Updated:
11 Aug 2024
During pool 1 in Marvel Snap you should be getting accustomed to the game and learning the mechanics and getting used to all of the different locations that you can encounter in the game. It’s a very fun and simple time, compared to later pools that are constantly getting bigger with newer and more complicated cards.
We’re going to take a look at the best decks that you can play while in the early stages of your Marvel Snap journey. The decks are simple, fun to play, and relatively easy to learn, since the effects of these cards are not too complicated. Nonetheless, we’re going to go into the best decks to master while trying to climb during pool 1.
5.Discard Aggro
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As the name suggests this deck uses cards with discard effects to quickly get a lot of power on the board. All cards that have discarding effects have more power than other cards with their cost. We can use this to our advantage to play them quickly and early on and outpace our opponents.
This deck is a combination of a Kazoo deck that plays a lot of 1-cost cards in combination with Kazar who buffs them, and the discard archetype that is able to get a lot of power on board in the early stages of the game. You also have a nice combo in the form of Lady Sif and Apocalypse, since she’s guaranteed to hit him as long as he’s in your hand.
What Is Powerful About This Deck:
- Kazar buffs all of your 1-cost cards and you have a lot of 1 drops that you can play early on. Squirrel Girl is a really useful card since she will place a 1-cost card on each location
- You can play a lot of cards on Angela’s location and you will get a bunch of value out of her since she gets +2 power every time a card is played on her location
- Your discard cards - especially Sword Master and Blade have a little more power than average cards that cost the same amount as them, this really adds up well in a deck that aims to swarm the board fast with powerful cards
- If you don’t have good cards in your hand on the last turn, America Chavez will guarantee that you can have a solid turn 6 play no matter what, drawing her on turn 6 lets you play her straight away for 9 power
Card List:
- Ant-Man - Use him on a location that you plan to fill up to get his effect going and get +3 power
- Squirrel Girl - After playing her you get 3 additional targets for Kazar to buff
- Iron Fist - Iron Fist is a decent 1-cost card and it helps your reach locations like Sanctum Sanctorum that are a little harder to get points on
- Nightcrawler - Nightcrawler is a good 1-cost card that lets you have a little more freedom when placing him, since you can move him if the situation calls for it
- Blade - He discards a card from your hand, but that’s a low cost for his 3 power on turn 1
- Angela - Angela can quickly become a 2/6 card if you play your smaller cards on her location and get the most out of her effect
- Wolverine - Wolverine can be discarded, but he’s also good if you find yourself playing with locations that destroy cards
- Lady Sif - Lady Sif is there to buff Apocalypse, she will always discard him as long as he’s in your hand
- Sword Master - Sword Master gives you 6 power on board for only 3 mana, this is a great trade off, since he helps you gain power faster than your opponent
- Kazar - Kazar buffs all of your 1 cost cards, which can add up if you’ve played a couple of them
- Apocalypse - Apocalypse is a good finisher since he is a powerful card, especially if you’ve discarded him more than once
- America Chavez - America Chavez makes sure that you have a decent option to play on turn 6 if you need a big body on the board
4.Ongoing
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This deck revolves around Spectrum, and using cards with Ongoing effect. A lot of cards with Ongoing effects are very useful and strong but Spectrum makes them even stronger and more viable by buffing them up further.
Your goal is obviously to play your cards with Ongoing effects to set up the board and overpower your enemy. You have a lot of good cards that bring a lot of value like Ant-Man, who becomes stronger when you play a lot of cards on his location, Mister Fantastic who gives 2 power on all locations and Namor who can contest an entire location and force your opponent to play many cards to overcome him, by himself.
