How to Play U.S. Agent
Welcome back to our weekly review where we’ll be covering Marvel Snap’s latest card, U.S. Agent, 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.
U.S. Agent is the second Spotlight Cache release for April, and so far, community sentiment predicts he will have the lowest impact of the new cards. While his effect isn’t bad, it doesn’t seem to quite be enough in the current Marvel Snap meta.
There are some potential synergies and archetypes he can fit into, but he likely won’t move the needle enough. If other buffs/nerfs happen, things may change, so you never know for sure.
Let’s get right into the guide.
U.S. Agent Effect
Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -3 Power.
U.S. Agent Analysis
First off, let’s talk about the stat line. A 2/3 with a strong effect is quite standard, and U.S. Agent does have a potentially powerful effect. If you afflict one enemy card, he becomes a 2/6. With 2 cards afflicted, he becomes 2/9 which is very above rate.
However, the issue lies with Agent not being consistent. Cards like Angela grow in power based on the decisions you make, rather than your opponent’s.
If you play U.S. Agent early, your opponent can simply play around it by placing their 4/5/6-Cost cards in other locations. This can potentially still benefit you, as you lock your opponent into playing in certain areas. Even still, this might not always result in a noticeable advantage.
It seems like U.S. Agent might be better if he’s saved for the end of the game. If your opponent even has two 4/5/6-cost cards in one location, U.S. Agent becomes a 2/9 that you can play on the final turn.
Overall, he has some use cases, but just seems to be lacking slightly.
Cards that Synergize with U.S. Agent
Luke Cage
Ongoing: Your cards can’t have their Power reduced.
Luke Cage is both a potential pair to U.S. Agent and a counter. Since U.S. Agent affects both you and your opponent, you can use Luke Cage to turn off the downside.
This way, you can play your own 4/5/6-Cost cards with Agent without worrying. Conversely, if your opponent plays Luke Cage, U.S. Agent becomes a measly 2/3 with no text basically.
There isn’t too much Luke Cage in the meta, but he can definitely appear here in there in Affliction decks with Hazmat and such.
Hobgoblin
On Reveal: Switch sides.
Hobgoblin has quite a funny synergy with U.S. Agent. Assuming you’re successful in sending Hobgoblin over, U.S. Agent will turn him into a -11 Power card.
This can very easily swing a location in your favor. While this might be overkill, it’s something to mention as some decks can definitely overpower the negative Power from Hobgoblin by himself.
Evolved Abomination
Costs 1 less for each enemy card in play that’s afflicted with negative Power.
Evolved Abomination comes up whenever a card afflicts enemy cards with negative Power. While many cards like these have come out, we haven’t seen Evolved Abomination really make a splash in the meta.
While the synergy is definitely there, it’s not perfect. If your opponent plays around U.S. Agent, Abomination won’t get the Energy discount. It also doesn’t work if you want to play U.S. Agent on the final turn, as you won’t be able to make use of the Energy discount.
Overall, the synergy is present, but it’s not amazing. You can definitely play Agent on turn 5 and afflict one enemy card. That essentially gives you one Energy discount and he becomes a 2/6 which is quite good.
Goose
Ongoing: Nobody can play cards that cost 4, 5, or 6 here.
Goose is quite similar to U.S. Agent. Instead of discouraging opponent’s from playing in a location, Goose simply shuts them down. This can force your opponent into making tough plays by avoiding both Goose and U.S. Agent.
However, many decks run a variety of low-cost cards like Loki, Bounce, Elsa/Angela, etc. Against those decks, both Goose and U.S. Agent do virtually nothing.
However, against any deck with a lot of 4/5/6-cost cards, you can shut down your opponent in two lanes, making your life much easier.
U.S. Agent Decks
For this section, I’ll be going over some decks that synergize with U.S. Agent.
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.
Junk Annihilus
This first deck looks to use the Junk archetype with US Agent. This deck is simply the junk shell, but with US Agent over Daredevil. Without Daredevil, you can also look to cut Professor X for another card as well.
However, US Agent can be a good deterrent for your opponent. This means you might be able to blindly play Professor X onto the US Agent location without worrying about your opponent playing there as well.
The rest of the deck functions well together to clog up your opponents board space.
Affliction Abomination
Up next, we have a High Evo deck that looks to use both the Hulk synergy and Abomination. To do this, we slot in cards like Scorpion, Wasp, and US Agent to get some power affliction going.
The deck has the standard play line of going Hope Summers into She-Hulk + Hulk, but the affliction cards give some flexibility. I can’t say that this deck will be better than a dedicated Hulk Evo list, but it’s something worth giving a try.
Goose Control
Lastly, we have a control deck that uses things like Goose and Storm to lock down opponents. Since the deck runs a lot of 4/5/6-Cost cards, we have Luke Cage to prevent US Agent from afflicting our own cards.
War Machine is also a recent release that helps play Ebony Maw or potentially play into the Goose location with a high cost card. Location control decks have been out of style for a while now, and with Move potentially coming back into the meta, it doesn’t look great.
Even still, location control can mess with a lot of decks, so it’s not a terrible option.
Counters and Weaknesses
Luke Cage
I mentioned this in the synergy section already, but Luke Cage is also a counter to US Agent. He turns your card into a vanilla 2/3, which is very weak compared to other cards in the game right now.
Enchantress
Rogue isn’t a counter to US Agent since his effect affects both players. Enchantress will stop his ability, but there isn’t much Enchantress in the game right now.
Should You Buy U.S. Agent?
Overall, I would rate U.S. Agent a 4/10.
I initially rated him a 6/10 in my prediction article, but I have since changed my mind. He’s not a bad card per say, he just doesn’t seem to affect the meta too much.
You can build a strong deck around him, but he doesn’t seem to buff any archetype to compete with the top meta decks.
Because of this, I think most players will opt to skip this week and save caches for a future release.
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!
