Merlin of Avalon: Decks & Tips for the New Card
As is his nature, Merlin pulled off a last-minute miracle and got himself a nice buff compared to what we had datamined. Previous information showed his Grand Design Skill with all sorts of Cost conditions. Now, it just provides a straightforward and predictable +5 Power to two cards! More over Namora, here is everything I'm excited to try with the new Merlin of Avalon card!
How Low Can We Go
Merlin’s Grand Design is only as good as how much we can discount it. It's cheaper for each created card you play. That means we need cheap created cards. It's a bonus if they don't take up board space, since we want to target that Grand Design Power. Luckily, we just happen to have the perfect cards to fulfill this criteria. It's almost as if Merlin's had this planned the whole time!
Great Designers
Vampire Killmonger is an incredibly successful card that can give us created 1-Cost cards quite reliably. The Queen of Chaos has been just as impactful and gives us an even cheaper created card! The existence of these two cards are what make the new Merlin so promising, but there are old-school cards that are drooling for this new Power piece as well. Playing each of Thanos' stones has a second big payoff now!
Other Cheap Creations
Of course there are plenty of other ways to make created cards from Frigga to Victoria Hand and Iron Patriot, but the above list are ways to make the most reliably cheap ones. The two Rocks cards stand out as a fun set of synergies, but there are plenty of powerful cards here to work with. The Hood and Shadowlands Daredevil are attractive partners to get cheap, high-tempo Demons.
Other Synergies
Merlin hooks into cheap Skill and card creators, but he also connects with other cards that care about created cards (like Horseman Gambit and Eson), and buff multipliers like (Maverick or Lasher).
Here are some cards that have direct or shared synergy with Merlin or his Skill.
Creation and Play
Power Payoffs
I love getting new synergy hooks for cards that don't see a lot of play. Not only are we getting one of the best Sandstorm cards we've had recently, The Grand Design is easily the best thing to happen to Frankie Raye since she broke up with Johnny Storm.
Scosco's Day One Merlin of Avalon Decks
Hungry by Design
This is the best home for Merlin of Avalon, since boosting up your Horde perfectly fuels a large Zombie Giant-Man, but I think it's far from the only good landing spot for Marvel Snap's second Merlin card.
Created Virus
The Grand Design can give us a free 10 Power that can be played after or away from Shadow King, giving this deck access to a late burst of Power that feels relatively safe. Between Thanos' potential moveability and the placement of our Grand Design Power, we can be quite unpredictable.
Lok'em & Smoke'em
Loki/Eitri is a great combo when everyone is playing enormous cards, while Gambit Horseman lets us deal with the decks playing smaller ball. Mobius and Shadow King apply pressure on a lot of decks.
Is He Worth It?
With the late change, this card has suddenly become one of the most anticipated of the season, and a candidate for best. This card just fits very comfortably in a couple of homes, since it only costs 1 to get out, meaning it's not very demanding. Discounting the Grand Design is not a major challenge in the current meta (maybe people will finally pull out Gorgon in response, but it hasn't happened so far). It has a couple of clear homes where I expect it to shine brightly, but there's plenty of fun to be had for experimenters.
As always, special thanks to SnapComplete for our blue-bordered card and deck art. Once there are enough games, dig into the data to find some Merlin hidden gems.
