A new month means another Marvel Snap season pass card. Appropriately titled the Guardians Greatest Hits, the card ties in with the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 movie. Most of the Guardians are already available as cards: Rocket Raccoon, Mantis, Star-Lord, Groot, Drax, and Gamora. They’ve been missing an on-again-off-again antagonist / Guardian until now: Nebula, Gamora’s blue-hued cybernetic sister. This guide will break down Marvel Snap Nebula deck strategy, strengths, and weaknesses.
Whereas the other Guardians have On Reveal effects that boost their power / steal a card if an opponent also played a card to the same location, Nebula synergizes with them through an effect unique to her: “Each turn your opponent doesn’t play a card here, +2 Power. (except the turn you play this).” At 1 cost and 1 power, it’s clear how flexible of a card she’ll be with her cohort; perhaps her ability will give them the boost they need to see more action. As of right now, only Gamora has really seen usage.
Like all Marvel Snap season passes, the Guardians Greatest Hits also comes with a whack of credits, gold, thematic variant cards, and thematic card backs, all for $9.99, along with Nebula herself.
Now, let’s take a look at a couple of Marvel Snap decks where Nebula can slot right in to create some cybernetic havoc.
Strategy and Weaknesses for Nebula Decks in Marvel Snap
A thematic deck with all the other Guardians might look fun, but in practice it looks rather weak compared to other strong archetypes. And losing isn’t fun. However, if Nebula is played on the first turn, typically your opponent can’t play more than four cards into that lane, meaning she will finish the game with 5 or 7 power. This makes her strong in many, many decks, so especially early in the season, expect to see her in place of cards like Sunspot.
Nebula looks like she’ll do well in two preexisting deck types that make use of her ability, with a couple of her cohort thrown in for good measure: control and junk. Let’s take a look at control first:
- Nebula
- Rocket Raccoon
- Daredevil
- Goose
- Armor
- Jeff (or, if you don’t have him, Scarlet Witch)
- Groot
- Storm
- Spider-Man
- Drax
- Professor X
- Doctor Doom
Here, the goal is to lock opponents out of certain lanes with Storm and Professor X. If Nebula is placed in either lane with them, she can gain a lot of power after your opponent can no longer play there; likewise, Spider-Man can guarantee Nebula a buff and outright win a lane if played on Turn 5. Other synergies include Goose locking opponents’ high-powered cards out and cards like Groot and Drax being dropped into a Storm lane to almost guarantee a power boost for them. Doctor Doom, perhaps the best 6-cost card in the game, can provide some more power to those locked lanes if your opponent manages to beat you there (except in the case of Professor X, which Jeff can help with). Note that Drax and Groot might not be optimal in place of other 3-drops, and cards like Magneto could work in place of Doctor Doom.
Where most Marvel Snap strategy aficionados think Nebula will work best, however, is in an annoying junk deck. Junk decks aim to clog up your opponents’ lanes with cards such as Green Goblin and Debrii. If your opponent can no longer play there, Nebula will continue to gain power turn after turn.
- The Hood
- Nebula
- Titania
- Black Widow
- Armor
- Viper
- Green Goblin
- Debrii
- Juggernaut
- Polaris
- Hobgoblin
- Spider-Woman
Yes, as you can plainly see, this deck will be super frustrating to play against. Some key combos include passing The Hood’s negative power over to your opponent with Viper and stopping them from playing more than two cards in a lane with Titania, then pulling her back to your side on the final turn. Polaris and Juggernaut can pull / push cards away from where you’ve placed Nebula, and the Goblins can cap off their final free slots — just be wary not to play them into a Cosmo or an almost filled lane. Spider-Woman likewise caps off this list, her ability to lower the power of opposing cards a good insurance late in a match.
While these two Marvel Snap decks look the most promising for Nebula, the fact remains that she is simply a good card with a low cost that can fit into most decks, forcing your opponent to play cards where they do not typically want to. Expect to see her everywhere for the first week or so before the Marvel Snap pros find the best place for her.
That said, how can you counter this bald and blue woman? Simple: Killmonger. As a reminder, his effect is, “On Reveal: Destroy ALL 1-Cost cards.” Expect to see a lot of Killmonger in the early weeks of the Guardians Greatest Hit season to the point where running zoo-style decks – resplendent with 1-cost cards – will be a recipe for massive cube loss. In fact, if you aren’t keen on picking up the season pass or playing Nebula yourself, slotting Killmonger into your deck type of choice seems like a great call. Do note that Elektra can also provide a good alternative as she doesn’t hit your own cards; however, at 1 cost and 1 power, she isn’t ideal. Keep in mind that the prevalence of Killmonger will also mean that Nebula decks will run Armor to protect her, making destroy-focused decks less impactful.
Developer Second Dinner has done a good job with the season pass cards since the whole Silver Surfer / Zabu fiasco a few months back; last month’s Hit-Monkey has found a home in a couple strong decks, but the primate doesn’t overwhelm. Expect Nebula to fall into a similar role in Marvel Snap deck strategy: good enough to warrant inclusion in some of the best decks, but not powerful enough to reshape the meta in her blue-hued image.
Good luck!
