Is Infinity Ultron inevitably bad?
One of the most anticipated days of the year so far is right around the corner. Yes; April 15th is Tax Day! Get your taxes filed!
However, more importantly, this Tuesday’s penultimate spotlight cache before Snap Packs releases is Infinity Ultron! This 5 energy 6 power card is generally anticipated in the community, and for good reason: he’s unique and has the potential to be a powerful tool, both as a build around and as a support for various archetypes. His unique mechanic is that his on reveal ability generates two 3 cost “Ultron Stones” to hand, which all have varying effects. More on this below, but first, let’s talk about the spotlight week as a whole for the second to last time.
The Spotlight Week
This week, Infinity Ultron (who will be referred to as “IU” from now on), is featured alongside Cannonball and Pixi. Now, until Snap Packs releases on April 29th, it is generally advisable to only open caches if:
A) you are missing more than one card that week
or
B) you have a wealth of keys and really like the spotlight variants this week.
For A), Cannonball is a great card to be in your collection if you’re missing him, as he works great in Scream decks and is a stable in Clog decks. Pixie, while not particularly strong, is a very unique card that shuffles the cost of the cards in your deck. She is very much a fun surprise card that can eek out wins due to her information asymmetry, but she’s not a consistent piece to use. Regardless, both cards are worth picking up if you have the resources. If you’re solely going for IU, I would suggest using tokens if you have the resources, or waiting for Snap Packs if you’re key heavy but token light.
Let’s delve a bit deeper into the featured card.
What If Ultron Got Some Stones?
When played, IU will generate 2 out of 6 possible Ultron Stones; all the stones cost 3 energy, but have varying power and effects. These are listed below; you will notice they are Infinity Stones in name, but significantly differ from the Infinity Stones Thanos puts in your deck at Game Start. Note that I will be referring to all the stones without saying “Ultron” every time, but will never be referring to Thanos stones.
These stones vary wildly in their synergies, and alone are honestly just fine. Of course,the Mind Stone is basically a 3 cost Wong, so has the widest applicability and also synergizes with all the other stones, being the best stone to get in nearly ass circumstances. The Soul Stone is only as useful as you can fill your board (being a 3/9 at its max output without doubling), while the Space Stone has a fine base power for a decent disruptive effect (moving an opponent card). Reality Stone requires some board space but scales with IU’s power, which can be doubled by the Power Stone. Then there is the Time Stone which is basically Redwing without the condition for movement.
So all stones don’t lend themselves to synergies with deck cards as a whole, and you are subject to RNG for which stones you get when he’s played. IU’s body is also pretty bad; you’re sacrificing playing a 5 energy 6 power card to get these stones. On first blush, IU seems admittedly inconsistent with a mediocre ceiling. That said, I do think he has potential when put in the right deck.
IU & Who? (Synergies)
I do not belive IU’s best potential will be in “greed” decks where he is the star of the show. He will be best in decks that either:I do not belive IU’s best potential will be in “greed” decks where he is the star of the show he will be best in decks that either:
1) Will benefit from having the stones on the board no matter what they are.
and/or
2) Ones that synergize with most of them one way or another.
The first synergy that comes to mind is Silver Surfer; all the stones are 3 cost after all, and thus are prime for some surfer buffs when they get on board. Of course the Mind Stone is incredible for Surfer, and the Time Stone can help you cheat out another 3 cost to get the surfer buff. The stones are just strong enough that you’ll likely be happy with whatever you get, and giving them all at least two more power with surfer will have them feel much better. Including Luna Snow in your build can let you cheat out IU on 4 to better plan for the following turns, and further including Sera lets you play a healthy number of cards come turn 6 to really maximize output.
The same can be said for Victoria Hand, who will buff the created in hand cards. The best Hand decks often fill the board by end, so she should often get maximum output from the Soul Stone. If you include Moonstone in your IU Hand build, you can get lucky and get a gargantuan IU by playing Mind Stone and Power Stone in her lane (super niche, but a possibility!). Less niche is including Quinjet to discount the stones to 2 energy, and once again with Moonstone drops them to 1 energy, along with a discount to the other generated cards you’re going for.
On a more general note, IU will synergize with all “permanent” power buff cards, since two of his stones are going to be dependent on his power. Galacta, Gwenpool, Kahhori, etc. will all have double their output on IU about 60% of the time, either by having IU’s power double via the Power Stone or having a drone copy his power via the Reality Stone. Ongoing buff cards like the Season Pass card Captain Carter and Blue Marvel should work with the Reality Stone, since it should copy IU’s power when buffed with ongoing.
I alluded to this earlier, but IU seems like a good card to cheat out on 4 if possible, since it gives you more time to plan around what stones you have. Peni Parker (remember her?), the aforementioned Luna Snow, Wave and Psylocke are the only consistent pieces to cheat him out on 4, although Electro into Blink is also an option. Corvus Glaive also exists. Of course, IU may be a viable card to include in Arishem builds, but I dare not speak further on that.
