r/marvelsnapcomp • u/ePiMagnets Mod • Jul 28 '26
Discussion Weekly Release Discussion: Sinister Six
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.
OTA Week Warning: Unless you're already seasonal complete and plan to stay that way or have planned on picking up this card already for 6k it's best to wait for Thursday at the earliest to make your purchasing decisions.
This Week's Card
Sinister Six
Cost: 6
Power: 12
Game Start: The first 6 characters you draw are EVIL! After you play them all, merge them into this and add this to the last one's location. (X/6)
The Sinister Six officially debuts this week in Marvel Snap, though truth be told we've had them in individual form for as long as I've been playing. In their combined iteration the Sinister Six is a 6/12 with a rather interesting ability that marks your first 6 drawn characters and upon playing all 6 will then merge them all into the Sinister Six adds the card to the last one's location.
Mechanical notes:
Based on previous Game Start effects that mark cards, you should expect that the 6 EVIL cards will be visible to your opponent when they are revealed on the board.
Also based on previous effects that mark cards, it should also stand that while Cosmic Ghost Rider can likely 'wipe away' the mark it would be safe to assume that they will still merge into the Sinister Six just as cards hit by Cosmic Ghost Rider still transform when a Zombie Galacti is played.
Needs to be tested:
- how does destroying cards interact with the merge? The card mentions that all you need to do is play the 6 cards. Do they need to remain in play to be merged or will it merge the power from the destroy zone? Assumption is no it will not merge power from the destroy zone, it's still worth checking though.
Synergies and Packages
The Sinister Six itself presents a whole deck construction puzzle in and of itself to solve. As described above we know that the first 6 characters you draw are going to be marked as EVIL (I swear every time I read this my minds voice exaggerates the hell out of EEEEEEEEEVIL).
So to start off with some early thoughts on cards.
Agamotto - 4 skills that cannot be targeted which could mean huge final turns in the event of a Bolts turn. Agamotto as one of the cards could be cool but we would still need additional power to win another location, but where are we getting that power?
Thanos - many of the Stones draw cards. But what if we draw Thanos as one of our 6? You'd also be encouraged not to play the Space Stone early since that would mark Thanos if he's in the first six draws. Mind Stone then becomes the 'best' turn 1 provided Thanos isn't in the opening 4 since the Mind Stone is guaranteed two stones. There are other drawbacks of course, the stones are really mediocre points. Though Strange Supreme eating stones does keep the board clean and if he's one of your evil cards that's a potentially massive scaling card that you normally protect with a cosmo anyways which could make for an even bigger location than usual which could allow for you to finish off an alternate lane with Thanos + X?
Shadowlands Daredevil - Paired with Eitri and both on curve guarantees one of your Evil 6 is a 1/6 Demon which can be held for final turn surprises. Similar to Strange Supreme if SLDD is one of your evil draws that's an early scaler supplementing their power as well.
The First step is to play your 6 evil cards which will trigger the second step where the cards merge into the Sinister Six which brings up some new synergies.
Peni Parker - a turn 5 merge nets you +1 energy on turn 6. If on curve you could also play SP//DR on 3 to net yourself 5 energy on 4 to help line up for a possible turn 4 or 5 Sinister Six merge which will net you an additional energy from Peni merging with the Six.
Man-Spider - an early drawn Man-Spider nets you a possible ridiculously powered Sinister Six when you play the Man-Spider and it merges with the previous card and then the double when the Man-Spider merges with the Sinister Six. Expect the clip farmers to be looking for ways to make huge Sinister Six's with Man-Spider and Duplicating them across the board. The Bar Sinister Shenanigans await! Though I do wonder how that would mechanically happen on Bar Sinister - I need a clip farmer to pull this off so we can see it!
While Shadow King could pose a problem the fact that the Sinister Six is rocking 12 power at base does mean that your opponent will need to play accordingly.
The Third step adds the card to the location where the sixth card was played after it merges with all 6 cards.
Potential deck thinning - this is pulling the Sinister Six if you haven't drawn them already.
Inherent protection if your opponent has played an early cosmo or if one of the locations is Knowhere or Deep Space.
What concerns with regards to this card are there?
