10 Decks to Make the Most Of Marvel Snap’s Cute New Animal Cards & Variants

April 2023’s Marvel Snap Season Pass highlighted the animals of the mobile card game. The Season itself added some new animals and Variants. While not all the cards have been released yet, here’s how you can get ready to build them and how you can use the cute new Variants once you get them. 

Jeff

The adorable baby landshark, Jeff, has an ability that lets the card be moved one time without any kind of restriction – from the way the ability is worded, it should be able to be moved into things like Flooded locations of Professor X’s lockdowns. The 2-cost 3-power Jeff won’t be available until April 18, 2023, but it seems like he’ll thrive in decks with Kraven.

Kraven’s ability gives Kraven extra power when a card moves to the location he’s at. Jeff will be a strong, low-cost companion to help ensure that Kraven ramps up as much as possible. A fun deck that could look like this:

• Jeff
• Kraven
• Cloak
• Dagger
• Dr. Strange
• Human Torch
• Iron Fist
• Silk
• Vulture
• Ghost-Spider
• Captain Marvel
• Heimdal

Captain America

Captain America is getting a feline Variant, and the tough alley cat has plenty of decks where it shines. One of the most accessible ones includes other buffers and low-cost cards to ramp things up. Including Carnage along with everything else gives you a good amount of room to really play through your cards as well.

An example deck with Captain America used like this is this one from user Bluefox667 on Marvel Snap Zone:

• Ant-Man
• Elektra
• Nova
• Squirrel Girl
• Nightcrawler
• Angela
• Carnage
• Bishop
• Wolfsbane
• Captain America
• Ka-Zar
• Blue Marvel

Uatu the Watcher

Decks with Uatu can be difficult to really find – it’s not a card that has its own archetype, and it can be hard to find a place for it. However, user PoetNorthstar found a way to include it in a rendition of an event deck.

This deck really exists to have fun with. Every time you play it, you’ll see different things, which is why Uatu is so good in it. Since you can’t quite prepare for what your deck will do, preparing for the variables in the game (ie locations) is helpful. Here’s what that deck looks like:

• Uatu the Watcher
• Luke Cage
• Psylocke
• Armor
• Agent Coulson
• Thor
• Jubilee
• Wong
• Sera
• Jane Forter the Mighty Thor
• Doctor Doom
• Odin

Snowguard

Snowguard is another one of the new animals coming to Marvel Snap. It’s releasing on April 11, 2023, and players already know that it’s a bit of a tricky card. Every turn, Snowguard will change forms that have different abilities. Snowguard Hawk has an On Reveal ability that ignores all Location abilities the next turn. Snowguard Bear has an On Reveal ability that triggers the Location effect.

Clearly, these are going to be laser-focused on Locations, so it’s a bit of a trick deck. This means that it’s going to be more fun than powerful. Here’s an idea of a deck where Snowguard should feel at home:

• Snowguard
• Lockjaw
• Killmonger
• Wave
• Shang-Chi
• Iron-Man
• Leech
• Doctor Doom
• Odin
• She-Hulk
• Thanos
• Death

Nick Fury

There’s only one true place for Nick Fury, and that’s by Devil Dino’s side. With the new bear Variant for Nick Fury, it’s the perfect time to highlight one of the most fun early(ish) decks in the game. This is one of the few ways to use Devil Dinosaur without running Moon Girl, and the deck can get you far early on.

Here’s one way to build it:

• Nick Fury
• Agent 13
• Korg
• Quinjet
• The Collector
• Agent Coulson
• Devil Dinosaur
• Mantis
• White Queen
• Armor
• Cable
• Sentinel

Devil Dinosaur

While Devil Dinosaur is always an animal, he’s getting a new Dan Hipp Variant (along with an Avatar to match). Since the Nick Fury/Devil Dino combination was already explained above, here’s a classic Moon Girl/Devil Dinosaur deck to round it out. Moon Girl’s also getting a Dan Hipp Variant, so it’s the perfect combination:

• Devil Dinosaur
• Moon Girl
• Agent 13
• Cable
• Quinjet
• The Collector
• Mantis
• White Queen
• Sentinel
• America Chavez
• Armor
• Killmonger

Stegron

Another dinosaur is coming to Marvel Snap: Stegron. The card will be pretty annoying with its On Reveal ability that moves an enemy card at the same Location to one of the other Locations. Stegron won’t be in the game until April 25, 2023.

Considering his ability, it looks like he’ll be pretty useful in Control decks with cards like Sera and Mysterio. Here’s what that could look like:

• Stegron
• Nova
• Carnage
• Mysterio
• Lizard
• Scarlet Witch
• Bishop
• Killmonger
• Polaris
• Shang-Chi
• Enchantress
• Sera

Cosmo

Cosmo’s getting another adorable skin, and it’s easily gotten through the Season Pass. Since the lovable dog can be used in plenty of different decks, here’s a fun, late-Series deck where Cosmo can really shine from YouTuber KM Best:

• Cosmo
• Korg
• Quinjet
• Zabu
• Sentintel
• Mystique
• Darkhawk
• Shang-Chi
• Moon Girl
• Rock Slide
• Devil Dinosaur
• Doctor Doom

Deathlok 

When it comes to Destroy decks, Deathlok is one of the most helpful early-game cards out there. He’s getting a new rooster Variant, so it’s time to look at one of his most popular decks.

In general, there are a variety of ways to play Destroy decks. However, there’s a pretty solid deck that’s generally going to be one of the best because of how well it synergizes (and performs). Here are the cards:

• Deathlok
• The Hood
• Deadpool
• Nova
• Bucky Barnes
• Carnage
• Wolverine
• Venom
• Killmonger
• Shang-Chi
• Knull
• Death

Black Cat

Black Cat isn’t actually a cat, but this cute new Variant turns her into one. Because it disappears if you don’t use it the turn it’s pulled, it can be really frustrating to play with. However, Hela makes good use of that by resurrecting cards that have been discarded. 

Combined with Hela, Black Cat can shine well in Discard decks like this one:

• Black Cat
• Hela
• Morbius
• Lady Sif
• Ghost Rider
• Red Skull
• Giganto
• Infinaut
• Apocalypse
• Wave
• Colleen Wing
• Swarm