How to Play Beta Ray Bill
Welcome to another installment in our series where we cover new card releases and how to use them. I’ll be covering new deck ideas in this article, but to stay up to date, check out our Full Tier List to see any new meta changes.
Beta Ray Bill marks the last Spotlight Cache release before the February season begins. Beta Ray bill is a fan favorite among comic readers, but his impact on Marvel Snap seems to be on the lesser side.
For a quick impression, I think Beta Ray Bill is fairly safe to skip. It’s very possible that some decks becomes stronger with him, but I doubt he will meaningfully impact the top metagame.
Let’s get right into the guide.
Beta Ray Bill Effect
On Reveal: Shuffle Stormbreaker into your deck.
On Reveal: Double Beta Ray Bill’s Power.
Beta Ray Bill Analysis
Off the bat, we can see that Beta Ray Bill is essentially a 4 Energy Thor. Beta Ray Bill has 2 extra Power (both before and after Stormbreaker), Stormbreaker has 1 Power compared to the 1 from Mjolnir.
The major difference is that Beta Ray Bill’s Power is doubled rather than granting a flat +6 like Mjolnir does. This can potentially lead to certain combos that buff Beta Ray Bill before Stormbreaker.
The main downside of Beta Ray Bill compared to Thor is that 4 Energy is much harder to play than 3. If you don’t have Jane Foster, you only have 2 turns to draw Stormbreaker compared to the 3 with Thor. A 3/10 Thor is also much more impactful than a 4/12 Beta Ray Bill. (Technically 13 Power if you include Stormbreaker)
Cards that Synergize with Beta Ray Bill
Jane Foster
On Reveal: Draw all cards that Cost 0 from your deck.
Just like Thor, Jane Foster is the clear card to pair with Beta Ray Bill. You can go Beta Ray Bill on turn 4, Jane on turn 5, and you will guarantee to have the Stormbreaker.
If you are able to play both Thor and Beta Ray Bill, then Jane Foster will draw you both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker. For the most part, Beta Ray Bill can slot into just about any deck that already uses Thor and Jane Foster.
The question is whether or not those decks are better with or without Beta Ray Bill.
Lockjaw
After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck. (once per turn)
Lockjaw Thor or Janejaw is a deck that’s been around for a while now. Mjolnir synergizes with Lockjaw as you get to have the +6 to Thor while also swapping for another high power card in the deck.
Beta Ray Bill can slot into this deck very easily and become almost like a second Thor. Thor and Lockjaw already compete for 3 Energy, so having Beta Ray Bill be 4 Energy isn’t a huge downside.
Werewolf/Hit-Monkey
After you play a card, move there to gain +2 Power if it has an On Reveal.
On Reveal: Gain +2 Power for each other card you played this turn.
The other main strategy to pair with Thor and Jane are scaling threats. Cards like Werewolf and Hit-Monkey both scale to higher Power when played with things like Mjolnir and Stormbreaker.
With Hit-Monkey, you look to save your Mjolnir and Stormbreaker for the final turn to output a ton of Power all over the board. You can play for two locations or even three depending on the context of the game.
With Werewolf, you don’t need to save everything for turn 6, but you still use Mjolnir and Stormbreaker to scale Werewolf up in Power as they are On Reveal cards.
Beta Ray Bill Decks
For this section, I’ll be mainly going over some decks that synergize with Beta Ray Bill.
Keep in mind that these decks are all first impressions, so things can definitely change rapidly. As new discoveries are made, I will be updating our Full Tier List, rather than update this article.
Be sure to check it out to see what the best decks are.
Beta Ray Bill Lockjaw Deck
This first deck is the classic Lockjaw Thor deck with Beta Ray Bill slotting in for Dracula. Dracula is a strong card to get high Power without being countered by things like Shang-Chi.
Using Beta Ray Bill gives you another effect similar to Thor. This can possibly be very strong to enable your Lockjaw plays.
Beta Ray Bill Werewolf Deck
Up next, we have the Annihilus Werewolf shell made by Woody, but with Beta Ray Bill now. Once again, he provides another similar effect to Thor, but it isn’t as good as hitting Thor into Werewolf. Even still, in the games you don’t get Werewolf on turn 4, Beta Ray Bill can be a solid alternative game plan.
With Zabu, you are even able to go Werewolf on Turn 3 into Beta Ray Bill on turn 4. This can give more consistency to the deck as Beta Ray Bill offers a similar effect to Thor.
Beta Ray Bill Hit-Monkey Deck
Lastly, we have a creation made by myself to make use of Beta Ray Bill along with Hit-Monkey. This shell is quite old and used cards like Yellowjacket and Luke Cage.
The main strategy of this deck is to play out your scaling threats like Dazzler, Bishop, Thor, and Beta Ray Bill early. On turn 5, you can play either Sera or Jane Foster to go for a huge play on turn 6.
Beta Ray Bill Counters
Here are some quick counters to Beta Ray Bill:
- Cosmo
- Beta Ray Bill and the decks he’s in run a lot of On Reveal cards, so Cosmo can be difficult to play around.
- Shadow King
- Both Beta Ray Bill and Thor buff their power up, making Shadow King an easy tech card.
- Shang-Chi
- Once again, after buffed, Thor and Beta Ray Bill both reach 10+ Power, making Shang-Chi a counter.
- Sandman
- Decks that run Beta Ray Bill often want to play multiple cards on the final turn with Stormbreaker. Sandman can shut this down very effectively.
Should You Buy Beta Ray Bill?
Overall, I would rate Beta Ray Bill a 5/10.
While there are definitely archetypes he can slot into, he doesn’t appear to be a major upgrade to those decks. This can definitely change as time passes, but as of right now, I doubt he will have a large impact on the meta.
Even still, he does still look to be a solid card, and there is potential to play him along with scaling cards like Forge or Okoye.
As such, I would recommend going for Beta Ray Bill in your Spotlight Caches if you have an affinity to the decks he goes into. If you enjoy Lockjaw or Jane Foster decks, he definitely will be a solid purchase.
Hope this guide helped you out a bit, good luck in your games, and snap away!
Be sure to check out our Tier Lists for out current rankings on Marvel Snap decks and cards.
- Best Decks Tier List
- Series 4/5 Tier List
Good luck in your games, and thanks for reading!
