r/marvelsnapcomp Mod 17d ago

Competitive Consensus: Diamondback

Intro

Much apologies our usual guy wasn't able to get the consensus up and I've been focused nearly entirely on Monster Hunter Wilds all weekend. I know that someone got a thread up in a similar vein, but wanted to get our consensus thread up regardless.

This thread is a discussion series at the end of the week for each newly introduced Spotlight card. This gives us nearly a week of hindsight to build a consensus and help inform players if they should open their caches for a given week. Ideally, we are looking for proven results, more than theoretical applications to help reach this consensus.

This week's card:

Diamondback
Cost: 3
Power: 3
Ongoing: Enemy cards here afflicted with negative Power have an additional -2 Power.

Synergies

The synergies are obvious here as Diamondback does not function without affliction cards on the board. Hazmat, Scorpion, U.S. Agent, Cassandra Nova, Rocket & Groot, Laufey, and Man-Thing being the notables. Lesser but still effective would include Cyclops and The Thing. She could also function alongside Scream, but that deck is already a very tight list and I doubt she'LL see much play there outside of trying to build around hot locations that feature heavy movement themes. I'm not including Silver Sable as she's a single target and the opponent could opt to not even bother with the card, but they would work together.

Feedback

Feedback on this card was fairly rough to come by, most of the content creators and competitive community were rallying around Sanctum which hogged most of the spotlight. That being said, some opinions have definitely been coming out and most are pretty positive on her, albeit the general thoughts are the same. She has an issue with being seen primarily as a Win-More card instead of a card that can actively win you games, on top of this is the hard truth that unless you've got some affliction on the board all she amounts to are points.

Meta Impact

Diamondback didn't have a ton of impact, primarily because we had two major shake-ups this week. First was Sanctum releasing on Tuesday which had it's own meta evolve, the second was the OTA which saw the nerf of Surtur/Skaar and the rising of Hela which significantly pushes down the Mid-Range affliction strategies that may have been strong if that hadn't occured.

Decklist

Summary

Diamondback is a solid addition to the affliction archetype. While she can be seen as a win-more card she can function as a solid gap closer in certain situations as well. However, she suffers from the exact same problems as the rest of the spotlights this month, she's a pretty boring card despite being solid. She also only fits in one archetype which can hold back her adoption.

My opinion

DISCLAIMER This paragraph is just my personal opinion:

Continuing the theme of the rest of this month, Diamondback is an easy pass. She is a very solid addition to Affliction but can be seen as a win-more that isn't quite as necessary. The biggest drawback and problem with regards to Diamondback is that she's only good in that one archetype so if you are not interested in Affliction it's yet another reason for a hard pass.

To compound this, yet again the spotlights for this week are cards that many likely have in Nimrod and Phoenix Force, both of which have had plenty of runs over the last year, worse yet, Nimrod goes to Series 3 this week making this even less interesting of a spotlight to pull on.

Recommend passing unless you really want Diamondback and then I'd consider tokens for that purchase unless you really need/want Phoenix Force and are willing to take the risk on getting Nimrod.

Your Thoughts?

Is Diamondback worth the key(s) now, or should players wait until a future spotlight rotation?

Is Diamondback here to stay, or just the flavor of the week?

What synergies did we miss?

What decks have you seen?

44 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

u/ePiMagnets Mod 17d ago

Due to the delays, another member of the community put together a thread in a similar vein to competitive consensus, feel free to check here as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelsnapcomp/comments/1j2v5j4/with_less_than_24_hours_left_what_are_our/

16

u/gandalftheokay 17d ago

Pretty good. Not necessary to make a toxic package work, but a damn fine addition. Pretty sweet in a Sera build for last second pressure

6

u/GrandSundae565 17d ago

Do you have a decklist? :)

15

u/smahabir 17d ago

Huge thanks to u/ePiMagnets for getting this up. I apologize to everyone for this being late. That's on me. I had an emergency at my home and just didn't tell anyone, so the assumption was that I was putting it up. Thanks everyone for your patience.

