Snap Into Marvel: New X-Men Season Preview

While this week marks the end of the What If? season, it’s the shakeup to card acquisition — and the batch of Move-orientated cards that came with it — that have dominated the game in its final week.

That, combined with another round of High Voltage and this being a five week season, makes it seem like ages ago since Captain Carter dropped — or even since Strange Supreme landed and immediately became the most busted card in a long while as it cemented Thanos as the archetype to beat in the meta. With New X-Men set to unleash another batch of cards using the new acquisition system, let’s see how What If’s offerings ranked out.

1. Strange Supreme – In less than 24 hours after it drops, there were already calls to nerf this card, which under a variety of circumstances can get HUGE for a 2-drop while balancing some of the key drawbacks of archetypes like Thanos and Clog (ie the need for space). It’s also really easy to counter, and can suck up the wrong card and lose you the match if not deployed carefully, which is probably enough to keep it in check.
2. Goliath – The silent success of the season, just a solid 2-drop alternative to Dazzler in Ongoing decks.
3. Captain Carter – It’s telling when a Season Pass earns itself a buff in-season. That buff has helped its stats (largely by letting it slot into Surfer decks), but it’s still probably a step too complicated to really shine.
4. Hydra Stomper – The last card of the season and bumped up by the massive influx of Move decks brought on by the three new Move-oriented cards released as part of the Snap Pack update, this could well prove to be a bedrock card of the archetype. But it doesn’t really have a place outside that archetype.
5. Kahhori – This probably should be higher ranked. But it just kinda feels like another Namorita – another card that feels like it should be better than it is.
6. Infinity Ultron – Another card this season that merited a quick buff, it didn’t help it as much as the Captain Carter buff helped that card. Not strong enough to build an archetype around, too needy to easily slot into existing ones.
7. Toxie Doxie – It sure feels like this is a card that was rushed into release to give another, sideways, buff to Captain Carter. But the one thing Captain Carter doesn’t need is ANOTHER step to make it successful.

In terms of season themes, the New X-Men seem a bit random. There’s no media tie-in they’re supporting, and few of these characters are playing key roles in the comics at the moment – their heyday was arguably 15-20 years ago. Yet at the same time, as an X-Men fan, I’m excited to see at least some of these characters enter the game, and as a comic fan, I always appreciate when Snap just drops a batch of comics-only characters for the hell of it.

That said, this batch of cards seems thoroughly mid — no obvious duds, but no card that looks like a clear home run, either. Here’s how I rank them heading into play.

#1 – Surge

A cheaper, more targeted Phastos, with all that card’s drawbacks — the later in the game its played, the less effective it — but the ability to get out a turn early, Moreover, this seems like the card most likely to slot into the widest variety of decks.

#2 – Esme Cuckoo (Season Pass)

You could make the case this is a better card than Surge since it doesn’t just discount a card, it also draws one. But that draw comes with a downside, as it risks lowering the power as well. Which means, like Anti-Venom, you’ll need to run Luke Cage as insurance. Which may not be a problem given how prevalent Scream is in the meta, anyway. But that won’t always be the case.

#3 – Prodigy

Prodigy continues the somewhat-cludgy “back row” effect pioneered by Captain Carter, but as an On Reveal, has the potential to slot into more decks. All else aside, with a little smart play, this could be the better version of Absorbing Man for Silver Surfer decks (since, as a 3 cost, it can be played on turn 6 along with Surfer).

#4 – Xorn

The game hardly feels like it needs another Move card right now, but that’s what this is. It probably slots better into the disruption version (since its best targets in your own deck are Vulture and I guess Redwing), which gives it a leg up. But this is an archetype that suddenly finds itself crowded with lots of options. It seems unlikely this is going to be good enough to force out other 2 drops like Sam Wilson or Madame Web.

#5 – Elixir

This kind of feels like a combo of Fenris Wolf and Firehair, yet not as good as either one. The On Reveal ability makes it easy to target, the “last turn” restriction makes it hard to be worthwhile (even if you throw priority and play it on T6 after someone Shangs a big card, it won’t revive that card since that happened *this* turn). As a result, it’s probably better in the Misery/Firehair package, but it’s not clear how this would be better than either.