5 most efficient Marvel Snap decks to counter Symbiote playstyles (2024)

Symbiote playstyles in Marvel Snap can be majorly oppressive because of the ability to generate high-value power cards, such as Venom, Carnage, and Knull. The only way to beat these powerful decks is to prevent players from building their power combos and constantly controlling the board.

Below are the five most unique Marvel Snap decks that will allow players to counter symbiote strategies in 2024 effectively. Every deck has its own strategy to disrupt the other’s synergy, to stop their ability, to control the board, and to manage the game's pace.

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List of creative Marvel Snap decks to tackle Symbiote deck

1) Disrupt and Destroy

Drop your high-power destruction cards such as Death or Deadpool to manage the end phase (Image via Nuverse)

The Disrupt and Destroy Marvel Snap deck aims to disrupt the opponent’s Symbiote cards such as Carnage and Venom while utilizing destruction mechanics of your own to overwhelm the opponent. Characters such as Killmonger and Shang-Chi are essential to check Symbiote’s reliance on small cards such as Bucky Barnes or using the Venom ability to make a massive power boost.

The loop revolves around not allowing the opponent to get those crucial destruction points while also ensuring you get that board clears. Killmonger can get rid of 1-cost cards that feed into Carnage and Venom strategies or Shang-Chi can deal with big power threats.

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2) Lockdown Control

Use Doctor Doom or Vision to pump power into the locked-down areas where the Symbiote deck has issues dealing (Image via Nuverse)

Lockdown Control is all about shutting down lanes early to shut down Symbiote decks from playing. With cards such as Professor X, Storm, and Spider-Man, this deck limits the opponent’s options to destroy and play cards in the key lanes and puts them in a spot where they cannot perform their typical tricks.

During the game's early stages, try to put pressure on one lane with Storm or Spider-Man, thus locking the opponent’s choices and reducing the damage that Venom can deal.

By the time the mid-game hits, drop Professor X to seal off another lane, making the Symbiote player concentrate on one lane. This puts them in a position of having to over-allocate resources and hinders their capacity to develop power on all fronts.

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3) Bounce and Discard

The flexibility of the deck ensures that the opponent does not have an easy time trying to anticipate the next play (Image via Nuverse)

The Bounce and Discard Marvel Snap deck is very effective against the Symbiote strategy because of the ability to cycle cheap cards and generate value from discarding cards. Bishop can be used to scale up with each play. This way, you can overpower the opponent without relying on destruction mechanics.

After the board has been set up, get rid of high-power cards such as Apocalypse or Ghost Rider and bring them back into play using Hela when the opponent extends too much in the lanes, thus affecting their push.

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4) Aggro Pressure

Players need to be active from the beginning of the game and put valuable cards in each line to make the opponent think and be passive (Image via Nuverse)

Aggro Pressure requires a continuous application of pressure on the Symbiote deck, making it play defensively and not be able to implement its own game plan. Angela, Blade, and Wolverine apply early pressure, while Sword Master and Morbius keep the pressure going and stop the opponent from setting up against the destruction combos.

Angela goes large early, and Blade and Wolverine are low-risk discards, one of which can grow in power over time. By the late game, Symbiote decks will be unable to go on the attack and this will make it easy for the other decks to score power wins across the lanes.

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5) Utility Disruption

Utility disruption deck is entirely focused on timing (Image via Nuverse)

Utility Disruption seeks to remove key card synergies that form the basis of Symbiote’s combo-based mechanics. With cards such as Enchantress, Cosmo, Super Skrull, and Rogue, this deck aims at ongoing abilities and the critical point where the Symbiote deck tries to chain abilities like Venom, Deadpool, or Knull for a large bonus.

Play Cosmo to avoid On Reveal effects such as Venom’s destruction or play Enchantress to clear Ongoing effects that contribute to power gain. Rogue can be especially problematic by sacking Ongoing abilities from cards like Knull, effectively nullifying their victory point.

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