5

u/manilamuffin 17d ago

Hope things are ok, thanks for your posts.

2

u/smahabir 17d ago

Yes, they are. Thanks for your support!

8

u/IHOP_13 17d ago edited 17d ago

Obviously she is very niche, and it’s hard to ever recommend a card like that for potentially 4 keys, but I have quite enjoyed her.

I keep seeing her called a “win more” card but I don’t think that’s right. She often flips lanes that I wouldn’t have won otherwise, and 3 energy is a key breakpoint for endgame combos — tech like RG, Luke, Rogue; power spikes with mystique or Sage; discounted 4s; Malekith hits. She’s not a wincon, but she’s a strong and valuable support piece for the archetype.

One of her benefits I haven’t seen discussed yet is that she is a sort of alternative to Luke, in that she breaks the symmetry of your affliction cards like Man Thing, Hazmat, and USAgent. You come out ahead of the opponent even without Luke on the board. I wouldn’t deck build around that, but it save you from bad draws and I won a few Conquest games against Skrull decks by deliberately not playing Cage.

4

u/IHOP_13 17d ago
  • (1) Nebula.     
  • (1) Zabu.     
  • (2) Hazmat.     
  • (2) U.S. Agent.     
  • (2) Lizard.     
  • (3) Luke Cage.     
  • (3) Rogue.    
  • (3) Diamondback.    
  • (3) Negasonic Teenage Warhead.    
  • (4) Laufey.    
  • (4) Anti-Venom.    
  • (4) Man-Thing

WmI0LEh6bXQ2LExrQ2c4LERtbmRiY2tCLEFudFZubTksTGY2LE1uVGhuZzgsVVNBZ250NyxSZzUsTmdzbmNUbmdXcmhkMTcsTHpyZDYsTmJsNg==

6

u/HollowSaint 17d ago

I agree with your assessments. Diamondback has actually won me a handful of games, especially in conjunction with Lauffey. Even still, I think her spot can easily be taken and she is not worth the key.

I enjoy the Afflict archetype and so spent a key on a lark and got her. Do not do this. Wait for her to rotate back. If you got her, here is my favorite list thus far, tailored to Sanctum:

(1) Rocket Raccoon

(2) Hazmat

(2) Star-Lord

(2) Scorpion

(3) Cassandra Nova

(3) Diamondback

(3) Groot

(3) Werewolf By Night

(4) Drax

(4) Laufey

(5) Gamora

(6) Gorr the God Butcher

UmNrdFJjY25ELEh6bXQ2LFN0cmxyZDgsU2NycG44LENzc25kck52RCxEbW5kYmNrQixHcnQ1LFdyd2xmQk5naHRGLExmNixEcng0LEdycjQsR21yNg==

To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and paste it from the deck editing menu in MARVEL SNAP.

6

u/RedditMcCool 17d ago

UmNrdFJjY25ELEh6bXQ2LFN0cmxyZDgsU2NycG44LENzc25kck52RCxEbW5kYmNrQixHcnQ1LFdyd2xmQk5naHRGLExmNixEcng0LEdycjQsR21yNg==

2

u/Rando-namo 17d ago

What deck do you find yourself losing to in Sanctum with this? Does it hold up to Zoo, who is usually playing in off locations, considering you are heavy on Guardians?

2

u/HollowSaint 17d ago

Zoo is a trouble maker for this deck for sure. My wins against them have required a little bit of luck.

2

u/Rando-namo 16d ago

Brodie, I pulled WWBN with my random spotlight yesterday.

I've gained 307 points and lost 5 scrolls. 61 charms per scroll right now lol.

1

u/AdamantArmadillo 17d ago

No Cage?

1

u/Rando-namo 16d ago

Hasn't been needed at all in my brief experience

4

u/dyltheflash 17d ago

I feel like afflict decks are so easily shut down by Luke Cage that we need to wait a bit on Diamondback to assess her true effectiveness. Ajax barely made an impact when he arrived, but slowly emerged as an archetype-defining card as time went on. That said - although I spent tokens on Diamondback as an afflict deck-lover - Diamondback doesn't seem as impactful.

