All Hail the Vampiric Goddess
If you are familiar with me, through gameplay or through my Snap.fan articles, you likely know my strong penchant for junk- and clog-type decks. Well, this week’s card is another arrow in that archetype’s quiver: Selene! A life-draining X-Men villain, she has a similar property in Marvel Snap: she inflicts -3 power on the lowest power card in both players' hands. From the Developer’s Update video, it does not appear you will see what card she hits in your opponent’s hand.
She is also in a fantastic spotlight cache week to end the year. If you do not have Iron Lad or The Black Knight, I would suggest opening some caches this week, whether you are a junk fan or not. Iron Lad is one of the most versatile cards in the game and elevates nearly every deck he is compatible with, while The Black Knight is substantially better since his Ebony Blade was buffed to be indestructible a few weeks ago. However, if you already have the aforementioned cards, and are not particularly interested in junk gameplay, then this week is likely a skip for you.
How to Play Selene
There are three components to Selene to consider: (a) her own -1 power, (b) the -3 power she inflicts on a card in your hand, and (c) the -3 power she inflicts on an opponent card. I will be referring to these letters below as reference.
(a) and (b) are what make Selene a bit limiting; without mitigating or utilizing the negative infliction, her power value is as low as -4 (her power, you play your afflicted card, and your opponent doesn't play their afflicted card). However, her value ceiling is quite high when your deck is built around her; “gifting” your opponent Selene with a Viper or Annihilus, and sending an afflicted Green Goblin or Hobgoblin turns that -4 value to a +4 value play for you, which turns into +7 if your opponent plays their afflicted card.
This is why Selene is going to be typecast–and likely operate best–in junk style lists, which are already interested in clogging your opponent’s board with as much zero to negative energy as possible. In these decks, (c) is almost an afterthought; inflicting your Goblins or The Hood to send to your opponent is what is in your control and bolsters your strategy; your opponent playing a card that is three less power is a bonus.
However, as a deck below highlights, Selene can be used as a purely disruptive option in some limited circumstances. Bast turns Selene’s -1 power into 3 power, making her a fine card to play to purely disrupt your opponent. This eliminates the downside of (a) alone; you can then choose not to play your afflicted card, transform/destroy it with Nico Minoru, or play it and destroy it with Carnage or Deathlok.
Who’s Selene Sapping?
(c) Is the -3 power Selene inflicts on an opponent card even that good of a disruptive option, considering it hits the lowest power card in your opponent's hand anyway? As is the case often in Marvel Snap, it depends on your opponent’s deck. However, in this current meta, many of your opponent’s best cards are low power. Iron Man, Darkhawk, Mystique, and the new card Havok are all 0 power cards in hand. These cards are typically relied on by your opponent, making them more likely to be played despite the lower power. The lockdown options of Storm and Professor X become much riskier to play, and may even eliminate Alioth as a Turn 6 option for your opponent.
It is important to note that Selene may have an “Ice Man Effect,” wherein you may not see the benefit of the card’s effect. Selene inflicting negative power to an Alioth may make him unplayable; this means you won’t see the card Selene affected played, but you are getting the benefit of eliminating a playable option from your opponent’s hand. That has value you don’t necessarily see on the board, so it may not “feel” as good, but you must know that if you do not see the afflicted card played, you likely disrupted your opponent’s gameplan one way or another by playing Selene.
In sum, thinking of Selene in terms of (a), (b), and (c) may help expand your deck building ideas past junk. However, she will undoubtedly be a deadly tool in junk in terms of power and disruption. With all that said, let’s take a look at some day 1 decks!
Jimmy’s Day 1 Selene Decks
Pure Toxic Clog
Pure clog, pure toxicity. Annihilus is of course the lynchpin to send over Sentry’s Void, The Hood, Selene, Debrii’s rocks, etc. In fact, turn 4 has a lot of interesting options. You can Black Widow/Selene to ensure they have a -4 power widow’s bite they have to deal with, Sentry into Annihilus turn 5, Green Goblin/Titania to clog a lane. Carnage is there to clean up some lanes for you if you do not draw your Annihilus. This type of deck is Selene’s most likely home, even if the general shell changes.
Toxic Junklactus
My apologies to anyone who has been blissfully avoiding Galactus decks; Selene is going to increase his presence, at least on day 1. No ramp here! The idea is to have negative power in several lanes and pick where you think Galactus will win. Selene makes the goblins more devastating, and hopefully your opponent is more keen to you being a pure junk deck than one with a Galactus finisher. In case Galactus wants to remain in the bottom of your deck, you can try to win with some big stat sticks with Sentry and Annihilus. Hazmat is nice to play on 5 to lower lanes further to help ensure the win, as with an early Scorpion to keep your opponents plays lower in power. Is Selene going to help Galactus be meta again? Likely not; but this deck may be good enough to, in the least, climb with. We shall see, and I am sorry.
Tech Bounce
This is a weird one, but I think it has potential. Here, you want to bounce Selene if possible, and absolutely demolish a card in their hand with negative power. The opponent is going to be extremely reluctant to play that card. Then you play Doctor Octopus to force it out, and hopefully guarantee that lane to win. You can then win another lane with either tech like Shang Chi or Enchantress, and bounce your Werewolf By Night around if possible. This is very early stages of a brew, but I think the idea of Doctor Octopus forcing their very low power card out their hand to win a lane is potent. In other words, this can use some tinkering, but is something to try.
HawkBounce
Another Bounce list, except here we are using some good ol’ Darkhawk. This still has the Black Widow/Selene combo, and has the Hood and Green Goblin to soak up some Selene backfire. Worst case, you have neither in your hand, and your Dawkhawk or Havok take the hit, which you can later Bast. Don’t Bast your own Goblin, of course, but every other target benefits in some way. You can alternatively Bast early, play Selene, and just not play the afflicted card. This shell took a hit with the Black Widow change (which was likely done in anticipation of Selene, otherwise turn 3 Black Widow/Selene would be devastating), but could possibly still work to some success.
Let me know if there are other Selene ideas you have, and I hope everyone had and continue to have a wonderful holiday season!