October Card Rankings | Vampires vs. Zombies
New season, new card rankings from Lauren and Scott! This spooky season is Snap’s second foray into its unique Earth-383 reality (the first being Fractured Frontier). Ready for some extra-bitey versions of favorite characters! Deacon Frost is also here.
Disagree with our evaluations? Found something we missed? Come join the conversation in the Discord server!
August New Card Schedule
| Date | Card |
|---|---|
| October 6 | Vampire Killmonger (Season Pass) Zombie Blade (Season Pass+, Series 5) Zombie Venom (Series 5) |
| October 13 | Vampire Enchantress (Series 5) |
| October 14 | Zombie Nova (LTGM) |
| October 20 | Zombie Black Cat (Series 5) |
| October 27 | Vampire Deacon Frost (Series 5) Vampire America Chavez (LTGM) |
The Cards
The Rankings!
Lauren and Scott did quick initial rankings and had a discussion around them. After the discussion, they update their rankings in writing and commit to them. Check out the video discussion below, and the final rankings after that!
Lauren's Rankings
- Vampire Killmonger
- Vampire Enchantress
- Zombie Nova
- Zombie Venom
- Vampire Deacon Frost
- Zombie Black Cat
- Zombie Blade
- Vampire America Chavez
Further Thoughts
Vampire Killmonger
Scott talked me down on Killmonger a bit, but I still think it’s probably just the best card of the season. Its standalone strength is only pretty good, but it hooks into a bunch of archetypes and the Spears are self-sustaining (one Spear helps you get the next Spear). I think he’s very comparable to Sam Wilson – he’ll be everywhere, but he’ll fly under the radar a while because he’s not as big and flashy as Shou-Lao, Star-Lord MotS, and Thanos FF.
Vampire Enchantress
A key piece in Steal Power decks, but also able to be played elsewhere. She might be just 1 or 2 Power too small, but I think she can probably play as a lane winner in decks like Wiccan and Thanos FF. There are pros and cons to being a surprise instead of announcing herself (like Red Hulk and Galactus FS do). Regardless, I appreciate that she offers enough of a twist to carve out her own space.
Zombie Nova
My bumping of Nova and Venom are actually a vote of confidence for the Horde Destroy deck. I think it’s going to be really good, and both cards are a staple. The exact build of the deck will determine whether Nova or Venom output more total Power, but I think Nova will have better bang-for-buck overall.
Zombie Venom
Not much more to say here except to highlight a sillier version of Horde Destroy that is enabled by Zombie Venom – I’m so excited for it. Zombie Venom will replace your Horde whenever you destroy it. Destroy your Horde a bunch of times, then use Morgan Le Fay or Death Fractured Frontier to get several Hordes to the board. Any Horde +X abilities played after that will apply to every one of your Hordes.
Zombie Deacon Frost
Steal Power becomes a viable archetype because of Deacon Frost and Enchantress… but I’m not convinced it’s very good overall. Like, most of the Steal Power cards are pretty middling. Crimson Behemoth gets very big, but it’s telegraphed, fragile to tech, and held back by Deacon’s Objective.
Zombie Black Cat
She’s a very cool card, but I don’t think another Proxima Midnight is going to suddenly revive Discard into the meta. I think she’s a bit better than Proxima, and she also opens up the possibility of running both, but overall held back by her archetype.
Zombie Blade
He just seems too small and slow to be a real threat. He’ll be cool in a deck combining Steal Power and Horde. I think that hybrid is viable, but probably worse than just playing either of its component archetypes. Hybrids tend to spread themselves too thin and lose the reliability that is so important to a 12-card deck.
Vampire America Chavez
Why is she so small?! I think she needs a point or two of Power to be in serious contention with other cheap Power stealers. Her presence demands that you run higher-rate cards on the low-end of your curve so that you can actually be winning some locations. Low-cost Power stealers like Silver Sable, Boomerang, and Zombie Blade are all low-Power, too.
Scott's Rankings
- Vampire Killmonger
- Vampire Deacon Frost
- Vampire Enchantress
- Zombie Venom
- Zombie Black Cat
- Zombie Nova
- Vampire Blade
- Zombie America Chavez
Further Thoughts
Vampire Killmonger
He just has so many hooks. He can hook into the Deacon Frost Affliction deck this season, but he works with Zombies, Werewolf, and all manner of spooky strategies.
Vampire Deacon Frost
He's a potential lane winner and build-around in the 4-Cost slot. There is some flop potential and vulnerability to tech, but he's a ton of points for 4 Energy.
Vampire Enchantress
I'm high on Vampire Enchantress as a byproduct of being high on Deacon Frost. I'm not sure if she'll be powerful enough to see play in different decks, but she represents enough points that it's possible.
Zombie Venom
Targeted Destroy is useful and he provides alternative scaling for Destroy decks. Or he might be at the center of a new type of Horde-Destroy hybrid!
Zombie Black Cat
Zombie Black Cat will absolutely elevate Discard decks that want some extra Discards – Khonshu, Apocalypse, and Scorn will love her. The problem is, that even elevated, Discard may still be two steps behind these days.
Zombie Nova
Misery represents a convincing use case for him, but otherwise he just doesn't feel impactful enough. I do see a clear home for him, though and there are angles to try.
Vampire Blade
I don't think he has no hope, simply because there aren't that many Horde cards and it's definitely a currently viable archetype, but he's not going to make a major splash at these stats. He has a clear home and might be good enough to justify his inclusion, though, which gives him a leg up on a lot of newly released cards.
Zombie America Chavez
In addition to not being powerful enough, she's also just not interesting enough. It's possible that stealing becomes such a crucial aspect of the meta game that she sees some fringe use with Deacon Frost, or some turbo high-tempo deck but that's the best case scenario for this LTGM card.
That's it for this month! Come back next month for our November rankings of the Avalon season! If you have or need a cool deck for the new cards, come back for our weekly previews, be sure to keep an eye on the SnapDecks Twitter and Bluesky accounts, or get help cooking your own thing in the #🍳-the-kitchen channel of the Fourth Location Discord server!
Special thanks to SnapComplete for providing our blue border card art.
