Daken: Character Spotlight
Hello fellow Snappers!
My name is Drewberry and I've been creating Marvel Snap content since BETA! I'm teaming up with Snap.fan to share some of my thoughts on the new card: DAKEN
Daken looks to be the most valuable season pass card since Zabu! Some of the tyrants in the season pass category have been: Zabu, Silver Surfer and possibly MODOK for his discard synergy or Nebula for her utility. But Daken is bringing some heat by splashing into a wide variety of decks with a high power ceiling.
His ability immediately puts the shard, which is essentially his condition, to your hand and from there you need to either discard or destroy the shard. Then it DOUBLES his power! There are low-cost discard targeting cards like Colleen Wing, low-cost destroying cards like Killmonger, card buffing with Shuri & Forge and even hand buff synergies with Collector!
SO MUCH SYNERGY!
This is the first season pass week with spotlight caches so here’s how it works. Daken's bonus variant is available in the season pass so the spotlight caches will feature 3 cards + a random series ⅘ card or 1000 tokens for duplicates. Here’s this weeks rewards:
Spotlight Cache Rewards this Week!
Week of 8/8 - Spotlights
I believe that Daken will be best utilized in Discard. By discarding the shard, you don’t have to pay the toll of 1 energy to get it on the board and then destroy it. However killmonger + silver surfer are looking like a nice pair as well with Daken. I think MODOK will be one of the best complimentary cards in a classic discard list but for more details on some potential builds check out our theorycrafted decks below!
Daken Tips!
- If your hand is FULL, the shard will NOT generate.
- Destroying / Discarding YOUR shard will NOT buff the enemy’s Daken. (similar to how playing Mjolnir does NOT buff an enemy’s Thor)
- NOT an Increase to Base Power, just a Power Buff. (Shadow King can counter!)
- Resurrecting the shard will NOT revert his buff, in fact it opens another opportunity to destroy the shard a second time and stack his power!
Here are some theorycrafted builds that I believe could work with Daken:
A silver surfer lockdown list that aims to hide Daken behind a professor X lane so that we can make a big swing by using killmonger to destroy the shard AND nova to provide a big burst of power at the locked down location. If you have Jeff he would make a great addition here as well. Some other nice synergies are Wong and gambit to discard the shard while sniping our opponents cards!
HADOUKEN! Er.. HADAKEN! Let’s get Daken BUFFED up and ready to fight on the streets with some fun Forge & Shuri combos. Buff him up nice and big then discard the shard with Colleen Wing or Destroy it using Killmonger! Use Taskmaster as a nice finisher to double up on that crazy powerplay with Daken. This might be awkward and require some refinement but it’ll be a good time trying to get a 30+ Power Daken.
This list is where I have the most confidence that Daken will find a home. Classic discard will benefit greatly by adding Daken to its arsenal. MODOK on 5 to discard the shard + swarms & Apoc then turn 6 play your swarms & America Chavez leaving only Apoc in hand for Dracula to scoop up. The stars would have to align for this line of play but it’s quite flexible and has a lot of power output with few counters.
Daken is the Season Pass card for August and afterwards he will be a SERIES 5 card (6000 tokens)! I believe he is well worth the pickup and my conclusion is… SNAP!
Pickup Daken and reap the rewards of the season pass before he becomes Series 5. If you don’t own Galactus/Nimrod/Spider-Ham they will be available in spotlight caches August 8-14, spend your caches wisely!
Thanks for reading!