Snap Into Marvel: “Fantastic 4” Revamps Marvel’s First Family

Marvel Snap is going all-in with the Marvel Cinematic Universe synergy for its July 2025 “Fantastic 4” season, tying in to the much-anticipated The Fantastic Four: First Steps film by doing something new: introducing MCU-specific versions of existing cards with new abilities.

But before diving into the new season, let’s take a look back at the wrapped “Masters of the Arcane” season. Between the season pass, weekly releases, a contentious edition of High Voltage, and the return of the ponderous Sanctum Sanctorum mini game, it was an exhaustive season, with a full 13 new cards released across its five weeks. Here’s where they stand as “Fantastic 4” dawns, with my pre-release rankings in parenthesis.

1. Merlin (1) – Always nice to see the Season Pass card near the top of the rankings. This is the best card of the season by a clear mile, finding a place in multiple different archetypes while driving some of its own.
2. Mercury (2) – Not only does this give Move a dedicated counter card (which, admittedly, is a minor application of it), it basically is the part of Professor X they nerfed, re-enabling the “block out a lane, then blow up a card with Cannonball” synergy that led to the Professor X nerf in the first place (with the added benefit of being able to move itself, making it hard to predict). Stunned this hasn’t been nerfed itself yet.
3. Nightmare (5) – So far it’s really only showed up in Sauron/Big Card decks, but it’s a decent addition, giving those decks an air of unpredictability they often lack.
4. Morgan Le Fay (6) – This is a card that I think is going to become stronger over time as more people figure it out.
5. Clea (10) – I’m still not sure if Clea is a good card, but it is a FUN card, and has enough synergies (along with being able to generate multiple Flames of Faltines, something I didn’t realize before it launched) to make it useful enough.
6. Kid Omega (3) – This card sparked a ton of outcry when it was locked behind a relatively high threshold of success in the revamped High Voltage minigame and looked like a card that would run rampant over the meta. Since then, it’s proven to be a good-not-great card.
7. Nicholas Scratch (9) – Despite all the spell-driven cards this season, Nicholas Scratch never quite became the instant inclusion in Merlin or Agamotto decks the way Batroc did with Move. It can be a useful piece, but its not a required one. And it’s utterly pointless in any deck without multiple sources of spells.
8. The Ancient One (7) – Like Morgan, this could become a better card over time. For now, its still clunky and in search of a good archetype to elevate.
9. Hellion (8) – A perfectly fine extra piece for Move. Could come into its own eventually, but for now, seems more like Hercules than Batroc.
10. Dormammu (4) – Like Clea, this is a fun card (and maybe my favorite in terms of translating comic book schtick into gameplay since Ares). Unlike Clea, it’s fun but also not terribly competitive. The cost of getting Dormammu on the board is simply too high to be worth the trouble most of the time.
11. Jennifer Kale (11) – As expected, a perfectly cromulent riff on Psylocke, a card that already doesn’t get played a ton.
12. Cobra (12) – I don’t think I’ve ever actually encountered anyone playing this card. Way, way too limited an effect to be effective.

 

 

The “Fantastic 4” marks a couple of notable firsts for Marvel Snap. While big MCU synergy is hardly new, this season marks the first time the game is introducing new cards of existing characters, in the form of Fantastic Four: First Steps versions of the FF. While we’ve gotten multiple Hawkeyes or Thors, those have been different characters adopting a different moniker. The closest to the duplication of characters we’re getting in “Fantastic 4” is something like Infinite Ultron or Strange Supreme, alternate reality versions of existing characters (which, from a certain point of view, are what the First Steps FF are). But even then, the names were altered from their original versions.

Regardless of the specific merits of this batch of cards (which I’ll pre-rank below), Marvel Snap being open to introducing alternate cards with different gameplay — not just artistic variants — is an idea with tons of potential. Not only does it allow them to reuse popular and/or significant characters in synch with the MCU, but they could expand in other ways as well: cards Silver Age versions of characters, or cards for the different “modes” of Hulk — Gray, Professor, Savage, etc. — or cards for characters united by a singular artistic interpretation; new Cyclops, Wolverine, White Queen and Beast cards with new abilities, all in their “black leather biker” uniforms from Grant Morrison‘s New X-Men. There’s tons of potential for reinvigorating existing Marvel Snap characters.

This season also sees the first new card offered as part of the Premium Season Pass (which previously just advanced you along the season pass track). One the one hand, it makes the Premium Season Pass more appealing, offering more for the extra ten bucks. On the other hand, its representative of the ever-increasing monetization of the game and the squeezing of free-to-play players. But that’s probably worth an article all on its own.

What about the cards we are getting in the “Fantastic 4” season? Here’s my pre-release rankings of the batch, which include the new “First Family” as well as a pair of classic FF baddies.

1. Mister Fantastic – Season Pass cards have had a good enough track record lately it’s hard to bet against them. Also, of all the new FF cards, this one seems the most tailored to go in other decks in addition to its synergy with the rest of the team. It’s basically a mishmash of Surge, Phastos and Pixie.
2. Human Torch – Another FF card that can stand on its own, all else aside, you drop it, it gets bigger, then maybe even bigger. Pure points, minimal effort, and outside Shadow King, no super obvious counters so long as you play around Shang-Chi.
3. H.E.R.B.I.E. – It could be another Nico that adds a touch of unpredictability to your deck, but it also needs to beat out a lot of solid 2 drops to earn its spot.
4. Invisible Woman – The rest of the new FF cards all more or less need to be in a FF-centric deck to maximize their value. I like that – the initial rollout of the game made it difficult to do a lot this, but I like the idea of character pairings and teams from the comics that have synergy across their card abilities. But at least in the case of these next three cards, it also makes them less impactful on their own. Invisible Woman is basically a targeted, one-time Wong – but only for the (currently limited) pool of End of Turn cards.
5. The Thing – A 5/8 or 5/10 that destroys an opposing card
6. Fantasticar – The effect here is good, but is held by back by only affecting End of Turn cards (so, right now at least, just the male FF members) and being a 4 cost activate – which means you normally will have only two turns to play it and maximize its value.
7. Mole Man – This seems like a more complicated, less impactful Prehistoric Ghost Rider? A card which is hardly tearing up the meta. Two big 1-costs have potential, but you almost need to play this exclusively in a Sauron deck to make your odds of hitting a banishing a big card worthwhile. If we ever get a card that returns a banished card, though, this could become an even better Black Knight.
8. Mad Thinker – Can get pretty big powerwise with the right deck, but that’s more or less just one deck: Big Hand. And that’s got a couple steadfast one drops already (Quinjet, Sharon Carter).

Agree? Disagree? Hit me up on social media and let me know which cards you’re most excited about or think will be the best!