Marvel Snap is a card game that has clear segregation between the rarity of each card. Cards are separated into pools 1-5, and the higher the ranking, the harder the card is to obtain. We’re going to take a look at some fun decks that you can make while still playing in pool 1 (Collection level 18 - 214), pool 2 (214 - 474) and some decks that you can make while in early pool 3, that don’t require many pool 3 cards, but can still prove rather effective for climbing.
10.Pool 1 KaZoo
This is the simplest deck to pilot in the game and it’s also really good for climbing for pool 1. The goal here is to play Kazar and Blue Marvel and Onslaught if you manage to, and then buff up all of your 1-cost cards with their combined Ongoing effects.
Kazar is the king of pool 1, because there aren’t enough counters for him in those stages of the game. Angela is one of the most valuable cards that you can use in pool 1 since she gives you 6 power for only 2 energy, so you should try to get the most value with her by playing her on an empty location and then filling it up all the way, bonus points if you can play Nightcrawler on her location and then move it out of the way so that you can play more cards there. Kazar and Blue Marvel are an amazing combo that gives +2 power to all of your 1-cost cards, and luckily, your deck is filled with them.
What This Deck Excels At:
- Kazar and Blue Marvel are great cards that spread out value all over the board by giving +1 power to all 1-cost cards and all cards respectively
- Onslaught is a really good situational card, since he limits what you can do on the 6th turn, he will double Blue Marvel and Kazar’s effects, but he’s not always the best card to play
- Saving all of your 1-cost cards until the last turn is a really good strategy, that will leave your opponent unsure of how much power you’re going to have by the end of the turn, dumping your entire hand full of 1-costs that will be buffed by Kazar and Blue Marvel is really powerful
- Captain America and Mister Fantastic are really cool cards that give you a nice amount of power when played. Mister Fantastic can give you 2 power across all three locations and Captain America can buff an entire location filled with 1-costs for a little more additional power
Card List:
- Ant-Man
- Elektra
- Squirrel Girl
- Nightcrawler
- Rocket Raccoon
- Angela
- Lizard
- Mister Fantastic
- Captain America
- Kazar
- Blue Marvel
- Onslaught
9.Pool 1 Ongoing
This deck is rather simple to pilot and, in my humble opinion, pretty fun to play. Your deck is filled with some really nice cards with Ongoing effects, that you’re going to strategically place on turns 1-5 to get the most power. If you have set up the board properly, countering all of your opponent’s plays and spreading out your power evenly, you can play Spectrum on turn 6 and then buff all of your Ongoing cards and take the win.
Pool 1 Ongoing cards are some of the most useful cards that you will be able to use in the later stages of the game. Cosmo and Armor are great at countering the opponent’s decks if they’re running some variations of Destroy or On Reveal decks. Klaw and Mister Fantastic are good at spreading out your power on multiple locations, and you have really powerful cards like Iron Man and Namor which can threaten an entire location by themselves, especially when combined with Spectrum’s ability to buff them on the last turn.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck can really nicely spread out the power across all locations, and then on the last turn you can decide which locations you want to win and which location you can give to your opponent
- Spectrum is a really viable card in this deck, since she buffs almost all other cards that you have in the deck list
- Namor and Iron Man are amazing cards in this deck, since playing them can easily threaten locations for your opponent, Namor can hardly win a location by himself, but he can force your opponent to spend a lot more mana than you to overpower him
- Armor and Cosmo are amazing cards that can counter your opponent, you should get used to playing them to their fullest potential as soon as possible and you shouldn’t carelessly play Cosmo, but instead save him in your hand to counter an opponent once you think you know where they will play their powerful On Reveal cards like Odin
Card List:
- Ant-Man
- Nightcrawler
- Armor
- Colossus
- Lizard
- Mister Fantastic
- Captain America
- Cosmo
- Namor
- Iron Man
- Klaw
- Spectrum
8.Pool 1 On Reveal
This is one of the simplest decks to pilot, and a surprisingly strong strategy that can net you a lot of cubes when correctly piloted. This deck also runs Devil Dinosaur and Moongirl as a strategy that you can fall back on, but the main win condition here is using cards like White Tiger, Wolfsbane, Ironheart in combination with Odin to overpower your opponent on all locations.
White Tiger is a really fun card that’s great in pool 1, since when she’s combined with Odin, you’ll be getting 2 tigers with 7 power across the board in addition to you probably winning the location on which you played Odin, since you’ve hopefully set it up in advance with cards like Wolfsbane. Devil Dinosaur is a nice strategy that you can fall back on, since he can give you a lot of power wherever you play him, just be careful with Enchantress since she’s a really useful card that can counter Ongoing decks, but you never want to play her on the same location as Devil Dinosaur.
