Marvel Snap introduces us to the powerful and notorious Master Mold, a creation of the scientist Bolivar Task and a longstanding enemy of the X-Men in the Marvel universe. Master Mold’s ability to create Sentinel clones is expertly depicted in its card form in Marvel Snap, allowing players to indirectly disrupt their opponent’s plays.
Master Mold’s ability reads “On Reveal: Add 2 Sentinels to your opponent’s hand.” While not as impactful as some late-game finishers, this ability can set up significant advantages for your side, especially in the late game. In this article, we will explore the best Master Mold decks in Marvel Snap that maximize its potential.
Darkhawk/Ronan
One of the most creative ways to utilize Master Mold’s ability is by incorporating it into a deck where the user benefits from their opponent having more cards in their hand. This deck, featuring Darkhawk and Ronan, can be particularly dangerous with the right setup leading to a robust endgame.
At first glance, Darkhawk and Ronan’s abilities may seem contradictory. Darkhawk is a four-cost, zero-Power card that gains plus two Power for each card in your opponent’s deck, while Ronan gains plus two Power for each card in your opponent’s hand. However, with the right cards, both effects can be enhanced, potentially resulting in a massive Power boost in the late game.
Cards like Korg and Rockslide come into play to make this strategy effective. These cards add rocks to your opponent’s deck, increasing Darkhawk’s Power boost. Additionally, Baron Mordo, with its ability to let your opponent draw a card, is a vital card for Ronan, even though it raises its cost to six units regardless of its original cost.
Master Mold, along with Korg and Baron Mordo, can be targeted with Beast’s effect, which allows them to be bounced back to your hand at a reduced cost. This enables you to use these cards again to activate their effects, indirectly disrupting your opponent’s play by filling their hand and deck with more useless cards. These effects can greatly benefit Darkhawk and Ronan when played in the late game.
To further enhance this deck, consider including Sera, who reduces the cost of all cards in your hand, and Zabu, who reduces the cost of four-cost cards by one. Shang-Chi is also a valuable addition, as it can destroy all your opponent’s cards with nine or more Power on the location where it is played. Lizard, with its cheap two-cost and five-Power stat line, is a good Power booster.
Complete the deck with Mystique, who can copy either Darkhawk or Ronan’s ability in the late game. The key to success with this deck is to fill your opponent’s deck with rocks and their hand with Sentinel copies. This strategy prevents them from setting up their combos properly and allows you to win the game through control and disruption effects.
Win condition cards for this deck:
All the cards in this deck are vital in making your strategy work and securing your victory. In addition to Master Mold, the cards that can define your winning condition are:
- Darkhawk
- Ronan
- Sera
- Mystique
The ideal play for this deck would be to play Darkhawk on turn four, Sera on turn five, and Ronan plus Mystique on turn six. This combination can lead to a potential Power boost on your locations, especially if you used your early game cards correctly to add more cards to your opponent’s deck and hand. However, you can adjust the Mystique play depending on the current situation of your opponent’s locations, even copying Sera or Zabu’s ability with Mystique to lower the cost of your cards further, allowing you to play multiple cards at once in the late game.
Master Mold Junk
Since the Sentinels given by Master Mold to your opponent’s hand are usually useless, building a strategy that revolves around giving them more useless or “junk” cards can be an infuriating tactic. This strategy involves using cards that fill your opponent’s locations with junk cards, preventing them from setting up their combos, especially in the late game.
Alongside Master Mold staples like Korg, Beast, and Rockslide, you can add other units to provide your opponent with more junk cards. For example, Black Widow fires the Widow’s Bite card into your opponent’s hand. The Widow’s Bite is a zero-cost, zero-Power card that prevents your opponent from drawing cards from their deck while it is in their hand. Debrii is another useful addition, as it adds a rock to both sides of the two locations where it isn’t played.
Green Goblin, a three-cost, negative three-Power card, transfers itself to an open spot in one of your opponent’s locations when played. The Hood, a one-cost, negative three-Power card, gives you The Demon card (a one-cost, six-Power unit). To clear some of the junk cards from your side of the locations, you can play Viper, which transfers another card to your opponent’s side from the location where it is played, targeting The Hood or utilizing a rock courtesy of Debrii.
Additionally, Mojo, a two-cost, two-Power card, can be added to the deck, gaining plus six Power if you and your opponent each have four cards on the location where it is placed. Polaris, a three-cost, five-Power card, can be used to move an opposing one- or two-cost card to the location where it is played. Doctor Octopus, a five-cost, 10-Power card, can pull four random cards from your opponent’s hand to the opponent’s side of the location where it is played.
The key to success with this deck is to maximize the use of units that give junk cards to your opponent’s hand and deck. This strategy disrupts their potential combos, giving you the offensive advantage.
Win condition cards for this deck:
While no specific combo can be labeled as the winning condition of this deck, the following cards are crucial in making the junk strategy work:
- Black Widow
- Viper
- Debrii
- Green Goblin
- Doctor Octopus
Black Widow is an essential card for stopping your opponent from drawing cards, and you can fill their hand using Master Mold. Debrii is a significant location filler, and Viper can add more rocks to your opponent’s side of the location. Green Goblin is another location filler that disrupts their potential setup. Doctor Octopus is your primary source of Power in this deck, so it is crucial to place it in a location where you know you are winning, especially if your opponent’s side of that location is already filled with junk cards.
Master Mold Deck Staple Cards
To build a successful Master Mold deck, here are some staple cards you should consider incorporating, along with their effects:
- Korg: On Reveal, shuffle a Rock into your opponent’s deck.
- Beast: On Reveal, return your other cards at this location to your hand. They cost 1 less.
- Rockslide: On Reveal, shuffle 2 Rocks into your opponent’s deck.
Including these cards will enhance your deck’s overall effectiveness.
How to Counter Master Mold Decks
Since Master Mold’s ability triggers on reveal, Cosmo can quickly shut it down. Cosmo’s ability “Ongoing: On Reveal abilities won’t happen at this location” neutralizes Master Mold’s effect. Playing Cosmo before revealing Master Mold renders the latter a plain, vanilla card in the process.
Apart from Cosmo, decks that benefit from having more cards in their hand can counter Master Mold decks. This includes decks with the Devil Dinosaur engine, as having a large number of hand cards further boosts Devil Dinosaur’s Ongoing ability, which grants plus two Power for each card in its user’s hand. Additionally, Killmonger can clear the board of all rocks, making it worth waiting to play Debrii until after turn 3.
Master Mold Decks in the Current Meta
Currently, Master Mold decks aren’t considered meta decks. They lack a specific winning image and heavily rely on other cards to be effective.
The deck where Master Mold could see the most usage is in Ronan decks. The additional two Sentinel copies added to a player’s hand already give Ronan a plus four Power advantage. If those Sentinels are not played by the user, it fills up two out of the seven maximum spots in your opponent’s hand. This translates to a minus two from the original minimum of nine cards that can be drawn in a single game, benefiting Darkhawk.
In conclusion, Master Mold decks in Marvel Snap offer unique gameplay options that can disrupt your opponent’s strategy. By leveraging the E-E-A-T principles of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, as well as considering YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) scenarios, you can build powerful and competitive decks that will make your opponents think twice before challenging you.
