Patriot Deck Guide – Marvel Snap

Learn everything you'll need to play the Patriot deck in Marvel Snap.

The patriot deck is an old Marvel Snap archetype that has changed over time to keep up with the meta. Most players are now running Alioth as a late-game winning play, but I’ll be sticking with the staple Doctor Doom win condition.

As the name suggested, Patriot is an important part of this deck’s game plan. However, this version can get away with not drawing him and still maintain a high chance of winning the game.

This deck can fill up all locations easily with cards like Mister Sinister, Brood, and Doctor Doom.

Early Game

On Reveal: Destroy the lowest-Cost card in your opponent’s deck.
Ongoing: +2 Power for each location that’s full on your side.

Yondu can destroy a valuable card for the opponent’s game plan. It is a heavily luck-based card, but can still be effective against specific combo decks.

Since we can easily flood locations and fill it up, Dazzler makes sense in the list since we’ll get +6 Power on her, turning her into an 8 Power win condition. This is an Ongoing effect, so if your opponent destroys any of your cards, you’ll lose that +2 Power.

Playing around Patriot

On Reveal: Add a Sinister Clone here with the same Power.
On Reveal: Add 2 Broodlings here with the same Power.
Ongoing: Your cards with no abilities have +2 Power.

Patriot’ Ongoing effect gives +2 Power to cards with no effect. Although all the cards in our list have effects, Mister Sisniter and Brood add cards on the location they’re played on that have no abilities. So Sinister Clone and Broodlings will receive that +2 Power buff.

This changes the Power dynamic in your favor and can be difficult for the opponent to keep up with. Doctor Doom’s Doombots also benefit Patriot’s buff.

More Buffs!

On Reveal: Give your other 3-Cost cards +2 Power.

Since we’re running multiple 3-cost cards in the list, Silver Surfer can be a powerful play to boost the Power of our cards and buff up more than one location. Silver Surfer’s +2 Power effect is not Ongoing, so you need to play him after you’ve dropped your 3-cost cards.

The Broodlings summoned by Brood are also 3-costs, which will gain +2 Power each.

RNG Value

On Reveal: Recruit the lowest-Cost card from your opponent’s deck to your side of this location.
On Reveal: Add a card from your opponent’s deck to their side of this location. If it has less Power, destroy it.
On Reveal: Copy the text of your deck’s top card.

Since we’re looking to fill up all spots in three locations, Baron Zemo can steal a card from the opponent’s deck and play it on our side. This can be an interesting play, with a lot of randomness that can win us games on the spot on some occasions, depending on what we recruit.

Gladiator is an 8 Power card for only 3 Energy. It does have the drawback of putting a card from the opponent’s deck to their side of the location. However, if Gladiator has more Power than it, we get to destroy it! Since Gladiator has 8 Power, the odds are in our favor since most of their cards don’t have more than 7 Power. Although sometimes, Gladiator might lose us games, the majority of our games Gladiator is worth playing.

All cards in our deck have an effect, which means Iron Lad will get to copy something useful and provide value once played.

Setup Play

On Reveal: If the last card you played has an On Reveal, copy its text. (if it’s in play)
Costs 1 less for each of your cards in play that didn’t start in your deck.

We have a lot of cards with an On Reveal effect in our deck, so Absorbing Man shouldn’t have a rough time copying one of your cards. The effect you copy will depend on the game. If you’re looking to fill up the board, then copying Brood’s On Reveal effect makes sense. Looking to buff the board even more? Then Silver Surfer’s effect would work best here.

The cards we create are technically not in our deck, which means they’ll be lowering the cost of Mockingbird, potentially down to 0 once Doctor Doom drops. A 0 mana 9 Power card can be an insane Location Power shift.

Game Winner

On Reveal: Add a 5-Power DoomBot to each other location.

Doctor Doom increases the Power of all locations with the DoomBots he adds. The DoomBots will also gain more Power with Patriot’s effect, increasing the odds of you winning a location. This is your finisher that makes it challenging for opponent to contest two locations in one turn.

Other Cards can be Added

This version is more centered around buffing cards with no abilities. Misty Squirrel Girl, Shocker, Abomination, and Ultron’s Drones all don’t have abilities that gain Power with Patriot’s effect.

Kazar and Blue Marvel also provide additional buffs and with Onslaught, we’re doubling those buffs, which will be difficult for the opponent to keep up with.