The Best Cards in Marvel Snap’s ‘Marvel Rivals’ Season

Key Takeaways

• Marvel Snap introduces themed cards for Marvel Rivals launch in December season.
• Players criticize the card acquisition system, but Second Dinner remains silent.
• Be selective with spending on new cards in Marvel Rivals season to understand strengths and weaknesses.

Ahead of the Marvel Rivals launch, Marvel Snap introduced a season celebrating this new squad-based hero shooter with a set of themed cards. The December season includes six cards: Galacta, the season pass card, as well as Luna Snow, Doom 2099, Bruce Banner, Peni Parker, and Marvel Snap’s first double-hero card, Rocket Raccoon & Groot.

This announcement is paired with controversy over Marvel Snap’s card acquisition mechanics. Players are unified in criticizing Second Dinner for not addressing these mechanics, instead releasing more cards amid a frustrating system.

Second Dinner has yet to comment on the player requests, and it seems unlikely they will. The card acquisition system is tightly connected to the game’s business model and microtransactions—an aspect many developers are hesitant to change.

For now, the best strategy for fans is to be highly selective with their resources, spending only on cards they’re certain about. And that certainty requires understanding how each card works, along with its strengths and weaknesses. The following ranking evaluates the new cards in the Marvel Rivals season, ranking them from worst to best to help players decide where to invest their resources.

Marvel Snap December Spotlight Cache Dates & Details

6 Luna Snow

Luna’s Booster Comes at a Cost

• Cost: 3
• Power: 5
• Text: On Reveal, add an Ice Cube to each side of this location.

Luna Snow is the first card to join Marvel Snap in the Marvel Rivals season. Her ability adds an Ice Cube to each side of her location, generating one extra Energy per turn until there are three other cards in the location. At that point, the Ice Cube self-destructs and stops providing Energy.

Based on her ability, Luna Snow seems like a great fit for ramp decks in Marvel Snap. She’s also a solid option for clog setups. However, there are two reasons why she may not be the next must-have card: 1) Her effect benefits both players, so the enemy can also take advantage of the extra Energy, and 2) There are other Energy-generating cards with more reliable synergies, such as Hope Summers, Psylocke, and Electro.

5 Peni Parker

Peni’s Synergies Can Be Clunky

• Cost: 2
• Power: 3
• Text: On Reveal, add SP//dr to your hand. When this merges, you get +1 Energy next turn.

Peni Parker joins Marvel Snap from Marvel Rivals as an On Reveal card with a three-part ability. First, she adds Sp//dr (pronounced “Spider”) to the player’s hand. Second, she generates +1 Energy every time she merges with another card. If merged with Sp//dr, Peni Parker gains the ability to move on the next turn.

Despite these interesting abilities and synergies, Peni Parker doesn’t seem to be a META-relevant card. Her main boost relies on the “merge” archetype, which has never been a dominant part of the metagame. While merge gained some traction briefly after Symbiote Spider-Man’s release, it quickly faded as the META shifted back toward Arishem and Hela and later favored Surtur for a short period.

4 Bruce Banner

Bruce Is a Low-Risk, High-Reward Play

• Cost: 2
• Power: 1
• Text: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, 25% chance to HULK OUT!

Stat-wise, Bruce Banner doesn’t appear to be a powerful card. This two-Cost, one-Power card’s true value comes from its risk-reward dynamic. Bruce Banner is essentially a two-cost Hulk, which can be incredibly rewarding. Of course, there’s a chance he never transforms and remains a one-Power card. However, paying two Energy and sacrificing only one board spot for a potential Hulk makes it worth the gamble.

Bruce also shows strong synergy potential with High-Evo decks. His low Cost makes him easy to play early, offering the chance to have two Hulks as primary win conditions. The downside, and why he ranks lower than other cards, is his RNG-based mechanic. Each turn, there’s only a 25% chance for him to become Hulk—decent odds, but not reliable enough for risk-averse players.

3 Doom 2099

Playing the New Doom Is Almost Intuitive

• Cost: 4
• Power: 2
• Text: After each turn, add a DoomBot 2099 to a random location if you played (exactly) 1 card.

The original Doctor Doom has been a metagame staple since the early days of Marvel Snap. Now, his new version, Doom 2099, looks set to not only shake up the META but also elevate the original Doom’s position on the leaderboards. Doom 2099 adds a DoomBot 2099 to a random location after each turn. These Bots have an Ongoing ability that grants +1 Power to all other Bots and Dooms on the board.

Doom 2099 is a strong addition to Marvel Snap for two main reasons: 1) He’s easy to play—dropping him on turn three or four lets you leverage his Bots’ Power, and 2) He synergizes well with the original Doom, as his Bots boost all Dooms and DoomBots on the board. The only downside is Doom 2099’s RNG when summoning his Bots, which can backfire when card positioning is critical.

2 Galacta

Galacta’s Generous Buffs Fit Most Archetypes

• Cost: 4
• Power: 6
• Text: Each turn, the first card you play at another location reveals with +3 Power.

Marvel Snap’s December Season Pass card is Galacta, the daughter of Galactus. She enters the game as a passive buff provider, adding +3 Power to each card played in other lanes. What makes her effect especially valuable is that Galacta applies her buff before the On Reveal abilities trigger. This means she can enhance buff-benefiting cards like Black Panther, Human Torch, and even Brood. She’s also likely to revive the Galactus META, as the father-daughter synergy looks promising.

In terms of ability, Galacta is similar to Gwenpool but with little to no RNG, which is why she ranks among the top two cards of the Marvel Rivals season. The main downside is her Cost. At four Energy, Galacta can make it harder to get her buff on earlier turns, possibly forcing players to rely on discount cards like Zabu, which limits deck-building flexibility.

1 Rocket Raccoon & Groot

This Duo Is Unlikely to Fade Away

• Cost: 3
• Power: 3
• Text: You can move this once. After your opponent plays a card here, steal 1 Power from it.

In Marvel Snap’s Marvel Rivals season, Rocket Raccoon & Groot is the best card. While its ability might not be as flashy as some other new cards, it’s consistent. Rocket Raccoon & Groot allows the player to steal one Power from enemy cards after they’re played to its lane. Additionally, it’s a move card, letting the player reposition it once per game.

This combination of disruptive ability and unpredictability at a low Cost makes Rocket Raccoon & Groot a perfect card. Marvel Snap’s metagame is unlikely to forget it anytime soon, and it’s poised to become a staple in many top-tier decks.

Players seeking more insights on
Marvel Snap’s
December lineup can watch Cozy Snap and Alex Coccia’s discussion, where they go over the abilities and synergies of all the new cards and rank them.