Silvija Sablinova joins Marvel Snap! Will the Symkarian make an impact?
Silvija Sablinova, a.k.a. Silver Sable, is a mercenary from the nation of Symkaria, a country that is a neighbor of Doctor Doom’s Latveria. She's a mercurial international woman of mystery—is she a villain or a hero? An ally or an enemy? As the newest Spotlight card in Snap, she will provide good power for a single energy, with an added dash of disruption.
Where will Silver Sable land?
Silver Sable is going to be especially powerful in the bounce archetype. The more a deck can repeat her effect, the more she can justify her place in that deck. The recent change to Beast takes much of the wind out of Silver Sable’s sails, but I still think Bounce will be the best place for her. The main question about her will be if she provides enough value to find a footing in anything other than bounce. Ajax and other affliction synergies are a possibility, as are Zoo-style strategies.
[Art by Steven Butler & Jim Sanders III]
Silver Sable Synergies
Silver Sable might be a straight upgrade over Rocket Racoon or Hawkeye in bounce decks. Bouncing Silver Sable three times will net a 7-Power card and -2 to three of your opponent's cards. I think bounce is the most promising archetype for Silver Sable, but is it her only place? There are various bounce shells—pure power, disruptive, Werewolf by Night enablers—and I think Silvija fits into all of them.
The other logical synergy with Silver Sable is with affliction payoffs—currently, we only have Ajax and Evolved Abomination. Ajax works best with just Hazmat as an enabler—afflicting cards that aren't in play with Scorpion, Cassandra Nova, and Selene hasn't proven particularly fruitful with Ajax. Luckily, I've got a bounce affliction deck for you below! The other question is if, with the addition of Silver Sable, we have reached a breakpoint in cards that attack your opponent's hand and deck, at which a new type of affliction archetype could emerge.
Repeating Silver Sable’s ability seems to be the best way to justify her spot in a tight 12-card list. Grandmaster or new Season Pass card Symbiote Spider-Man could be exciting ways to do that.
Any 1-Cost card is going to get a look in Zoo decks. Silver Sable will have difficulty cracking into the very tight Gilgamesh Zoo decks that are currently popular, but I believe there is a place for her in disruptive Marvel Boy decks.
Scosco’s Day One Silver Sable Decks
Power Bounce
This is a bounce deck designed to output massive amounts of power. The meta isn't particularly friendly to this type of build—it’s vulnerable to Killmonger and Alioth—but it's hard to beat this out for pure power, and metagames come and go. You could always try to fit in a Caiera.
Disruptive Wolf
Werewolf by Night is a way to bounce and build power that works well with the various disruptive tools available in bounce decks.
International Affliction Ladies
This incredibly fun deck lets you clog one lane and win another with a big Ajax. It should also be noted that this could easily be transformed into a Werewolf by Night deck with just a few changes. Sadly, this deck takes quite a hit from the Beast change.
Hand Fighting
Sera allows you to play Hazmat and Ajax on the final turn or, with Ravonna in play, Ajax and Sage (or a turn 6 Cassandra vs Arishem).
Rush'n Attack
I had quite a bit of success with a similar deck last season. This deck allows you to benefit from the massive power output of Marvel Boy while also disrupting your opponent.
Silver Sable’s Future
Some upcoming content will impact Silver Sable, and since it can be quite a while between appearances in Spotlight caches, you might want to keep this in mind when deciding whether to get Silver Sable this week. Toxin will give us another 2-Cost bounce option, and he could work well with Silver Sable since he is also a power-scaling card. Additionally, Black Swan is set to have her ability changed from On Reveal to Activate, which could increase her flexibility and utility and might bifurcate bounce decks into Beast versions and Swan versions.
[Art by Todd McFarlane]
Variant Gallery
Since she is a long-standing character, more Silver Sable art is available, and Second Dinner has been planning to create a Silver Sable card for a while. As a result, we've got more upcoming Silver Sable variants than we've had for more recent new cards, and I expect even more are prepared but unrevealed.
This 2017 Steranko-inspired Mahmud Asrar cover is a possibility for a variant—and wouldn't the cover of Daredevil 320 (by Scott McDaniel) make an awesome classic cover variant?
Conclusion
Honestly, until the recent OTA balance change to Beast, I expected Silver Sable to be a card that had a decent impact on the metagame. Now, I feel like a huge splash for Silver Sable is unlikely. While I don't think Beast or the bounce archetype has become unplayable, the lists will necessarily be tighter and less explosive than they otherwise would have been. Upcoming cards like Toxin may help revive bounce, but you can probably safely wait to get Silver Sable and wait to see if that comes to fruition. Traditional and disruptive bounce are likely to take a backseat to move/bounce decks.
While I'll give it a go, I'm not incredibly optimistic about Silver Sable earning her place in Ajax lists, though she could help the bounce versions of that archetype. Disruptive Marvel Boy decks are underrated, but she'll also be a fringe inclusion. I wouldn't recommend spending Collector’s Tokens on Silver Sable, but she has incredible Spotlight partners that should entice you to spend some keys. Mockingbird is one of the best cards in the game, while U.S. Agent is still underplayed despite his power. If you're missing either, I recommend opening this week.
