Coming to Marvel Snap alongside the A Blink in Time season pass is Nocturne, who you may know as the child of two powerful Marvel mainstays: Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch. Let’s look at the best Nocturne decks in Marvel Snap to see if she’ll make her parents proud.
How Nocturne Works in Marvel Snap
Nocturne is a 3-cost, 5-power card with an ability that reads: “You can move this once. When this moves, replace its location with a random new one.”
The wording on Nocturne is a tad confusing. When she moves, she will change the location she lands in rather than the one she moved from. If she moves again (from the likes of Doctor Strange, Ghost-Spider, or a location – you cannot move her without an outside force more than once), she will once again change the location. You can, in fact, keep changing locations with Nocturne.
There really isn’t much more to the card other than she doesn’t have an Ongoing or On Reveal ability, making her difficult to counter and predict.
Best Nocturne Decks in Marvel Snap
Nocturne’s ability isn’t one that’s likely to define an archetype; however, she certainly has her place in the meta – particularly in the “Silky Smooth” decks that have risen and fallen in meta dominance. They’re currently in a great place, so I can say with confidence that Nocturne will slot right into them without a problem. Here’s a list:
- Kitty Pryde
- Angela
- Kraven
- Jeff!
- Silk
- Elsa Bloodstone
- Hope Summers
- Nocturne
- Shang-Chi
- Miles Morales: Spider-Man
- Vision
- Magneto
This deck nixes the original Spider-Man for Nocturne, as she’s a more reliable movement piece because you can control which location she moves to. Furthermore, Nocturne provides some utility by changing troublesome locations such as Fisk Tower. Otherwise, the deck plays fairly straightforward: build up a lane with the likes of Kitty Pryde, Angela, Elsa Bloodstone, and Hope Summers while placing movable cards there as well to get energy boosts and powerful busts. Shang-Chi provides a bit of utility, and, in my opinion, Magneto makes for a better inclusion after Red Hulk’s nerf, as his disruption can win games.
I call this next list “Silver Surprise.” Given Nocturne is a 3-cost card, she slots into Silver Surfer decks that are getting pretty crowded. The goal with this best Nocturne deck is to control the Marvel Snap game with Magik and Nocturne to create a difficult scenario for your opponent:
- Nova
- Forge
- Brood
- Silver Surfer
- Magik
- Killmonger
- Sebastian Shaw
- Nocturne
- Gladiator
- Absorbing Man
- Sera
- Mockingbird
Magik allows you to extend the game to turn 7, so if you miss your Sera on turn 5, you have a way to play Silver Surfer into Absorbing Man. This extra turn also makes up for the lack of turn 1 and turn 2 plays with this deck, as there are few early game cards. However, if you have Nocturne on the board, you can shut off Limbo on turn 6 to steal the game away if you have enough power to do so, making your opponent uncertain whether they should dump their hand or hold their cards. Whether or not you do so will depend on the deck you’re up against – you shouldn’t let a High Evolutionary deck cook, for example.
Related: Best Valentina Decks in Marvel Snap
How to Counter Nocturne in Marvel Snap
Nocturne doesn’t have direct counters like Cosmo or Enchantress. However, cards that disrupt movement-style gameplay – like Kingpin – or clogging cards such as Green Goblin and Debrii lock Nocturne out of moving to other locations. Furthermore, Professor X does a good job of keeping her out of a key location – just be careful she doesn’t slide into where you play him. That said, she likely is going to be a great card that isn’t a meta-shifting threat, so don’t overthink how to counter her too much other than keeping an eye on her if Limbo is one of the locations.
Who Is Nocturne?
Also known as Talia Wagner, Nocturne is the daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch in a universe alternate to the standard Earth-616 timeline. In this reality, a possessed Wolverine killed Professor X, and Jean Grey died shortly thereafter, driving Cyclops mad. The latter formed his own team to take down Wolverine, but Nocturne helped subdue him. Her main power is the ability to possess others, though her Marvel Snap ability seems to be more like her father’s.
Is Nocturne Worth Your Spotlight Cache Keys or Collector’s Tokens?
Yes. Of the A Blink in Time season cards, Nocturne is one of the stronger additions to Marvel Snap. She’s worth rolling Spotlight Cache keys, but like most cards, she isn’t worth the 6000 Collector’s Tokens. That said, three of four Spotlight Cache cards releasing this month are strong, so I wouldn’t pick Nocturne up if you don’t plan on playing movement-style decks, though her ability and statline are good enough to slot into many different archetypes.
And those are the best Nocturne decks in Marvel Snap.
Marvel Snap is available now on mobile and PC.
