel a little early. Doctor Doom can be powerful in his own right if you set up Patriot and/or Blue Marvel and have enough points spread in your other lanes.
If you’re looking for a strong, proactive strategy to leverage Super-Skrull, Iron Patriot is a great choice! It’s very likely that Wave may retire from the archetype in favor of other options. Wave‘s slot could become prime real estate for a second tech card in the slot that could provide a lot of value like Shang-Chi, Shadow King, Killmonger, Cosmo, or Armor.
Darkwave
Next up is a Wave-based Darkhawk deck that looks to also take advantage of an early Wave to play out Doctor Doom + Odin, or lockdown a lane on turn four with Professor X. With the Darkhawk package, there is plenty of disruption to our opponent’s card quality and draw while proactively building our own board.
Emperion
With four 4-cost cards, Zabu can really excel in this list, but Odin and Doctor Doom can also provide strong alternatives and closing options. In this list, Super-Skrull provides additional utility and the ability to capture your opponent’s effects to empower your own board.
Zabu Good Cards
Finally, Zabu Good Cards is a compelling option that can leverage Super-Skrull. In this list, Killmonger is leveraged to better deal with Thanos decks, or any deck that relies on strong one-cost cards to empower its strategy.
With so many tech cards, this list can focus on scouting information from the opponent and keeping lines of play open as long as possible throughout the game.
Often, this deck can close out games once we figure out where Darkhawk should be played and what tech options need to be used to deal with the opponent’s threats.
Emperion
Emperion
With flexible lines to take advantage of in the early turns, this can be a compelling option to climb with a good mix of proactive/reactive cards that make it a versatile strategy. This particular list is not as strong as its Man-Thing counterpart, but can offer an alternative if you are missing the new Series-4 card in your collection.
Against other matchups that don’t have a lot of low-cost cards, it can end up being the stronger option since it has more tools to counter those types of strategies!
Conclusion
Super-Skrull is a card to watch as the meta evolves and new balance updates are introduced to the game. With the OTA balance updates and the patch in late October, the Marvel Snap metagame is exciting and refreshing and feels far from solved.
It’s been excellent that the game has had a lot of diversity in matchups over the past week. New and old strategies alike have resurfaced as the community explores the best decks to play in Snap! I hope you have been enjoying the change to gameplay as much as I have.
What do you think about Super-Skrull? What other low-meta share cards do you think are primed for a comeback? Drop a comment below or follow me on Twitter!