What This Deck Excels At:
- Wolfsbane, White Tiger and Ironheart are really powerful cards that have great On Reveal effects that can give you a lot of value on all locations, especially when combined with Odin
- Odin is an amazing card in pool 1, since it can reactivate all On Reveal effects that you’ve previously set up on a location
- Devil Dinosaur is a great alternate win condition because he usually has a lot of power, especially if combined with Moongirl which will copy your hand and thus fill it up
- Jessica Jones is an underrated cards that usually gives you 8 power for only 4 mana, which is really good for contesting locations, especially since her effect will still activate even if you swarm the board with Tiger Spirits
Card List:
- Elektra
- Nightcrawler
- Mister Sinister
- Sentinel
- Ironheart
- Wolfsbane
- Enchantress
- Jessica Jones
- Moongirl
- White Tiger
- Devil Dinosaur
- Odin
7.Pool 1 Devil Dinosaur
This is the last Pool 1 deck that we will feature here, and it’s also the most viable strategy for climbing. Devil Dinosaur, once you build a deck around him, is a force to be reckoned with, because he can give you up to 17 power for only 5 mana if you play him correctly.
This deck has some nice support geared around making Devil Dinosaur work as good as possible. Sentinel will always refill your hand when you play him, White Queen is a great way to figure out your opponent’s strategy while also filling your hand up with an additional card and Moongirl is Devil Dinosaur’s best friend since she can fill up your entire hand once you play her. One of the strongest combos with this deck is playing Moongirl and then two Devil Dinosaurs on turns 5 and 6. You should be left with 6 cards in your hand after that and two Dinosaurs on the field with 15 power each.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck is amazing at getting the most out of Devil Dinosaur’s effect that makes him more powerful for each card in your hand
- Sentinel and White Queen are nice cards that give you some power on the board, while also adding a card to your hand and setting up a more powerful Devil Dinosaur when you play him
- Moongirl is the best card that has the most synergy with Devil Dinosaur because she doubles the cards in your hand, giving Devil Dinosaur more power, while also letting you play some cards that might win you the game twice
- Spectrum is a nice alternate win condition to fall back on if you set up the board properly to be able to use her, luckily she will buff Devil Dinosaur as well as all of the other Ongoing cards on your field
- Professor X is a great option to lockdown a location before your opponent is able to get a lot of power on it, especially if you plan on playing Spectrum after to power up that location by 2 power for each Ongoing card there
Card List:
- Ant-Man
- Nightcrawler
- Angela
- Sentinel
- Lizard
- Mister Fantastic
- Cosmo
- Moongirl
- White Queen
- Devil Dinosaur
- Professor X
- Spectrum
6.Pool 2 Discard
This is a deck that features primarily pool 1 cards, but the addition of Swarm is really nice and makes this deck slightly more consistent, but not consistent enough to make it a really viable strategy yet. Discard has a lot of good support in pool 3 which make this archetype way better, but this pool 2 version should be able to win you some nice cubes.
The deck is focused around playing Apocalypse on the last turn after buffing him up. Unfortunately, discard is always going to be plagued by RNG, so this deck is a really good way to practice your snapping discipline, since if you discard an important combo piece, you shouldn’t stay in the game if your opponent is developing his side of the board nicely. Blade, Sword Master and Lady Sif have nice stat lines, but their effects might screw you over if you discard a card you don’t really want discarded. Lady Sif has a really nice synergy with Apocalypse, since she will always discard him as long as he is in your hand and Wolverine is able to lower the risk of your random discards by giving you some nice power on the board when he’s discarded.
What This Deck Excels At:
- You can play pretty aggressively, since not a lot of 3-cost cards can compete with Sword Master, and Blade is one of the strongest 1-cost cards even if their effects may screw you over, just play on curve and you’re bound to be able to overpower your opponent
- Apocalypse gives you 12 power if you’ve discarded him at least once, and if you haven’t America Chavez will give you a safe 9 power on the last turn of the game
- Lady Sif has a really nice synergy with Apocalypse, since she will always discard him. This is a great way to make sure that Apocalypse gets buffed, while Lady Sif is still stronger than most 3-cost cards
- Swarm is a new addition to your deck that can, well, swarm your hand and the field. Discarding him once will give you 2 copies that cost 0 in your hand, and if you discard one of those Swarms you will get two more. You should save them in your hand to play them on the last turn alongside Apocalypse and overpower your opponent
Card List:
- Ant-Man
- Iceman
- Nightcrawler
- Blade
- Angela
- Wolverine
- Swarm
- Nakia
- Lady Sif
- Sword Master
- Apocalypse
- America Chavez
5.Pool 2 Ongoing
Now, this deck list may seem very similar to the Pool 1 Ongoing version, but that’s just because it is. The only new addition to this deck is Warpath, but he’s a really important card here that changes the way this deck is played.
