Surtur is making his grand entrance into Marvel Snap as the featured Season Pass card for the War of the Nine Realms season! This formidable 3-Cost, 5-Power card boasts the ability: After you play a card with 10+ Power, this gains +3 Power. This article serves as your ultimate Strategy Guide to understanding Surtur, exploring its strengths and weaknesses, and discovering the most effective decks to unleash its potential in your Marvel Snap matches.
Surtur
After you play a card with 10 or more Power, this gains +3 Power. (twice per game)
Series 5
View Card Details Decks with Surtur
Season Pass cards are exclusively available through the Premium Season Pass. Once the season concludes on the first Tuesday of each month, Surtur will transition into a Series 5 card. At this point, it can be acquired for 6,000 Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop or appear as a Weekly Spotlight card.
War of the Nine Realms – Marvel Snap November 2024 Season Pass
Surtur may also be featured in a Spotlight Cache, which becomes accessible every 120 Collection Levels after Collection Level 500.
Marvel Snap New Card Release, Spotlight Cache, and Series Drop Schedule
For a detailed understanding of card release schedules, Spotlight Caches, and Series Drops, be sure to consult our dedicated guide!
Decoding Surtur: Strengths and Weaknesses
In the dynamic landscape of Marvel Snap, cards centered around power generation must strike a delicate balance. They risk being overpowered for their cost or becoming unplayable due to insufficient power output and lack of strategic utility. In the current meta, dominated by impactful 3-Cost cards like Cassandra Nova, Bishop, Hit Monkey, Vulture, and Gladiator, a 3-Cost card needs to deliver significant power to be competitive. Consider Speed, a potential [3/9] card, which sees minimal play because its impact is limited to raw power. This illustrates the high benchmark for 3-Cost cards in today’s Marvel Snap.
With this context, let’s establish a benchmark for Surtur: [3/11] or better. Ideally, achieving 11 power by Turn 5 sets the stage for playing Surtur’s prime partner on Turn 6, often at a reduced cost.
Skaar
Costs 2 less for each of your cards that has 10 or more Power.
Series 5
View Card Details Decks with Skaar
The synergy between Surtur and Skaar is immediately apparent. This combination offers a compelling starting point for evaluating Surtur’s overall power. Skaar decks are already viable in the current competitive meta, so Surtur’s ability to enhance these decks will be a crucial indicator of its true strength.
This naturally leads us to consider other cards that synergize well with Surtur, particularly those that boast 10 or more power.
Aero
On Reveal: Move the last enemy card played anywhere to this location.
Series 3
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Crossbones
You can only play this at locations where you are winning.
Series 3
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Cull Obsidian
You can only play this where you have a 1-Cost card.
Series 5
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Attuma
After each turn, destroy one of your cards here with less Power.
Series 3
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Typhoid Mary
Ongoing: Your other cards here have -2 Power.
Series 3
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Black Knight
After you discard a card, add the Ebony Blade to your hand with that card’s Power. (once per game)
Series 5
View Card Details Decks with Black Knight
These 10-Power cards can be strategically deployed on Turns 4 and 5 after playing Surtur on Turn 3. Alternatively, with the assistance of Zabu, you could potentially play these powerful cards and Surtur a turn earlier. This straightforward approach is both Surtur’s strength and its potential weakness.
The strength lies in the readily apparent deck-building strategy. You can opt for a direct approach or explore a Discard-focused variant featuring Black Knight. Existing Skaar decks also provide insights into protecting your high-power cards from threats like Shang-Chi.
However, the weakness emerges from the deck’s established position in the meta. While Skaar decks are respectable Tier 2 contenders, they aren’t currently meta-defining. Against prevalent meta decks like Bounce or those leveraging a buffed Iron Man, these decks often struggle, especially with the rise of Agent Venom. Furthermore, the counter strategies are well-known. Cards like Shang-Chi, Cassandra Nova, Silver Sable, U.S. Agent, and Hazmat can disrupt the deck’s game plan by destroying key cards or reducing their power below the 10-power threshold, thus negating Skaar’s cost reduction.
This archetype relies on developing power in a balanced, predictable manner. This inherent fairness might be insufficient to elevate Surtur to a top-tier meta defining card. Therefore, let’s explore more unconventional, “unfair” methods of power generation to maximize Surtur’s impact!
She-Hulk
Costs 1 less for each unspent Energy last turn.
Series 3
View Card Details Decks with She-Hulk
Death
Costs 1 less for each card destroyed this game.
Series 3
View Card Details Decks with Death
Moving beyond the Skaar synergy, we can consider strategies to trigger Surtur’s ability twice in a game. Achieving [3/11] Surtur on Turn 6 can be accomplished by playing two 10+ power cards in the final turns. This approach requires a more intricate strategy but offers the advantage of concealing your strategy from your opponent and potentially protecting Surtur from disruptive cards like Shadow King or Shang-Chi.
While Sasquatch could be a potential inclusion, it has been less impactful recently. Conversely, leveraging She-Hulk and Death for cost-effective power plays is a well-established strategy. Moon Girl further enhances this by duplicating these cards for explosive final turns. And if Mockingbird were ever reverted to its 10-power state, it could become another powerful enabler.
