Marvel Snap‘s Planet Hulk season features a bunch of new cards that are based on characters from the comics storyline of the same name. One of those is the Grandmaster, who is one of the Elders of the Universe that loves to play games.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Grandmaster is the ruler of Sakaar and organizes the fighting competition known as Contest of Champions. With this arrival in Marvel Snap, Grandmaster may not be your best choice in terms of Power, but his ability can be game-changing, especially if you use powerful On Reveal cards.
Here are the best Grandmaster decks in Marvel Snap.
Marvel Snap Grandmaster abilities, explained
Grandmaster is a two-cost, zero-Power card with the following ability: “On Reveal: Move one of your other On Reveal cards here to the middle location. Its ability happens again.” At first glance, Grandmaster’s ability may seem a bit underwhelming, especially since it depends on another card for it to activate. But if you use cards with some of the most useful On Reveal abilities, Grandmaster might just help you turn games upside down.
You can get Grandmaster as a series five card, meaning that you need to spend 6,000 tokens to purchase it from the Weekly Spotlight section of the Token Shop. Another way to get Grandmaster is by opening your Spotlight Caches, since it will be part of the four-card pool from Jan. 23 to 30 alongside Loki and Hit-Monkey.
Strategy and best combos for Grandmaster decks in Marvel Snap
As mentioned, Grandmaster works with cards that have On Reveal abilities. Since this type of effect only works the moment the card was played, triggering an On Reveal ability once more can help you gain various advantages, such as boosting the Power of your cards, creating more units, destroying your opponent’s cards, and more.
On Reveal cards that help your other units gain more Power are some of the cards that can be the best targets for Grandmaster’s ability. This includes Ironheart, Silver Surfer, Forge, Shuri, Nakia, and Okoye.
As for Black Panther, its On Reveal ability can double its current Power, and you can use Grandmaster to move and trigger its effect once again. This is also the case for Wolfsbane since it gains plus two Power for each card on the location where it is placed, while Hit-Monkey gains plus two Power for each card you played during the same turn.
But your best targets are the cards that can create other units with their On Reveal abilities: White Tiger and Doctor Doom. Disruption cards with On Reveal effects, can also be game-changing at times. This includes cards that can destroy other units like Killmonger, Shang-Chi, Lady Deathstrike, and Alioth. Enchantress and Rogue can remove Ongoing abilities from cards, while Shadow King and Valkyrie can manipulate the Power of cards in an instant.
Wong also synergizes well with Grandmaster since it has an Ongoing ability to trigger your On Reveal effects twice. You can use it either with Grandmaster itself, or with the target On Reveal card that can move to the middle location.
The best Grandmaster decks in Marvel Snap
Grand Sera Surfer
Sera Surfer is one of the most established decks in the meta of Marvel Snap. It has the efficiency and consistency to create huge Power for your side while using a toolbox of effects that adapt to most decks in the game, and Grandmaster can be an added tool to take advantage of the On Reveal effects in this deck.
Silver Surfer gives plus two Power to all of your three cost cards, while Sera can lower the cost of the cards in your hand by one. These two effects can be combined to make a deck with a lot of three-cost cards with various effects while paving the way for playing up to three three-cost units in the final turn while being boosted by Silver Surfer. This makes Silver Surfer the main target for Grandmaster’s effect.
Aside from Silver Surfer, the other three-cost cards in this deck are Iron Heart (for giving more Power to your cards), Wolfsbane (for creating huge Power), Brood (for instantly swarming a location with three-cost units), Storm (for flooding a location, making the next turn the last turn that you can play cards there), Juggernaut (for possibly moving cards), Nakia (for giving added Power to your cards in the hand), Sebastian Shaw (for stacking more Power every time it permanently gains bonus Power), and Gladiator (a cheap-cost, high-Power card which can potentially destroy your opponent’s cards).
Cap off the deck with Forge, which can give plus two Power to the next card that you will play.
