I started playing this little mobile game called Marvel Snap since March 2023 (the Days of Future Past season) and I’ve been quite hooked since! I hit Infinite Rank by my fourth season. I’ve hit Infinite rank multiple times since then, each one with a different deck. Since Marvel Snap is a live service game that is undergoing continuous development, the competition continues to evolve. New cards get introduced in the game, and existing cards can sometimes be changed for better or for worse. As time goes by, these old decks may see significant changes. I’ve decided to write about these decks since I’m a sentimental guy and I want to capture these moments. In September 2023, Shuri Sauron was the deck that took me to Infinite.

 

 

 

Deck Details

Infinite Deck Name: Shuri Sauron

Season Used: Loki For All Time (September 2023)

 

Card List: Nebula, Zero, Ebony Maw, Armor, Lizard, Sauron, Shuri, Enchantress, Typhoid Mary, Vision, Red Skull, Taskmaster

Win Condition: Win one lane with Shuri / Red Skull, then win another location with Taskmaster

Card Roles: 

1. Nebula – Puts pressure on your opponent to play at her location.
2. Zero – Disables the Ongoing effect of your next card. An additional card to play on Turn 6.
3. Ebony Maw – Low cost high Power card. Disable penalty with Sauron or Zero.
4. Armor – Protection for your Shuri enhanced card.
5. Lizard – Low cost high Power card. Disable penalty with Sauron or Zero.
6. Sauron – Disables all harmful Ongoing effects of your cards.
7. Shuri – For creating lots of Power in one location.
8. Enchantress – Back up for Sauron or Zero. Tech against Ongoing effects.
9. Typhoid Mary – Low cost high Power card. Disable penalty with Sauron or Zero.
10. Vision – Movable Power.
11. Red Skull – Double his Power with Shuri.
12. Taskmaster – Play on Turn 6, copying the doubled Power from Turn 5.

 

Key Card Strategies

The Non-Combo Combo: Despite being named Shuri Sauron, they don’t actually work directly together. Sauron disables Ongoing abilities that negatively affect you, so you can play these cards without suffering the drawbacks. Cards with penalizing Ongoing abilities usually have high Power for their cost. Shuri doubles the Power of the card that you play after. Both cards unlock the full potential of Red Skull, which is the highest Power 5-Cost card that boosts the Power of all opposing cards at the same location. Sauron removes the penalty and Shuri maximizes the Power.

 

 

The Real Win Conditions: The win condition of Shuri Sauron decks is a doubled-Red Skull on Turn 5 followed by Taskmaster on Turn 6. Red Skull has the highest Power among 5-cost cards with a steep penalty. Even if you’re not able to negate Red Skull’s penalizing Ongoing, his 28 Power is usually enough to win in a location. Taskmaster copying that Power secures a second location.

 

 

Built-in Tech: One attractive aspect of Shuri Sauron is that it uses two popular tech cards. Armor is for protecting the card that you used Shuri on and is a popular counter to Destroy decks. Enchantress can be played if you didn’t play Sauron. She counters decks that rely on Ongoing abilities, such as Living Tribunal and Cerebro decks.

 

 

Alternate Options: Even if you don’t draw Red Skull, the Shuri Sauron deck still has the ability to win. Playing Typhoid Mary after Shuri give you 20 Power for Taskmaster to copy. Vision after Shuri gives you 16 Power which is significantly less but can be moved to different locations. Disabled Ebony Maw is 7 Power for just 1 Energy that can be played to win a location.

 

Deck Evolution

What’s Changed in This Deck? From when I used this deck to when I wrote this, the only changes to this deck were to Shuri and Sauron. Sauron’s Power was reduced from 3 to 2, and Shuri’s Power was reduced from 2 to 1.

What’s Changed in the Meta? A lot of things have changed in the Marvel Snap meta, actually. Players with initiative now had Alioth, which gave them a high chance to win a location. Before Alioth’s release, Shuri Sauron players only had to drop initiative to protect Taskmaster from Shang Chi. With Alioth in the game, Shuri Sauron players now had to worry about not having initiative as well. Then, Ms. Marvel pushed Lockdown decks to the forefront, which made it harder for Shuri Sauron decks to win since they become limited to one location. For a short period, Blob could also rival or even outpower Red Skull. High Evolution based decks, Shuri Sauron’s main competition, held its place on top of the meta when InSheNaut was designed, making Leech part of its gameplan. Discard has gotten several new cards that made it more consistent.

 

Conclusion

The Shuri Sauron deck was considered one of the best Marvel Snap decks for several seasons because of its straightforward gameplan and ability to generate massive Power. However, it was very predictable and became easy to counter. New cards like Alioth, Ms. Marvel, and the new Discard cards made it harder for Shuri Sauron decks to compete. Ever since the season I made it to Infinite with Shuri Sauron, I’ve been seeing it less frequently in the game.

I somehow felt that Shuri Sauron was going to be displaced, to be honest. I was desperately trying to make it to Infinite the day Alioth was released, staying up all night so I could get into Infinite before Alioth became more prevalent. In the very next season, I tried going back to Shuri Sauron with Alioth added. It took me back into the 90s but I couldn’t climb any further than that. And since then, I haven’t gone back to trying this deck again.

A skilled Shuri Sauron player may still find this deck viable and be able to pilot it successfully to Infinite with a few tweaks (like adding Alioth and making it a second win condition). But there are too many better decks for me to recommend this at the time of this writing. The cards in the deck still remain unchanged as of today, so maybe Shuri Sauron will make it back on top once again.