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Best card combos for new players - Marvel Snap

If you're just starting out with Marvel Snap and want some card combo ideas to help get you through the early games, Shacknews is here to help.

Ozzie Mejia

October 23, 2022 10:15 PM

Steam

2

Marvel Snap is the latest card collecting title, this one from the original Hearthstone gurus at Second Dinner. New players may have some questions about it, one centered on which card combinations could potentially stand above others. At Shacknews, we have a few that we can suggest.

Best card combos for new players - Marvel Snap

These aren't the absolute best combos in the game, but they're fairly effective combinations if you're a newer player. As you learn more about Marvel Snap and how the game works, you'll eventually be able to discover your own effective combos. For now, here are some starters.

Onslaught + The Punisher/Blue Marvel/Klaw

Ongoing effects are one of the first and most omnipresent keywords you'll discover in Marvel Snap. Three of the most effective Ongoing effects you'll find over the course of the game are:

• The Punisher: +1 Power for every enemy at this location.
• Blue Marvel: Your other cards have +1 Power.
• Klaw: The location to the right has +6 Power.

Those are strong effects in themselves. You won't be able to play all of these cards in most cases, but if you do, try to place them in the same location, because then it's time to play Onslaught. Onslaught will double the Ongoing effects at this location and doubling Punisher's power with one of the other two cards mentioned should be enough to win two locations in most instances. Just beware of The Enchantress, who can disable your Ongoing effects.

Ka-Zar + Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl is a pretty decent opening play, as she'll place squirrel buddies at the game's two other locations. Alone, the squirrels don't do much, but Ka-Zar will double all of their power. You can play other 1-Cost cards like Ant-Man, Yondu, Mantis, or Hawkeye and Ka-Zar will boost them, as well. However, it's Squirrel Girl who will give you a multiple volume of cards to buff.

Blade/Lady Sif + Apocalypse

You can revolve entire decks around Apocalypse with the idea being that he's going to be your Turn 6 play. If you're going to focus your deck on Apocalypse, you'd better be able to buff him up. Blade is a solid opener and if he targets Apocalypse, you'll see the Omega Mutant get a +4 power buff.

Keep in mind that Blade's effect is random, so you might not always hit Apocalypse. Lady Sif's effect, on the other hand, is not random. She'll always target your highest cost card in-hand, which should be Apocalypse.

If you go with this strategy, be sure to have your buffed up Apocalypse ready to roll out on Turn 6, but make sure you have at least one other location locked up before you do. This is an all-or-nothing strategy and if you're losing all three locations by the time you get to Turn 6, Apocalypse may not be able to save you.

Carnage + Wolverine/Bucky Barnes

Carnage is another solid candidate for a destruction deck, as he'll wipe out any friendly minions at whatever location he's played. Before you lay down Carnage, make sure to play some minions that will benefit from destruction effects. Wolverine will simply pop up again in another location while Bucky Barnes will turn into a 6-power Winter Soldier to complement your buffed-up Carnage.

Destruction decks are often high IQ setups, so be sure to experiment with those various effects before settling on anything. Having said that, this should be a fairly reliable play for those decks.

Iron Fist + Multiple Man

Movement decks are another high IQ type deck that takes advantage of being able to move between locations. These utilize cards like Cloak, Vision, Nightcrawler, Doctor Strange, and Heimdall to jump around across locations.

These decks will usually rely on one major player: Multiple Man. Multiple Man makes a copy of himself when he's moved across locations. He works great with a Turn 1 Iron Fist, whose effect will force the next friendly card played to move one location to the left. Use this to get the ball rolling on Multiple Man and then use Doctor Strange or Heimdall to create even more copies of Multiple Man to bolster your scores. Just beware of locations that penalize moving, like Fisk's Tower, which will destroy any cards moved there.

Odin + White Tiger/Wolfsbane

White Tiger is a card that doesn't look particularly great on paper. By herself, she only has a meager 1 power, but her On Reveal effect sends a powerful 7-power Tiger Spirit to another location. Conversely, Wolfsbane will usually be in most decks with low-cost cards, since she's at her best on a crowded board.

Now comes the time when you'll want to become familiar with Odin. The All-Father will take any On Reveal effects and replay them. That means White Tiger will put down another Tiger Spirit while Wolfsbane's effect will trigger a second time, potentially putting her power at 15.

Odin should put you over the top in most cases, especially since he has a base power of 8. Try this combnination out and see how far it gets you.

These are some examples of potent combinations that should carry you through your first games of Marvel Snap. As you go along and learn the game, you'll pick up some better ones. If you'd like to share what you've learned, join the conversation and let us know in the comments. Be sure to bookmark the Marvel Snap topic page, as we'll have some guides from time to time here at Shacknews. Marvel Snap is available now on the App Store and Google Play store and is on Steam Early Access.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?