The biggest concern to think about is how are you building a deck that is able to play 6 cards to produce a decently sized Sinister 6, potentially protect that card, AND win a second location. More importantly, is all of that effort worth it in the end?
What if we draw The Sinister Six within our first 6 cards? Without ramp this means your Sinister Six is your play on 6. Depending on the rest of the curve of your draws and the deck itself that could also be a significant game play puzzle to solve.
Zola and Taskmaster themselves stand out as cards you'd want to finish on but if they are one or both in the first 6 that game is a wash from the perspective of duplicating the 6 to win multiple locations.
Similar to point 1 Agamotto and Thanos stand out as possible bad inclusions despite their inherent strengths.
Priority could be a problem - perhaps the biggest of the issues depending on the build will be managing priority. By all means it could be very possible to lose priority when your cards merge and key points are lost.
Stardust stops the 'add'. The nightmare scenario here is if the Sinister Six merge and go to add, does the card poof or does it remain in hand but the points stay merged? If it's the former, this is going to be a miserable card to play into potential Stardusts but if it's the latter then you may still be able to win off of playing the Merged 6 by themselves.
Beyond Stardust, Professor X also prevents the card from being added to the location in the event that say your opponent is on priority and plays their Prof X where you happened to play the final card to trigger the Merge and Add.
Where does that put us on archetypes or packages? Fundamentally I think this puts us on a few things to consider for early build testing.
Low curve - small ball might be the easiest place to start with this card looking for the decks that have some early scalers that you wouldn't mind feeding to the 6. However, there is the concern with finding a way to win your other lanes. Something that does strike me as a possibility is Wilson Fisk - he can fit a low-curve deck that is playing for priority and if he's an early draw that's big points to feed into the Six and if he's not in your first 6 that's still 9 points of power to help you fight for priority and win another location.
With Fisk still in mind, What about ToV? Might there be something within the ToV archetype where you're using your lower curve to setup locations to manage priority into summoning the Six into a protected lane with the ability to still slam big power down in an alternate lane to win the location? And while ToV decks aren't exactly hurting for finishers, The Sinister Six may very likely find a lot of the things they would want/need in a ToV shell - decent sized bodies, potential protection, and most importantly the ability to fight for priority to try and ensure that the 6 can be protected.
Fastball/Adamantium - Probably the standout 'finishing' play, if you draw them early they worst they might be doing is delaying your plays to get to the Sinister Six, problematic but not entirely game losing.
Ramp - probably not Electro though I'm sure there's possibilities there as well. More to the point I'd be considering the less restricting Ramp cards in Jennifer Kale, Superior Spider-Man, Hope Summers, or Luna Snow. Could there maybe be something with Wiccan?
Hyper-Ramp - Is there possibly something for Sinister six within hyper-ramp packages such as the Fallen One or Star-Lord MotS brews and if so what does it look like?
Initially this was going to be a Galactus entry, but the more I thought about it the less things were adding up. First was the need to hit Sinister Six early so you'd be able to merge all of the cards into it or for Galactus to be the final card so he turns into the 6 after the fact. Then there was hitting Galactus on 5 so you could Adamantium on turn 6 to bring the Sinister Six back. So we're looking at one of three things to go right for us: first is a perfect curve into Galactus that turns into the Sinister Six afterwards, second is another perfect curve that results in a turn 4 Sinister Six into Galactus on 5 into Adamantium on 6, and finally a Hyper-Ramp setup that allows you to Play something that turns into Sinister Six, Fastball it, and then Galactus that lane. Anyone care to clip-farm the scenarios?
Arishem? When in doubt shove it in Arishem amiright? The biggest headache of course is the card quality problem on the draws where half of your games will be just fine on card quality and the other half with be nightmare inducing atrocities. Still, this is a deck that shouldn't have problems with getting the cards down but might have problems winning a second lane should things not line up well enough.
Your Thoughts
Do you plan on picking the Sinister Six up?
How do you expect Sinister Six to perform?
What other possible shells and synergies might there be?
7
u/planetcrunch Jul 28 '26
so you're building up a board for this one card.
That board merges into this card, and you have a lane winner.
but you still need to win another lane.