Once you embrace the core concept of utilizing Surtur for its inherent power potential, new synergistic avenues emerge. For instance, playing two 10-power cards becomes significantly easier with energy ramp cards like Arishem, Electro, or Hope Summers. Arishem is particularly appealing as it avoids cost conflicts with Surtur, both being 3-Cost cards. Since most 6-Cost cards possess 10 or more power, a straightforward strategy of playing a 6-Cost card on Turn 5 followed by another on Turn 6 appears promising.
Blob
On Reveal: Merge cards from your deck into this until it gains 13 or more Power.
Series 5
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Magneto
On Reveal: Move all enemy 3 and 4-Cost cards to this location.
Series 3
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Red Hulk
When your opponent ends a turn with unspent Energy, +3 Power. (if in hand or in play)
Series 5
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Hulkling
Game Start: Copy the text of a random 6-Cost card.
Series 5
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Alioth
On Reveal: Remove the text from all unrevealed enemy cards here.
Series 5
View Card Details Decks with Alioth
Final Verdict: Is Surtur Meta-Worthy?
Surtur presents several viable avenues for deck construction. You can focus on enabling Skaar, orchestrate explosive Turn 6 plays to maximize Surtur’s power gain, or simply utilize it as a robust lane anchor capable of gaining power boosts throughout the match. Surtur is poised to be a reliable power card with an efficient power-to-cost ratio.
However, its rigid deck-building constraints and limited playability beyond Turn 3 or 4 raise concerns about its overall meta impact. Surtur’s effectiveness is contingent on playing 10+ power cards to trigger its ability, which may limit its flexibility in diverse game scenarios.
Pre-Release Score:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 7 out of 10.
Surtur Deck Strategy and Examples
The landscape of compelling Surtur decks is currently somewhat limited, and comparing it directly to the previous month’s Season Pass card, Agent Venom, reveals a noticeable gap in immediate impact. Surtur’s most promising roles appear to be within Skaar-centric decks or alongside Arishem strategies. The intriguing possibility of merging Skaar and Arishem archetypes to further amplify Surtur’s potential is also worth exploring.
The initial deck ideas revolve around these core concepts. Aero emerges as a consistent inclusion in these early iterations, being one of the few solid 5-Cost cards with 10 Power currently available. This sparks the question of whether Surtur could find a niche within existing Scream Move decks as a tech inclusion.
While the upper echelons of Surtur decks are largely defined by the necessity of including numerous 10+ power cards, the lower-cost card slots (three or less) offer greater flexibility, even within established Arishem and “10 Power” deck frameworks.
Arishem Surtur Deck
This deck archetype focuses on leveraging Arishem to enable consistent 10+ power plays, maximizing Surtur’s potential power gain. The inclusion of cards like Quinjet and Valentina helps to reduce the cost of high-power cards, facilitating efficient deployment alongside Surtur.
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10 Power Surtur Deck
This strategy centers around a more direct approach, utilizing a suite of 10-power cards alongside Surtur. Zabu plays a crucial role in enabling earlier deployment of these high-cost, high-power threats. Protective cards like Armor and Cosmo are included to safeguard your key cards from common counter strategies.
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Beyond these core strategies, more unconventional Surtur builds are conceivable, although their competitive viability remains questionable. In the presented examples, Surtur primarily serves as a reliable Turn 3 play, aiming to contest locations against your opponent’s mid-to-late game power cards.
While added power is always beneficial, Surtur doesn’t inherently enhance deck consistency or versatility. Its impact is often realized only when draws align favorably, which is often already a prerequisite for success in these archetypes.
Double Up Surtur Deck
This more experimental build explores the potential of maximizing Surtur’s ability to trigger multiple times in a game. Cards like Moon Girl and Hope Summers are incorporated to generate extra energy and card duplication, creating opportunities to play multiple 10+ power cards and amplify Surtur’s power.
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Thanos Surtur Deck
This deck attempts to integrate Surtur into a Thanos shell, leveraging the inherent card generation of the Thanos Stones to potentially fuel Surtur’s ability. Cull Obsidian and Attuma provide additional 10+ power cards, while Death offers a powerful and cost-effective finisher to trigger Surtur.
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Surtur Card Variants
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Closing Thoughts: Surtur’s Place in the Meta
In conclusion, Surtur is a solid card capable of consistently reaching [3/11] power, placing it firmly within the conversation of impactful 3-Cost cards. However, concerns regarding its flexibility persist, stemming from both its deck-building restrictions and diminished effectiveness when played beyond Turn 3. Surtur’s ability is reactive, requiring the prior play of a 10+ power card to gain its power bonus.
For players mindful of their spending, this Season Pass might be considered skippable to conserve resources for potentially more impactful future releases.
We hope this comprehensive strategy guide has provided valuable insights into Surtur. We encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences with the card in the comments below. Join the Marvel Snap Zone team and community in our Discord server to continue the discussion and ask any further questions.
Good Game, Everyone!
