The mobile hit Marvel Snap has taken the card battler genre by storm, taking home the award for Best Mobile Game at the Game Awards. The game as grown in popularity thanks to its variety of iconic Marvel characters to collect, well-designed strategic gameplay, and non-intrusive monetization. Players jumping into Marvel Snap will have to contend with a range of different deck styles with one of the most common being the Kazoo Sandman. Learning to recognize an opponent's deck is the key to victory, so it's a great idea for any player looking to rise through the competitive ranks to learn about the most popular decks.
The Kazoo Sandman deck gets its name from its two main staples—Kazar and Sandman. The "zoo" part of the name comes from the traditional deck archetype that focuses on playing a high volume of low Cost, but high Power cards to overwhelm opponents. Both Kazar and Sandman offer great synergy with these types of cards, making them the keystones for this deck. There is a lot of flexibility with a deck like this, making it a mainstay in the meta game across each card pool.
Marvel's History with Kazar
Kazar is one of Marvel's oldest characters, and he didn't even originally debut in a Marvel publication. First published as a pulp fiction magazine in 1936 from Manvis Publishing, Kazar #1 by Bob Byrd would later be adapted for Marvel Comics #1 in 1939 with artist Ben Thompson re-imagining the character for his comic debut. The comic featured David Rand as the jungle guardian Kazar, who grew into a great warrior after surviving a plane crash in the Congo jungle as child. Kazar would go on to befriend the animals of the jungle and work alongside them to defend their home and its resources.
There are actually two versions of the character Kazar with the one more widely known today being created in 1965 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This version of Kazar debuted in X-Men #10 as a completely new character named Kevin Reginald Plunder—an orphaned child raised by the tiger Zabu in the Savage Lands. Kazar became the defender of the Savage Lands, learning to survive through hunting, fishing, and trapping. Throughout his appearances in Marvel Comics, Kazar has teamed up with the X-Men, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and even Blade. While not one of Marvel's most well-known characters, Kazar is deeply important to the history of these comics.
Sandman Character Background
Sandman made his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 in 1963 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Originally named William Baker, Sandman adopted the alias Flint Marko after falling into the illegal activities of a New York mobster. While on the run after escaping prison, Marko flees to a nuclear testing site where he comes into contact with irradiated sand which bonds with him on a molecular level turning his molecular structure into that of sand. With his new ability to shape-shift like flowing sand, he adopts the name Sandman following this incident and establishes himself as one of the many villains in Spider-Man's rogues gallery.
After his initial defeat by his nemesis, Spider-Man, Sandman joins as a founding member of the Sinister Six alongside the likes of Vulture, Electro, Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, and leader Doctor Octopus. Aside from Spider-Man, Sandman has also faced off with the Fantastic Four—the Human Torch in particular—on several occasions, as well as the Hulk in another instance. Sandman's ambiguous morality eventually leads him to fight alongside Spider-Man in the battle against the Enforcers and later become a mercenary in the service of Silver Sable.
Breaking Down Kazoo Sandman Decks in Marvel Snap
The primary goal of the Kazoo deck style is to flood the field with low-Cost cards with higher-than-average power. Typically thought of as lesser due to their low Power levels, 1 Cost cards usually only take up a few slots in most Marvel Snap decks. However, Kazar has the potential to make these weak cards more powerful as he has the Ongoing ability to give all 1 Cost cards controlled by the player +1 Power. As such, 1 Cost cards will make up a large portion of this deck, so the player can get as many on the field as possible before playing Kazar and giving the rest of their cards a boost.
This deck is very popular within Pool 1 due to the availability of Kazar and a handful of great 1 Cost cards like Nightcrawler, Ant-Man, and Korg. Blue Marvel makes another great Pool 1 addition as he has the Ongoing ability to give all other cards the player controls +1 Power. Stacking this ability on top of Kazar can easily make 1 Cost cards much more viable and makes the strategy of flooding the field with low-Cost cards in the first few turns followed by Kazar on turn 4 and Blue Marvel on turn 5 that much more of a threat.
Moving on from Pool 1, Sandman comes into play as a must for this deck as his ability limits players to playing only a single card per turn. The strategy here is to flood the field with low-Cost cards in the early turns like always, then play Sandman to limit the number of cards an opponent can play and throw a wrench in their strategy while still being able to play important cards like Kazar and Blue Marvel one at a time. Another great card to add to the deck is Spectrum for her ability to give all Ongoing cards controlled by the player +2 Power. This deck is already full of Ongoing cards like Kazar, Sandman, and Blue Marvel so this is a welcome bonus to an already solid deck.
The main card players of this deck will have to watch out for is Killmonger as his ability destroys all 1 Cost cards on the field. The rise in popularity of Kazoo decks has seen a rise in Killmonger usage as a countermeasure against them. Using Armor in this deck can be a great way to deal with Killmonger, as she has the Ongoing ability that prevents cards at the location she is at to be destroyed. As only a 2 Cost card with an Ongoing ability, Armor is a natural fit for this deck.
Marvel Snap is now available for Mobile and PC.