Welcome to the origin of the Eternals
Which Universe is this?
Hey there, so nice to see you back here again. This time around, we got an interesting one. Usually, when a new location shows up, I tend to talk about its place in the comics, mostly for fans like me who don’t read the comics that much and tend to get lost in this amazing universe that Marvel created. But this time around, I won’t be able to do that since World Forge isn’t a location based on the comics; it only exists in the Cinematic Universe. I decided to talk about it, but only using what we learned from the Eternals movie we watched a while ago. Consider this your spoiler alert. I won’t be divulging crucial information about the movie, but if you don’t want any details about it spoiled, feel free to go directly to the game location section.
What is World Forge?
Believe it or not, this location is nothing less than the personal workshop of our most recent cosmic entity that will arrive on Marvel Snap, Arishem. And what does he like to build? He worked on many projects, but he is most famous for creating many people who call themselves Eternals. Let’s have a look at the big fellow:
Alright, now that we’ve put a face to the name. Sit down because I got bad news. Everything we know about evolution is a lie. What actually happened was that at the primordial moments of the universe, Arishem forged creatures now known as Deviants within the World Forge. These animal-like creatures were introduced in many different planets to cull down any local fauna that would stop smart creatures from eventually showing up. The Deviants destroyed any apex predator from stopping evolution. Ah– Good boy?
But then, as a cruel twist of fate, the Deviants rebelled against Arishem’s control and became the apex predators in every world they were introduced to. Without any other options, Arishem designed a second set of creations. These guys were created with amazing superpowers to fight the Deviants, and they were also designed to fit better with the locals by looking exactly like them. More importantly, they had cool superhero costumes before it was local fashion. Those creations became known as the Eternals™ that we hear so much about. These beautiful people right here:
You might be wondering if the Deviants and the Eternals are brothers, and perhaps you might also be questioning what is stopping the Eternals from rebelling like the Deviants did. Well, my friend, I have a documentary for you: The Eternals. Watch it, take notes, and we'll discuss it later.
World Forge - The Location
Hey there, so nice to see you back here again! This time around, we got a very weird one. On this very Wednesday, the 12th, the World Forge will arrive on Snap, and for its inauguration, it will be the Hot Location for 24 hours. It is a unique location like no other so far. When World Forge pops up, every single turn, one of the other two locations will change into another one. The effect being this random means that there is no true way to plan for it, but there are some small tips that I can give you. Shall we?
World Forge changes the other locations, never itself, so ironically, playing on World Forge is the safest place since it is the most stable terrain on the board. I suggest you build the bulk of your strategy on World Forge if your strategy could be devastated by a location changing into one of those locations that deny effects like Deep Space or Knowhere. But I must warn you that there is a very small chance of one of the other locations turning into Worldship and destroying everything else, including World Forge, ironically enough. There are so many powerful locations that even if they appear for only a single turn, the state of the game could be changed in anyone’s favor.
So perhaps the best way to deal with this situation is to use Wong-o-Combos. Wong can stay perfectly safe on World Forge while you stack your powerful On-Reveal cards on top of his effect. As for the On-Reveal cards, there are many possibilities. You could go with White Tiger, Black Panther, and Namora and finish it all with Doctor Doom, Odin, or perhaps Arnim Zola for a lot of power spread.
Another interesting thing about World Forge is that it only changes a single lane every turn, so it could possibly change the same location every single turn. So don’t fall for the Gambler’s fallacy, thinking that if the first location changes three times in a row, it is less likely to change another time.
As I see it, you have two options for dealing with World Forge. Firstly, you can be one with the chaos, changing your plans with the flick of a location, always adapting to what the game is doing to raise your chances of winning. Or perhaps you prefer safety and order; if that is what you want, you can always send World Forge away with any of our location-changing cards.
So, which kind of Snapper are you? Will you embrace order or chaos?
There is a very powerful villain that could make a viable strategy out of World Forge Hot Location Day. Galactus, with his earth-shattering effect of destroying the other locations, could really take advantage of his opponents, who are using World Forge as a safe haven for their strategy. If everyone is playing cards on World Forge, it can be quite easy to play Wave somewhere and follow her up with a Galactus, turning the match into a single-location showdown.
I believe these are the best strategies for World Forge Hot Location Day. If you can find any secret strategies, let me know! But for now, let me give you some decks to help you be prepared for some intergalactic shenanigans.
World Forge Decks
Wong-o-Combo
Wong stuff! The difficult part about piloting this deck is keeping only a single card per location in case you go with Namora’s route. Pray that the Great Web never shows up because it can really devastate your plans to tuck Wong into World Forge.
You Face Galactus
This might look like a weird assortment of cards, but I promise it works. As I said previously, you could take advantage of your opponent’s positioning and play Wave and Galactus to turn the tide of the game. But you also have some very interesting lines, like playing Ultron followed up by a Destroyer or Killmonger to play Death together with Knull for a surprise victory against your opponent.
A Ladder
This deck is chaos embodied. If the locations are not in your favor, you can always juggle them around and your opponent's cards toward them. Whenever an awful location shows up for your opponent with World Forge’s help, you can ensure it sticks by replacing World Forge with Scarlet Witch or her daughter Nocturne.
Afterthoughts
I’m sorry that the list of decks today is quite short. I don’t think it is easy to plan for pure chaos. I could send you a list of all the top decks right now for you to play and pray that the locations won’t affect their game plans, but that is not something I’m interested in. These articles prepare you to take advantage of the new location to reach all your goals. You can always try to ignore the Hot Location, but I don’t suggest it this time around. World Forge is quite intense in how it will affect the game, and with more locations showing up every month, things will get crazy quite easily. What about you? Do you have any decks ready for World Forge? Tell me your secret strategies!
As always, I’m here for you and your feedback. If you liked the read, let me know! I always read every comment and try to answer back if I have something at least witty to say.
I wish you all the best of luck on World Forge Day!