Known as one of the enemies of the X-Men in the Marvel universe, Master Mold is an invention of scientist Bolivar Task which can create Sentinel clones. In Marvel Snap, this ability is powerfully depicted in its card form, which can indirectly disrupt your opponent’s plays.
Master Mold has the ability that reads “On Reveal: Add 2 Sentinels to your opponent’s hand.” This may not be as impactful as the abilities of some late-game finishers, but it could set up something that can be big for your side, especially in the late game.
Here are the best Master Mold decks in Marvel Snap.
Best Master Mold decks in Marvel Snap
Darkhawk/Ronan
One of the most creative ways to use Master Mold’s ability is by including it in a deck where its user would benefit from letting their opponent have more cards in their hand. This deck, headlined by Darkhawk and Ronan, can be potentially dangerous if you have the proper setup leading toward a robust endgame.
In theory, the abilities of Darkhawk and Ronan seem to contradict each other. The former is a four-cost, zero-Power card that gains plus two Power for each card in your opponent’s deck. Conversely, the latter gains plus two Power for each card in your opponent’s hand. But both effects can be boosted through the right cards, making them convertible to a potential massive Power boost in the late game.
This is where cards like Korg and Rockslide come into play. Both cards can give rocks to the opponent’s deck upon playing them. This gives three rocks to their deck, making Darkhawk’s Power boost more effective. As for Ronan, Baron Mordo is a vital card thanks to its ability to let your opponent draw a card, but it makes it a six-cost unit regardless of its original cost.
Korg and Baron Mordo, alongside Master Mold, can then be targeted with Beast’s effect, which can bounce them back to their user’s hand at a reduced cost. You can use those cards again to activate their effects, which can indirectly disrupt their play by having more useless cards in their hand and deck. These effects may benefit Darkhawk and Ronan once you play them in the late game.
You can also play Sera, which reduces the cost of all the cards in your hand, and Zabu, which reduces the cost of your four-cost cards by one. Shang-Chi is also a good addition since it can destroy all of your opponent’s cards with nine or more Power on the location where you played it. Lizard is a good Power booster with its cheap two-cost, five-Power stat line.
Cap off the deck with Mystique, which can copy either Darkhawk or Ronan’s ability in the late game. The key to using this deck is to fill your opponent’s deck with rocks and their hand with Sentinel copies. This can lead to them being unable to set up their combos properly and can make you win the game through control and disruption effects.
Win condition cards for this deck:
All cards in this deck are vital in making your strategy work and winning you the game. Aside from Master Mold, the cards that can define your winning condition here are:
- Darkhawk
- Ronan
- Sera
- Mystique
The ideal play for this deck would be Darkhawk on turn four, Sera on turn five, and Ronan plus Mystique on turn six. This can lead to a potential Power boost on your locations, mainly if you used your early game cards correctly to add more cards in your opponent’s deck and hand.
You can, however, adjust the Mystique play depending on the current situation of your opponent’s locations. You can even copy Sera or Zabu’s ability with Mystique to lower the cost of your cards further, which can pave the way for playing 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, creating a strategy that revolves around giving them more useless cards or “junk” cards is an infuriating strategy to inflict upon them. This strategy involves using cards that fill their locations with junk cards to prevent them from setting up their combos, especially in the late game.
Aside from the Master Mold staples like Korg, Beast, and Rockslide, you can add other units to give your opponent more junk cards. This includes Black Widow, which 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 from their deck when it is in their hand. Debrii can also be included since it adds a rock on both sides of the two locations where it isn’t played.
On the other hand, Green Goblin is a three-cost, negative three-Power card that transfers itself to an open spot in one of your opponent’s locations upon playing it. The Hood is a one-cost, negative three-Power card that gives you The Demon card (one-cost, six-Power unit). To clean some of your junk cards on your side of the locations, you can play Viper, which transfers another card to your opponent from the location where you played it. You can target The Hood for this, or if you have a rock courtesy of Debrii.
Mojo, a two-cost, two-Power card, can also be added since it gains plus six Power if you and your opponent have four cards each on the location where it is placed. Cap off the deck with Polaris, which is a three-cost, five-Power card that moves an opposing one- or two-cost card to the location where you played it, and Doctor Octopus, which is a five-cost, 10-Power card that pulls four random cards from your opponents hands to the opponent’s side of the location where you played it.
The key to using this deck is to maximize the units that can give junk cards to your opponent’s hand and deck. This can help you disrupt their potential combos, which can become more offensive for your side.
Win condition cards for this deck:
Technically speaking, no specific combo could be labeled as the winning condition of this deck. Though aside from Master Mold, the cards which are the most important to play to make the junk strategy work are:
- Black Widow
- Viper
- Debrii
- Green Goblin
- Doctor Octopus
Black Widow is an essential stopper for your opponent. It prevents them from drawing cards, and you can fill their hand using Master Mold. Debrii is also a massive location filler, and Viper can be useful to add more rocks to their side of the location. Green Goblin is another location filler that can disrupt their potential setup.
Doctor Octopus is your primary source of Power in this deck. So, it is essential to place it in a location where you know you are winning, especially if the opponent’s side of that location is already filled with junk cards so that they don’t get any extra Power there.
Master Mold deck staple cards
Here are the staple cards you should play in a Master Mold deck, 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.
How to counter Master Mold decks
Since Master Mold has an On Reveal ability, Cosmo can quickly shut it down. It has the ability that reads “Ongoing: On Reveal abilities won’t happen at this location.” Playing it before revealing the effect of Master Mold can make the latter a plain, vanilla card in the process.
Aside 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. Having a lot of hand cards can further boost Devil Dinosaur’s Ongoing ability, which is gaining plus two Power for each card in its user’s hand.
Killmonger can also clear the board of all rocks, so it can be worth waiting to play Debrii until after turn 3.
Master Mold decks’ current state in the meta
Master Mold decks aren’t considered meta decks today. It has no specific winning image and relies on other cards to be helpful.
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 is a plus four already to Ronan’s Power. And if those Sentinels will not be played by its user, it fills up two out of the seven maximum spots in your opponent’s hand. This converts to a minus two from the original minimum of nine cards that can be drawn in a single game, benefiting Darkhawk.
