How to Play Cannonball
Welcome back to our weekly review where we’ll be covering Marvel Snap’s latest card, Cannonball, along with the best decks and synergies. 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.
Cannonball is releasing right after very impactful cards like Mockingbird and Hope Summers. While Cannonball isn’t a bad card, he doesn’t seem to have as much of an impact on the meta compared to the aforementioned cards.
Let’s get right into the guide.
Cannonball Effect
On Reveal: Move the highest-Power enemy card here away. If you can’t, destroy it with a Rock.
Cannonball Analysis
Firstly, looking at Cannonball’s stats, a 5/8 isn’t terrible. Many 5-cost cards are either 8 or 9 Power, being just below Shang-Chi range. However, it’s still below rate compared to other cards like Cull Obsidian (4/10) or Sentry (4/10).
To make up for this, 5-costs with 8 or 9 Power need to have a strong or flexible effect to make up for the lack of Power. In the current meta, Vision sees a lot of play as a flexible 5/8 that can move to any location.
Cannonball’s effect is pretty decent, but doesn’t have the same flexibility as a card like Vision.
By moving a card away, you are looking to do one of two things.
Firstly, by moving a high-power card to another location, you can potentially make it so your opponent is investing too much Power into one lane. This can let you play for two locations to win the game, ignoring the third.
Secondly, it’s possible to move a card and fill up a location. If your opponent has three cards in one location, you can Cannonball a different location to potentially fill it up. This can let you win that location by knowing how much Power you need to invest into the filled location.
Both of these situations can be quite good, but some games, Cannonball’s effect might be a downside or have close to no impact. Because of this, I imagine other 5-cost cards still are preferred over Cannonball.
Cards that Synergize with Cannonball
Move Cards
When a card moves here, this gains +2 Power.
While it’s tempting to look at Cannonball as a Move card, he doesn’t necessarily synergize with the whole archetype. Cards like Human Torch and Multiple Man mainly care about moving your own cards, so Cannonball doesn’t really fit naturally.
A few cards like Kraven are able to buff themselves even when your opponent’s cards are moving. Because of this, Cannonball might fit more in a Move deck that’s looking to clunk your opponent’s locations rather than play for large Power.
Junk
On Reveal: Add a Rock to each other location, for both players.
Another archetype that can benefit from Cannonball are Junk decks. These decks use cards to fill up your opponent’s board. With the extra cards on their side, you’re more likely to clunk their lanes with Cannonball.
In general, the Junk archetype isn’t seeing too much play outside of Galactus, but it’s an interesting combo to think about.
Lockdown
Ongoing: Lock down this location. (Cards can’t be added, removed, etc.)
Another potential synergy is with cards like Professor X. By locking down a location, you can know for certain where Cannonball will move a card toward.
This can be a powerful finisher, letting you knock away the enemies highest-power card, even if they’re low power. However, it can be difficult to easily win a location with Professor X, so it might not always be completely viable.
If you’re able to Professor X and win one lane, Cannonball can be a strong way to win your second lane, as you don’t need priority compared to other cards like Alioth.
Cannonball Decks
For this section, I’ll be going over some decks that synergize with Cannonball.
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.
Cannonball Move Deck
This first deck is a potential Move deck for Cannonball. Instead of looking to scale threats like Human Torch/Dagger/Vulture, the deck moves the opponent’s cards to clunk up their locations.
Cards like Kraven and Kingpin also benefit from having enemy cards move to their location, allowing you to scale more Power.
Cannonball and Aero are both options to clunk your opponent’s lane, with Heimdall and Magneto being big 6-cost finishers. Winning one lane likely isn’t difficult for the deck, but winning the third can be difficult. You can be tricky and move your cards around with Heimdall, or potentially win with Shang-Chi.
Cannonball Junk Deck
This second deck uses the Junk archetype to fill up your opponent’s locations. The Annihilus package of The Hood and Sentry are strong, but we lean into it more with both Goblins and Ravonna.
Doctor Octopus is also quite interesting, potentially winning a lane or losing it hard. Either way, with Cannonball in the deck, you have a strong turn 6 with Cannonball + Demon from The Hood.
Cannonball Control Deck
Lastly, we have a Control deck that slots in Cannonball over something like Vision. Cannonball can be awkward to use with Storm, but you can potentially move a strong card into the Flooded location while still winning it with cards like Ms. Marvel and Doctor Doom.
The deck is largely the same archetype as before, simply with Cannonball as a potential substitute for Vision. Lizard can also be comfortably played in the deck as you have Cannonball to push away a card as well.
Counters and Weaknesses
Cannonball doesn’t have any particular counter, but the decks he’s in does have counters. If an enemy card can’t be moved like Blob, Cannonball will simply destroy it and replace them with a rock.
If you’re playing a Move based Cannonball deck, there won’t be any real counters, but the deck might be lacking some juice compared to other meta decks.
The junk archetype is potentially vulnerable to Destroy decks that are able to destroy rocks or Goblins with Deathlok/Carnage.
Lastly, the Control archetype can run into some problem matchups with things like Patriot or Zoo decks that can fill up locations easily with high Power.
Should You Buy Cannonball?
Overall, I would rate Cannonball a 3/10.
I think Cannonball’s effect is actually quite good, but there are simply better cards in the current meta. Because of this, it’s difficult to find space for Cannonball in meta decks.
If other decks are nerfed or cards like Kraven/Kingpin get some buffs, we may see Cannonball creep into the top meta decks.
However, as of right now, I wouldn’t consider him a priority to open with Caches or purchase with Tokens.
This is especially true because War Machine is releasing next week, and he will likely have a large impact on the meta.
Be sure to check out our Tier Lists for our current rankings on Marvel Snap decks and cards.
- Best Decks Tier List
- Series 4 Tier List
- Series 5 Tier List
Good luck in your games, and thanks for reading!