What Is Powerful About This Deck:
- A lot of your cards have Ongoing effects which can have a big impact on the game if used correctly
- Namor can hold down an entire location by himself, especially if you buff him a little further with Spectrum. This will force your opponent to play more cards than you there and probably waste more mana
- Iron Man is a great card that can make sure that you win a location that your opponent and you are fighting for, doubling the power of a location is a very strong and useful effect, and it’s gonna be tough for your opponent to overcome his effect if you set up the location in advance
- Spectrum is a great way to finish the game off, because she buffs all of your cards with Ongoing effects that you’ve played already. This really adds up and makes a big difference at the end of the game
Card List:
- Ant-Man - Use him on a location that you plan to fill up to get his effect going and get +3 power
- Nightcrawler - Nightcrawler can be moved which lets you play him early in the game, and move him to a more desirable location later if it’s beneficial for you
- Armor - Armor has an Ongoing effect that you can use to protect your cards from destruction effects, she also gets buffed by Spectrum if you play her during the game
- Colossus - Colossus isn’t affected by destruction effects and power lowering effects, so he’s good to play on some locations that lower the power of cards played there
- Lizard - Lizard is a great card with an Ongoing effect, that lowers his power if your opponent fills up that location, he’s good on locations that you think your opponent won’t want to fill up, and he’ll also get buffed with Spectrum if you play her in that game
- Mister Fantastic - Mister Fantastic is a good way to give a little bonus power to all locations, all you need to do is play him in the middle to get the most out of his effect
- Captain America - Captain America, gives +1 power to all cards on the location that he’s played at, which can make a nice difference in power if you filled the location up by the end of the game
- Cosmo - Cosmo is there to stop some of your opponent’s plays if you expect them to play a card with an On Reveal effect on a Location
- Namor - Namor is a great card that can contest a location by himself, your opponent will probably spend more energy than you if they want to overtake that location, which is good since you can use that energy to focus on the other locations
- Iron Man - Iron Man is a great way to make sure that you win a location, since if you’ve played a decent amount of cards there, doubling their power is sure to be devastating and hard to beat
- Klaw - Klaw is a great card that helps you split power across 2 lanes, he gives 4 power himself and adds +6 power to the location to his right
- Spectrum - Spectrum is your big finisher that buffs all cards with Ongoing effects, she’s really valuable if you’ve set up the board neatly
3.Devil Dinosaur
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This deck focuses mainly on using Devil Dinosaur to secure a single location with him and a mix of your other cards to secure the other location, there are a lot of fun plays with this deck and it’s fairly powerful and simple to use.
The thing that this deck does best is playing Devil Dinosaur and keeping your hand full. Luckily, Moongirl is there to make that worth so much more. If you double your hand on turn 4 with Moongril, you will have a full hand and 2 Devil Dinosaurs in there. You can then proceed to play both of them and most probably win the game since Devil Dinosaur can be very powerful.
What Is Powerful About This Deck:
- Moongirl lets you play some of your more important cards multiple time after using her, this gives you the most value if you combine it with Devil Dinosaur and play him twice with your hand full, since he will give you a lot of power
- Spectrum is a good card that can finish the game for you, she buffs all cards with Ongoing effects like Ant-Man, Lizard, Mister Fantastic, Cosmo, Devil Dinosaur and Professor X
- Ant-Man and angela are very strong cards that you can play for a little energy and they can generate a lot of value for you in return, because they become more powerful if you play more cheap cards on their location
- Professor X is a great utility card that can prevent your opponent from fighting with you on another location, he’s very useful if you set up the location in advance and your opponent doesn’t commit too much to it
Card List:
- Ant-Man - Ant-Man is very useful because he brings you 4 power for only 1 energy
- Nightcrawler - Nightcrawler is a decent 1-cost card that can be moved once during the game, this is good because you can shift his power to another zone if your opponent over commits
- Angela - Angela is a great card that becomes more powerful whenever you play a card on her location, you should always aim to buff her to 6 power
- Sentinel - Sentinel is a good card that you can play for 2 mana, and still keep a card in hand for Devil Dinosaur
- Lizard - Lizard gives you 5 power as long as your opponent doesn’t play 4 cards, and if they do, you can leave that location as bait and focus on other locations
- Mister Fantastic - Mister Fantastic gives you 2 power on each location, that’s really good in certain situations since you don’t want to commit too much to a single location
