The Moon Haunts You
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
Moon Knight (1980) #1, writer Doug Moench, artist Bill Sienkiewicz
Sorry, are y’all hearing something? Maybe it’s just me. Anyways! This season’s preview for me is going to be none other than Marvel’s Egyptian god of the Moon, Khonshu! (Only in Marvel, mind you. Budding Egyptologists beware!) He’s a big deal, and in a season with some relatively recent characters that are new riffs on old archetypes, he’s one of the tried and true big names, having played a part of imbuing the first Moon Knight with his powers to take part in the Avengers 1,000,000 BC storyline— albeit as an enemy.
Avengers (2018) #35, writer Jason Aaron, lineart Javier Garron, colors Jason Keith
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
Exactly my thoughts: who is Khonshu? He’s the guardian of travellers in the night and divine patron of Marc Spector, who he revives as the enigmatic Moon Knight. So let’s take a look at what this god does in SNAP— a game that’s already no stranger to putting gods onto paper! And with a precedent for Marvel’s deities having larger-than-life, splashy effects that cap off their respective archetypes, Khonshu lands no differently. Like his avatar, Moon Knight, Khonshu operates in SNAP’s established design language for supernatural characters of the night— that is, he’s a Discard payoff, changing phases of the moon with each successive discard until he reaches Full Moon and full strength. And once he hits the board, Khonshu does what Khonshu does best: reviving an avatar from the dead that directly channels his power.
Sound familiar, Mister Spector?
Moon Knight (2014) #3, writer Warren Ellis,lineart Declan Shalvey, colors Jordie Bellaire
As far as his fellow discard capstone payoffs go, he’s not dissimilar from Apocalypse in that you want to discard him multiple times. At the same time, he shares a space with Hela, who also revives choice targets to win the game. But Khonshu adds his own twist to both, requiring more precise discarding (discarding a revive target alongside himself twice— but no more!) and preferring a much more specific discard target (something that scales with the power Khonshu sets it at).
This means that, alongside the normal suite of discard effects, Khonshu incentivizes running some of the more niche cards with targeted discard— effects like Silver Samurai and The First Ghost Rider will let you manipulate your hand more safely to achieve Khonshu’s ideal targeting. Perhaps most appropriately (even if not quite optimally), Moon Knight will also serve Khonshu well, directly interacting with Khonshu’s even Cost to guarantee an empowered God of the Moon.
And of course, Khonshu will require his Fist— and while the Moon always seems to come back Marc Spector and company in the comics, low-Power, high-impact cards like Iron Man, Black Panther, or Gorr will suffice in the meanwhile. All of these have the capacity to reach terrifying heights when given 12 base Power by a Full Moon Khonshu: between two different flavors of 24 Power and a Gorr uninhibited by his starting numbers, Khonshu decks will have no trouble going over the top of midrange-type lists. Moreover, the fact that Khonshu will always resurrect the card at a different location makes him quite flexible and reliable to play around: opponents will struggle to deal with something large at one location and something even larger at another.
So which deck will serve as the List of Khonshu?
Moon Knight (1980) #1, writer Doug Moench, artist Bill Sienkiewicz
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
Exactly. Our first stop will in fact feature the most aspirational targets for Khonshu’s effect: no doubt people will want to try their hand at discarding the very best targets to make that sweet 6/24 high roll all the better. With the help of none other than friend of the site SuperTechGod, I think we’ve found a fine starting point to do just that. Alongside Iron Man and Black Panther, Brood provides another multiplier for Khonshu’s final blessing, making for a whopping 36 Power at another location if you jump through all the proper hoops. Moon Knight, First Ghost Rider, and Sif all provide more controlled discard elements to help set up the Khonshu play on turn 6, and redundancy (always important in a discard deck) is provided by the more general Discard staples— Corvus Glaive, Blade, Colleen Wing, and even Wong all work in tandem to try and get the deck to its critical mass of Discard enablers to make sure you’re consistently bringing out either a big Khonshu or a really big Khonshu.
Moon Knight (2021) #11, writer Jed Mackay, lineart Alessandro Cappuccio, colors Rachelle Rosenberg
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
That’s right— you might find that Khonshu (and Moon Knight, never far behind) encourage a more disruptive play pattern— doubling down on that through Silver Samurai and even Stature pushes the archetype into an interesting and underplayed type of aggression, attacking the enemy hand and limiting options as you wind up Khonshu for the finisher. This deck might struggle with the mirror matches that will dominate ladder during Khonshu’s first week— after all, discarding cards for your opponent’s Khonshu can’t possibly be a great survival strategy. But as that hype rides out, it’s worth keeping this list in mind for when more vulnerable combo-style decks might rear their heads in the metagame. And even if it’s not ever the strongest strategy, opponent-discard is just one of those decks with enough of a mean streak that it just feels right for Khonshu to work with it.
Moon Knight (2016) #4, writer Jeff Lemire, artist Greg Smallwood, colors Jordie Bellaire
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
You’ve read my mind, of course. I think. The last stop is going to be… well, traditional discard! It turns out that if you complete Khonshu’s ‘quest,’ he rewards you with plenty even just as… well, 6/24 worth of stats. Even if you’re brute force discarding your hand, if you haven’t ‘over-discarded’ Khonshu by the end of the game, he’s going to land at a comparable amount of stats to payoffs like Apocalypse, and he’s going to guarantee distribute that power in some even way. You don’t need more than that— a big Sif would in fact just be a big Sif! And hits like Morbius and even Daken will benefit enough from the extra Power (as well as the contingency for being discarded) that Khonshu will still be able to high-roll.
Because while you can fantasize and quibble about the absolute best card to receive and multiply 12 Power, at the end of the day, who’s the actual menace your opponent needs to worry about?
Moon Knight (2016) #10, writer Jeff Lemire, artist Greg Smallwood, colors Jordie Bellaire
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
The Moon is beautiful tonight, isn’t it? And Khonshu’s going to be getting some beautiful art to kick off his reign in SNAP, debuting with a gorgeous Alex Horley variant inspired by the MCU’s extra-mummified design and followed up by a Fireball Studio and Creative House Pocket variant. Khonshu’s visually striking design means that I bet we see more great commissioned art from him sooner than later— and moreover, there’s no shortage of incredible comic art to draw on. Greg Smallwood, please!
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
So what’s the verdict, you might ask? I think Khonshu is going make quite the splash, both because he’s just a huge body that enables a tried-and-true archetype, and because he’s quite the tantalizing deckbuilding puzzle. Top that with one of Marvel’s more interesting and mercurial characters, tied to an iconic hero like Moon Knight? Khonshu’s gonna be a home run across the board, whether or not he lands on the side of cutting-edge-competitive or not.
He’s also launching with two synergistic Series 5 cards in Corvus Glaive and Scorn, so folks that are just looking to dive into Discard and really power up their collection should consider.
It’s just gonna have to be up to us to figure out quite the best way to call on the moon.
Moon Knight (2016) #14, writer Jeff Lemire, artist Greg Smallwood, colors Jordie Bellaire
THE MOON HAUNTS YOU
There’s a ringing in my ear, I really need to leave. But let me know down below what you think. Any day 1 brews? Big ideas? Plans to take over the human realm of consciousness? Let me know, so I can prepare for that second coming of the Egyptian pantheon!