How to Play Selene in Marvel Snap
Selene is the next Spotlight Cache for December, and will be dropping just after Christmas. She will be another synergy piece for Annihilus or Junk style decks, as she has negative Power.
The 12/21 OTA changes also changed cards like Viper and Black Widow, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the archetype going forward.
Let’s get right into the guide.
Selene Effect
On Reveal: Afflict the lowest-Power card in each player’s hand with -3 Power.
Selene Analysis
Overall, Selene’s effect is quite simple, and there aren’t any particular mechanics you should really worry about.
On the surface, she can somewhat equate to a card that provides 2 Power for 1 Energy. (-1 from her, and +3 from afflicting your opponent’s card) However, if your opponent doesn’t need to play the card that is afflicted, she then turns into a -1 Power for 1 Energy.
This means that Selene will heavily rely on other synergy cards to get full value out of her. By herself, she won’t accomplish much, but with other pieces, she can definitely get more and more value.
Cards that Synergize with Selene
Junk Archetype
Without a doubt, the main synergy for Selene is the Junk archetype. These cards encompass a lot of effects, but in general, they want to either clog the opponent’s board, or afflict negative Power.
Junk decks have been a thing for a long while, and the most successful decks have been ones that only use a few Junk cards. By using a few core cards as an engine, you can add other powerful engines to the deck, such as Annihilus Darkhawk.
However, this type of engine doesn’t synergize with Selene perfectly. Annihilus definitely works with Selene, but The Hood and Sentry don’t interact with her ability much. You can afflict The Hood to -6 and send him over with Annihilus, but that may not be as consistent as you’d like.
As such, Selene definitely will prefer more cards that can have a strong payoff with her ability. As such, it’s more likely we’ll see Selene be slot into Junk decks with more engine pieces.
In my humble opinion, I think Black Widow will be the best card to play alongside Selene. On turn 4, you can play Black Widow into Selene. This will give your opponent a -4 Power Widow’s Bite that they must play, otherwise they can’t draw their final 2 cards.
Viper is another solid card as it gives you another chance to send a negative Power card like Selene or The Hood over. There are plenty of other cards you can run in this style of deck also, like Korg, Debrii, Rockslide, Darkhawk, etc.
The main weakness of these Junk cards is that if the effects don’t line up well, you end up putting abysmal amounts of Power on the board.
Luke Cage
Ongoing: Your cards here can’t have their Power reduced.
Another card to keep in mind is Luke Cage. Let’s say you play Selene and she turns your Korg into a 1/-1. By playing Korg on the Luke Cage location, he will revert back into a 1/2. This can help mitigate the downside of Selene, while also opening potential to play other cards like Hazmat or Man-Thing.
Selene Decks
For this section, I’ll be mainly going over some decks that synergize with Selene.
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.
Selene Junk Deck
This first deck is my first pass at a potential Junk deck. As expected, we have things like Black Widow, Viper, The Hood, and Annihilus. Carnage is helpful for cleaning up more rocks or negative cards, and Luke Cage can help also.
Man-Thing can be very strong against the right deck, just be sure to avoid affecting your own cards or have Luke Cage there to protect your Power.
Lastly, we have Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman, and Doctor Doom as ways to put more Power on the board. Ideally you can fill up your opponent’s board with junk and play for all three lanes this way.
Selene Counters
Annihilus
It’s funny that a Junk deck’s worst counter is itself. Cards like Viper or Annihilus can be strong, but if your opponent plays it after you, you’ll be on the receiving end of negative Power cards.
The main weakness of Junk decks is not being able to put enough Power on board. Against decks like Shuri, the deck can also struggle as Shuri decks don’t need a lot of space to win a location.
Should You Open Selene
Overall, Selene is adding some more support to the Junk archetype, trying to disrupt your opponent while also progressing your own game plan.
Unfortunately, if I had to give a rating to Selene, I would likely say a 2/5. I’m erring in the side of caution, as I don’t expect Selene to revolutionize the meta. She has a home in a specific archetype, but I don’t see her bringing Junk to the top of the meta.
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!