- Cosmo - Cosmo is a card that serves to counter your opponents that play a lot of cards with On Reveal effects, you can use Cosmo to screw with their combos if you know what cards they’re going to play
- Moongirl - Moon Girl is the best card that you can use with Devil Dinosaur, she doubles your hand which makes it always full and puts Devil Dino to max power, if you played her before playing Devil Dinosaur, you will have two of them in the hand and they can probably win you the game together
- White Queen - White Queen has a nice statline with 4/6, but she also gives you information about what your opponent is planning on playing and she gives you a card in your hand which helps Devil Dinosaur out
- Devil Dinosaur - Devil Dinosaur is a card whose power depends on how many cards you have in your hand, as you’ve probably noticed there are a lot of cards in the deck that help him become as powerful as possible, because he’s very hard to overpower while you have a near full hand
- Professor X - Professor X is great at securing a location on turn 5, you can play him instead of Devil Dinosaur and leave Devil Dino for the last turn, you have to plan for Professor X in advance and set up the location that you plan on playing him on in advance
- Spectrum - Spectrum is a great card to finish the game with, she buffs all of your Ongoing cards, which actually adds up a lot of value at the end of the game, especially if you filled up a location and your opponent doesn’t expect you to buff those cards further
2.Kazoo
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Kazoo is a fun deck that utilizes small cards that cost only 1 energy and make them strong. Your goal here is to swarm the board with all of your cheap cards and then in the late game play your key cards to buff everything.
Kazar and Blue Marvel are the most important cards that you have. They buff all of your small cards and make the deck function. You can play them on the same location and if you’re lucky enough to draw Onslaught, your cards will become way more powerful than they originally were.
What Is Powerful About This Deck:
- Kazar and Blue Marvel will buff all of your other 1-cost cards which really adds up at the end of the game since they’re cheap and you can play a lot of them
- Onslaught gives a lot of extra value if you play him on Kazar and Blue Marvel’s location since he will double their already powerful effects
- Antman and Captain America are really powerful when combined together, since they both benefit if the entire location is filled with cards
- Angela is a card that costs only 2 energy but she’ll easily grow up to 6 power with this deck, since you’ll be able to play all the cards you need on her location
Card List:
- Antman - Ant-Man is a staple in pool 1 decks, because getting 4 power for only 1 energy is insane value
- Elektra - Elektra is good at removing cards like Ant-Man and she’s good in mirror matches against other Kazoo decks since she can pick off one of your opponent’s 1 drops
- Squirrel Girl - Squirrel Girl is a great card in pool 1, especially in Kazoo decks. For 1 mana you will get 3 targets for your buff effects
- Nightcrawler - He’s just a good little bit of additional versatility, since you can move him once during the game, which can be useful if your opponent commits a lot to the location where you’ve played Nightcrawler
- Rocket Raccoon - Rocket Raccoon is a good bit of added value if you can guess where your opponent will play their card on the turn that you play Rocket, even if you don’t activate his effect, he will get buffed by Kazar and Blue Marvel all the same
- Angela - Angela is a good card that can give you up to 6 power, especially Kazoo decks that play a lot of cheap cards are good at getting the most of her effect
- Lizard - Lizard is a decent card that can put a little bit of pressure on location without you having to commit too much
- Mister Fantastic - Mister Fantastic is a good turn 3 play since it adds +2 power on all locations, just aim to play him in the middle location every chance that you can to get the most out of his effect
- Captain America - Captain America is good in combination with a lot of the cheaper cards that this deck is running, it will buff all cards on the location with him by 1 in addition to his power, this is very good value in Kazoo decks since they have a lot of cheap cards that they can play to get the most out of this effect
- Kazar - Kazar is the main man of this deck - he’s what actually makes the deck work, and he gives you insane value because you’re playing a lot of cheap cards that will get buffed by his effect
- Blue Marvel - Much like Kazar, but with a slightly better effect, Blue Marvel will buff all of your cards, this combined with Kazar’s effect ultimately makes your cheap cards very powerful
- Onslaught - Onslaught is a great card to finish the game off with, if you’ve played both Kazar and Blue Marvel on the same location (which you should be trying to do since you have Onslaught), you can play him on their location to double their effects and further buff all of your cards
1.On Reveal
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This is the best deck to play during pool 1. It’s fun to use and to get used to the strategic thinking and positioning that’s the most fun part of Marvel Snap. This deck, obviously, is characterized by using a lot of On Reveal effects and getting as much value as possible from combining them together.
