Marvel Snap: Black Swan Best Decks and Synergies

Black Swan Effect

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 1-Cost cards cost 0.

Black Swan Analysis

To start things off, let’s acknowledge that 3/5 is quite a competitive stat line for 3-Energy cards. Only a few 3-Energy cards are greater than 5 Power like Brood or Gladiator, so overall, that’s a plus for Black Swan.

Black Swan’s effect reduces the cost of 1-Energy cards for one turn, which can be very powerful. Any time something reduces cost to 0, the effect can really get out of hand.

There’s definitely a lot of current archetypes that Black Swan could fit into. Initial impressions make me think of decks like Bounce, Thanos, or Zoo decks. All of these decks utilize strong 1-Energy cards, so Black Swan could potentially see play there.

However, I’m of the opinion that Black Swan likely will need a new type of deck that utilizes her ability to the fullest, rather than slot her into existing decks.

Cards that Synergize with Black Swan

Before going into this section, I think it’s very clear that any 1-Energy card will synergize with Black Swan. I won’t be listing every single 1-Energy card, and instead be looking at archetypes she could potentially fit into.

Bounce

On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. Give them -1 Cost.

The first comparison that instantly comes to mind is Beast. Both Black Swan and Beast provide similar roles. They’re both 3-Energy and both reduce the cost of cards.

Beast is already a defining card in the Bounce archetype, and while Black Swan is similar, she isn’t able to return cards to hand. This would mean that Black Swan needs to be played in conjunction with something like Falcon, where as Beast does both things by himself.

This is the main criticism of Black Swan in Bounce archetypes. She provides the discount effect similar to Beast, but doesn’t actually Bounce herself.

You could argue that Falcon + Black Swan is more powerful than Beast alone, but that requires two specific cards in tandem while Beast only requires himself.

Even still, if you are looking to increase consistency of your Bounce deck, having Black Swan could be an upgrade. There will be games where you draw both Falcon and Black Swan but no Beast. In these situations, she can be a positive. However, it comes at the cost of cutting a different card from the deck, and that will have downsides as well.

Zoo

The archetype that I think has the most potential with Black Swan is some sort of “Zoo” deck. This archetype looks to play lots of 1-Energy cards to fill the board and buff them up with things like Ka-Zar or Blue Marvel.

Overall, a traditional Zoo deck that looks to simply play Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel doesn’t fit Black Swan super well. Even still, I think the archetype can make room for other cards to try and benefit from Black Swan.

Thanos

At the start of the game, shuffle the six Infinity Stones into your deck.

Another archetype that runs many 1-Energy cards is Thanos. There is potential synergy with Black Swan as she can discount the costs of the Stones to 0. However, Thanos decks don’t seem to really need this type of effect. Infinity Stones are often played early to draw cards, with big cards being played toward the end of the game.

There is also already great competition in the 3-Energy slot with cards like Caiera and Lockjaw, so adding Black Swan seems unecessary.

Black Swan Decks

For this section, I’ll be mainly going over some decks that synergize with Black Swan.

Keep in mind that these decks are all first impressions, so things can definitely change rapidly. As new discoveries are made, I will be updating our Full Tier List, rather than update this article.

Be sure to check it out to see what the best decks are.

Black Swan Bounce Deck

This first deck simply takes the standard Bounce list and replaces Enchantress with Black Swan. You lose a powerful tech card, but you potentially raise consistency of the deck with Black Swan.

The main upside for Black Swan is if you aren’t able to play your 1-Energy cards early. By turn 3, you can play Black Swan, allowing you to dump a bunch of cards on turn 4 with Werewolf or Beast potentially. You can also play her on turn 5 along with Falcon to refill your hand with 1-Energy cards to replay on turn 6 for free.

Overall, I don’t expect Black Swan to be a major upgrade for the deck, but I don’t expect her to be a major downgrade either. To be conservative, I would expect Black Swan to be a bit of a side grade for the deck.

Black Swan Zoo Monkey Deck

The other deck I think might benefit from Black Swan is some type of Zoo deck with Hit-Monkey. To be quite frank, I don’t imagine this archetype could be better than what Bounce already does. Hit-Monkey, Bishop, Ka-Zar, and Blue Marvel are simply weaker than the core of Annihilus and Sentry.

This deck can definitely reach high power if things line up, but you’re simply jumping through too many hoops to do so. With some more optimizations, I can see this deck being better than I expect, but I feel a bit underwhelmed at the moment.

Black Swan Counters

Here are some quick counters to Black Swan:

• Killmonger
  • Since you’re likely running a good amount of 1-Energy cards, Killmonger can be difficult to deal with.
• Mobius M. Mobius
  • If your opponent plays Mobius when you play Black Swan, you’re at quite a disadvantage. While you’re still up 2 Power in a straight comparison, your deck won’t be doing more powerful things that it was built to do.

Should You Buy Black Swan?

Overall, I would rate Black Swan a 5/10.

I may sound quite negative throughout this article, but I do think there is some potential for Black Swan. Even still, it’s difficult to imagine Second Dinner releasing a 3/5 stat line with a potentially very strong effect. (I guess Loki was a thing)

I don’t expect Black Swan to be very powerful, but I do think the ability at its core is powerful. There may come a time in the future where this ability can really shine, but in the current meta that’s not the case.

In my opinion, it would take something like buffs to Angela, Bishop, and/or Elsa Bloodstone to get Black Swan’s effect to be truly busted.

Hope this guide helped you out a bit, good luck in your games, and snap away!

Be sure to check out our Tier Lists for out current rankings on Marvel Snap decks and cards.

• Best Decks Tier List
• Series 4/5 Tier List

Good luck in your games, and thanks for reading!