Ares Guide (Deck, Strategy, Counter)

Ares joins the roster of Marvel heroes in SNAP after the app’s controversial ban in the US. And now that the players will be compensated for this inconvenience, many are thinking about investing in Ares because they will likely have some excess resources. But is he actually good enough? What deck shell is best for Ares in the current Marvel SNAP metagame? These are all answered in the following guide.

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Ares (4–6)

On Reveal: Compare the Power of the top three cards of both decks. If your total is higher, +6 Power.

Series: Five (Ultra Rare)

Season: Dark Avengers

Release: January 28, 2025

The Best Deck for Ares

Ares is a perfect addition to the Surtur-Skaar shell. If you want to incorporate him into this decklist, you will also need the following cards: Phastos, Okoye, Zabu, Attuma, Crossbones, Armor, The Hood, Cassandra Nova, and Cull Obsidian.

Ares Deck Synergies

• Okoye and Phastos help buff the deck, so your chances of beating the enemy in Ares’s comparison phase are higher.
• Cassandra Nova also contributes to Ares’s effect by stealing Power from the enemy deck.
• Ares, Attuma, Crossbones, and Cull Obsidian create your primary win conditions, buffing Surtur and discounting Skaar.
• Zabu ensures you can drop more four-Costs.
• The Hood gives you the Demon, a six-Power one-Cost drop. You can later get rid of The Hood itself using Attuma.
• Armor is your tech card to protect the lines with the highest risk.

How to Play Ares Effectively

Here are some notes to keep in mind:

1. Prepare the deck before dropping Ares. You want to ensure that your side is stronger than the opponent’s. So, before dropping Ares, it would be ideal to either buff your deck with cards like Okoye or Phastos or debuff the enemy’s deck with Cassandra Nova.
2. Don’t leave Ares unprotected. You are likely to have Ares get buffed before round five, making him an easy target for Shang-Chi and Shadow King. If you don’t want that to happen, play Ares in a protected lane, maybe the one with Armor.
3. Drop Ares as soon as you read the enemy’s deck. Pay close attention to what your enemy drops before deciding whether it’s the right time to let Ares lose. For instance, if they cannot play in the early rounds, this might mean they’ve already drawn their high-Cost (and likely high-Power) cards. So, your chance of beating their deck is higher.

How to Counter Ares

Ares is easy to counter. Most meta tech cards in Marvel SNAP, like Cosmo, Shang-Chi, and Shadow King, can neutralize him with ease. However, you can also counter Ares with more surprising drops like Cassandra Nova, as she steals Power from their deck, making an Ares play a bigger risk. There are also deck manipulators like Korg and Rockslide that are good against Ares, but their effectiveness is RNG-based—utilize them at your own discretion.

Is Ares Worth It?

Ares is a safe investment. Even if you get it via Tokens, it’s fine; you will definitely find a couple of nice deck shells for him. It’s unlikely that Ares will disappear from SNAP after a couple of weeks, as some other releases in the same range have. But you should also note that he’s an easy-to-counter card. So, building a super-competitive decklist around Ares might not be that easy.

So, who should get Ares? If you’ve been enjoying decks with big drops, like Skaar decks, Ares is clearly a must-have. However, if you’re more of a tactical player looking for intricate synergies, Ares is not the best deal. He’s one of those cards that you’d see in “Big Dumb Drops” type of strategies—which are not necessarily bad, but they usually rely on basic synergies and nothing fancy.

Game

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Systems

Released

August 22, 2023

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

Second Dinner

Publisher(s)

Nuverse