Marvel Snap has impressed throughout its 2022 Beta and Early Access releases. It's a card-playing video game that appeals to fans of the format and those who enjoy anything Marvel. Hundreds of fan-favorite characters can be enjoyed and played with, each with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Marvel Snap encourages a fun level of creativity from its players in assembling the perfect deck of characters geared to win.
Marvel Snap has plenty of impressive cards, but for all those that have inventive abilities, there are still cards that aren't good enough when it really counts. This can be because their high cost is too much greater than their actual capabilities, or they may not have anything to offer compared to the alternatives. The worst Marvel Snap cards still have their uses in specific scenarios, but they are just blown out of the water by the competition.
10 The Thing Clobbers Hard, But There Are Better Alternatives
The Hulk and The Thing are both clobbering machines in Marvel Snap, but The Thing is nowhere near as useful or effective as its fellow tank. The Thing may cost 2 Energy less than Hulk at 4, but it only has 6 Power compared to The Hulk's 12.
A 4-Cost card only providing 6 Power is not good enough for the mid-to-late game, regardless of it being unaffected by ability-nullifying cards like Enchantress and Cosmo. There are better options for 4-Cost cards or combinations of cheaper cards that amount to 4 Energy.
9 The Watcher's Insight Into The Locations Is Rarely Useful
Uatu, also known as The Watcher, looks like a hack of a card at first glance, with his insight allowing players to see the properties of the unrevealed locations. Yet, this is not a big deal in Marvel Snap. If Uatu appears in the player's hand in the first turn, the user will know about the other two locations ahead of time, but there is no guarantee that he will even appear in that first turn.
Secondly, very few locations reward players who have a head start. Some offer rewards for quickly filling up the location or not having any cards at all, but nothing stops the opponent from meeting these criteria without the insight. Uatu's value is not as important as it initially appears to be.
8 Misty Knight Is A Low Cost, Low Reward Card With No Abilities
Misty Knight is one of several cards in Marvel Snap not to offer any sort of ability. While she is a 1-Cost card with 2 Power, there is no guarantee that she will start in the player's hand, rendering her useless unless certain conditions are met.
Ka-Zar or other cards with Ongoing boosts being in play can make Misty Knight usable, but there are just too many better alternatives for Misty Knight to be worth including in a deck. At its base level and output, Misty Knight should be avoided.
7 Quicksilver's Benefits Stop At Its Reliability
Quicksilver doesn't fair much better than Misty Knight, despite having an identity that gives it some form of worth. Quicksilver is guaranteed to start in the player's opening hand, meaning that there will be no awkward first round of no action due to the cheap 2-Power card not turning up.
However, Quicksilver's worth stops at its reliability. As with Misty Knight, it needs boosts from Ka-Zar, other Ongoing boosters or handy locations with bonuses to have any real bearing on the result. This ultimately renders it disappointing and not worth including.
6 Shocker & Domino Offer Decent Power For A Low Cost, But Nothing More
Shocker and Domino have cool card designs and appear to have worth in doing 3 Power, but their lack of abilities and their cost of 2 Energy just isn't enough for a good deck in Marvel Snap. The cheaper cards often offer cards like Carnage a boost that doesn't feel like the previous turns have been wasted, but with Shocker and Domino's output of 3 Power, the +2 added to Carnage doesn't quite seem worth it.
Shocker and Domino at least offer players a chance to build an early lead, with Domino being a guaranteed second-round card. But when approaching the mid-game, more is often required in the form of ability or strategy. These two cards just don't cut it unless they have significant support.
5 Cyclops Just Isn't Worth Its Cost
As with Shocker and Domino, Cyclops is another cool-looking Marvel Snap card that offers a Power output, but has no additional abilities or overall value. In fact, at a cost of 3 Energy, Cyclops works out as being way too expensive for what it offers.
Cheaper cards that also don't have abilities, like Quicksilver and Misty Knight, have the luxury of utilizing Ka-Zar's boosts, while Cyclops does not. 3-Cost cards often signify the match leaving the opening stages and getting into the late game, and Cyclops offers nothing besides its Power output.
4 Mister Sinister's Clone Is Useful For Filling Up A Location Quickly, But Two 1-Cost Cards Can Do The Same Job
The concept of a card duplicating is an exciting prospect in theory, but when Mister Sinister activates its On Reveal ability, it can be rather underwhelming without considerable support. Mister Sinister introducing a Sinister Clone can be effective in trying to quickly fill up a location for the sake of a perk or boost. Still, its Power output simply isn't good enough without support.
Marvel Snap players have found that cards like Squirrel Girl are generally better, as this card specifically gets the Ka-Zar boost and spreads across all lanes. Mister Sinister will take up two of the four spaces in a location, which doesn't allow much room to get a high total.
3 Heimdall Is A Final-Round Card-Mover That Only Really Works With Serious Planning
6-Cost cards all come with their own strengths and weaknesses in Marvel Snap. The Hulk relies on pure power, while the others bring Power and creative On Reveal or Ongoing abilities. Odin and Onslaught, in particular, show their worth in certain scenarios, but in contrast, Heimdall is too chaotic unless the user has been planning for it the entire game.
Heimdall brings a valuable 8 Power to the table and its ability, but moving cards to the left on the final turn means there is no going back. It could ruin location leads or bonuses unless those cards were placed to the right of their intended location in the first place. Simply put, Heimdall is a risk many players will want to avoid.
2 Mantis' Card Just Doesn't Compare To Her Guardians Of The Galaxy Teammates
Of all the Pool 1 Guardians of the Galaxy characters whose abilities rely on guessing the opponent's choice of location, Mantis' card is the most underwhelming. Rocket is a 1-Cost that will bring +2 Power, Star-Lord a 2-Cost with an extra 3 Power, and Gamora is a late-game equivalent that can bring in 12 Power.
Yet, Mantis brings a less-certain reward for its user. If the player uses Mantis and guesses correctly, they draw a card from their opponent's deck. As with other random abilities, this can go either way, and many players would rather just be rewarded with a Power boost than a potentially weak and useless card.
1 Abomination Is A Budget Hulk Without The Overwhelming Power
While The Hulk's card is a final-round all-Power smasher, Abomination finds itself as a cheaper yet weaker copy, which makes sense when considering Abomination's origins. At 5 Energy, Abomination can be played before the final round, but these latter stages often need more set-up to put players in a better position for their final turn.
There are better routes to go down than playing Abomination in Marvel Snap, with combinations of cheaper cards for the same total Energy offering a better spread across the board. Abomination could still be used on the final turn, but at that point, the player should just have Hulk in their deck instead.