How to Play Daken in Marvel Snap
Welcome to another installment in our series where we cover new card releases and how to use them.
Daken is the new Season Pass card for August, and his mechanic makes him work with both Discard and Destroy effects. A lot of the cards coming out this month also synergize with this dual discard destroy archetype, so look forward to more releases if you love Daken.
On first impression, Daken has a strong ability that can make him output a lot of Power, but his decks can be vulnerable to things like Armor and Cosmo. While Armor and Cosmo aren’t super prevalent in the meta, they can definitely stop you in your tracks.
Let’s get right into the guide.
Daken Effect
On Reveal: Add the Muramasa Shard to your hand.
Muramasa Shard
When this is discarded or destroyed, double Daken’s Power.
Daken Synergy
Daken is similar to a card like Thor, where you gain another card to buff up the original card. If you’re able to discard or destroy Muramasa Shard, Daken ends up becoming a 3 for 8, which is definitely above rate.
For Discard decks, you likely have a multitude of effects that can discard the shard, while Destroy decks also have many ways to destroy the shard.
Destroy – Carnage, Deathlok, Venom, Killmonger
There are plenty of ways to destroy the Shard, but Carnage, Deathlok, Venom, and Killmonger will likely be your go to cards. All of these cards are cheap and can easily destroy the shard.
However, when it comes to Destroy, you’re much more likely to be countered by cards like Armor or Cosmo. If you’re relying on Carnage or Venom to destroy the Shard, you likely won’t be doing it until turn 4 at the earliest. This gives your opponent plenty of time to try and stop you.
Killmonger has a bit of an easier time, as you can simply wait until the final turn to play Killmonger along with the Shard for 4 out of your 6 Energy.
Discard – Blade, Colleen Wing, Hell Cow, Modok, etc
There are a ton of Discard cards you can use to enable Daken, and Daken can easily slot in for Discard decks. Colleen Wing is able to guarantee you discard the Shard, in case you aren’t able to find Swarm in hand.
Discard is also less susceptible to things like Armor and Cosmo, as you can simply play out your cards in a lane without Cosmo. If your opponent has priority and predicts where you play, well that’s just a low roll.
Arnim Zola
On Reveal: Destroy a random friendly card here. Add copies of it to the other locations.
Lastly, I want to talk about Arnim Zola, as this card is able to turn Daken into the carry of your deck. If you’re able to play Arnim Zola on turn 5, or turn 6 in a 7 turn game (thanks to Magik), you’re able to play out 2 Daken’s on the board, with 3 Muramasa Shards in hand.
Then, assuming you are able to destroy all 3 or discard all 3, you got yourself two 32 Power Dakens in different lanes. That by itself is often enough to win most games. This combo style is quite fun to pull off, but you’ll need cards to enable Arnim Zola on turn 5 such as:
- Wave
- Electro
- Psylocke
- Magik (Play Arnim Zola on turn 6, and destroy/discard the Shards on turn 7)
- Invisible Woman (You can play Modok on turn 5 behind Invisible Woman and still play Arnim Zola on turn 6)
Daken Decks
For this section, I’ll be mainly going over some decks that synergize with Daken.
Keep in mind that these decks are all first impressions, so things can definitely change rapidly. As new discoveries are made with Daken, 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, or if Daken is even in the best decks at all.
Daken Combo Deck
This first deck is a combo deck that looks to use Arnim Zola to play out powerful Dakens onto the board. As with all combo decks, it can be inconsistent, and it may not be ideal for Conquest Mode. However, if you want to just have a fun ladder climb (without using any Series 4 or 5 cards, you can easily replace Jeff with any card you want) this deck can be a fun one to try out.
You can definitely experiment with other cards as well. I did not include Psylocke or Magik, but those can help enable Arnim Zola if you’re finding yourself struggling on that end.
Daken Destroy Deck
This next deck simply throws Daken into an already known Destroy deck. The deck is quite simple enough. You just want to Destroy a bunch of cards and overpower opponents. While this deck isn’t really super competitive, it’s still a functional and working deck, so if this is your style, go for it.
Daken Discard Deck
Lastly, we have another Daken insert. This time, you can simply insert him into a Discard deck and he will work pretty well. Modok is extremely common in Discard, and having another card to Discard can buff up Morbius as well. You can even buff up the Collector if you play Daken after, as you add a card to your hand.
This is the most seamless deck to add Daken into, and while I’m unsure if he’s ideal, he will work just fine.
Daken Counters
While Daken can be a great card, there are definitely cards that can ruin your plans.
Shadow King
On Reveal: Set all cards here to their original base Power.
Shadow King is an easy counter to Daken as he resets his Power back to 4. However, to do this, the Shadow King needs to not have priority in order to play afterward.
Armor/Cosmo
As mentioned previously, Armor and Cosmo are quick and easy counters to Daken Destroy decks. To be fair, these cards are counters to Destroy as a whole, so Daken is no exception.
Even still, if you’re planning on doing the Arnim Zola combo, an Armor will simply stop that.
Conclusion
Overall, Daken is a fun new addition to the game as you can flex between different playstyles. As more Series 5 cards come out in August, even more cards will have similar effects to Daken and Wolverine. If there’s enough support, we may see a new top deck being formed.
However, I do think it will be hard to tell for sure. Expecting a player to get every new Series 5 card this month to build the perfect Daken deck seems like a very, very tall order. Only a fraction of the player base will get to test with all of the new cards, and we may not see what the full potential is until the cards become more accessible.
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!
