Introduction
Hello hello! Welcome to the first article in a new series called Deck of the Week! In these articles, we will highlight a unique deck from the community each week and talk a little bit about how it works, how it wins, and some tips and tricks from the creator of the deck!
Today's Deck of the Week is Gator's Dracula/Infinaut list! Gator has been a prominent member of the Marvel Snap discord, and you can frequently find him in the #deck-building channel! Let's jump straight in!
Decklist
Starting Cards: Ant-Man (7), Kazar (68), Nightcrawler (91)
Pool 1 Cards: Squirrel Girl (118), Elektra (44), Rocket Racoon (105), Angela (6), Nova (92), Carnage (24), America Chavez (4)
Pool 2 Cards: The Infinaut (129)
Pool 3 Cards: Dracula (215)
Gameplan
This deck is a twist on "flood the board" decks. While other decks that try to go wide take advantage of Moon Girl (84) to make copies of powerful buff cards like Nova and Carnage, this deck actually wants to do the opposite. While you still run Nova and Carnage, your goal is to dump your hand by Turn 6, so the only target for Dracula to discard is Infinaut, which gives Dracula a massive 20 power to close out a game.
Gator says, "The chance of drawing both Dracula and Infinaut by turn 6 with Chavez is 50%. The deck is based around the theory that your winrate in those 50% of games will be extremely high. As long as the other 9 cards in the deck aren't garbage, the games you forcewin through Dracula will get you a huge cube winrate. The general idea of the deck is to be a standard Kazar deck with the added highroll of a potential 4/20 in stats. " With this in mind, Gator took what worked from the Kazar shell of similar decks and adapted it to fit the 3 card package of America Chavez, Dracula, and Infinaut. The resulting list is a powerful, versatile workhorse that can put up surprisingly big power numbers.
Card Breakdown
Ant-Man (7): Ant-Man is a very strong staple in decks that go wide. 4 power for 1 energy is very good, and Ant-Man can consistently provide that power in decks with lots of cheap cards.
Kazar (68): Kazar already provides 5 power for 4 energy, which is very solid. But with his Ongoing ability buffing all your 1-cost cards, Kazar can put a ton of pressure at multiple locations.
Nightcrawler (91): One of the most versatile 1-cost cards in the game, Nightcrawler provides flexibility and is an amazing card for putting power into challenging locations like Sanctum Sanctorum (180) and Knowhere (161).
Squirrel Girl (118): A fantastic 1-cost card that creates two more 1-cost cards on board that can be buffed by Kazar and Nova/Carnage.
Elektra (44): Elektra is a great counter to decks that want to run powerful 1-cost cards, and is especially good given the recent popularity of Sunspot (122).
Rocket Racoon (105): While Rocket is often not the best card to play on turn 1, he gets much stronger on later turns when you can almost guarantee his On Reveal trigger. Another cheap value card is perfect for this list.
Angela (6): Angela is a great way to get more power from playing your cheap cards. 2 energy for potentially 7 power is very strong.
Nova (92): Nova should be pretty self-explanatory at this point. He is incredibly strong for decks that want to flood the board, as his +2 power buff for each card works perfectly with decks that want to flood the board.
Carnage (24): The cheapest Nova trigger available, and also synergizes well with the Squirrels from Squirrel Girl and Elektra, eating them to clear board space and get more power.
America Chavez (4): Chavez increases this deck's consistency, giving you something to play on Turn 6 while also helping you find Dracula and Nova/Carnage by turn 4 or 5 more frequently.
The Infinaut (129): While you will likely never play Infinaut in this deck, he is a crucial piece of the deck as you are looking to discard him with Dracula for the +20 power buff.
Dracula (215): The build-around card for the deck. An extremely powerful finisher when it discards Infinaut or even Chavez.
Locations
This deck loves to see locations that can provide buffs for multiple units. Locations like Muir Island (171), Xandar (198), and Stark Tower (185) are excellent ways to capitalize on your "go wide" strategy.
With your Dracula combo, you can also win locations that are better for 1 big card, like Atlantis (147).
Locations that restrict the number of cards you are able to play at that location can be challenging for a deck that wants to be dumping its hand quickly. This includes locations like The Space Throne (190) and Sanctum Sanctorum (180), although you can still win Space Throne with Dracula + Infinaut.
Mindscape (166) can be particularly challenging for this deck, as you aren't able to discard Infinaut with Dracula.
Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks for the deck, with some input from Gator himself!
Gator talks a bit about how you want to go about winning games. He says, "When you draw Dracula, you typically play for two lanes, one lane with Dracula + whatever you see fit to win [that] lane, [and] the other lane with Chavez + whatever you see fit to win [that] lane." This strategy makes a lot of sense. It allows you to put a ton of pressure on two locations, while also leaving an open location for Nova and Carnage. This does mean that you need to think about which locations you want to try to win early on in the game, as it will affect where you play your cheaper cards.
Nightcrawler is a great way to win otherwise unwinnable locations. You can buff him with Nova or with Kazar to help him get the power he needs to steal games.
In games where you can't quite empty your hand for the Dracula + Infinaut combo, Gator says you can play out your other cards in order to have a 50% chance to hit either Infinaut or Chavez with Dracula. 10 power for 4 energy is still quite good, even if you don't hit Infinaut with Dracula.
Conclusion
That's it for the first Deck of the Week! I hope you enjoyed the article! Huge thanks to Gator for allowing me to share his awesome decklist with you all! If you have any suggestions for improving the article format, please leave a comment! My goal is to provide the best possible content for you readers, so let me know what you think!
If you have a deck that you think should be featured in this series, shoot me a link to a Twitch stream or a YouTube video of you playing the deck on Discord @ Cqrbon#0001! I will be keeping my eye out in the Discord server and on Twitch for some spicy new decklists to bring to you all! Thank you for reading!
