Marvel Snap creator Ben Brode has had a long time to try out deck and card combinations in the game, with the process of development and iteration revealing plenty of strengths, weaknesses, and unique combos along the way. If anyone understands how Marvel Snap works, and the best ways to achieve victory – it’s certainly Brode.
In a recent interview with IGN, the creator seemingly spilled the beans on how best to achieve a win in the game, laying out the personal decks he loves to use, and why they’re so powerful. If you’re struggling in your quest to conquer the world of Marvel Snap, you might like to aim for collecting each of the cards Brode lays out. The decks detailed are charged with winning strategies – and come packed with recommended moves and placements along the way.
Here are the best decks he recommends for playing Marvel Snap.
Read: Marvel Snap designer Kent-Erik Hagman talks smart card game design
The Omega Deck
This Marvel Snap deck consists of the following cards:
- Ant-Man
- Uatu The Watcher
- Ebony Maw
- The Invisible Woman
- Armor
- Mister Fantastic
- The Punisher
- Namor
- Omega Red
- Iron Man
- Spectrum
- Onslaught
According to Brode, ‘The Omega Deck’ has an ultra-powered combo, in the form of playing Omega Red, Iron Man, and Onslaught together in a single location. This generates a massive amount of power, as Iron Man has an ongoing power-doubling ability, Onslaught has an ongoing ability-doubling ability, and Omega Red adds to your power total across the board as long as you have 10 or more power points more than your opponent in that location – which you most certainly will if you can pull it off.
He recommends playing the combo on turns four, five and six for maximum impact. The rest of the cards can be placed anywhere, and largely serve as distractions for the opponent player.
The Butthead Deck
This Marvel Snap deck consists of the following cards:
- The Hood
- Korg
- Nova
- Black Widow
- Hazmat
- Carnage
- Viper
- Green Goblin
- Debrii
- Polaris
- Spider-Woman
- Doctor Octopus
According to Brode, the deck is named ‘Butthead’ as it’s a smorgasbord of characters with annoying abilities. It largely contains ‘mean cards’ – characters like Debrii, that fill the board with rocks. Spider-Woman, Hazmat, and Black Widow all have abilities that steal power points from opponents or stop them from gaining more cards.
Carnage and Viper can remove the annoying obstacles on your own side of the playing field, while they continue to cause your opponent pain.
The Beast Deck
This Marvel Snap deck consists of the following cards:
- The Hood
- Elektra
- Agent 13
- Iceman
- Korg
- Black Widow
- The Collector
- Beast
- Falcon
- Ironheart
- Nakia
- Debrii
According to Brode, this is a largely experimental deck – but one with some very important powers. There are no real heavy-hitters amongst this pack, but each card has a clever and useful ability. Beast, for example, lets you recall and reduce the cost of cards. Alongside Falcon, he can make them free to play – allowing you to stack on a number of cards in later turns.
Following these placements, characters like Korg, Elektra, Iceman and The Hood can enter the field, and be played multiple times due to the Falcon and Beast abilities.
‘You have lots of cards because you’re bouncing them over and over again,’ Brode told IGN. ‘What’s very rude is playing Black Widow, and then Iceman, and then catching the widow’s bite with Iceman. You make them create or draw cards again.’
Playing this deck will give you a major tactical advantage, while also giving your opponent a false sense of hope. Because this deck lacks heavy-hitters, it’s easy to assume a loss is guaranteed – but that’s never a guarantee in Marvel Snap.
Marvel Snap is currently available worldwide on iOS and Android mobile devices.
