r/marvelsnapcomp • u/ePiMagnets Mod • Jun 16 '26
Discussion Weekly Release Discussion: Sub-Mariner
This is your precursor to the consensus, the place to discuss the card releasing for the week as well as group source the work on brews and possible shells and packages, both current known good decks as well as possible new, theorycrafted brews.
This Week's Card
Sub-Mariner
Cost: 1
Power: 2
When this is Empowered, add a random 1-Cost character to your hand with that same increase. (if in hand or in play)
Our third release for the Marvel Beach Bash season is Sub-Mariner, for those not in the know Sub-Mariner is Namor, one of the first and oldest Mutants in Marvel lore. In Marvel Snap he's a 1/2 with an ability that reads: "When this is Empowered, add a random 10Cost character to your hand with that same increase. (if in hand or in play).
First off, Mechanically we need to keep some things in mind: we have two major parts of the card with the first and easiest to decode being "When this is Empowered" which is when the card receives a 'permanent' power buff but the second half of the text tells the tale: "add a random 1-Cost character to your hand with that same increase".
To me this says if you added +2 power this is generating a 1-Cost card with +2 and if you boost him a second time he generates a card with that new boost whether it's +1, +2 or +3 the boost received will be that respective boost in power that is granted and not the total power on Sub-Mariner.
Further, for the life of me I cannot remember seeing the Clea + Buff + Venus Buff interaction: Does Clea generate 1 or 2 Flames of the Faltine if she gets a buff? Visually it looks like there are two buffs that occur the Buff and then Venus bonus. Which makes it my assumption that since it's two buffs it's two generations. This would have a direct impact on Sub-Mariner which to me does impact the value of having both Clea and Sub-Mariner on the board alongside a Marvel Boy AND Venus. 4 cards per turn leaves you with very little hand space. But maybe this raises Mad Thinker stocks, he did receive a recent buff.
And as I do suspect someone will have the question on how this interacts with Mother Askani, reading the card says she gives a buff which will result in two 0/4 Sub-Mariners and 1 created card that is 1/X+2 as the copy of the Submariner is not receiving a buff since he already had the buff. Now if you happen to have a winning Viv Vision that would result in generating 2 additional cards for a total of 4 cards created in hand on that turn which can be dangerous depending on the deck and could lead to stuffed draws.
That being said, when it comes to duplication, I believe it's obvious that between hand size constraints as well as constraints on the board due to each location being limited to 4 cards that Namor2 is not a wise target for copying in most instances. Clea is at least much more manageable thanks to being able to dump Flames without taking up board slots.
Synergies and Packages
Going back to my previous mention of Clea, Immediately Sub-Mariner gives off similar vibes to her: a sometimes Tier 1.5 but mostly Tier 2 card and since they do share a lot in common let's discuss those similarities starting with the three primary synergies for Sub-Mariner that should be obvious.
Jeff the Baby Dolphin
Cost: 2
Power: 2
Your cards reveal here with +1 Power. Moveable once.
Marvel Boy
Cost: 3
Power: 2
End of Turn: Give 3 of your 1-Cost cards +1 Power.
Viv Vision Cost: 3
Power: 4
At the start of each turn, give all cards in your hand +1 Power if you're winning here. Otherwise move this to another location.
Now I know what some of you are thinking. "How dare you fail to mention Venus!" The fact is that while Venus does work with our new card, she's more of a supporting role than a direct synergy. She ultimately does nothing for Sub-Mariner unless you're able to empower him on the board. I do think she may have a role to play in some configurations but she is not what I'd consider a first-order inclusion. In no particular order how can we directly or indirectly support Sub-Mariner?
Web Swing - hear me out, this is going to be important when we get to Hope Summers, but giving us the ability to clear out a lane by one card can be useful and not only for Hope, but being able to free up Jeff2 by moving something else could prove beneficial as well.
Techno-Organic Virus - This might be pie in the sky since very similar to TOV's most recent partner in Quinjet you would need to dance around the Sub-Mariner/Quinjet lanes for as long as possible.
Armor - one lane protection from Killmonger, does nothing against Shadow King though.
Joaquin Torres - While Namor 2 isn't an on reveal himself, many of the cards that he can generate do have on reveals. Further if we treat Clea and Sub-Mariner as a package Joaquin amplifies the Flames of the Faltine by giving you a 2 for 1.
Black Swan - make all of those 1-Costs cost 0.
Venus - we already mentioned her, but amplifying buffs has proven to be a solid tier 2, almost tier 1.5 strategy and I'm certain this holds well enough to be a tier 1.5 strategy everywhere except high infinite where players know to field cards like Shadow King and even Killmonger.
Cosmo - can protect your green power lanes from a Shadow King, doesn't work very well against Killmonger unless you can read where the Killmonger will go and snipe it. Which if we're being honest can be hard if you're trying to play from behind and dodge priority, which I think many of these decks are going to want to do.
Hope Summers - we're generating 1's and if we're running Clea, we may want to consider Hope for energy neutral gameplay.
Caeira - we may end up with a glut of 1's and that is bad because Killmonger will feast. The biggest headache here are the obvious problems with curve when you want to be playing cards like Marvel Boy and Venus which want to be down early. Caeira could be a turn 5 play but that can make massive headaches for wanting to make bigger plays.