Warpath makes it so that you can focus all of your power on 2 locations instead of spreading it out on all three. It’s a risky way to play the game, but this deck is able to overpower a lot of other decks, because of Spectrum. The gameplay is very similar to the pool 1 version, except here, you shouldn’t spread out your power as much and should always aim to proc Warpath’s effect, because that power boost, paired with Spectrum’s boost to all Ongoing cards, is what solidifies this deck.
What This Deck Excels At:
- Spectrum is a really viable card in this deck, since she buffs almost all other cards that you have in the deck list
- The addition of Warpath makes it so that you can focus only on 2 locations, and disregard the third one, and still have enough power to overpower your opponent on the remaining 2
- Armor and Cosmo are amazing cards that can counter your opponent, you should get used to playing them to their fullest potential as soon as possible and you shouldn’t carelessly play Cosmo, but instead save him in your hand to counter an opponent once you think you know where they will play their powerful On Reveal cards like Odin
- Onslaught is your alternate win condition that can double the effects of all of your Ongoing cards on a location and win in that way, instead of buffing all of your cards with Spectrum. Onslaught pairs really well with Warpath, Klaw, Mister Fantastic and Ant-Man because those cards can really make an impact on the overall power on a lane
Card List:
- Ant-Man
- Nightcrawler
- Armor
- Colossus
- Lizard
- Mister Fantastic
- Captain America
- Cosmo
- Warpath
- Klaw
- Spectrum
- Onslaught
4.Pool 2 Location Control
This is a nice pool 2 deck that offers a completely new gameplan. The rest of the decks had a pool 1 version of it, which gets upgraded with the addition of new cards from pool 2. This deck offers a completely new game plan and it focuses around manipulating the locations to your benefit.
Storm and Jessica Jones are really important cards in this deck, because they can single handedly win you a location by turn 4. All you have to do is play Storm on turn 3, Jessica Jones on turn 4 and then your opponent is going to have a really tough time overpowering you on that location since they won’t be able to play on it anymore. This creates a perfect opportunity to skip your 5th turn if you have Infinaut in your hand and then play him another location that you want to win, because your opponent will have a really hard time overpowering his massive 20 power. Shang-Chi and Enchantress are nice tech cards that let you counter your opponent’s strategy and Killmonger is great at dealing with KaZoo decks.
What This Deck Excels At:
- Infinaut is a great card that can make sure you win at least one location, and once he’s paired up with Sunspot, it makes his downside of having to skip the 5th turn a little less impactful
- Storm and Jessica Jones are a great way to make sure that you’re winning at least one location, you just have to choose a good location to play Storm first, because if your opponent has a lot of power on a Stormed location, you might lose it anyway
- Killmonger, Shang-Chi and Enchantress are great ways to control the way your opponent plays the game. Killmonger can counter KaZoo, Shang-Chi counters all big cards your opponent might play and Enchantress stops decks that rely a lot on Ongoing effects
Card List:
- Sunspot
- Scorpion
- Armor
- Storm
- Killmonger
- Jubilee
- Enchantress
- Jessica Jones
- Vision
- America Chavez
- Infinaut
3.Pool 3 Sandman Control
Now we’re getting into early pool 3 decks territory. This deck does require a few pool 3 cards to work, but if you’re already gotten a few of these, you could claim one free pool 3 card per month and be vastly closer to being able to play it. Keep in mind that this deck becomes a lot stronger once you’ve unlocked Electro as well.
The goal here is to play Sandman in order to prevent you and your opponent from playing more than one card per turn, at which point you will overpower them because your deck is built to play mostly one card per turn. Another amazing combo that this deck has, is playing Wave on turn 5, after which, you will have enough mana to play She-Hulk and any other card from your hand that you want, while your opponent will most probably be able to play only one card, unless they have some cost reduction effects on the board.
