How to Play Loki in Marvel Snap
Welcome to another installment in our series where we cover new card releases and how to use them.
Loki is the latest Season Pass card for September. It’s only been a few days since his release, but he’s already taken over the meta. I was pretty impressed with the card on release, but I did not expect him to overtake the meta like he did.
Loki provides a very unique effect, and can make your games extremely fun and wacky. If you like decks where you have to think on the spot, Loki is perfect for you.
Let’s get right into the guide.
Loki Effect
On Reveal: Replace your hand with cards from your opponent’s starting deck. Give them -1 cost.
Loki Synergy
So far, people have theory crafted Loki decks with two conditions in mind.
Firstly, you want to be able to get value out of low cost cards. Thus, when you play Loki, you essentially get to refill your hand with more cards.
Secondly, you need some way to generate more cards in your hand. If you simply dump your hand and play Loki, you will only get a couple of cards from his ability. Ideally, you want to play out early cards while also keeping your hand size large.
Quinjet
Quinjet is the perfect card to play with Loki. When you refill your hand with Loki, the cards will be discounted twice if you have Quinjet on the board. This will make your hand extremely cheap, letting you play out a ton of cards.
Random Generation Cards
Cards: Agent Coulson, Agent 13, Nick Fury, Sentinel, Maria Hill, Cable, Mirage, Mantis, White Queen, Snowguard
The first group of cards I want to talk about are card generators. These cards will play a body on board while also generating a card to your hand.
This is perfect for Loki decks, as you get to play on board while also keeping your hand size large. This often results in games where you are able to replace a hand of 6 or 7 cards, discounting them all with Loki to play out a strong final turn.
The Collector / Devil Dinosaur
The next two cards that synergize with Loki are The Collector and Devil Dinosaur. Loki’s ability counts toward The Collector, so if you refill an entire hand, you’re adding an additional 7 points onto The Collector with Loki.
Devil Dinosaur doesn’t really synergize with Loki, but if you’re running random generation cards along with the Collector, Devil Dino is a great addition as a secondary game plan if you don’t draw Loki.
Miracle Package
Cards: Kitty Pryde, Angela, Bishop
The three cards Angela, Bishop, and Kitty Pryde make up a package that lets you get a lot of points on board throughout the game.
Kitty Pryde synergizes with The Collector, as her bounce back to hand will count as +1 Power for The Collector.
Angela and Bishop can often be seen in these Collector style decks as another cheap way to get Power on the board.
Thanos
Thanos is another card that is worth mentioning for Loki. The Infinity Stones will refill your hand as you play them on the board, making it similar to random generation cards.
If you’re trying a Thanos list with Loki, you probably won’t be running the random generation cards or The Collector. Instead, you’ll simply want to play good cards, and let Loki be an option you have, rather than the main game plan.
Loki Decks
For this section, I’ll be mainly going over some decks that synergize with Loki.
Keep in mind that these decks are all first impressions, so things can definitely change rapidly. As new discoveries are made with Loki, 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 Loki is even in the best decks at all.
Collector Loki Deck
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Since it’s still very early in the season, I don’t expect this to be the final form of Collector Loki decks. However, I will say that I’ve been quite impressed with how this deck performs. You can get Angela, Bishop, and The Collector to extremely high Power.
The deck is still vulnerable to cards like Shadow King, Shang-Chi, and more, but when left unchecked, the sky’s the limit with this deck. Copying your opponent’s deck will make it extremely difficult for them to predict what you can do on the final turn.
Loki Thanos Deck
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This next deck is the Thanos Ongoing list except Loki is added instead of Ka-Zar, and Quinjet is in over Ghost. I’m not too confident this deck is ideal for Loki, but it’s probably a decent starting point.
Thanos decks are extremely difficult build, and Loki only makes the deck more difficult to optimize. Thanos decks inherently are less consistent than other decks, so you can’t rely on Loki synergies too much. However, Loki can be an interesting way to repurpose your hand into something better if needed.
Loki Counters
While Loki 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.
If you’re planning on running cards like The Collector or Angela, Shadow King can ruin your day. A well timed Shadow King will revert these cards back to their original Power, which is quite devastating.
Wave
On Reveal: All cards cost 4 until the end of next turn.
Almost all Loki decks want to play multiple cards on the final turn. You’re discounting a bunch of cards through Loki, so it only makes sense.
As usual, Wave is the perfect counter to this as she shuts down any potential to play more than 1 card on turn 6. (except in some niche situations)
If you’re not already beating your opponent on turn 5, Wave can make the game unwinnable on turn 6.
Mobius M. Mobius
Ongoing: Your Costs can’t be increased. Your opponent’s Costs can’t be reduced.
Mobius is another card that will be very annoying to deal with. This card will make it so Loki and Quinjet won’t be able to reduce the costs of your cards, making Loki decks much less powerful.
However, Mobius won’t be releasing until the end of this month, so don’t worry about it too much for now.
Conclusion
All in all, Loki is a fun new addition to the game. His release has revitalized The Collector/Dino archetype, and the deck will likely evolve in the coming weeks.
I don’t expect Loki to be at the top of the meta, but he is already looking to be a solid card.
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!
