Gameplay And Story Integration / MARVEL SNAP

• Several cards have effects that relate to their abilities, e.g. the speedy Quicksilver always appearing in your starting hand or Wolverine and Deadpool returning after being destroyed due to their Healing Factor.
• Various cards partner well with characters they're allies with in the comics.
  • The Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur cards synergize perfectly (Devil Dinosaur gets more powerful the more cards the player has in their hand while Moon Girl duplicates every card in their hand).
  • Thor's On Reveal effect adds a 0-power Mjolnir to your deck, while Jane Foster Mighty Thor's On Reveal effect draws all 0-cost cards to your hand.
  • Death and Deadpool work together (Deadpool requires to be destroyed to double his power while Death's cost decreases each time a card is destroyed), and they even work with Death's Domain as well as Death's Altar (where cards played here are destroyed). This references the Thanos-Deadpool-Death Love Triangle from the comics. Likewise, Thanos and Death work as you may need to destroy the infinity stone cards sans the Power Stone, and that can be helpful to help dominate a lane.
  • Cloak and Dagger both synergise well (Cloak enables both players to move cards to where he's played, and Dagger gains two power for each card in the opponent's location she moves to).
  • Quinjet (reduces cost of cards put into hand from outside your deck) compliments other S.H.I.E.L.D. cards well, as most of them usually have the ability to add random cards to your hand (e.g. Maria Hill, Agent Coulson, Nick Fury).
  • Angela gains power for each additional card played in her location. Her lover Sera reduces the cost of cards in the player's hand, making it easier to fill Angela's lane. For Valentine's Day 2024, they even got the power couple treatment.
  • Ka-Zar and Shanna, being a couple in canon, complement each other (Ka-Zar boosts all 1 cost cards and Shanna places a random 1 cost card in each location). Additionally, Zabu (Ka-Zar's mentor) also complements the fact that Ka-Zar is a 4 cost card (Zabu reduces the cost of 4 cost cards by 1).
  • Nebula is a 1-energy, 1-power card that gains +2 Power for each turn where the opponent does not play a card there. This baits opponents into playing at her location, which benefits all the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who have a bonus if an opponent plays there on the same turn.
  • Cerebro offers a +2 bump to a player's highest power cards. Most players using this try to build their deck on cards with the same power in order to maximize this bonus, typically 2 or 3. Professor Xavier used to be a 3-power card before his power lowered to 1.
  • Jeff the Baby Land Shark was briefly taken care of by Elsa Bloodstone at one point in the comics. Elsa gives +2 to a played card that fills her location. Jeff can grab that buff, then move to another location to open that fourth slot again while also decreasing the space in another location so that Elsa can buff another card faster.
  • Gambit discards a card from your hand to destroy a card on the opponent's side. Frequent Gambit ally Wolverine, when discarded, is added to the board for free.
  • Red Skull has a negative effect which buffs all enemy cards at the same location. The Soul Stone weakens all enemy cards by -1 power at the same location. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Red Skull becomes the guardian of the Soul Stone on Vormir.
  • Caiera protects all your 1- and 6-cost cards from destruction. The latter include Hulk and Skaar, respectively, Caiera's husband and son in the "Planet Hulk" comic book storyline.
  • Spectrum gives +2 power to each Ongoing card you have in play; Ms Marvel is an ongoing card.
  • Black Swan makes all 1-cost cards cost 0 until the end of next turn; most of Thanos's infinity stones are 1-cost cards.
  • Cull Obsidian requires you to play him at a location with a 1-cost card; Thanos, who has the Black Order on his side, has the Infinity Stones which are mostly 1-cost cards.
  • Corvus Glaive discards two cards to give their player +1 max energy; Proxima Midnight, Corvus's lover relies on being discarded.
  • Mockingbird is an ally of S.H.I.E.L.D. and her cost is reduced by 1 for every card on your side that didn't start in your deck. Many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents add cards to your hand that can be played to reduce the cost further.
• Some cards have a counter within the characters:
  • Kingpin destroys all cards that move to his location on turn 6, and later got reworked into giving any enemy card that moves to his location (on any turn) -2 power. Move decks may contain spider-people, most of which rely on moving or can move cards.
  • Gambit discards a card from your hand to destroy a random enemy card. Deadpool, who fought Gambit, relies on being destroyed.
  • Magneto moves 3 and 4 cost cards to where he's played. Most of the X-Men are 3 or 4 cost cards.
  • Ant-Man is buffed for each ally that is at the same location. Yellowjacket debuffs all his allies at the same location.
• Though a loyal acolyte in the live-action films, Ebony Maw is usually The Starscream of the Black Order. Fittingly, he has no conventional synergy with his fellow members, the Infinity Stones, or Thanos himself.
• Phylla-Vell's cosmic adventurer career is rather spotty to say the least. As Martyr, she experienced some of her most prolific (and lethal) failures. Fittingly for someone with more screw-ups than the average Guardian of the Galaxy, her effect will cause her to move to a location that will bring their player closest to defeat if not contributing directly to a loss.
• Several cards have abilities that relate to or play off of locations which are meaningful to that character. Some are harmonious:
  • Wong, a member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and Kamar-Taj, their Hidden Elf Village, both trigger On Reveal effects twice.
  • Cosmo and the location Knowhere both prevent On Reveal effects from occurring. Cosmo is largely associated with Knowhere.
  • Mr. Fantastic grants power to adjacent locations, as does the Fantastic Four's headquarters the Baxter Building.
  • Asteroid M moves all 3 and 4 cost cards to its location, as does its creator Magneto.
