The new falcon with a new coat of paint
I am going to be honest and say that I had never heard of Joaquin Torres Falcon until just recently. Then I learned that he was a falcon-human hybrid because of some experimentation and he also gained a regenerative healing factor. Combine this with the mental link that he has with Sam Wilson because of Redwing and if I don’t have you intrigued already… well, then you might not care more about his backstory. But, we are not here to hear about that anyway. I am sure you just want to know if you need to be using up your precious spotlight keys to get this newest addition to the Marvel Snap card pool. Well, let's get to it!
What Does He Do?
Torres has a really easy-to-understand effect. Ongoing: The On Reveal abilities of your 1-Cost cards here happen twice. That is pretty easy to understand because it essentially makes him like Wong but for 1-cost cards.
What is the best 1-cost then?
After reading his text the most immediate thought I have is— what are the best 1-cost cards to pair with Torres? There are currently 23 1-Cost cards that are On Reveals, but not all of them are going to be useful with Torres. So here is my current tier list for the different 1-Cost On Reveals to paired with Torres.
Tier 1
While some of these have very specific purposes like Blade and Yondu, being able to double up their effect in their specific decks would be amazing. Generally speaking, though, these seem like the best 1-Cost cards to pair with Torres because they offer immense power output, especially if you can use the other Falcon to bounce them back to the hand and replay them on the Torres lane.
Tier 2
These cards are good but not as good as tier 1. While you can massively buff a Collector and make sure your Devil Dinosaur is big with Agent 13, Maria Hill, or even Mantis, they don’t produce an immediate effect. Same with America Chavez; it isn’t guaranteed that you will play the card during the game. However, they still would be good options to have in a list with Torres.
Tier 3
These cards are not good or don’t work with Torres. In some fringe cases, Squirrel Girl would be great as a lane filler on the last turn, but you don’t typically want to clog your board that much.
Special Cases
These are the special cases. Nico Minoru has some great On Reveals that would be amazing to happen twice, but not always. Basic Arrow is a great 1-Cost card to use with Torres, but it is a multiple-step process to get, so it is not as reliable as the others. Either way, I wouldn’t mind having either of these in a deck with Torres. Thanos, while not being a 1-Cost card,d puts six different 1-Costs into the deck, with 5 of them being On Reveals. While Torres might not be the most useful thing in Thanos, it still is worth a shot to mess around with as an idea.
What do we do?
Typically, when we talk about 1-Cost cards, we are talking about Bounce because that is where the majority of the 1-Cost cards shine in, and Torres is likely best in a Bounce-type shell where you can maximize your 1-Cost cards. Other than that, he is pretty restrictive to be put into a lot of other decks. Most of the time, you don’t want to wait till you get to turn 4 to play your cost cards. It's possible that in cards like Discard or Mill, he could be used for some extra discards or mill effects with Yondu, but those lists are already well-established and don’t have a lot of room for Torres. If you combine his effect with a Moonstone Victoria Hand hand-generation deck that might also go well; the Collector can get big off of just one Agent 13 or Maria Hill when everything is working double time. Either way, let's take a look at some possible deck lists for the first week we have Torres.
JF‘s Day One Decks to Try
Falcon Punch x2
The first list is a pretty simple Bounce list that hopefully can leverage Torres to create some really big 1-Cost cards like Rocket and Hawkeye. I do think that Torres Falcon is the best bounce card, so I don’t need to replay Torres again and can keep him on the board. With a host of other 3-Costs cards, though, the deck can start to feel a little top-heavy, so Torres may feel a little win more. However, I am sure it will be fun and lead to some crazy high-roll potential.
That's not a Diamond
Going down the list of cards that will work well with Torres, Korg immediately springs to mind as a great combo to grow Darkhawk. Add in some supporting cast like Zabu, Ares, Cassandra, and Rockslide and this is a rock concert you won't want to miss.
Its Millin Time
While Mill is currently popular, I think Torres can add some real annoyance factor, especially late in the game. However, coming down on turn 3 might mean that this deck is a little bit worse than the current version because it means you are not playing Yondu until turn 4 or Iceman until turn 4. That might be too late to the party for it to have as much of an impact as we want. Either way, I think it's worth a shot at least.
Selene Rocks 1.0
So those who know me at all are aware that my favorite card is Selene, and I have spent the last 6 months or so since her Ultimate dropped, making her work in a variety of decks at high Infinite. Typically, I title these decks Selene Cope, but this deck is my first addition of Selene Rocks! This is essentially a Darkhawk Clog combo deck with the idea to run as many rocks into the deck and onto the board as possible. In my experience, if you don’t have a Goblin or an Acid Arrow, Viper is your best friend when trying to fit Selene in somewhere, especially with Torres on the board. Also, being able to Selene and Doc Oct on 5 with Torres on the board is gonna feel satisfying. While this might not be super viable, I think it will be a lot of fun and more interesting than people think. Give it a shot!
Joaquin Torres Spotlight
Torres is in the spotlight cache alongside Makkari and Namora, which are some heavily underused cards and not exactly needed in the current meta. This means that, unless you are opening and getting two or even three new cards, it might not be worth it. However, if you like Bounce, Torres might be worth the pick-up regardless of the other cards that are in the spotlight. I am not saying he will become a staple, but it is something fun and new to have around. Other than that, if you are a Rian Gonzales fan, then you want to get Torres to be able to pick up her sweet new variant of his on release.
What do you think of Joaquin Torres, and will you be picking him up?