NEGATIVE ZOLA

Hey guys ! I'm Jib, I've been playing Marvel Snap since it came out and I usually hover around Plat/Diamond level. Every once in a while I get tired of playing meta decks and since I've had Mister Negative and Arnim Zola sitting in my collection for a while, I always thought it'd be fun to craft a deck around a surprise 0 Mana Zola on turn 6... so I came up with this monstruosity.

This deck utilizes the synergy between Mister Negative, Arnim Zola, and Black Panther to make your sites go from +24 in the same turn ! Here's a quick breakdown of how to play it.

Hard Counters

- You need at least one location to be empty to have a guaranteed combo, after Cloak.

- Aero, if she displaces Black Panther and/or Arnim Zola at a location where the combo isn't guaranteed.

Soft Counters

- Attack debuffs. Black Panther needs at least 5 power after Forge/Cerebro to be effective.

- If you play both Arnim Zola and Black Panther on the same turn, you might get countered by Leader, but not always, it depends on board distribution.

- If you play a forged Black Panther on turn 5, it can get Shang-Chi'd !

Mandatory Cards

- Arnim Zola is our MVP. He can be played even if you don't get the Mister Negative discount off on turn 6, with Black Panther as his target. When discounted, he can be played on turn 6 for a suprise power boost !

- Mister Negative is the wild card of the deck. His main function is to discount to Arnim Zola to 0 Mana, but remains a strong play even if he misses the mark. Good candidates are Forge, Cerebro, Iron Man and Adam Warlock.

- Cloak is your safety card against site RNG ! It helps us make sure we will have any empty site to play the Zola combo into.

- Black Panther is our main candidate for Zola ! We get a minimum of 32 Power across two sites from him which tops Devil Dinosaur in most cases. However when coupled with Forge or Cerebro, he leaps to 48 Power across two sites ! It outweights even The Infinaut.

- While Cerebro/Forge isn't really mandatory, a bare Black Panther will pack less of a punch.

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Tech Cards (Cards that are useful, but can be replaced if you don't have them):

- Iron Man is a card you only wanna play if it's been discounted by Mister Negative. In that case it can be a replacement for Black Panther or played to support another site. 

- Adam Warlockcan be played alongside Mr. Fantastic or Maximus. If you're allowed to draw even one card through him, it bumps your odds of having the full combo by turn 5 significantly!

- Jessica Jones helps you support your weaker site when you're lowrolling or have to play a bare Black Panther . It also indirectly acts as a diversion for them to play cards on other sites than the ones you will be dropping Zola copies into.

Gameplan

- Early game (Turn 1-3) : 

During this phase you don't want to autopilot any cards and assess the state of the board. You need to pick which site you'll keep empty to play your combo, depending on where your opponent is placing his cards and what the actual sites are. During this stage you should be looking to play Cloak to rearrange any clutter from sites or opponent, or look to drop Adam Warlock + Mr. Fantastic/Maximus to draw into your deck. Alternatively you can also setup Cerebro and Okoye.

- Mid game (Turn 4-5) : There is a fork in the road here. Either you've drawn Mister Negative, and are in a favorable position to play him (Iron Man and/or Arnim Zola are still in your deck), or you haven't(sorry!) and you'll be looking to play around Jessica Jones or Turn 4 Forge into Black Panther on Turn 5. If there is a turn 7 this game, you can use the mana to expand more and save your combo for turn 6/7. Also if it's not looking good and there are more than 2 cubes on the line, this is where you should cut your losses !

- Late game (Turn 6, Magik Turn 7) : This is your combo turn ! A few things to watch for however. The first is to account for a possible Leader if you're against an archetype that isn't easily identified (like Discard/Movement) or Aero play. As a rule of thumb, and if you can, you should always pick your empty combo site to be one of the sites your opponent is developping into, it will minimize the effectiveness of Aero and Leader. If there is a turn 7 this game, you should actually pass this turn as it's very high risk and unfold your combo on turn 7.

Conclusion

And that's it ! It takes a bit of getting used to in order to pilot it properly but it's super satisfying to pull off even when you don't get the most optimal combo off. Please let me know if you have any suggestions to make this deck better and have fun with it! I know I certainly have 😎

PS : Don't play this deck if you're precious with your cubes ! It can net you a lot of 8-bags for sure, but you do run into streaks of bad draw sometimes :D