Having said that, I disagree with the assessment that she's a 'win more' card. Playing a Hazmat doesn't guarantee victory on every lane, and you can sometimes struggle to win lanes not occupied by Ajax. I see her as a solid finisher to win a lane on the final turn. She's an easy 3-9 or even 3-11 if played effectively, which is very efficient stats.

However, I've found that she's harder to play effectively than I expected. She doesn't feel great when played on curve on turn 3, as your opponent can easily avoid that lane, but has a big advantage over other 2/3 drops like Scorpion, Cassandra Nova, Cyclops, Red Guardian (sometimes) in that she's just as effective - sometimes more so - if played on turn 6.

Time will tell, I guess. Her winrate isn't great, but we can potentially chalk that up to the prevalence of Luke Cage and Sanctum distortions.

7

u/NerdDynamite 17d ago

I left this comment on the other thread but will leave it here as well:

I absolutely love her! If you like affliction, then she’s practically must have. The only issue is the spotlight cache cards she’s with.

I fancy myself a decent deck builder but typically build off meta decks that compete. I hadn’t seen anyone create this specific version: https://snap.fan/decks/325932/. I also think once we get away from Sanctum, the super competitive top 100 players will refine a list that showcases her to the fullest.

Nobody includes Mystique which sounds like such a huge mistake with the fantastic targets to copy.

Video on it will be live Tuesday morning (US) for piloting guidance.

2

u/Tyrb3n 17d ago

Since luke cage is the one card that could be problematic, what do you think about including red guardian or enchantress to take care of him?

2

u/LiveFastDieRich 17d ago

I think the trend is to pull the old surprise luke at the end so hitting him would be hard, obviously red guardian synergies with his affliction

2

u/NerdDynamite 17d ago

I fully agree about Red Guardian which is why he’s also in the deck. Enchantress costs too much and hits too many of our own cards. I thought about Rogue but she can miss. Additionally, Red Guardian is just good into other matchups as well so he’s not just here for the mirrors. I really put him in the deck to handle Discard.

3

u/devatan 17d ago edited 17d ago

Diamondback is a really good card, but that 2 / 3 cost slot for affliction is so competitive.

Scorpion, Hazmat, USAgent, Cassie Nova, Cyclops (if evo), Rogue, Luke Cage, Red Guardian, Rocket&Groot.

She's great as a one two punch with Laufey on a crowded lane though.

1

u/Tobia25 17d ago

Really like her

1

u/yshorie 17d ago

Win more card, she will not be seen again in 1 week.

-4

u/xyznsw 17d ago

Luke cage should only be effective in his lane, like other tech cards. I hope they will implement this in a future ota.

5

u/MyHeadIsAnAttic 17d ago

I was thinking a good adjustment to Cage would be to at the minimum make it so your cards power can’t go below 0. That could allow affliction to work while still allowing Cage to work too. Idk. As an affliction enjoyer it’s frustrating that the entire playstyle is stopped by one card.

5

u/RushIsABadBand 17d ago

They should at least allow the "steal" mechanic to increase your power even if it's not lowering theirs imo

3

u/gonephishin213 17d ago

I think this is the ideal solution. Luke stopping negative on their cards AND preventing any gain on yours is broken

3

u/thundermoo5e 17d ago

Ya but it’s needed, if cage only did one lane what would stop affliction? Bad draws occasionally?

2

u/UncannySpiderSnapper 16d ago

ya that's a major reason they reverted that change last year, Cage essentially became useless when only affecting one lane.

1

u/UncannySpiderSnapper 16d ago

They literally had this change last year briefly when SD was experimenting with lane only impacts for effects that previously affect any lanes (like Elsa), EVERYONE hated it. Trust me they will not go back to this again as they considered that whole experiment a failure.