Marvel Snap is a surprisingly deep strategy game, with cards featuring the creative use of Marvel characters to do battle on the virtual tabletop. While some of the cards in the game are more overt in their purpose and use such as the Hulk with a mighty 12 Power at his disposal, other have a more subtle, long-term purpose. The strongest examples of this are the Ongoing effect cards, with abilities to dictate the flow of battle in your favor, empower your allies, or even stop your opponents in their tracks. The best Ongoing effect cards in Marvel Snap shine when a deck is built around them, offering a sense of control.
The 10 Best Ongoing Cards in Marvel Snap
While there are certainly some great Ongoing cards for players just starting, you’ll find that as you advance your collection levels there are some pretty excellent additions for you to discover. These cards are great at forcing your opponent to change up their tactics or boosting your abilities, but read on for some of our best selections:
Ant-Man (1 Energy)
Ant-Man will be the bread and butter of many beginner players, thanks to a reliable and useful ability that makes him far more powerful as a 1 Energy character simply by having 3 other allies in the same location. Naturally, this forces you into a bit of a box from a tactical standpoint, but building a deck that focuses on strength in numbers can help. If you play Ant-Man on your early turns you can be assured the opponent is paying attention and ready to assume you’ll be pushing hard for that location, which you can use to manipulate them as well.
Lizard (2 Energy)
Lizard is an interesting card, similar to Yu-Gi-Oh’s Summoned Skull in his surprising strength but pronounced weaknesses. Lizard starts with 5 Power on the field but goes down by -3 when the opponent has all 4 spots on the location opposite Lizard occupied. But this allows you to bait the opponent and potentially make them waste their plays elsewhere, or make for a mighty early advance if you’re looking to take a location. The risk-to-reward rate for this card is a pretty healthy one.
Cosmo (3 Energy)
Cosmo is a solid mid-game blockade against On Reveal cards that can stop even the best cards in Marvel Snap in their tracks. He can force changeups in how the rest of the game is played and is decently powerful in his own right, but naturally, you’ll want to build decks that don’t use On Reveal cards on your end either.
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The Punisher (3 Energy)
The Punisher is a worthwhile card in that you can play him at any point during a push for a location and consolidate up to +4 Power, aside from other boosts, to make him a tough contender in the mid-game. He can make short work of teams focusing on Ant-Man or early pushes from Squirrel Girl, but placing him will also potentially make your opponent push elsewhere, which you can use to your advantage.
Ka-Zar (4 Energy)
Another card that you can get early on is Ka-Zar which boosts your 1-cost cards in power by +1 each. In addition to being modestly powerful for a 4-cost card, Ka-Zar enables you to focus on building strength by numbers, tightening a grip you may have in an earlier location you may have pushed. Builds surrounding Ant-Man, Rocket Raccoon, Hawkeye, or Blade benefit well from this boost.
Blue Marvel (5 Energy)
Blue Marvel’s ability is immediate and obvious — +1 Power for your cards! This can turn the tide for you in the late game ever so slightly, and it’ll synergize well with other cards with similar effects while you continue to fill the field. The boost he provides immensely outweighs his underwhelming 3 Power, and can be made incredibly powerful with Onslaught in the same location.
Devil Dinosaur (5 Energy)
Devil Dinosaur can be played in the late game to shocking effect, although he can be especially scary in early-game situations where card costs are reduced. His ability to gain +2 power for each card in your hand can make opponents panic when he first enters the field, and this can have very few drawbacks. You can sustain this power with abilities from Mantis, Cable, Sentinel, and anything that adds cards to your hand.
Iron Man (5 Energy)
Iron Man’s use is obvious and has enormous potential. He is among the first high-cost cards you’ll likely ever play and is naturally very versatile in locking down a location or potentially stealing one away in the endgame to take the opponent’s advantage away. With the ability to double the collective power of an entire location, there are endless applications where he can work quite well with even other cards in this list including Ka-Zar or Mister Fantastic You can also play something more devilish to combo with Iron Man, or Devil Dinosaur-ish, for more bitter contests over locations.
Klaw (5 Energy)
Klaw is overall not a strong character, but will synergize well with others like Iron Man, weaker locations supported by Ant-Man, and is a versatile tactical asset. With a decent 4 Power, he boosts his location but giving the location to the right an additional +6 Power is insanely valuable and something that can’t be overlooked.
Onslaught (6 Energy)
The ability to double ongoing effects on the location this card is played on can have massive implications, especially if you’re rocking a full house there. Cards like Klaw, Ant-Man, Devil Dinosaur, and Iron Man can become devastating with this guy at your disposal, and it can make for an incredible final turn push with a deck that favors Ongoing cards in Marvel Snap.
Your choices might vary from the options present in this list, but these are among the best options in the game for making some fiendish plays and controlling the flow of battle. While the game continues to evolve, it’ll be exciting to see just what we can expect in the future from Marvel Snap and its Ongoing cards.
