Day 2: Top Daken Decks
"There is no God above me. And below me are only corpses......and converts." - Ahikiro (aka Daken)
The August Season Pass card, Daken, is already creating a buzz in Marvel Snap. As he potentially moves up the tier list as a flexible option in three of the largest archetpyes in Snap (Surfer, Discard & Destroy), Daken's impact is immediately relevant and exciting! Since he fits incredibly well in all three of those deck types above, I thought it was worth showcasing all of them with today's Day Two series feature.
As new cards and new decks come out on Day One, I compile a few select decks from the Snap.fan community that I think are worth showcasing and are worthy of much more playing and/or testing for Day Two. If you'd like your deck showcased, just build one here in the Snap.fan Deck Builder! After 24 hours, I go through play rates, win rates, cube rates, successful synergies, unique synergies, online content and more and pick out five decks that I think are worth talking more about here in our Deck Showcase.
With that said, here are five decks I think are worth highlighting after 24-hours of Daken:
#5 - Daken - Kawa
Kawa has come through with a unqiue first dive into the Surfer variation of Daken decks. By mixing in a control element of Daredevil and Professor X, it creates a solid 2nd set of win conditions that this deck could explore oin turn 5 if needed. This permits you to lock one lane early for a win, and then go tall in a competitive lane at the end of the game. Why compete for two lanes in the final turn when you could focus on only one? Daken brings well here as his 2x'ing from Wong also benefits Gambit & Silver Surfer making for an incredibly strong Daken when all is said and done (easily up to 32 power)!
#4 - THEdakEND - MOLT
If you're going to go destroy, this is one of the most well-rounded destroy variations of Daken out there. By focusing on the primary win condition of Nimrod or Zola, it allows scaling flexibility in the first 4 turns of the game to secure some early power and priority. Daken's Muramasa Shard will have a variety of ways to be destroyed here, which will lead to quick and easy 8-power Daken by as early as turn 4. couple this with the scaling od Deadpool off curve using Magik and the numbers will be excessively bountiful.
#3 - Tempo Daken - Bynx
Yes, that's right. He's using Strong Guy. Remember him? The deck creates two main goals. Playing Modok on 5 into America Chavez on 6. Or, if your opponent plays Magik, look to build everything out to then drop Chavez on 6 & Morbius + Modok on 7. Daken scales via the discard mechanics most often here; However, there is a use case built into Killmonger as a power backup plan as well. It's a different take on Discard that plays heavily into Zabu that can bring just enough spice and variety to your battles to make Daken even more fun.
#2 - Daken Discard - Specimen
Speci has truly leaned into the Discard Dracula/Apoc package hard here with this Daken Discard Deck. The defensive localization play of Nebula early on forces your opponent to be defensive while allowing your (typically) always on curve plays to play out smoothly. There are a ton of fun mechanics built into this deck for order that brings back a classic Discard archetype (after a season revival of Hela Discard last season).
#1 - Daken Silver Surfer - TLSG (ft. LambySeries?)
TLSG - Twitch - YouTube - Twitter
(LambySeries - Twitch - Twitter)
Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why did Guest tag Lamby Series in TLSG's video showcase? Because of the popularity and similarity! Take this opportunity to take a currently available Lamby deck WITHOUT the season pass card, and then try this variation by TLSG WITH the season pass card. Take a look at this. Here is Lamby Series' deck Gamba Fish:
Gamba Fish takes the Silver Surfer deck and adds in a Discard package. By using Gambit or Blackcat to synergize with Ghost Rider, you create a nice curve filler to get more power and cards on the table in this style of Surfer deck. Typically, Surfer decks slack on maximizing their power on turns 4 & 5. So, this deck helps to solve that whilst leading into a Surfer combo play on turn 6.
These play lines all double perfectly in TLSG's version featuring Daken. So, if you liked this deck, let's look at the Daken variation of this created by TLSG, Daken SIlver Surfer:
TLSG Has opted to swap in Sera & Daken in exchange for Mr. Fantastic and Polaris. This creates another 1-cost card to drop and fill out turn 5 and 6 which will lead to scaling up Daken even higher. Hiding behind Invisible Woman also has another mechanic built into it as you could play the Killmonger behind it to hide a Muramasa Shard's ramping on Daken at the end of the game.
I personally absolutely love this hybrid variation and will be testing it out with one small change. I think there's a case to be made for Magik over Sera in this deck. However, you always have to remember that 7 turns for you is just as good as 7 turns for your opponent so keep an eye on that!