Marvel Snap: best Phoenix Force decks

Winning strategies for Marvel Snap’s fiery new card

July marks the start of Marvel Snap’s newest season, Rise of the Phoenix, and with it, a powerful new card: Phoenix Force.

This is a five-cost, six-power card with the following ability: “On Reveal: Revive one of your destroyed cards and merge with it. That card can move each turn.” In other words, when you or your opponent destroys one of your cards, this brings it back to the board, adds its power to it, and lets you move it each turn. A bit like if Hulkbuster fused with Ghost Rider. It’s versatile, unpredictable, and opens up creative new plays for both destroy and move decks.

For instance, you can take advantage of its synergy with Multiple Man. Play Multiple Man turn 2, feed him to Venom turn 3, then use Shuri turn 4. In the same lane as Shuri, play Phoenix Force turn 5. This not only doubles Phoenix Force’s power to 12, but brings back Multiple Man as a 15 card. Now on turn 6 you can have some fun: move Multiple Man to a new lane, which gives you x2 15-power Multiple Man cards. Then, play Doctor Strange to move both of these Multiple Man cards, which doubles them again. By the end of the game, you’ll have four Multiple Man cards, each with 15 power.

To take advantage of that strategy, just follow our deck breakdowns below.

Best Phoenix Force Destroy deck – Marvel Snap

Typically, there are two different archetypal decks you’ll want to play Phoenix Force in. These are destroy and move. First, let’s focus on a destroy-orientated deck, and here’s a reliable one players are having success with:

• Deadpool
• Nova
• Yondu
• Bucky Barnes
• Carnage
• Killmonger
• Deathlok
• Venom
• Attuma
• Phoenix Force
• Knull
• Death

Attuma isn’t a typical inclusion in most destroy decks, but he works extremely well with Phoenix Force. This four-cost, ten-power card destroys itself when another card is placed on its location, so play Phoenix Force on your Attuma lane to merge the two together and gain a movable 16-Power card.

Other than this, your main destroy cards here are Carnage and Venom, since they themselves grow in power when destroying cards. They also synergize with Death and Knull. Death reduces her cost by one for every card you destroy, while Knull takes on the combined power of all cards destroyed that game (even the power of your opponent’s destroyed cards).

But that’s not to say there’s no room for experimentation. One tactic to try is using Electro on turn 3 to cheat out Black Panther on turn 4, then playing Arnim Zola on turn 5 to duplicate Black Panther and double his power to 16. Then on turn 6, play Phoenix Force to get a third Black Panther at 28 power (8+=14, doubled to 28). That’s two 16-power Black Panthers and one 28-power Black Panther. Situational, granted, but impressive.

Best Phoenix Force Move deck – Marvel Snap

So that’s a standard Phoenix Force destroy deck, but what about decks prioritizing cards with move abilities such as Human Torch, Dagger, and Vulture. These cards shine when combined with Phoenix Force. Here’s a solid Phoenix Force move deck you can use:

• Human Torch
• Iron Fist
• Dagger
• Kraven
• Ghost-Spider
• Multiple Man
• Cloak
• Killmonger
• Vulture
• Deathlok
• Phoenix Force
• Heimdall

Destroy Human Torch, Dagger, or Vulture with destroy cards like Killmonger or Deathlok, and bring one of them back with Phoenix Force. Then use move staples like Iron Fist, Cloak, Ghost-Spider, or Heimdall on turn 6 to move your souped-up revived card.

Not only will moving Human Torch, Dagger, or Vulture increase their power, but it also lets you get into otherwise locked-off locations such as Death’s Domain and Luke’s Bar. You can’t play your cards there directly, but you can move cards into that lane and win them from right under your opponent’s nose. And don’t forget about Kraven either. If you get the chance to play him, he’ll gain +2 power every time a card moves to his lane.

Phoenix Force is a flexible card that gives you more options in move and destroy decks, but honestly, it’s not troubling the meta any time soon. With the top-performing Marvel Snap decks still bounce (using Kitty Pryde in combination with ‘bounce-back’ cards like Beast), and HElockjaw (High Evolutionary + Lockjaw), Phoenix Force is far from essential if you’re looking to hit infinite.

Phoenix Force unlocks when you purchase the season pass for $9.99. If you’d rather wait, season pass cards become available for purchase when the season ends on the first Tuesday of the month, at the cost of 6,000 Collector’s Tokens.