Win condition cards for this deck
You may consider snapping if majority of these cards appear in your hand:
- Silver Surfer
- Sera
- Storm
- Juggernaut
- Sebastian Shaw
The Silver Surfer and Sera engine is the main core of this deck. Playing them in every game is a must. The triple three-cost play on turn six is the most ideal finishing scenario that you can have.
The Storm and Juggernaut package can be useful to secure a win on one location, while Sebastian Shaw is a potential massive Power source if you stack as much Power as possible.
Grand On Reveal
Another deck where Grandmaster can be used is in a pure On Reveal deck. This classic strategy with various On Reveal effects has found a fresh and added support with Grandmaster, making this deck more dangerous than ever.
This deck has two main win conditions. The first one if the White Tiger swarm, where your aim is to create and place as many five-cost, seven-Power Tiger clones on your locations. The other one is the old yet reliable Black Panther and Arnim Zola package where you can create at least two Black Panther clones with a lot of Power on two of your locations.
Both strategies may require a slow setup, but Grandmaster can make these offensive engines more effective, especially if Wong is present in one of your locations. That is why Echo is in this deck since it’s the only card so far in Marvel Snap which can remove the Ongoing ability of Cosmo, the ultimate On Reveal disruptor.
Ironheart is once again here since it’s another great target for Grandmaster’s effect, while Magik is there to turn a location to Limbo and possibly extend the game to a turn seven. This is important since the Wong setup with either strategies above may require more time to work efficiently.
Iron Lad can be added thanks to its ability to copy the text of the top card of your deck while keeping its four-cost, six-Power stat line. As for Iron Man, it doubles the current Power of the location where you play it. Finish the deck with Ravonna Renslayer, which lowers the cost of your card with one or less Power, and Odin, which triggers all On Reveal effects of cards which are already placed on the location where you played it.
Win condition cards for this deck
The win condition cards for this deck are:
- Wong
- White Tiger
- Black Panther
- Arnim Zola
- Iron Man
- Odin
Wong allows you to spam your On Reveal effects, making the White Tiger and Black Panther/Arnim Zola strategies stronger and more effective in many ways.
Iron Man can instantly create a ton of Power in a single location, while Odin can again trigger your On Reveal effects.
How to counter Grandmaster decks in Marvel Snap
Aside from Grandmaster’s effect that relies On Reveal abilities, its ability is also On Reveal. With this, Cosmo is the direct counter for Grandmaster since it prevents On Reveal abilities from happening on the same location where it is placed.
So, always be cautious if there is a Cosmo on any of the locations may it be from you or your opponent’s side. Playing Grandmaster in a Cosmo location would make its effect useless, and Cosmo’s presence in the middle location would prevent the On Reveal effect of your Grandmaster target.
As for Professor X, it prevents any form of card addition or removal on the location where it is placed. Grandmaster may not be able to move a card to the middle location if Professor X is there.
For the Sera Surfer deck, Mobius M. Mobius can make the deck weaker since it prevents your cards’ costs from being decreased in any form. The trinity of Enchantress, Rogue, and Echo, on the other hand, can disrupt the Ongoing ability of Sera.
Is Grandmaster worth pulling in Marvel Snap?
Grandmaster may only be useful for On Reveal cards, making it a unit with a limited function in the game. Still, it is worth pulling in Marvel Snap.
A lot of cards in the game have On Reveal effects. This makes Grandmaster as a potential threat which can spam On Reveal abilities to possibly outpower your opponent in various ways, be through creating huge Power or disrupting your opponent’s setups.
You can also create a variety of decks using Grandmaster. Established decks such as Destroy and Discard may see good use of it, especially in enabling those mechanics more times in a match. Get Grandmaster to pave the way for the creation of possible explosive decks in the game.
These are the best Grandmaster decks in Marvel Snap. Now, make your grand entrance in the game using the decks above while you make your way to Infinite.
