Best Marvel Snap decks for new Pool 5 cards arriving in December: Knull, Sentry, & Darkhawk

Brad Norton

Three new Pool 5 cards are set to shake up the Marvel Snap meta in December as Knull, Sentry, and Darkhard arrive in the next big updates. Here’s a rundown on some of the strongest decks to take advantage of these new additions.

Following close behind Marvel Snap’s biggest update yet, with Pool 4 & Pool 5 cards now available, three further cards are set to keep the momentum rolling throughout December.

Knull, Sentry, and Darkhawk were all revealed as part of a recent in-game news post amidst the Power Cosmic season. While they’re not all arriving at the same time, Ben Brode’s earlier tease of weekly card drops is already coming to fruition as these bonus cards are staggered across the month of December.

So before you get your hands on them, either through luck in the Collection Level rewards track, or manually through the Token Shop, here’s a rundown on some of the strongest decks to maximize their potential in Marvel Snap.

Best Knull decks in Marvel Snap

Knull drops into Marvel Snap on December 13 as a devastating 6 Cost | 0 Power card with a unique Ongoing effect. This card has the combined Power of all cards destroyed this game. Of note, the text doesn’t specify your cards only. Meaning if the enemy destroyed cards too, they add to Knull’s collective Power.

Knull card in Marvel Snap

Knull Deck 1: Death & Destruction

First up, to synergize with Knull, our goal is to wreak as much havoc as possible by destroying as many cards as possible. That means key Destroy picks like Carnage, Bucky Barnes, and Killmonger are all still essential here. However, we’ve added the likes of Yondu as a solid drop on any turn. Not only can he remove a powerful enemy card, but in doing so, that card’s stats are added to Knull.

In an ideal situation, you would have cleared out enough targets to have Death down to 0 Cost. On turn 6, you can theoretically drop 12 Power into one Location for free, then Knull into any other Location with a huge amount of Power to seal the win. If you haven’t quite managed to draw the right cards though, Aero always works as a great final play to disrupt enemy combos.

Marvel Snap Knull Deck

Knull Deck 2: Galactus wombo

If you’re an experienced player with ample Pool 3/4/5 cards at your disposal, this Knull & Galactus deck could be for you. You’ve probably seen plenty of Galactus at the higher ranks already, but with Knull in effect, the wombo combo is set to become even more devastating.

Early-game plays with this deck aren’t too critical, so long as you’re keeping one Location clear and focusing on destroying some cheaper cards. As the match progresses, your goal is to try and activate Galactus prior to turn-six by any means. This can be achieved through Wave or Psylocke.

By dropping Galactus onto the board, you’re wiping out almost every other card, leading to an extraordinary final turn if you’ve drawn the right cards. In an optimal situation, you can theoretically drop Death and Knull on the one remaining Location to overwhelm any opposing turn-six combo.

Best Sentry decks in Marvel Snap

The Sentry card arrives in Marvel Snap on December 20 as a 4 Cost | 8 Power card. However, these stats come with some caveats. This card cannot be played at the right Location, and On Reveal, it adds a -8 Power Void to the right Location.

In essence, if you’re running this card, you’re largely sacrificing your right lane, though that’s not to say there aren’t a few effective workarounds to this negative effect.

Sentry card in Marvel Snap

Sentry Deck 1: No fun for you

Obviously having a -8 Power card on your side of the board isn’t ideal. So the goal here is to simply hand that over to your enemy and let it be their problem. In order to achieve this, Viper is an absolute must-have in order to follow up on turn five and transfer the -8 card across the board.

In the meantime, the rest of the deck is designed around limiting plays and clogging enemy Locations with useless or negative cards. Green Goblin, Debrii, Sentry, and Hobgoblin are all perfect to oppress your opponent while limiting the space in which they can counter the negative Power.

If you’re anticipating a big turn-six drop from them, you can counter with Aero by dragging their strongest cards into the weakest lanes.

Sentry Deck 2: Destroy the Void

With a similar objective in mind, the goal here is to wipe out the negative effect from playing Sentry. By having a -8 Power card in the right Location, you’re setting yourself up to lose. So that’s where Destroy cards come into play as you wipe the Void from the board.

Obviously, this can be done in many ways thanks to the likes of Carnage and Deathlok. Though perhaps the optimal pick is Destroyer. Through the early turns, the ideal strategy is to build up one particular lane safeguarded with Armor. After playing Sentry in this protected lane, you can then follow up with Destroyed in the right Location to erase the -8 Power and overwhelm with a surprise +15 Power.

Best Darkhawk decks in Marvel Snap

The Darkhawk card drops into Marvel Snap on December 20 as a 4 Cost | 1 Power card. Though through its unique Ongoing effect, it gains +2 Power for each card in your opponent’s deck.

With only a few ways to interact with your opponent’s deck, Darkhawk is one of the more challenging Pool 5 cards to excel with. But through the right builds, this can be an extremely powerful four-cost in no time.

Darkhawk in Marvel Snap

Darkhawk Deck 1: Full Hand Full Power

The goal with this deck is to keep your opponent’s hand as full as possible. While there’s obviously no predicting what you’ll encounter in each game, limiting the number of cards they can play, draw, and interact with, often gives you the upper hand.

The likes of Iceman, Black Widow, Baron Mordo, Wave, Maximus, and Sandman all work towards that common objective. By increasing card costs, adding useless cards to their hand, and allowing just one card to be played per turn, you’re directly buffing your Darkhawk drop.

Not only that, but Darkhawk is also identical in its effect to Ronan. By dropping both onto the board and following up with Spectrum, your odds of success are certainly high.

Darkhawk Deck 2: Wongers

Next up comes a more combo-heavy deck as not only do we look to fill the opponent’s hand, but also build up some hefty stats on our side of the board. This is done through cards like Black Widow, Angela, Baron Mordo, and Maximus.

One particularly strong card here is Beast, as this 2 drop can recycle your most annoying early-game cards, allowing you to double up and once again clog the enemy’s hand with Black Widow or Baron Mordo. Better yet, combining these effects with Wong can lead to some devastating late-game plays, especially with Absorbing Man there to add further insult to injury.

So there you have it, a full rundown on some of the best decks for Marvel Snap’s latest Pool 5 cards. We’ll be sure to update you here with any further additions as they’re announced.

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com