Technically the Space Stone synergizes with push cards like Scream and Kraven, and technically the Soul Stone can hit cards like Lasher and Sebastian Shaw to double up the buffs. but I don’t think it’s worth running IU in decks with explicit synergies to only one stone, since it really only occurs a sixth of the time, and that’s in the games you get to play IU. Same goes for the Time Stone; sure you can run an Infinaut in your deck for the off chance that the Time Stone can yoink him from hand, but I don’t think IU is worth running in the same type of decks that he would be played in. Not to say the synergy isn’t there, but it’s likely not worth it to include IU for them.
No Strings on IU Means Nothing to Cut (Counters)
Time will tell whether IU is strong enough to warrant being a simple “Good Card,” where he can be put in shells that don’t have explicit synergies (except maybe Galacta or Gwenpool) but he justifies his slot by being powerful on his own. This is a possibility because his design has two underlying strengths:
1) information asymmetry (i.e. your opponent doesn’t know what stones you got)
2) lack of predictable interaction. Even if the IU player has priority, you don’t know whether IU is about to come in range of Shang Chi, or if Juggernaut will be meaningful since a Drone or card from hand came down that wasn’t played, or if Shadow King will whiff since no Power Stone was played.
The only consistent counter is Cosmo to stop an inevitable On Reveal, but even then it may come down to a ⅓ or a 50/50 if you don’t have a good idea of where you can catch their cards being played. Red Guardian can help lower a potential drone or power doubling, but he won’t stop them since he doesn’t remove the name, only the text of IU (although you can maybe hit a Mind Stone if it’s played on 5 for some reason).
My point is that IU has a surprising amount of hidden and unpredictable potential on board, and that makes him tricky to play around. This is a major point in favor of IU. Again, I don’t think his stones have crazy abilities in a vacuum, and you can still catch your opponent’s IU with a Shang or Shadow King in many instances. Yet the unpredictability is both a detriment and a feature, and one that may make IU formidable enough to include in decks that just run a bunch of “Good Cards” and some energy generation (a la Hope Summers) or energy cheat (a la Sera and Quinjet).
So after this broad overview of IU, what are some decks to try day 1?
Jimmy’s Day 1 Decks
Infinite Tides
Here’s the surfer build I’ll be running day 1. This is built to maximize IU’s effectiveness but not depend on it. Quinjet allows for IU to be played on 5 on a Hope Summer’s lane and still play both stones and surfer. Otherwise, you can ramp him out on 4 with Luna, followed by some 3 drops or even Sera. Makaari prevents you stuffing your hand and also gets another body to be buffed by surfer on board. Surfer builds are generally pretty mix-and-match; many of the 3 drops are interchangeable for other 3 drops of your liking. I’d say the core is IU, Quinjet, Surfer, Hope. Arguably Luna and Sera too, but if you don’t own Luna you can make do.
Limitless Applause
I consider myself a “Victoria Hand” main nowadays, and this is a solid start to making IU work with her. It has mostly the low-cost card generators, with IU designed to play on 5 to capitalize on his stones on 6. This has the Quinjet Moonstone combo to make all your generated cards super low cost, and Kahhori to buff either late or early as your hand will likely be full often. Decks like this are all about hand management, and this is doubly so since on 5 you want some space for stones. Speed is just a great stat stick since you run low curve and generate low curve cards for the most part, and him and Moonstone in one lane is typically huge in and of itself.
Hand Surfing
Couldn’t help but try to marry the two above ideas. Now that we have two cards that generate 3 costs, seemed like a ripe opportunity to try to combine Hand and Surf strategies. Still has the Moonjet combo, keeps the Luna Snow to cheat out IU, and the rest should follow suit. I include Mr. Fantastic for further synergies with Moonstone and Surfer as well. Either way, giving a whole bunch of cards +2 whether through generation or being 3 cost or both seems viable, so this is something I will certainly be tinkering with as the week goes on.
Marionette Bird
This list is largely inspired by HuskyPuppies35’s “Good Bird” list. It is a War Machine Redwing list that aims to get IU out early and maximize yoinking things from hand and cheating big things out your deck with Blink. You either get a bunch of energy with Electro and Misery, or cheat cards out with moving Redwing around via Arana, Web, or Grapple Arrow, or some combo of the two. The best version of this is difficult to play (go watch a Husky stream to see what I mean), but is very rewarding and can surprise your opponent greatly because you get power out on board in some wild ways.
Infinite Buffs
Okay full disclosure, this is likely just a “fun” deck. It’s based on a buff deck that I’ve brewed in the past, and focusing on IU getting buffed isn’t a bad thing. That said, many of the stones can be strengthened by this deck structure and thus a perma-buff type deck could work with IU. This is a deck to try out and tinker as you go, but I wanted to post it as a springboard for ideas. You want to get Galacta or Gwen out on 3 and learn what cards will be getting buffed. You can then play IU and pull some wins with the stones you get. That’s the idea at least. I will be playing this, so I feel obligated to share the idea!
Conclusion
I am excited to try IU out, and his true power won’t be apparent until people get their hands on him. No matter what, he incites some fun deckbuilding and I hope my ideas either inspire you to create your own, or you take these decks and have some success on his release. Let me know down below your thoughts on his potential strength, or if you think I’m missing some major synergies that should be mentioned. Happy snapping!