Control decks are really mighty in Marvel Snap and played by many top players. In this short guide, I want to briefly explain to you why they are so strong and also some solid decks that are meta right now, next to other style decks that you can find in my current meta of decks in Marvel Snap.
The Elements of Control Decks
Control decks work around cards that limit the number of cards that can be played or manipulate the cost of cards to mess up with your opponents’ plan and synergies.
Imagine your opponent plays a deck with many lower-cost cards and you force him to only play one card per turn where he needs to get multiple cards on the board – this makes his power on the board so weak that you can easily take over.
Or you control his ability to play into one location where you’re leading, which means you have already one location of two in your hand and there’s little to nothing your opponent can do about it.
What makes destruct decks so strong? This will make opponents fear as you can break their ability to find their win condition effectively while having a deck designed around the fact to control positions, amount of cards played, etc.
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Zabu Sera ControlSThis new version with Zabu performs incredibly well as you will get a ton of cards to feed into Bishop for extra power and Carnage to scale up. Ultimately you will control your opponent through either Enchantress, Shang-Chi or Killmonger will be a great help to deal with any win condition your opponent might come up with and also with Rescue a good power card in your hand.
Future Prediction: This deck seems to have a better time keeping at pace with the ShuriZero and ThanosLockjaw decks out there as you can use all the control effects well against them.How to play this deckMore Zabu DecksMore Control Decks- Zabu DevilHawkATh evolution of the initial Darkhawk deck that created a ton of buzz in January and post-Zabu nerf this is the deck still on the very top with cards that increase your handsize to scale Devil Dinosaur and shuffle rocks inot your opponents deck to scale up your Darkhawk.
Future Prediction: Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur are kind-of tied together and scale through hand/decksize and still do a wonderful job together and I think we see synergies like that running the meta for quite some time. Thanos Lockjaw dominates too much right now but I think overall this deck has also a lot more future potential.How to play this deckMore Control Dekcs - Electro Sandman RampB+I love this deck a lot as you can play it two ways, either by using Psylocke to reduce your cards cost and then use Wave as well to get a grat final push where you can drop two 6-cost cards or you use Electro to be able to play 5-cost and 6-cost cards on earlier. You can use Leech on Turn 4 to already block your opponents abilities and with your 6-cost cards you always be able to find a win condition on the last turn.
Future Prediction: A very control-heavy deck that now uses Nimrod through Arnim Zola as well to gain a lot of potential reach and flexibility towards the end + the fact that you don't need many Series 4 and Series 5 cards makes it a solid pick for F2P and new players. A very control-heavy deck that now uses Nimrod through Arnim Zola as well to gain a lot of potential reach and flexibility towards the end + the fact that you don't need many Series 4 and Series 5 cards makes it a solid pick for F2P and new players. : How to play this deck - Junk ControlBThis deck basically excists only to use disrupting and controlling cards to mess with your opponents synergies. It might requeire some skills to play but will teach you a lot about reading your opponent. This is a force-to-retreat deck that normally doesn't have the value for a showdown but whenever you see your opponent struggling a little or you getting under their skin, snap and let them retreat will help you win. If you see them snap, go out as you normally don't have the showdown value here.
Future Prediction: Works around opponents with stronger decks not drawing into their lines. Requires some skill and has little to none showdown value but can gather cubes in the right hands. - Basic ControlThe classical control deck, using cards to interrupt and limit the way your opponent can play his synergies turn by turn with cards that lock down locations, limit the cards your opponent plays or manipulate the energy costs or power of them
Future Prediction: Still annoying to deal with and less about a certain deck type. If you're good at playing a control deck, this deck can still get you very far but compared to other decks above harder to play and doesn't work every single time.How to play this deckMore Control Dekcs - Toxic Sera ControlThis deck doesn't try to build up much power yourself, it relies on blocking your opponent to synergize through their decks to build much power (Enchantress, Shang-Chi and Killmonger helps a lot) and then using negative effects on their cards to decrease their power.
Future Prediction: Seems to work with popular decks right now, espcially with Thanos zoo decks as the Infinity Stones are great targets for Hazmat and blocking with Luke Cage gives you a good edge here.How to play this deck - Ronan SeraStuffing your opponent's deck with trash card to prevent drawing and also scale up Ronan on your side is a effective deck.
Future Prediction: With Master Mold, this deck becomes a lot more efficient to play and it can be really frustrating to face it with the Sentinels that stuff your hand you can't get rid of. - Dino ControlThis early Pool 3 control deck with Devil Dino is insane and uses Daredevil to foresee your opponents' semi-last move so you can very reliably find your win condition and push really far, up to infinity without much problems.
Future Prediction: A solid deck and a good start into Pool 3, although Devil Dino is more and more on the decline this deck will not be as meta-defining as it used to be end of 2022. Still, if you lack some of the cards above give it a shot, it performs well as all control decks do these days and with Leader in the meta anywayHow to play this deck - Leech LeaderThis deck follows less of a synergy in total but it uses cards that are significantly stronger than normal and providing great value on their own. This means they either disrupt enemy synergies well early (Scorpion, Armor, Cosmo) or have great return value for the energy spend (Sunspot, Lizard, Maximus). With White Queen you can draw your opponents win condition Shang Chi destroys any high-power cards, Leech disrupts their last turn, Aero and Magneto move cards around to keep your tiles clean and Leader basically copy your opponents move if you have the lead in 2 locations by the beginning of Turn 6.
Future Prediction: Yes, Leader got changed but is still a viable card and you have the other strong cards to find your win condition with this deck.How to play this deck - Reach N RevealThis is a new an exciting deck with many win conditions, great meta countering and loads of options to play and it dominates very well recently. You have Sunspot and Storm to lock down one location while being able to get more power into it later and then strong end-game moves to win a second location.
Future Prediction: It's a very basic deck and most played by newer players that don't have the advanced cards. Works fine but not top-of-meta deck in Marvel SnapHow to play this deck - Stormy ShannaIncluding Shanna in a control/Zoo deck is amazing as you can scale your positive power buffs of Zoo cards and you gain some extra reach through her ability.
Future Prediction: Shanna can be a little RNG so if you look for a very consistent deck in Marvel Snap, plaiyng one that spawns random cards might not be for you. Overall still a solid deck and one that absolutely makes fun to play.How to play this deck - Ghost ControlWorks around Shang-Chi and Enchantress as great and reliable counters through Ghost, reduced by Zabu to form a very stable deck to punish your opponents by revealing second every time.
Future Prediction: Not too many right now but I think Ghost will become more popular once more available to more players.How to play this deck - Quake ControlQuite an off-meta deck that uses locations hifting to steal cubes when opponents snap. Snapping back and gain big but retreat if things are not going your way.
Future Prediction: People have reached Infinity with this deck without being in the meta, simply as shifting locations is something players aren#t that aware of but it's not meta-depending.How to play this deck - Valkyrie ControlPlay all the Infinity Stones, ideally for free through Quinjet or Beast and scale them up through Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel. The beauty here is that you can use Professor X to lock down one location you have the lead in and Valkyrie to scale down high-power cards your opponent has
Future Prediction: With many cards that ramp up a lot of power, this deck comes into meta more and more ans you interrupt combos and scale down the high-power cards accross the boards quite well.How to play this deck
Conclusion
Control decks are incredibly effective and once you know how to play them, there’s little your opponent can do as you control what’s happening and they are more scared and hope you won’t mess up their plays too much – a great way to intimidate with a snap even if there’s not much you really can do.
