Arthur Pendragon: Decks & Tips for the New Card
King Arthur is here to pull Excalibur free (...to here) and give you a bunch of added Power here, there, and everywhere! Here is everything I'm excited to try with Arthur Pendragon! Hear, hear!
A Higher Caliber of Power
The main selling point for this card is how many points he can account for. He costs 4, is susceptible to tech, and a little awkward from a board-space perspective, but he is huge!
If we simply play a 4-Cost on 4, a 5 on 5, and a 6 on 6, Arthur and Excalibur will account for 11 Power for 4 Energy. Not bad, but of course we want to maximize that by getting even more 4+ cards on board.
Arthur and his Sword – Power Scaling chart
| Cards on Board in addition to Arthur + Excalibur |
Power Contribution just from Arthur + Excalibur |
|---|---|
| a 5-Cost and a 6-Cost | 11 Power |
| Anti-Polar Magneto and one 4-Cost | 11 Power |
| Anti-Polar Magneto and two 4-Costs | 13 Power |
| just Odin (plus a 2nd Excalibur) | 14 Power |
| Odin, White Tiger, 2 Tiger Spirits (plus 2nd Excalibur) | 26 Power |
| just Onslaught | 13 Power |
| Moonstone, Aurora | 17 Power |
| Doom 2099, 2 2099 Doombots, Onslaught | 21 Power |
| Doom 2099, 3 2099 Doombots, Onslaught | 25 Power |
| Doctor Doom, 2 Doombots | 15 Power |
| Doom 2099, 3 2099 Doombots, Doctor Doom, 2 Doombots | 19 Power |
| 4-Cost from Askani'son, Doom 2099, 3 2099 Doombots, Dragon Lord, Doctor Doom, 2 Doombots | 23 Power |
A fun little quirk is how well he works with either Onslaught or Odin, as most cards only pair well with one or the other! I can easily envision both On Reveal as Ongoing-focused decks for Arthur. With Anti-Polar Magneto, Arthur can account for more Power than Crossbones or Ikari. With a bunch of Doombots, the power-scaling goes crazy since he's adding his own Power onto other scaling you're presumably doing.
Getting More Cards On Board
The best way to get big cards on board is to cheat them out directly from hand or deck, but there are other methods like Zabu to help us get more down manually. The various token creators work well with Arthur, and I'm especially interested in boosting up a bunch of Tiger Spirits.
The Most Vulnerable Card Ever
Every card in Marvel Snap is susceptible to interaction, but Arthur Pendragon and his sword are especially so. However, that might be fine, since this card isn't so much a build-around lynchpin, but as more of a bonus Power stack for Doom or Anti-Polar Magneto decks. That is, until Stardust comes in to ruin the fun from all angles.
Scosco's Day One Arthur Pendragon Decks
Doom-Going
This leans into the Ongoing of Excalibur to really help that part of this card shine, but has a solid 2099 deck at its core. You have multiple big finishers that all complement Arthur and Excalibur in different ways.
Polar Ramp
Maybe you don't even need to play anything early, just get the most out of Turns 3-6. Getting one of your 6-Costs out early allows you to Odin it later!
Kluh Spaces
Here's a deck that relies on Arthur less for his extra Power and more because he can pull a free Ongoing (...to here). This helps boost Goliath, the secret superstar of this deck, plus can unexpectedly fill an Ant-Man or Captain Carter lane late – something I've enjoyed doing often with Sam's Shield in similar lists.
Is He Worth It?
The Season Pass is always worth it compared to other purchases, but this is easily one of the stronger cards in a season that looks a bit weak. If you're going to want any card from this season, it's this. There are a surprisingly large number of directions to take this, even if the decks will probably coalesce around the few most successful strategies pretty quickly.
Special thanks to SnapComplete for card and deck art found in this article. After enough data has come in, you'll find the best statistical performers with Arthur Pendragon over there!
Below the paywall, you'll find my more wacky and quirky concepts for Arthur. While the more obvious builds for this card are pretty linear and could be called boring, there are some neat shenanigans to get into! This card has a ton of fun little hooks!
