Snap Into Marvel: “Undead Horde” Wants To Eat Your Brain

October is Spooky Season. Marvel Snap is getting into the spirit with its “Undead Horde” season (which also has some latent MCU tie-in energy, thanks to the animated Marvel Zombies series which dropped at the end of last month).

Not only does this season feature a bunch of new cards — both new characters and zombified-versions of existing ones — it also introduces a new game mechanic: the Horde. But before digging into all that, let’s see how the new cards from the “Visions of the Future” season landed.

1. Jocasta — “End of Turn” was already a dominate archetype (maybe even the MOST dominant archetype), such that it got some targeted nerfs midseason. Then Jocasta came along and put it back over the top with gusto.
2. Moira X — She really just fits into archetype — Destroy — but quickly became a staple therein.
3. Viv Vision — One of the weaker Season Pass cards of late, Viv needed a mid-season buff to become more competitive. Stronger in the lower ranks than the higher one, the buff at least helped the card stay competitive as the season wound down.
4. Omega Sentinel – Possibly the hidden gem of the season. Strong in Cerebro, boosted by Jocasta, with a great standalone ability.
5. Danger — Another card with the chance to find a slot in the wider game, Danger slots somewhere below Negasonic Teenage Warhead and above Spider-Man 2099 in the “destroy an opponent’s card” group.
6. Bastion — Ultimately more of a novelty than a meta-buster, it can still be a useful if not entirely necessary tool in Bullseye and Victoria Hand decks,
7. Sparky — My perspective may be warped by the fact that I don’t play a lot of Move (even though Second Dinner seems to constantly want EVERYONE to play more Move…), but even when I do rarely come across this card, it doesn’t seem to impact the outcome of the game much.
8. Awesome Andy — This card has a place in the hand buff decks, but isn’t quite good enough to demand one.
9. Super Adaptoid — As more and more Activate cards get released, Super Adaptoid could become to that game play what Rogue is to Ongoing. But the more limited/one-off effects of most Activate cards will always hold it back.
10. Jim Hammond Human Torch — Maybe there’s more “give you extra power” cards coming, but as is, there’s not enough to make this worth a deck slot.
11. Warlock — Poor Warlock. There’s probably a path to this card being playable, but no one seems to have figured it out yet.

“Undead Horde” continues Marvel Snap’s exploration of “alternate” character cards, following on from “Fantastic Four: First Steps” with a full ten cards that are all zombified versions of existing cards (though technically, this is the first time Luke Cage has received a card using his old “Power Man” moniker and that we’ve gotten a Giant-Man version of Hank Pym).

“Undead Horde” also introduces the Horde mechanic into the game via the Season Pass Scarlet Witch card. Similar to Doom 2099, it adds additional cards — zombies — to other locations, assuming certain conditions are met. Those zombie cards then can be affected by — or affect — other zombie cards.

As a result, it may take the full run of the season for all these cards to show their true strength. Right off the bat, Zombie Scarlet-Witch dropping a zombie in one lane and then maybe adding a few points of power before the end of the game isn’t enough to drive a new archetype. But as more supporting cards get added throughout the season, it could become the linchpin of the archetype (or the archetype could fizzle. We’ll see!).

At the same time, the season delivers some zombie variants that just do fun things, like Headpool adding power to your hand when it’s destroyed, or Zombie Power Man adding some flair to Discard by eating cards. All in all, this feels like a season with a low ceiling but a high floor — very few seem destined for greatness, but there’s not too many super obvious stinkers. How do they stack up against each other early in the season? Let’s find out!

1. Zombie Captain Marvel — A little bit Carnage, a little bit Strange Supreme, clear out junk and shift power. Lots of potential applications here, though a 4 cost Activate is tough; without cheating it out early, you’ve only got two turns to play it (4,5) and two to activate it (5,6), which limits its effectiveness.
2. Zombie Scarlet Witch — If the Horde turns out to be great, this’ll obviously be the card of the season. Even if not, there’s a chance it could find play elsewhere.
3. Colonel America — A nice boost to Discard decks that basically act as another lane anchor alongside Morbius, Collector or Miek. Just drop those in their own lane and then stack all the cards doing the discarding with Zombie Cap.
4. Headpool — This’ll be a fun addition to Destroy decks; the biggest problem is deck space. What do you take out to make room for this?
5. Zombie Power Man — Another nice boost to Discard decks, but a somewhat more limited one. A fun addition, more than a necessary one.
6. Zombie Mister Fantastic — Like Zombie Scarlet Witch, could be a key player in Horde decks. Otherwise, maybe Victoria Hand decks (I’m cheating a bit here, as of this writing, this card is out, and the early returns are…not great).
7. The Hunger — Now we’re into the cards that will only be useful in dedicated Horde decks. Of that bunch, the one that simply boosts your Horde numbers is going to be the best.
8. Zombie Giant-Man — Kind of a Goliath/Gilgamesh hybrid for Horde. Could get huge under the right circumstances, but seems a little finicky to pull off.
9. Zombie Sentry — Speaking of finicky, this is at best a 3/8, and that assumes you wait to play it until the right lane is full. Doesn’t seem worth the effort.
10. Zombie Galacti — Maybe I’m just not fully grasping how this works, but this seems like more of a gag than a viable deck. Watch it turn out to be the card of the season…