Marvel Snap Decks – Best Zabu Decks

marvel snapthe last season pass, Wilderness, brings us a new card: Zabu. Zabu is a 3 cost card with 2 power and has a powerful permanent effect that reduces the cost of 4 cost cards in hand by 2.

This essentially allows, on turn six for example, up to three 4-cost cards to be played with Zabu on the board due to their reduced cost due to its continuous effect. This continuous effect can also be multiplied by the Onslaught, Mystique, or Onslaught’s Citadel slot. The only downside to this discount is that 4-cost cards are capped to cost at least one energy. They will never reach zero cost territory through the use of Zabu in particular.

Season Pass cards are still particularly powerful, as they, like Zabu, can currently only be unlocked by purchasing the roughly $15 Premium Pass. This guide will cover some of the best Zabu-based decks, and even if you’re not the type of player to buy Marvel Snap’s season passes, these decks are still worth checking out in the future when you get the inevitable Zabu due to the game’s card deployment system.

deny the negatives

Negating Negatives is all about playing powerful cards that have major deterrent effects such as allowing your opponent to draw cards, lowering your board’s power, or destroying your own cards, but negating those disadvantages to only have the advantages .

Maximus, Typhoid Mary, Red Skull, and Attuma are powerful cards for their costs, but they have major downsides. By using Zero’s On Reveal effect which removes abilities from the next card you play, we can keep these cards such as Typhoid Mary or Attuma in the field without their effects activating. Zero will also negate the effect of Red Skull which grants each card on your opponent’s field in the same slot +2 power each.

Armor is a great way to counter decks that run Shang-Chi as we have many cards such as Typhoid Mary, Attuma, Red Skull, and She-Hulk that are susceptible or can be destroyed by Shang’s On Reveal effect -Chi to destroy cards with 9 -Power or more.

Zabu will reduce the cost of Typhoid Mary, Shuri, and Attuma for this deck. Each of these cards will instead become 2-cost cards. A turn four tactic is to use Shuri’s effect which will double the power of the next card played. Then, on that same turn four, play the Attuma which is powered by Shuri’s effect on the slot you have armor on. You will have a 20 power Attuma which will not be destroyed as it shares a slot with Armor. After the fifth turn, play Taskmaster right after Attuma, and since Taskmaster copies the power of the last card you played, Taskmaster will now also be a 20 power card. On the fifth turn, you already have two 20-power cards on your board, one of which protects against destruction effects with armor.

Cosmo is able to negate the activation of On Reveal effects, so playing Maximus on Cosmo’s slot will not allow your opponent to draw two extra cards, while you have 3-Cost 7-Power without any downside . Cosmo is also a perfect counter to decks opponents use that rely on On Reveal effects such as Wong, Iron Heart, and Odin.

Make sure you don’t accidentally use Shuri on your Cosmo slot or that when playing Attuma or Typhoid Mary, either play Zero beforehand or play Attuma on a slot with Armor present.

We circumvent all the negative aspects of these great cards by creating scenarios without any disadvantages for us.

Loyal Pinball

Faithful Flipper relies on the use of Mister Negative. Mister Negative flips the cost and power of all cards in the deck. Many cards such as Bishop, Mystique, Ironheart, Rogue, Jubilee, and Wong are more powerful with their high costs swapped with their low power.

Silver Surfer, Mystique, and Ironheart all become 0-Cost cards through Mister Negative, while each has 3-Power due to trading.

There are several different routes for this bridge. Ideally you want to play Psylocke on turn two, then on turn three you will have four energy, so you can play Mister Negative. Mister Negative swaps the cost of all cards in your deck. Wong will become a 2-Cost with 4-Power and you can play Jubilee and/or Ironheart above Wong’s slot to trigger both of their On Reveal effects twice due to Wong’s double On Reveal effect.

Sera can be traded for White Tiger instead, then playing White Tiger on Wong’s location will create two 7-Power Tigers in other locations. If White Tiger’s stats were swapped due to Mister Negative, White Tiger will be a devastating 1 cost card with 5 power.

The 4-cost cards in this deck that are reduced by Zabu are Jubilee, Wong, and Mister Negative. If you manage to play Zabu on turn three and then turn four, you can play both Mister Negative alongside Jubilee to create synergy. Have all the cost/power cards swapped, then Jubilee will take one of those swapped cards back to your deck.

Other cards you can replace are Bast, Patriot, and Iron Man replacing Psylocke, Rogue, and Sera. By including Patriot, you can boost Broodlings from Brood, as they have no abilities. Brood, Patriot, and broodlings will also all be powered by Silver Surfer’s On Reveal as they are all 3 cost cards/units.

Having a 0 cost Iron Man with 5 power through Mister Negative can skyrocket your slot. Even just having Iron Man solo in one location would already easily be a 10-power location.

This deck can take many different paths due to Zabu’s combination with Mister Negative. A capable, fierce, and downright deadly duo that complement each other very well and can help you climb the ranked ladder.

ruthless rocks

Ruthless Rocks’ ace card is Darkhawk. Darkhawk’s effect is that he gains +2 power for each card in the opponent’s deck. By combining Korg and Rock Slide, they will fill the opponent’s deck with additional cards – in this case, Rocks, which are 1-cost cards with 0-Power. Essentially pretty useless, if your deck doesn’t use Patriot to power them.

The 4-cost cards in this deck that are reduced by Zabu are Shuri, Moongirl, Darkhawk, Spider-Man, Rock Slide, Wong, and Absorbing Man. Many 4-cost cards will be reduced by Zabu. By adding Mystique, these 4-cost cards will be reduced even further.

For example, on turn four with Zabu already in the field, we can place Wong and then play Rockslide on top of Wong’s location. This will throw four stones into the opponent’s deck. Korg placed on Wong’s location will throw two more boulders. The opponent will have added six Rocks to their deck just from Korg and Rock Slide, which would have Darkhawk at 13-Power not counting non-Rock cards. By using Shuri before playing Darkhawk, we can achieve more than 20 powers on Darkhawk.

Absorbing Man copies the last card you played, if it had an On Reveal effect. Spider-Man prevents your opponent from playing cards in the next turn at the same place he is played. Using Absorbing Man after playing Spider-Man will allow you to create two slots where the opponent cannot play cards on the next turn. Forcing your opponent to lose two slots sooner or later in the game due to Zabu reducing the card costs of Absorbing Man and Spider-Man.

Since we already have so many 4-cost cards, America Chavez will always be drawn on turn six. America Chavez is a mighty powerhouse, but more importantly, having America Chavez in the game gives us more opportunities to draw from Zabu and our 4-cost cards.

Hopefully these decklists and strategies have given you more insight into Zabu’s abilities and how to make his effect work in tandem with other cards like Mystique, Mister Negative, Darkhawk, and Shuri.

Be sure to check out our excruciatingly detailed best details Pool 1, Pool 2and Hen 3 deck guides and/or our tips and tricks for beginners in Marvel Snap.