Surtur is the next Season Pass card joining Marvel Snap for the War of the Nine Realms season! It is a 3-Cost, 5-Power card that reads: After you play a card with 10+ Power, this gains +3 Power. Today, we will take a deeper look at the new card and, of course, the best decks to try it out in.
Decks with Surtur
Season Pass cards can be obtained by purchasing the Premium Season Pass. When the Season ends (first Tuesday of every month), it immediately becomes available as a Series 5 card, and can then be purchased for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop as a Weekly Spotlight card.
It can also be featured in a Spotlight Cache that is found every 120 Levels on the Collection Level Track after Collection Level 500.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Cards that can produce a lot of power typically end up being too good for their cost, or they never see play due to not producing enough power while having no ability to leverage. In today’s Marvel Snap with cards like Cassandra Nova, Bishop,
With this in mind, let’s set the threshold for Surtur: [3/11] or bust. Ideally, you want that 11 power on Turn 5 so Surtur‘s best friend can be played for cheap on the following turn.
Decks with Skaar
This duo is an obvious one, and it should give us a great first look at the power level of Surtur. Indeed, Skaar already has a playable deck in the current super competitive Marvel Snap meta, so whether Surtur makes that deck better should be a big tell of the card’s strength.
At the very least, it makes it fairly easy to get a list of cards that you might want to consider alongside the new Season Pass card.
Decks with Aero
Decks with Crossbones
Decks with Cull Obsidian
Decks with Attuma
Decks with Typhoid Mary
Decks with Black Knight
These 10 Power cards can be played on Turns 4 and 5 after playing Surtur, or a turn earlier if you played Zabu and missed Surtur. This is obvious, though, which is both a strength and a weakness.
It’s a strength because you already know how to build that deck; you can either go for the straight forward list or the Discard oriented version with Black Knight at the helm. The current lists already tell you how to protect your cards from Shang-Chi, too.
However, it’s a weakness because you also know this deck’s potential in the current meta, which is a fine Tier 2 deck but nothing incredible. Unless Agent Venom gets nerfed, this deck often loses to Bounce or a four power Iron Man. Plus, everyone already knows how to counter it if needed. Shang-Chi, Cassandra Nova, Silver Sable, U.S. Agent, and Hazmat can destroy the cards or make them less than ten power and deny Skaar‘s cost reduction.
This archetype develops power, but in a fair way. Honestly, I don’t think that’s good enough to make Surtur a star.
So let’s look for unfair ways to develop power!
If you remove Skaar from the equation, making Surtur a [3/11] can be done on Turn 6 by playing two ten power cards. This demands a more complicated strategy, but you can also protect Surtur from a potential Shadow King or Shang-Chi, in addition to hiding your true potential from your opponent.
Sasquatch could have been a possibility, but that card has been out of the loop for a while now. On the other hand, making She-Hulk and Death very cheap is a well known strategy at this point, and you can use Moon Girl to duplicate them as well. If they ever buff Mockingbird back to ten power…
Once you walk down the path of just playing Surtur because you believe the card can produce enough power, other avenues for synergies start to open up. For example, it is very simple to play two ten power cards if you have extra energy to work with, like with Arishem, Electro, or Hope Summers. I like the first one because it doesn’t conflict with Surtur also being a 3-Cost. Indeed, most 6-Cost cards have 10+ power, so simply slamming one on Turn 5 and another on Turn 6 seems like a good way to go.
Decks with Blob
Decks with Magneto
Decks with Red Hulk
Decks with Alioth
The Verdict
You can make Skaar cheap, build an explosive Turn 6 to grant Surtur at least a bonus six power, or just consider the Season Pass card a lane anchor that you’ll be able to buff two to four times in the game. Surtur should be a decent power stick with a great power-to-cost ratio.
However, It doesn’t look flexible enough to have a shot at impacting the meta as a whole, and it will rarely be playable past Turn 3 or 4.
Pre-Release Score:
Surtur Decks
Overall, there aren’t many appealing decks with Surtur, and I don’t even want to bother comparing the November Season Pass card to October’s. In my opinion, Surtur has two potential landing spots: alongside Skaar or Arishem. Maybe Skaar could even join an Arishem deck… That’s something to explore.
Naturally, these two ideas are the ones that I’m most confident about early on. One card I saw myself include in both decks was Aero, as it’s the only solid 5-Cost card with 10 Power in the game at the moment. This got me wondering whether Surtur could be a potential twelfth card for Scream Move.
Surtur has the top half of the deck pretty locked in since you need to include plenty of 10+ power cards. However, the cards that cost three or less are most flexible, even if both Arishem and the “10 Power” deck already have their favorites.
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You could also consider certain gimmicks around Surtur, but I can’t imagine these becoming more than fun builds that will occasionally produce some fireworks. In these two, Surtur is just a safe play on Turn 3 that will hopefully rival your opponent’s 5- or 6-Cost cards in terms of power.
More power is never a bad thing, but Surtur doesn’t make your deck more consistent or versatile. It will often only contribute when you draw well, which is already the only way for those decks to win.
den
Variants
Closing Thoughts
Overall, I believe Surtur is a fine card that can routinely grow to a [3/11], which is more than enough to enter the discussion of high impact 3-Cost cards. However, I’m a bit worried about the card’s flexibility, both because it forces you to play certain cards in your deck and because it feels very weak if it’s played after Turn 3. Indeed, Surtur needs to see you play the 10+ power card to gain its bonus three power.
If you are on a budget, this might be a Season Pass to skip so you can afford future ones.
I hope this review of the new card was helpful. Feel free to share your opinions and excitement about the card in the comments. 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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