Marvel Snap’s Best Decks for Beginners (And How to Get New Cards)

Marvel snap, the new card battler from Second Dinner Studios, is a refreshing twist on the genre, with fast-paced games and a design built for easy play on mobile. But with a ton of cards to go through, figuring out how to get new ones or what to play can be difficult.

Fear not, fighter. After playing this game for hours, here are some of my favorite decks to play in Pool 1 (and what that means), as well as how to add new cards to your collection.

How to get new cards

The short answer: just keep playing!

The long answer: Marvel snap forgoes some of the pay-to-win mechanics of its competitors and allows you to get every card in the game for free (however, coincidentally, you can’t buy or craft specific cards). As you play you will earn credits (they are blue and look like computer chips) and booster (green and look like atoms). Credits apply to all cards, while boosters are specific to certain cards. By using both, you can upgrade your cards into rarer, cooler-looking versions.

Upgrading cards not only makes you feel good about your collection, it also increases yours collection level. This number represents the overall strength of your collection and is visible at the top of the homepage – it’s the number in a green frame below your profile picture. Every few collect levels you unlock something – sometimes it’s credits, sometimes it’s boosters, but occasionally one too Mysterious Map.

Mystery Cards switch a random card in the “Swimming pool‘ in which you are. From Collection Level 18 through 214 you are in Pool 1 and only receive cards from that pool. Pool 2 unlocks at 222 and Pool 3 at 486 (it will take you a while to get to either one).

So let’s just talk about Pool 1 as that’s where the majority of you will be. What are the easiest and best decks to run in the early stages of your Marvel Snap journey?

Here are some of my favorite options so far. Call them snap Community that consulted each other online on different deck options and helped me figure out what I like to play.

One-Cost Attack (aka “Kazoo”)

Image: Second Dinner Studios

Key Cards: Ant-Man, Squirrel Girl, Angela, Captain America, Ka-Zar, Blue Marvel, all other one-cost

This deck is the most consistent and easiest to play. It draws heavily on one-cost cards and Ka-Zar (the source of the community’s affectionate nickname for this deck, “Kazoo”). Ka-Zar is a four-cost, four-power card that has a Constantly Effect where all your one-cost cards gain an extra power. It makes sense to pair it with a bunch of one-cost cards, right?

My current Kazoo deck contains six one-cost cards: Ant-Man, Elektra, Squirrel Girl, Korg, Nightcrawler, and Rocket Raccoon. Ant-Man and Squirrel Girl are the most important one-costs since they work best with Ka-Zar and some of the other mechanics in this deck. Besides Ka-Zar, it also has other cards that pair well with full decks – Angela, Captain America, and Blue Marvel – with Onslaught and America Chavez pairing late-game six-cost cards.

Dino delight

Image: Second Dinner Studios

Key Cards: Mantis, Cable, Sentinel, White Queen, Devil Dinosaur

This is my favorite game, although it takes some practice and patience to master. This deck relies on you filling your hand with cards, as Devil Dinosaur gains +2 power for each card in your hand.

Because of this, the other key cards listed here are all the ones that cause you to draw extra cards – when you’re playing Devil Dinosaur you want to make sure you’re getting as much value as possible. This means you have to be extra careful about how you play each card – sometimes with this deck it makes sense to just pass on early moves. Jessica Jones and America Chavez are also both sizes that fit here; Both are generally good cards, but Jessica Jones’ ability encourages you to stop playing cards, while America Chavez is a guaranteed six-drop to follow your Dino.

Odin Reveal

Image: Second Dinner Studios

Key Cards: Ironheart, White Tiger, Odin

The reveal mechanic is a critical factor Marvel snap. It is an effect that is activated when the card is revealed (cards are played face down first before being turned over). The six-cost Odin is a very powerful Pool 1 card because its reveal effect activates the reveal effects of all your other cards in that location. That is, if you have stacked three more reveal cards and then play Odin, those abilities will activate a second time (or, if those cards are in the Kamar Taj location where reveal abilities activate twice, a third and fourth time ).

This can lead to powerful combos, especially with Ironheart (which gives three of your cards +2 Power) and White Tiger (which Summons a 7-Power monster to a friendly location).

There are many cards in the game that have reveal mechanics. Feel free to tinker with what feels best, but the late game White Tiger + Odin combo is hard to beat.

Ongoing (or the enduring Iron Man)

Image: Second Dinner Studios

Key Cards: Ant-Man, Mister Fantastic, Namor, Iron Man, Spectrum

Like the reveal mechanic, persistence is pretty simple: they’re effects that last forever (unless your opponent uses a card like Enchantress that can nullify them). As with Revelation, there are also a lot of progressive cards in the game. Mix and match them to find what you like best.

In my opinion, the most important thing to have when trying out this deck is to have at least two of Namor (who can win you a location himself), Iron Man, and Klaw to give you a good chance of gaining skill later. Iron Man in particular is very strong – he doubles the power wherever he is, so he’s a nice addition to whatever else you have in front of you. If Namor locks down one location for you, all you have to do is win another, and it’s a solid bet that either Iron Man or Mister Fantastic/Klaw (both of which boost multiple location power) can finish off the other for you.