One of your main combos is playing White Tiger and then Odin on her location on the next turn. This will create 2 tigers that have 7 power on random locations and you’re also making that location stronger with Odin’s 8 power. Your alternate win condition is the combo between Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur. Devil Dino is a force to be reckoned with since he can hold down the location by himself if Moongirl has doubled your hand.
What Is Powerful About This Deck:
- You’ve got a lot of good cards that help you control the tempo of the game like Wolfsbane and Ironheart that can give you a lot of value, especially when used in combination with Odin
- Devil Dinosaur is a great card that costs 5 mana and can hold down the entire location by himself, this is great because you can play him on turn 5 and then finish the game with Odin on a different location
- White Tiger and Wolfsbane are extremely valuable if you combine them with Odin, since White Tiger will create Tiger Spirits on other locations, and Wolfsbane will grow a lot and help secure down that location
- Jessica Jones can help you secure a location that you don’t want to commit more than 4 mana to, she is 8 power for only 4 mana, so she helps with your curve
- Enchantress is a great counter to Kazoo decks which you will encounter a lot while playing in Pool 1, she can significantly help you win the game if you shut down the Ongoing effects of Blue Marvel and Kazar
Card List:
- Elektra - Elektra is a 1-cost card that can remove an opponent’s 1-cost card once she’s played, she’s good against Kazoo decks which lose out on a little more power than an average deck would when you destroy their 1-cost cards
- Nightcrawler - Nightcrawler is a 1 drop that can be moved around, he’s staple in all decks because he’s the most versatile 1-cost card in pool 1
- Mister Sinister - Mister Sinister’s effect is good in this deck because you get a good value out his effect, you can play Ironheart on turn 3 and have her buff 3 of your cards, or you can fill up the location faster to get the most value out of Wolfsbane
- Sentinel - Sentinel is here because of the Devil Dinosaur synergy, he will make your curve plays better, but most importantly he will buff Devil Dinosaur by giving you a card in your hand once he’s played
- Ironheart - Iron Heart is a good card that can give you up to +6 value once she’s played, the problem is that it’s a little hard to get +6 if you play her on turn 3, so consider waiting a little longer so you can get the most out of her effect
- Wolfsbane - Wolfsbane is a very valuable card, especially in combination with Odin on turn 6, she’s key in this deck, since you want to use Odin to double Iron Heart and White Tiger’s effects which leaves you with a little power on that location, but Wolfsbane fixes that problem and gives you a fighting chance on that location as well
- Enchantress - Enchantress is good at screwing up your opponent’s decks, she’s worth running in this deck since you’ll often be faced against Kazoo and Devil Dinosaur decks and Enchantress makes quick work of those strategies
- Jessica Jones - She’s a good and viable way to get 8 power for only 4 energy, just play her on a location that you don’t want to play anything on for the next turn and you’ll get a really nice power for a low cost
- Moongirl - Moongirl is the classic card that synergizes with Devil Dinosaur, she can also double some of your stronger cards to play on the last turns of the game, but she’s mostly in the deck to give you an alternate win condition with Devil Dinosaur
- White Tiger - White Tiger is a great card that can give you a lot of value once you use her in combination with Odin, in pool 1 she can only create up to 2 Tiger Spirits without locations like Kamar-Taj which make her even more useful, but 2 Tiger Spirits give you a lot of value on lanes where your opponents won’t expect that
- Devil Dinosaur - Devil Dinosaur is a card that can bring a lot of power to a single location if used while you have a close to a full hand, he can be +17 power when your hand is full, so use him strategically when you can get the most out of his effect
- Odin - Odin repeats all of your On Reveal effects that have happened on the location that you play him on, the ideal way to use this is to play him on turn 6 on a location that you’ve set up in advance with Ironheart, Wolfsbane and White Tiger, this will give you a nice amount of power on all locations
