One of the most powerful and menacing villains that exists in the Marvel universe is Victor von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom. He is one of the most intelligent scientists on Earth, and serves as the archrival of Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four. And in Marvel Snap, he is a powerful game-ending card.
His card counterpart’s ability in Marvel Snap reads “On Reveal: Add a 5-Power DoomBot to each other location.” Building a deck around it can be one of your best choices to slay your way to the Infinite rank.
Here are the best Doctor Doom decks in Marvel Snap.
Best Doctor Doom decks in Marvel Snap
DoomWave
One of the most popular decks in Marvel Snap is the classic DoomWave deck. This revolves around the strategy of bringing Doctor Doom out as early as possible through Wave to swarm your locations with five-Power DoomBots while filling them with a bunch of other cards to outpower your opponent in the late game.
Wave turns both your and your opponent’s hand cards into four-costs regardless of their original costs. This will help you play Doctor Doom as early as turn four, eventually summoning the two DoomBots on your other locations. But in case you may not draw Doctor Doom in time, there are some other alternative finishers this deck has to offer.
Aside from Doctor Doom, you can include the likes of She-Hulk, which is a six-cost, nine-Power card that reduces its cost for each of your unspent energy before the turn you will play it. America Chavez is also another six-cost, nine-Power card that you will always draw on turn six. White Queen can also help since it draws a copy of the highest cost card in your opponent’s hand.
For potentially outplaying your opponent in the late game, you can add Shang-Chi, which destroys all of your opponent’s cards with nine or more Power on the location where you played it. Aero, on the other hand, is a five-cost, eight-Power card that moves the last card your opponent played to the location where you placed Aero. This effect can possibly disrupt your opponent’s final play, which can be some sort of a sacrificial move to win another location.
As for the other cards in the deck, Sunspot is a great added offensive option thanks to its ability to gain Power for each of your unspent Energy per turn. It is also a one-cost card, giving you the possibility of playing it as early as turn one. For control effects, Iceman can give plus one cost to a random card in your opponent’s hand. Scorpion gives minus one Power to all of your opponent’s hand cards upon playing it.
Lizard is a classic two-cost, five-Power card that has an ongoing ability which reads “Ongoing: -3 Power if your opponent has 4 cards here.” Cap off the deck with Mister Fantastic, which grants plus three Power on all adjacent locations. The key to using this deck is to know when to use Wave, especially if you already have your six-costs in your hand in the early or mid game.
Win condition cards for this deck
Doctor Doom is the huge location filler for this deck thanks to its ability to summon the DoomBots to the other locations. And the other win condition cards alongside it are:
- Wave
- She-Hulk
- America Chavez
- Aero
- Shang-Chi
The ideal play for this deck is using Wave on turn three or four. Then you can proceed with Doctor Doom on either turn four or five, depending on when you used Wave. This makes your locations at least five Power thanks to the DoomBots. Just be wise on how you fill your locations with your early game cards.
For your endgame, you can close out the match depending on the given situation in turn five. If you think you can outpower your opponent by winning the locations through having higher Power points, She-Hulk or America Chavez would be the right play.
But if they are ahead in points, you can either do an Aero outplay or use Shang-Chi’s On Reveal ability. Just make sure you are on the losing side by turn five for Shang-Chi to be revealed after your opponent.
On Reveal Party
Since Doctor Doom has an On Reveal effect, another way of using it in a deck is to create a strategy focusing on powering up your On Reveal abilities. This is possible through the help of some cards, headlined by Wong and Odin.
Wong is a four-cost, two-power card with the ability that reads “Ongoing: Your On Reveal abilities at this location happen twice.” Playing Doctor Doom on the location where Wong is placed doubles the number of Doombots it can summon. This then provides more offensive boost to your locations, but wait till Odin enters the picture.
Odin is a six-cost, eight-Power card that re-activates the On Reveal abilities of your other cards on the location where you played it. This allows you to have a full board of DoomBots. Odin is another six-cost card aside from Doctor Doom, so you need to play Wave on turn three or four to bring out Doctor Doom earlier.
Since the Wong-Doctor Doom-Odin combo relies on specific cards, you also need to add other alternative strategies to this deck. You can use the Hazmat engine, which afflicts minus one Power to all other cards for you and your opponent. Playing it in a location with Wong is a good move, but playing Odin makes it even better. Luke Cage is a need for this strategy to work since it prevents all your cards’ Power to be inflicted with Hazmat.
Another Doctor-Doom-like card you can use for this deck is White Tiger. It adds a seven-Power tiger clone to another location. And White Tiger being a replacement for Doctor Doom in the Wong and Odin combo is a viable option, since you can have up to four seven-Power tiger clones on your other locations.
As for the other cards in the deck, you can add Patriot, which gives plus two Power to all of your cards with no abilities. This is for further powering up your DoomBots or tiger clones. Armor is also essential since it can protect your Wong setup. Cap off the deck with Psylocke, which provides additional Energy during the next turn, Sunspot, Lizard, and Shang-Chi.
The key to using this deck is to always prioritize the Wong setup in the late game. This will pave the way for having an offensive board without the need of playing multiple cards per turn. However, you need to know by turns three to four what strategy you will use in the late game.
Win condition cards for this deck
Aside from Doctor Doom, the other win condition cards for this deck are:
- Wong
- Odin
- White Tiger
- Hazmat
- Luke Cage
Wong and Odin will always be your key cards to execute the multiple On Reveal activations provided by your cards. Playing them is almost a must for this deck to have much impact on your opponent no matter which strategy you will play in the late game.
The ideal play for this deck would be Wave on turn three, Doctor Doom on turn four, Wong on turn five, and Odin on turn six.
Again, as mentioned, White Tiger is a good alternative for Doctor Doom in case you can’t draw it in time. Change the turn sequence if you resort to White Tiger. Simply play Wong on turn four, White Tiger on turn five, and Odin on turn six.
Hazmat, on the other hand, is another offensive engine that benefits your side by dismantling the Power of your opponents’ cards. Just make sure you have Luke Cage on your side if you resort on playing this strategy. The ideal play for this would be Wong on turn four, Hazmat and any other cards on turn five for filling your board (assuming you have Luke Cage), and Odin on turn six.
Doctor Doom deck staple cards
Here are the staple cards you should play in a Doctor Doom deck along with their effects:
- Sunspot – At the end of each turn, gain +1 Power for each unspent Energy.
- Lizard – Ongoing: -3 Power if your opponent has 4 cards here.
- Wave – On Reveal: Next turn, cards in both players’ hands cost 4.
- Shang-Chi – On Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards at this location that have 9 or more Power.
How to counter Doctor Doom decks
Since Doctor Doom has an On Reveal ability, Cosmo completely shuts it down. Its effect reads as “Ongoing: On Reveal abilities won’t happen at this location.” Placing Cosmo in a location where Wong is placed disrupts your overall strategy, making Wong, Doctor Doom, or White Tiger just vanilla cards.
Doctor Doom decks can also have a hard time dealing with lockdown decks since its strategy revolves around swarming the field with DoomBots. Professor X may prevent you from adding cards to the location if it gets played by your opponent before activating Doctor Doom’s ability.
