Card Release Aftermath
On Tuesday we got a formidable new Marvel Snap card. While I'm sure you’re thinking of the new, powerful season pass card, Iron Patriot, I want to explore his right-hand woman, Victoria Hand! I think she has proven to be a powerful build-around card that can fuel some crazy power levels.
Keep in mind that the patch on Tuesday will give you a small window when you can try to pull for Victoria Hand with the increased token amount for duplicates.
Victoria Hand Stats
Even though she's only been out for less than a week, Victoria has a 15.8% meta share and a stellar 60% drawn win rate when filtered to the last 7 days.
What I love about Vickie:
She bolsters some of the most fun, but previously ignored cards in the game
An argument could be made that cards like Coulsen and Valentina were already underrated, but they're even better with Victoria. It can be powerful to play your Valentina card and Victoria Hand together on turn 6 if Valentina blesses you with a powerful card. The Hawk and Bear that Snowguard creates have some utility, but they haven't felt worth it since Loki was changed. Victoria giving them some extra power makes them feel a lot better. And who doesn't love when Mirage steals you a big 1 drop?
She works with some of my favorite cards
These two were already among my favorite cards and I think they're the two best combos available for Vickie.
She's kind of like the new Cerebro
Like Cerebro, Victoria provides a boost across the board and rewards being built around. Except, Victoria has 3 power built in and is more flexible in the face of unfortunate locations and the other issues that hound Cerebro. The main reason they're similar is that Victoria Hand is an especially good turn 6 play. Of course, you can play her out proactively to work towards Wiccan or help bolster an Iron Patriot lane, but playing her out late alongside some arrows or other generated cards provides similar cube equity and protection as holding Cerebro does.
She'll be good even if Iron Patriot eats a nerf
Is Victoria just a sidekick? Certainly it makes a lot of sense to play Iron Patriot alongside Victoria Hand, but I think she has something to offer even if he gets changed to grant -3 cost or some similar change. In most of the lists below you'll find both cards together, but I think Victoria will remain viable with or without her boss. Iron Patriot is the more flexible card and is just generally very good (he works in so many different decks), but Victoria is less likely to catch a nerf and will have staying power even if Iron Patriot does change.
A Handful of Vickie Decks
The community has been cooking up some special Victoria Hand decks. Again, Iron Patriot is also in most of these decks, but I chose these because they focus on Victoria Hand. Iron Patriot is a great high-roll for Victoria and you should include him if you have him, but these decks are functional if you swap him for a different card generator (and potentially change cards that back him up like Speed and Negasonic).
KMBest’s Misery deck can rain down generated cards!
KMBest Hand
SafetyBlade’s low-to-the-ground list can slam the door in a variety of ways!
Safety’s Hand
I exclusively rode this Victoria Hand deck to Infinite! You can swap Snowguard for a tech card like Shang or Red Guardian if you're heading into Conquest.
Sco Wiccan Hand
Nerfherder’s Victoria/Dino list controls the board and lets you play Devil Dinosaur!
Nerfherder Hand
LaurenWhatevs made a deck that turns Victoria into a potential 6/27!
Lauren's Hand
My Victoria Hand Verdict
If you're on the fence about whether to try and grab Victoria Hand before the reset, I recommend grabbing her. She's not the core of a tier 1 archetype on her own without her boss (Iron Patriot) quite yet, but she will prove fun to build around and will continue to pop up much like Cerebro used to. If you've been waiting for the patch that changes the duplicate spot from 1000 tokens to 2000 tokens, you'll enjoy playing with Victoria Hand if you decide to pull the trigger. And if you've already pulled Victoria Hand, now you have an excuse to go for that awesome Spotlight Variant! For those that don't own either Grandmaster or Kate Bishop, it's a no brainer.
Bonus Vickie Deck For Next Week!
Just like in the comics, I think Moonstone is going to work quite well with Iron Patriot and Victoria Hand!
Next Week's Hand
