Snap Into Marvel: Here There Be Dragons

2026 may be the year of the Fire Horse on the Chinese calendar, but Marvel Snap is kicking it off with dragons! Culled from across the Marvel mythos, Marvel Snap‘s Dragon season represent a wide swath of Marvel history, from sci-fi dragons like Fin Fang Foom to the X-Men’s Lockheed to the lore of Iron Fist. It also features a new MCU-inspired update to an existing card, with Shang-Chi: Master of the Ten Rings joining the likes of the Fantastic Four: First Steps family. But before digging into the dragon-y details of the current season, let’s take a look back at the final season of 2025, “Weapon X.”

1. Maverick (3) – Unsurprisingly an immediate staple in Silver Surfer decks, Maverick has also spread out into a Galacta/Gwenpool-esque role in handbuff decks. Its dominance has only increased in the young Dragons season.
2. Fastball Special (1) – As the cheaper card, and the one with better Knull synergy, this gets the edge over Adamantium Infusion.
3. Adamantium Infusion (2) – Slightly less flexible than Fastball due to the higher cost, but still a strong card and already a key addition to Nimrod Destroy.
4. Aurora (8) – A tricky card to execute to its full potential, but it’s inspired some fun Ongoing/On Reveal/Activate/End of Turn combo decks that, when played correctly, are some of the strongest in the game.
5. Chamber (6) – The new Surtur that brought some languishing 5-cost cards back to life.
6. Marrow (10) – Turns out taking 6 power off the board plus the benefit of destroying or discarding it is pretty good.
7. Weapon X (4) – One of the weaker Season Pass cards of the year, it’s tons of fun to destroy a bunch of stuff and watch it grow. But it’s really only competitive in the lower collection levels, as it falls too easily to counters if its anchoring a lane, and requires more effort than its worth if its not anchoring a lane.
8. Weapon H (5) – A solid addition to Discard, but not much else.
9. Wild Child (7) – Just not as strong as Marrow, especially without a Discard/Destroy combo archetype in place.
10. Fantomex (9) – Powerful but limited in its effectiveness.
11. Wade Wilson (11) – I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone play this. I certainly haven’t.

After a season dedicated mostly to Destroy and Discard, the Dragon season offers a much wider variety of cards, from power boosters to Move to Afflict and more. While at least one of these cards is already dominating the meta, hopefully that variety will percolate through the season, creating something a little less predictable for the new year.

1. Shou-Lao – It took less than a day for this card to prove to be utterly cracked, with various variations on a Maverick/Scarlet Spider/Shou-Lou core dominating the meta. It’s going to be nerfed, sooner rather than later, but until then, it’s the class of the season.
2. Fin Fang Foom – The big drawback here is the 7 cost (its version of Giganto’s “only on the left lane” limitation) but effectively nullifying the front row of your opponents lane is pretty solid.
3. Majestic Wingbeat – It obviously pairs well with Shou-Lao, but this could easily become a card like Deafening Chord that can just be tossed into a variety of decks.
4. Dragon Lord – Kinda like Malekith (or a smaller, more targeted Eson), but the card it pulls is more targeted, and reveals immediately. Plus, as 5 cost, and with Ramp a dominant archetype in the meta, it’s more likely to pull a big 6 cost.
5. Shang-Chi: Master of the Ten Rings – I’m putting this in the middle of the rankings cuz I’m not quite sure how this works yet. If the Ring cards have to be played, this is basically another Prowler. If Shang’s On-Reveal also puts them on the board, then this is a top 3 card for the season.
6. Lockheed – The best part of this card is the way it pairs with Lockheed’s BFF Kitty Pryde (she’s the 1-cost that’ll always be in your hand to trigger Lockheed). This seems like a less-onerous Clea, but also, it’s not like Clea is a meta staple.
7. Lin Lie – A 2/11 sure seems nice, but the cost in effort and board space doesn’t seem worth it – both Lin Lie and the sword need to be in the same lane, plus at least one other card to move them together.
8. Dragon of the Moon – It seems like the idea here is to construct your deck like you would for Moon Knight – low on even-costs so the penalty hits your opponent harder (otherwise, it’s just a worse Lauffey). Not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak.