Jack Flag Card Preview
Hello, Jack Flag!
Jack Flag is a cool card that fits because he is also a cool guy. He started as a cool guy in Arizona, fighting the Serpent Society and training hard to one day impress Captain America. He did such a good job that the cool guy ended up fighting alongside Captain America. He did such a good job that he eventually (it’s a long story) fought with Peter Quill and joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. How cool is that?!
Being a character so inspired by Captain America, it’s very thematic and fitting. He has an ability similar to that of Steve Rogers, and it works with his own teammates, the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Jack’s Teammates
It’s such a simple ability, it’s hard to believe it isn’t in Snap already. But don’t let the simplicity fool you, this ability is both powerful and versatile, with many different cards and decks to work with.
Jack’s “teammates” cards can be put into three oversimplified categories—cards that self-buff, cards that buff specific locations, and cards that buff board-wide.
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but I wanted to give a decent amount of examples, as I didn’t realize how diverse Jack Flag was until I started working on this list myself.
Cards that self-buff:
Immediately, you can think of the Guardians of the Galaxy or other “On Reveal” cards like Medusa, Silver Sable, or Hawkeye. Or more specific self buffers like Angela, Kitty Pryde, or Nebula. Finally, some ongoing cards in this category, like Ant-Man, Goliath, or Doom 2099, create even more self-buffing cards.
Cards that buff specific locations.
Of course, the inspiration Captain America starts this list with Captain Carter and Moonstone right behind (more on these two later). Or if you are feeling particularly brave in your cube risk, the new Series 4 card Starhawk is available in Sanctum Showdown.
If we open up “locations” to also include your hand and deck, we get access to cards like Okoye, Viv Vision, Gwenpool, and the card I'm excited to try, Agent Venom.
Cards that buff the whole board
The final category are the big finisher cards. Spectrum and Aurora being the 6-Cost darlings, Silver Surfer the obvious and fan favorite choice, with Blue Marvel and Kazar being forgotten (I'm looking at you, Second Dinner #BuffZooPlease).
Enemies of Jack
Now, for those looking to take advantage of the new card excitement Jack Flag is sure to bring with some frustrating counters, you can go to battle with the always unpleasant Shadow King, Red Guardian, and Enchantress. To name a few, as I'm not interested in giving out more ideas to stop my Tuesday fun.
Now the Decks, Jack!
The New “Trippy Surfer”
Silver Surfer is what I expect to be the deck most people are excited to play with Jack Flag. That’s great, I would love to play some more Silver Surfer.
This build of the deck is definitely not the best; it’s missing some big-power Surfer cards like Maverick, Captain Carter, Viv Vision, and others. But it achieves two other goals. 1) It’s cheap, and most players can build it. 2) You can play the whole deck with Vicenzo Riccardi variants if you’re lucky and willing to splurge on a Conditional Bundle for Jack.
However, keep in mind the same lesson from Jack’s text - don’t dismiss the simple. Killmonger taking out Nova with Jack Flag in a location of Broods hit with Forge is 27 power alone.
Agent Jacked!
Agent Venom is the card that I’m most excited to test with Jack Flag—starting first with a bounce list. This could be tweaked in different directions to include Bishop, Mysterio, Angela, or Elsa Bloodstone, depending on your personal flavor. Whatever the build, Jack Flag is going to be a surprising amount of power - basically a Hit-Monkey without the restricted playlines.
The surprise key card to be in this build is Surge. I didn’t even think of her until now, but she makes for some easy ways to get that “increased power” Jack is looking for.
I’m a PIXIE, Jack!
This could potentially become my favorite deck in the whole game. I have played a lot of Pixie the last few seasons, so I couldn’t help myself at the idea of an Agent Venom Pixie deck. But I’ve made a few key swaps specific to Jack Flag, with Blue Marvel being one of the best. I’ve had Iron Man in this build for a long time, but a surprise Blue Marvel felt like a great way to take advantage of Jack Flag and potentially steal a location my opponent wasn’t expecting on the final turn.
Valkyrie is here for that same reason. She’s a really great tech card in this big-cards meta and is a surprising way to win the game when Pixie or Majestic Wingbeat has reduced her cost.
Speaking of Majestic Wingbeat, that also might be a card to swap for Bast, but as I found with my Pixie Hammers deck, hitting a key 5-Cost with Wingbeat can be game-winning. Even if you don’t hit a 5-cost, it’s an easy way to get some “increased power” for Jack.
I’m a little nervous to run this without Mobius M. Mobius, but I may put him in for Esme based on performance.
The Decks, I didn’t build, but you can.
Instead of spending more time building a deck for Spectrum and Aurora, two cards I think will make some of the best Jack Flag decks, I wanted to give you the chance to.
I’m excited to try Jack Flag out in my existing (and long-time favorite) Victoria + Bastion ongoing deck. If you are looking for Aurora builds, I’ve seen lots of creators sharing them recently.
Because I’m not spending this time building decks, I can instead tell you about an important stacking mechanic with Captain Carter and Moonstone. Two cards, I’m sure many people are looking forward to playing with Jack Flag.
When it comes to Jack and Carter, you need to keep in mind that Captain Carter needs a way to have her own power increased to get buffed by Jack. Captain America, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, Silver Surfer, or any other buff cards are all great ways to do that. Carter gets any increased power, Jack buffs her more, and now Carter is playing for 15+ power herself.
Those numbers can get ridiculously huge when Moonstone is included. I’ll keep this short, but a key mechanic to keep in mind when playing Carter with Moonstone: When you have the choice, Moonstone is always better to play in the front row over Captain Carter. That sounds contrary to Carter’s text, but the interaction with Moonstone allows for some “double dipping.” The extra power starts at 4 but scales quickly when any other buff or ongoing card is included in that location. Playing Carter in the back row with Moonstone in the front will also give Captain Carter “increased power” for Jack. It’s a lot of math, so trust me (I’ll put the math in a comment for those interested).
Jack Flag & Snap.Fan Closing Thoughts
Jack Flag is sure to be a fun card. The meta has been pretty unfun for the majority of people I interact with, so I'm hoping Jack can raise the Fun Flag! Even if he doesn’t make an immediate shift to the meta, I foresee Jack being one of those cards that only get better with time.
Now, because this is the last card preview to be written, and I'm the one writing it, I wanted to end this differently.
Surprisingly, Jack Flag is a perfect character for this.
If I could be so bold, I would invite everyone to be like Jack Flag and take a risk on themselves. Jack Flag wanted to impress Captain America, so he took martial arts and lifted weights, eventually teaming up with his hero Steve Rogers (too bad he later killed him 😬).
As cliché as this may sound, these types of opportunities aren't limited to comic books. I'm dyslexic (you may have noticed lol), but I enjoyed Marvel Snap and have a lot to say, so I eventually dared to ask if I could write for the Snap.Fan, and here I am writing the final card preview. Thank you to BEWD and ScoSco for believing in me.
It didn't start here. I started making videos because I saw Regis and thought, “I can do that” (I've since learned Regis cannot be replicated), but I'm now an “official Marvel Snap Creator.” I saw Alex having guests on the famous Snapchat and thought, “How do I get on that?” So I made a video asking to join, and I've now been on twice (thank you, Alex).
I'm not sharing this to gloat. I'm sharing this because a few years ago, I would have given myself a million reasons not to try—all the reasons why the dream wasn't reasonable. But I risked it, and it's working out. Please believe that you can risk it for yourself. It doesn’t have to be making Marvel Snap content, but believe the way Jack Flag believed. He wanted to “impress Captain America.” When the standard of achievement involves Steve Rogers, it’s obvious the goal is unreasonable! But for Jack, it worked so well that he not only impressed Captain America, but he also fought alongside him and even became a Guardian of the Galaxy.
That success doesn't just have to be about made-up characters. I’m sure there are some dreams you have that can be compared to “impress Captain America,” and I invite you to put in the work and risk achieving it.
Um, this is a Card Preview for Snap.Fan, not a LinkedIn Post…
I recognize I’ve departed from the initial topic of Jack Flag being a card released in Marvel Snap, and it feels weird to end the article without bringing it back to Snap.
So I conclude with one of my favorite things about the whole game…
Variants
Sadly, Jack Flag has some really nice variants, but only one is within my personal reach. That being said, the 700 Gold Paul Mafayon variant was released the day after Jack Flag. For 700 Gold, it’s a pretty good variant.
Then there is the season-themed Conditional Bundle with a spectacular Vicenzo Riccardi variant. This one is one of my favorites for the season, but it costs real money, so you won’t see me waving this one around.
We leave the best and most unattainable for last. One of my personal favorite studios in Snap - Lemon Art. Getting this variant will set you back 12,200 Gold, as it’s the reward for completing the new “Stay Sour, Coward” album, releasing the same day as Jack Flag. Such a shame because it’s an exceptional variant. Too bad we can’t all be SuperTechGod.
The End
This isn’t the last article for Snap.Fan, there is more to come this week! Thank you for taking the time to read my article, even the sappy bit, and I will see you in the comments.