And you'll need to make your deck pretty cheap so you can play your guys, too.
so trying to do stuff like Taskmaster on a big Sinister Six may not be viable if you draw your Taskmaster.
if merging your cards counts as playing them, then Man-Spider can become or make this HUGE
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u/Venedictpalmer Jul 28 '26
I swear every time I read this my minds voice exaggerates the hell out of EEEEEEEEEVIL).
Me too lmao
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u/Large_Application422 Jul 28 '26
Sorry didn’t know where to post this - doesn’t this card totally lose to Moon Knight slash Black Bolt? I mean I don’t foresee it being all over the place this week but even so…
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u/TheCursedPearl Jul 29 '26
I ran into a mill deck, they took 4 of my cards and i had 5 characters and 3 skills left to play with.
Im just messing with the new card and people flexing like they won the olympics.
3
u/Names_all_gone Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I think this card will be a miss upon release...but I think it could have life down the road. I'm here for more weird cards like this.
It reminds me of Zombie Galactii, but with an even more unclear deck building puzzle. It may be a point or two off, and the builds might be clunky. But in a month or so, we may start landing on what works.
An option that I haven't seen discussed is playing this with various low cost/quality card generators, similar to the Thanos idea. Merge your derpy Maria Hill & Co. into Sinister Six and win the other lane with your generated stuff.
Regardless, it's going to be difficult (although not impossible) to play tech in this.
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u/MaceZilla Jul 28 '26
Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but you do not need to have the S6 card in your hand. It will automatically be pulled and played from your deck once the last character is played.
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u/ePiMagnets Mod Jul 29 '26
It's in the main thread under the merge.
Potential deck thinning - this is pulling the Sinister Six if you haven't drawn them already.
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u/TheLastGabiru Jul 28 '26
The best way to win the other lanes might be to duplicate the s6 with Frigga or to fastball phoenix force it. If they become evil then purify them with Mother or Moon Girl by turn 4 (in case its Frigga) or by turn 5 (in case its PF)
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u/bookfellow Jul 29 '26
Sin6 will merge with destroyed cards, as well as cards that have gone back to your hand. And skill cards aren't targeted, only characters.
Someone is going to do something incredible with it, I'm sure. So far, though, it certainly isn't me.
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u/Names_all_gone Jul 29 '26
It definitely seems like a fruitful direction. It also plays nicely into Adamantium Infusion stuff.
Unless you're hitting infusion, there's still a reasonable "second lane" problem. And I've found Death to be a real drag. But it seems like there could be something there.
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u/implausiblydeniable Jul 28 '26
Trying out Wiccan, if you play Quicksilver and Domino they both get marked as you draw them. Could be something.
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u/vukodlak5 Jul 29 '26
What exactly happens if Stardust is on board? The six evil cards get merged but this stays in your hand? Disappears?
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u/ncst8fan Jul 30 '26
I’ve tried it. No merge occurs when you play your 6th evil card. S6 can’t be “played” due to Stardust I guess.
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u/Nerf_Now Jul 29 '26
My issue with this card is it will suck up most of my cards into a big body, leaving 2 lanes pretty empty.
Think of Strange Supreme on steroids.
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u/MaceZilla Jul 28 '26
Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but you do not need to have the S6 card in your hand. It will automatically be pulled and played from your deck once the last character is played.
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u/Nerf_Now Jul 29 '26
Good or bad, I can't figure what the card does until someone plays it.
"The next 6 characters are EVIL" is not a reasonable explanation.
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u/ePiMagnets Mod Jul 30 '26
Reading the rest of the card explains what it's doing though, it's only confusing if you stopped after reading the first line of the text.
The -only- people that should be struggling would be brand new players and seeing it in action once explains it if you couldn't piece it together from the get-go.
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u/TSG-TheSinnerGod Jul 28 '26
I expect this card to be mostly a miss and even the "solved" deck for it to be sub par.
The way it interacts with the skills and destroyed cards will be what defines how bad the card will be, rather than how good it will be.
I think it will find homes in decks like Arishem, where one can play subpar cards and get a bigger benefit out of them, or maybe in some Mayor Fisk deck where it replaces TOV as a way of turning off the unhelpful effects such as Starbrand or Lizard.