Marvel Snap guide: Best decks for beginners

Marvel Snap is one of the biggest games in both the iOS and Google shops. In a massive departure from standard Marvel apps, it forgoes a slipshod, darts-at-the-wall story, and the inclusion of “iso9” which is an isotope Marvel added to their games which is roughly the constant MacGuffin that lets them add heavy microtransactions. Instead, NuVerse and Marvel have blessed us with an actually free-to-play card game where you unlock new cards by actually playing and the only thing you really spend money on is cosmetic items like alternate art for your cards.

And there are a LOT of cards. Well-known mainstays like Captain Marvel, Wolverine, and Hulk hang out in this game alongside characters like Astro the Psychic Dog, White Tiger, and, of course, Hell Cow (who I promise you is real). The majority of the cards also come with special abilities that actually make sense for the character. Nightcrawler teleports, Rogue steals powers and Uncle Ben? Well…if you destroy your Uncle Ben card it plays a Spider-Man card in its place which is so dark and wonderful.

But with all these cards and combinations, it can be pretty hard to put together a hand of twelve cards that play well with each other. So, if you’re starting, here are some pretty simple ideas you can go with.

The Patriot Deck

This one can be really fun, as long as things go well for you. But it’s also a really hard one to screw up so it’s a great deck for beginners. There are a ton of cards that have no abilities like Shocker, Cyclops, and Hulk. You’ll know they have no powers because they’ll have a quote like “Hulk Smash” where there would normally be a special ability description.

There are also cards that create “normal” cards. These are cards that, when played, produce more cards that have no abilities. Squirrel Girl creates two squirrels, Mister Sinister creates a clone. Things like that. You’re going to want to stock up on these.

But save a spot for the young man known as Patriot. When you play Elijah Bradley at any of the three locations, he grants +2 power to any card that doesn’t have an ability. If you happen to be able to duplicate him it creates +2 per. Meaning that if you play him at the Sinister London spot, it’ll create a second Patriot at a different spot giving your boosted cards +4. If you’re lucky enough to get Sinister Bar and play Patriot there it’ll create four meaning that all your cards without abilities will be given +8 each. That turned the Hulk into a card with 20 power.

If you happen to play Ultron at the end, he’ll give you 8 power at that location and then fill every available spot at the other two spots with drones that, when boosted, will be worth 3 points each.

Tip: Consider adding Venom to your deck. If you accidentally played too many cards that cloned and you find yourself unable to move, Venom’s ability to eat all the cards at his location while keeping their combined power levels means that you can clear out a spot without losing any power.