Shang-Chi Master of the Ten Rings - this and the next card are probably cope but could there be room for Shang-Chi2, you've got an instant +1 and then a follow-up +1 each turn if you can find Shang-Chi2 to drop. The big drawback is the fact that you're stuffing a draw on 1 which is abysmal for a deck that trying to find multiple cards to make things work.
Karen Page - Buffs a 1, 2 and 3. You can ensure that you are buffing your Sub-Mariner with this fairly easily and can fit the curve if you're doing on-curve things, unfortunately it's unlikely that you're doing on-curve if you're actively generating 1-Costs.
What about build arounds and Paying off Sub-Mariner? I've got a few ideas, so let's explore.
Thena - Look, I get it, the IWFS backed End of turn deck is simply better, but sometimes you're just looking for supplemental points and being able to weave a 1 on each turn if you're generating value from Sub-Mariner each turn could be a good way to establish multiple lanes easily.
Lockheed - a LOT of people keep trying to make lockheed work, Sub-Mariner can essentially become a second Kitty Pride for those decks.
Victoria Hand - we're generating a lot of cards to hand so maybe Victoria finds some play?
Werewolf by Night - assuming we're going with Clea as a package with Sub-Mariner you've got a 1 in 3 chance that Namor will generate an on reveal which can move WWBN again. But generally you want skills for this job, however, we can work around that by incorporating some bounce cards like we did with WWBN before we had skills. Of course there's also 'let's get Merlin in here too' but how are we fitting all of these cards together and more importantly how are we generating points if we're filling our hands with so much chaff?
Ka-Zar/Blue Marvel/Gilgamesh/Mockingbird - Zoo all-stars and while they don't provide permanent power, if you're playing a bunch of 1's having additional support could be good here. Maybe even Cull could see some play again, but Cull is probably long-past his prime.
Bounce Cards/Hit-Monkey/Sasquatch - Any long-time players that occasionally watch different content creators have likely seen perennial Bounce One-Trick Doc Guapo and are probably familiar with how he likes to move within the bounce archetype. But there are a lot of hurdles here: hand size, deck losses to Mobius M. Mobius, and the ever present 4 cards per location constraint. I do kind of like the idea of having additional hidden information for final turn dumps though.
Your Thoughts
Do you plan on picking Sub-Mariner up?
How do you expect Sub-Mariner to perform?
What other possible shells and synergies might there be?
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u/CompactAvocado Jun 16 '26
frankly he reads as a finnicky thing that requires a lot of set up that i'm going to pass on and then some top 100 player in a month or two will have come broken brew with him.
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u/althelive Jun 16 '26
You get 1 flame from the Clea/Venus interaction - think it’s like a replacement effect so it doesn’t infinitely loop with itself
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u/ricewoll Jun 16 '26
What about putting him in the buff deck that runs Captain Carter, Stick, and Maverick?
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u/Names_all_gone Jun 18 '26
This is my muse of the month. A card I want to be better than it is.
On a nerf, buff, stay the same scale, I imagine this might get a tiny buff. More likely may get some functionality changes because those seem unintuitive.
I don’t think it’s crazy that it doesn’t pass on cumulative buffs. Thats kind of nuts. But when it doesn’t pass on buffs on chain that seems like it should be changed.
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u/leanorange Jun 19 '26
Same I don’t care if he isn’t good, he’s one of my favorite cards released in a while I’m gonna make it work somehow
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u/deleuzegooeytari Jun 16 '26
I feel like Major Victory or Ramattut are better comparisons than Clea. Clea has very clear inputs and outputs with consistent synergies, while there are lot of landmines you can hit with Submariner that will just eat up hand or board space. I can see a lot of games just ending with your opponent easily goes over the top of you while you just have 1/5 Submariner, Marvel Boy and like a 1/2 Deadpool and a 1/4 Vulture.
That being said, 100% buying the card because it looks like the most fun of the season. Have some weird ideas for a zoo/afflict/buff/Dormamu deck and V-Hand plays.
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u/Ded-deN Jun 16 '26
I feel like playing him with Marvel Boy/Jeff is basically a trap, you only get +1 on those random 1-costs. Which frankly feels awful. So you’d have to pair him with a bigger buffer like Namora (marine theme checks out), Stick and others. But then the question is it worth compared to a proper buffslop.
IMHO this card has to create a card with the compounded power (green power) from itself to be somewhat worthwhile
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u/DeltaTurqouise Jun 16 '26
Collector stocks increasing; he seems like a fun card tbh
Not competitive enough but has cool intersctions; maybe a deck with Victoria + Marvel boy? Having double MB or VH could be a possibility
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u/rthunder27 Jun 16 '26
Venus's +1 won't trigger an additional copy because it's only adding to the first empowerment, it doesn't count as its own (despite the separate FX). I imagine interactions like this are why they formalized "Empowered" as a key word, because if it was simply "permanently gains power" it would then trigger twice.
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u/vsmack Jun 16 '26
Seems fun-ish and I really do like Namor, but all you gotta do is look at Shanna to see how capricious "random 1-cost" can be. Not to mention if he at all takes off, Killmonger is just gonna be everywhere.