What This Deck Excels At:
- Sandman locks you and your opponent into a one-card-per-turn game, after which you’re very likely to be able to overpower your opponent with your good cards
- Leader has amazing synergy with both Sandman and Wave, since they force the opponent to play 1 card on the turn that you’re playing Leader, after which he will copy that card and add it to your side of the field, which can win you the game if you were in the lead before playing… Leader
- She-Hulk has incredible synergy with Wave, because if you play Wave on the 5th turn, you’ll be able to play both She-Hulk and another card on the next turn
- Doctor Doom is a really good card when paired with Sandman because your opponent will most likely be able to play a card that gives power to only one location, while Doom adds his DoomBots to all available locations
Card List:
- Iceman
- Nightcrawler
- Scorpion
- Lizard
- Mister Fantastic
- Wave
- Polaris
- White Queen
- Sandman
- Leader
- Doctor Doom
- She-Hulk
2.Pool 3 Patriot
Patriot decks are all the rage now, since after Shuri’s nerf, Patriot became a great deck that can get a stable amount of power across all locations. You can obviously upgrade this deck more, and it’s not the version of Patriot that’s in the meta, but it’s still a reliable and fun deck to play.
The goal with this deck is to play as many 1-cost cards and cards without effects early on in the game. Then, set up your board with Patriot, Mystique, Kazar or Blue Marvel and then finish it off with either Onslaught or Ultron depending on the situation. Ultron is a really good choice most of the time, since he will swarm the board with 1-cost cards without effects, which means that they will be buffed by any Ongoing effect you may have placed on the board. Onslaught however, is more situational and is better reserved for situations when you’ve got a few cards without effects already in play, so that he can buff Patriot and you can win that way.
What This Deck Excels At:
- It’s a fun deck that relies on playing weak cards that don’t have any effects and then buffing them all up with your Ongoing effects
- Ultron is a really powerful card that can swarm the board on the last turn, and change the amount of power that you’ve got on your side significantly, just beware of your opponent if you think they may be running Killmonger in their deck, since he easily wrecks this strategy
- Mystique is a great and versatile card that can double up any Ongoing effect that you’ve got on board. You’ll want to use her with Patriot most of the time, but in some situations you can copy Kazar or Blue Marvel and still be able to win
- Onslaught is a really impactful card that requires a little more set up than Ultron, but it gives you amazing results in return, playing Patriot and then Mystique and then doubling both of their effects with Onslaught can give you some really insane value on your side of the board
Card List:
- Wasp
- Squirrel Girl
- Misty Knight
- Shcoker
- Mystique
- Patriot
- Debrii
- Cyclops
- Kazar
- Blue Marvel
- Onslaught
- Ultron
1.Thanos Ongoing
Now you may ask yourself, how is this a deck for beginners if it includes one of the hardest to obtain cards in the game? Well, the answer is simple. All of the other cards are pool 2, so if you’re reading this article before reaching pool 3, take this as an advice to save up 6000 tokens and buy Thanos if you like the game plan that we’re about to describe.
Thanos makes the Ongoing decks meta. And this isn’t even a weaker version that doesn’t include a lot of pool 3 cards, you don’t need pool 3 cards to run this deck and make it viable. Some of the best Ongoing cards are in pool 2, and once you pair that up with Thanos’ versatile Infinity Stones, you’ve got yourself a really strong deck that can compete with all other meta decks. The 6 Infinity Stones that Thanos adds to your deck at the beginning of the game, let you have a lot of leeway with your gameplan. You don’t like a location - Reality Stone, you need more mana on a specific turn to pull off a nice combo - Time Stone, and you get the gist. A nice added bonus is that the Soul Stone and Power Stone also have Ongoing effects, so they will also get buffed by Spectrum once if you decide to play her on the 6th turn.
What This Deck Excels At:
- Thanos’ Infinity Stones offer a lot of versatility which was a needed upgrade for the Ongoing decks that we’ve previously seen
- Cosmo, Armor and your only pool 3 card in this deck - Goose, are great at controlling what your opponent can and can’t do in each game. Goose is especially underrated and can help you lockout your opponent on a location, but if you don’t have him, you can swap him out for any decent Ongoing card you may have
- Spectrum is a great way to finish the game off since she will buff almost all of your cards that you’ve played, since you have a lot of Ongoing cards in your deck
- Iron Man and Devil Dinosaur are some powerful cards that you can use to easily win or threaten your opponent on a location, a nice combo is playing Devil Dinosaur on the 6th turn and playing Mind Stone as well, to draw 2 stones from your deck and give +4 power to Devil Dinosaur
Card List:
- Ant-Man
- Goose
- Armor
- Mister Fantastic
- Cosmo
- Kazar
- Iron Man
- Blue Marvel
- Devil Dinosaur
- Spectrum
- America Chavez
- Thanos
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