You know how this works by now, folks. Another season has dropped in Marvel Snap (Free), and another page has turned on the calendar. That means it’s time for this month’s deck-building guide, and things have completely turned on their head since we last came together to talk about this stuff. Due to the many balance changes and a few really solid cards, the hierarchy of power has completely changed. Remember as ever: today’s winning deck could be tomorrow’s soggy umbrella. These guides are one way to keep your finger on the pulse of the scene, but they aren’t the only method you should be using.

Note that most of these decks are the best of the best at this point in time. They assume you have access to a full range of cards. I’ll once again be including the five strongest Marvel Snap decks of the moment, and I’ll throw in a couple more decks that don’t need things that are too hard to get and are just sort of fun to play with. You know, a little variety and all of that.

We’re on the other side of the Thunderbolts season now, and the biggest winner to come from it so far seems to be Red Hulk. That said, I’m seeing a fair bit of Zemo, Red Guardian, White Widow, and even US Agent in play, so I’d call that a win for the season overall. Only Valentina seems to have failed to find her place. That said, the really big changes this month were less from the new cards and more from the balance changes. Alioth and Zabu got hosed, and the Thanos nerfs properly sunk in. It will be interesting to see how the Exiles fit into all of this, but let’s work with what we have for now.

Death Becomes Us

Included Cards: Squirrel Girl, X-23, Carnage, Mysterio, Killmonger, Daken, Silver Samurai, Black Bolt, Lady Deathstrike, Stature, Mockingbird, Death

This seems to be the most popular Destroy-themed deck going around at the moment, and it’s quite different what we’re used to seeing. You have three goals with this deck. First, you have cards like Silver Samurai, Black Bolt, and Lady Deathstrike that will whittle down your opponent’s cards. Next, you have cards like Stature and Mockingbird that you can get out very easily using Samurai and/or Black Bolt plus Squirrel Girl’s squirrels respectively. Finally, you have some standard destroyer stuff to sweep squirrels and whatever else you need to remove, all while driving down Death’s cost.

Spam I Am

Included Cards: Nebula, Titania, Daredevil, White Widow, Jeff, Ravonna Renslayer, Green Goblin, Debrii, Professor X, Cannonball, Doctor Octopus, Red Hulk

This… is not a deck that will win you friends. But it will win you many cubes, and that’s what the game is all about. Really, your goal with this deck is two-fold. First, throw junk at your opponent using cards like Debrii, Goblin, and White Widow. Second, use cards like Nebula, Professor X, and Doctor Octopus to control the locations your opponent will play at. Use Daredevil and play whatever you think is best to finish things out. That could be a beefed-up Red Hulk, or Cannonball, or even just moving Jeff. Just hope that you don’t run into a Destroy deck, as they have little patience for this kind of nonsense.

Spectrum Ongoing

Included Cards: Ant-Man, Nebula, Mojo, Armor, US Agent, Lizard, Cosmo, Mobius M. Mobius, Jean Grey, Luke Cage, Iron Lad, Spectrum

What’s interesting about this high-performing deck is that it’s only a couple of cards separated from being built from very common stock. As such, it’s a rather basic deck in terms of how you play it. Use Jean Grey and Nebula to control where your opponent will want to play their cards, use Cosmo to shut down On Reveals at your location of choice, drop Mojo in the Jean Grey spot, and use US Agent to wreak havoc on your opponent’s powerful cards. Top it off with Spectrum to beef everyone up. Easy peasy. It shouldn’t be as effective as it is, but here we are.

Hela & Corvus

Included Cards: Black Knight, Blade, Corvus Glaive, Lady Sif, Jubilee, Blink, Sandman, Hela, Magneto, The Infinaut, Giganto

Once again Hela is here representing Discard, which is just barely staying in the top tier at this point. This is a very standard Hela deck, so the idea is to discard your big guns and use Hela to bring them back in. Corvus helps you get there earlier, and Blink and Jubilee serve as back-up plans for pulling your beefy cards. If you’ve been playing Snap for a while, you know how this works. I’m including it here just to get Blink in for a guest appearance.

Bounce is Still Back

Included Cards: The Hood, Korg, Kitty Pryde, Nico Minoru, Angela, Beast, Rockslide, Hope Summers, Shang-Chi, Sentry, Darkhawk, Annihilus

Bounce is still performing well this month, but it has mashed up with some other useful combos to create something very powerful. You’ve got the Bounce combo of Angela, Hope, and Kitty Pryde. The deck-stuffing Darkhawk shenanigans of Korg, Rockslide, and… Darkhawk. Then you’ve got the annoying blend of The Hood, Sentry, and Annihilus. This not only gives you multiple avenues of attack, but thanks to Beast you can mix and match a little too. Why not play Korg and Rockslide more than once? The ever-versatile Nico Minoru and Shang-Chi help round out a very strong deck.

And now, a couple of fun decks for those still climbing up the collection ladder or who simply want to try something different.

Zemo’s Deck Drainer

Included Cards: Yondu, Spider-Ham, Shadow King, Cable, Maximus, Magik, Baron Zemo, Gladiator, Shang-Chi, Absorbing Man, Iron Lad, Doctor Octopus

You have to be careful with this deck because it is easy for it to blow up in your face, but it’s a lot of fun to play. Basically, you’re destroying, stealing, or incapacitating as much of your opponent’s deck as possible. Yondu, Cable, Gladiator, Zemo, and copycats like Absorbing Man and Iron Lad can help you empty out their remaining deck draws. Spider-Ham can ruin one of their cards, Shadow King can set things right if Ham backfires, Doc Ock can pull the rest of their hand into play, and Shang-Chi can deal with the consequences of that. Magik can give you more time to play this strategy out, and also deal with any unfavorable locations.

Swarm Discard

Included Cards: Ant-Man, Elektra, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Blade, Wolverine, Armor, Swarm, Strong Guy, Lady Sif, Swordmaster, Apocalypse

Here’s the beginner Discard deck again, but there’s at least one new aspect to it: Strong Guy! Yes, now that he gets his buff even if you have one card in your hand (perhaps Apocalypse?), he’s a very useful card at this level of collection. Anyway, slice and dice, make Swarms, swarm the opponent with Swarms, and use whatever else you have to buff up your power at each location. In the early stages this is a really reliable deck.

And that’s it for this month’s deck guide. We’ll return with another one of these in June to see where things stand after the Exiles event has fully played out and a month’s worth of balance changes have done their thing. It’s going to be interesting to see what these new cards bring to the table, but I suspect (as usual) that the biggest swings will come from whatever balance changes Second Dinner makes. Will chaos continue to reign? Only time will tell! Happy Snapping!