  • Mojoworld gives +100 power to the player with more cards there, encouraging both players to fill the location. Meanwhile, Mojo's power increases by 6 when both players fill his location. Similarly, Dazzler (who spent time as an amnesiac in Mojoworld) also benefits from filling locations.
  • All Atlanteans rely on being the only card in a location, and Atlantis gives a power boost of 5 if the player only has one card there.
  • Patriot and Washington, D.C. both award boosts to cards without powers.
  • Shuri doubles the power of the next card the player puts down in the location she's in, while Shuri's Lab doubles the power of any card played on it.
  • Onslaught and Onslaught's Citadel both double Ongoing effects.
  • Hobgoblin and Green Goblin are negative power cards that switch sides when played. Oscorp Tower flips each card in play there after Turn 3.
  • Death starts as an unplayable 8 energy, 12 power, but gets cheaper for each card destroyed during the game. Death's Domain and Altar destroy any cards played there, making it easier to feed characters to her and bring her cost down.
  • Mister Sinister creates a clone of himself when played. Sinister London and Bar Sinister create clones of any card played there, the former at a random location and the latter filling the lane itself.
  • Galactus and Worldship (Galactus's ship) both reduce the number of locations to one.
  • K'un-Lun boosts the power of any card moved into it. Iron Fist, the protector of K'un-Lun, knocks the next card played to the left.
  • Savage Land adds two 1-cost raptors to either side of the location. Ka-Zar boosts the power of 1-cost cards by 1.
  • The Hood was a low-level New York gangster in the comics until he encountered a demon, reflected in his -3 power and the 6-power Demon he creates. The two NY bar locations both harmonize with his power: The Bad Guy Bar, "The Bar With No Name", gives the win to the lower power score, which suits The Hood perfectly. Meanwhile, "Luke's Bar" allows the player to keep playing The Hood, generating a 1-energy, 6-power Demon over and over without having to account for the -3 of The Hood himself.
  • Titan makes 6-cost cards cost 1 less; Thanos: the Mad Titan is a 6-cost card.
  • The Milano, the ship of the Guardians of the Galaxy, only allows cards to be played there on Turn 5, ensuring people will play there as it is their only opportunity. All of the Guardians except Nebula have an On Reveal, which triggers when someone plays at the same location on the same turn.
  • Aunt May's house (specifically the lineup of suits there highlighted in Into the Spiderverse) will give the first card played there a +3 and then move it. Some of the spider gang introduced in the same season have related powers: Ghost Spider would allow you to pull the moved card to your desired location, and Miles Morales gets cheaper if anyone moves.
  • Camp Lehigh adds a random 3-cost card to each player's hand. Captain America is a 3-cost card.
  • Both the Ice Box and Iceman increase the cost of a random card by 1.
  • The Great Web pulls a random card to itself each turn if it can. Spider-Man and many of the Spider-Man adjacent cards (Miles Morales, Silk, Ghost Spider, Spiderman 2099, Kingpin) trigger an effect upon their own or another card's movement.
  • The Hub is largely associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. and gives you a random card, as does its members.
  • You can't normally play cards in the Sanctum Sanctorum, but you can move cards there. Doctor Strange's ability is to move the highest-cost card(s) to his location. Strange Academy also moves cards too.
  • Flooded Locations don't allow you to play cards there. Jeff the Baby Landshark, who can both walk on land and travel in water, can be played anywhere where there's space and can be moved to any location as well.
  • White Queen and the White Palace both give you a copy of the highest-cost card in your opponent's hand.
  • The Miniaturized Lab disallows anybody to add cards there on turns 3, 4, and 5. Ant-Man, Wasp and Yellowjacket can be played before turn 3.
  • The Quantum Realm sets the base power of cards played there to 2; Ant-Man, Wasp, Yellowjacket and Kang have their base power below 2.
  • The Negative Zone reduces the power of all cards there by -3. Annihilus sends all cards that are less than 0 over to the opponent's side.
  • The Hellfire Club disallows playing cards that cost 1 there. Most cards that have Hellfire Gala variants and members of the club (Sebastian Shaw and White Queen) have their default cost over 1.
  • Thanos's ship, Sanctuary II, when revealed, adds a random infinity stone to each player's hand. Thanos, at the start of the game, shuffles all 6 infinity stones into their player's deck.
  • Utopia, a mutant sanctuary, makes 3 and 4 cost cards cost 1 less. The X-Men are in that range of costs.
  • One of Nico Minoru's abilities is that she can move a card played after her to the right. Strange Academy, where Nico works as a teacher, also moves cards.
  • And some work the opposite:
    • Killmonger destroys all 1 power cards on reveal. Wakanda protects any cards played there from destruction.
    • New York allows either player to move cards there on Turn 6. Kingpin will give -2 power to any enemy card that moves to his location (he previously destroyed all cards that did so on Turn 6). Kingpin's Fisk Tower will give -4 to cards that move there anytime. Additionally, most Spider-Verse Spider-men may be in move decks, which rely on movement and could be destroyed that way.
    • Knowhere prevents On Reveal effects, but each Guardians of the Galaxy member and the Ravagers has an On Reveal effect.
    • Heimdall moves all that player's cards to the left. The Bifrost moves everyone's cards to the right.
    • Hell's Kitchen pulls a 1-cost card to your hand. Elektra (who's a 1-cost herself) destroys a 1-cost card on the opponent's side when played.
    • The Pet Mansion, when revealed, makes it so players can only play cards here this turn. Jeff, who's Gwenpool's pet, has nothing that can stop him from being played in any location.