Origins of Apocalypse Card Rankings

This season in Marvel Snap will answer a lot of questions.

How old is Apocalypse? How did he come to be? And what does he have to do with rocks and sand? How much is this season going to be a spoiler for X-Men ‘97? Is Rama Tut fun and good or just fun and crazy?

Once again Lauren and I ranked all of the cards. First, we got together to share our knee-jerk reactions to the new cards and try to sway each other's opinions. Did we change our minds along the way? Check out our video and then come back here for our final rankings and more thoughts and analysis!

Lauren's Rankings:

1. Isca the Unbeaten
2. Sandstorm
3. Caliban, Horseman of Pestilence
4. Rama-Tut
5. Ozymandias
6. Selene, Horseman of Famine
7. Gambit, Horseman of Death
8. En Sabah Nur
9. Juggernaut, Horseman of War

Further thoughts:

Isca the Unbeaten

4-Cost may be too high, but she can solo a lane in an Invisible Woman First Steps deck. She’s tough to counter, especially if she’s played on the last turn. And 4 is still low enough to play her on the last turn alongside Thena or Havok.

Sandstorm

Asks you to do the same thing that En Sabah Nur does, but the payoff is so good! Two 1/6 Rocks is an awesome prize in a bunch of decks. Those are Demons! I don’t love having to wait for later turns to make the Rocks so big, but we play Hood + Misery for two Demons.

Caliban

Look, 2/8 Juggernaut, 3/11 Caliban, and 4/14 Selene are all sorta the same card. It’s a super disappointing way to ring in a new keyword. Caliban rocks the middle Cost:Power ratio, but he feels the most playable to me. It’s realistic you won’t trigger it until the last turn, and it can attack multiple lanes (with some intelligent targeting). Super achievable with several deck strategies, but Doom 2099 stands out to me as the most likely deck to adopt this card.

Rama-Tut

I’m 100% sure people are underrating this card because they’re dismissive of this level of variance. I think it’ll be pretty easy for him to justify his Cost even when he only procs once. Like Sersi, the occasional bad hit that loses you the game (MODOK?!) doesn’t automatically invalidate all the times he helps you win. He sounds wild if he picks new On Reveals every time he procs. Six abilities twice each if you play on Wong? Not for the faint of heart, but that doesn’t mean he’s bad.

Ozymandias

Arguably another stat stick like three of the horsemen, but he supports a distinct archetype. Also, being ongoing means there are an assortment of synergies the others don’t have access to. His Cost is high, but it only takes four Rocks to make him an effective 5/21. I’m a believer in the Rock archetype.

Selene

I think she goes with Mysterio, Rocks, and Ultron, but not much else. 4/14 is probably big enough to justify her presence, but being big is the only way she supports your game plan.

Gambit

I have him this low because his timing is awkward. He can really mess up an opponent’s set up if he destroys early, but Mysterio is basically the only way to do that. Destroying later lowers the chance he’ll hit the most valuable targets.

En Sabah Nur

If I value the swap that much, I’ll play Lockjaw at half the Cost. If removing a low-Power card (like Hood or Void) is that important, I’ll play Merlin, Viper, or Sersi for more value. Multi-proccing him after he transforms doesn’t seem very good either. Being an end-of-turn surprise seems like the only “advantage” he has, but he’ll surprise you, too.

Juggernaut

2/8 would make this amazing a year or two ago, but it’s not enough today. It’ll be playable, but I struggle to think of any deck that values this over synergy. Can be played late (unlike Moondragon) or even on the last turn (unlike Chamber), but he won’t replace them because their decks will struggle to meet his requirement.

Scott's Rankings:

1. Isca the Unbeaten
2. Sandstorm
3. Gambit, Horseman of Death
4. Selene, Horseman of Famine
5. Ozymandius
6. Rama Tut
7. En Saba Nur
8. Juggernaut, Horseman of War
9. Caliban, Horseman of Pestilence

Further Thoughts:

My rankings changed wildly from Lauren and my conversation!

Isca the Unbeaten

I'm not entirely sure she's good enough to warrant this high of a ranking, but she seems like a powerful potential lane winner. The Cost worries me, but I think she'll do her job.

Sandstorm

It's good enough to see play in Victoria Hand decks and will be central to the new rock archetype that I'm pretty high on. It’s not necessarily a build-around, but it will have a place.

Gambit

I think Gambit is good, but you'll have to work towards his condition with some urgency to cut an opposing strategy off early. Destroying 4 Cost worth of cards at the end can be good, but it's not always going to have the impact you want. Brood synergy makes me think about a Surfer or Buff deck as his home. Getting 6 rocks out in the rocks deck might be tough.

Selene

I think she's flexible enough to be in decks that aren't fully built towards no-ability cards. She can work alongside cards like the Demon and Wasp, which are already useful in certain decks. Add something like a Mysterio and she becomes pretty reliable. She'll also find a home in the rocks deck. There are also Squirrels, Tigers, Broodlings, Drones, and various Clones. There are quite a few other fun, sneaky synergies like Sauron, Zero, and Enchantress.

Ozymandius

Perhaps I'm too high on the rock archetype, but I do think it will be playable. Debrii is great in it, and Mole Man might finally have a good home. 5/9 whole giving a bunch of power across your board is just solid.

Rama Tut

Ok, I know this seems like a total reversal of what I said in the video, but hear me out. I don't think he's going to be some reliable top-tier competitive card. But I do think using him with Grandmaster and Absorbing Man (or even crazier shenanigans) is going to be powerful enough to win a lot of games. Combine that with incredible wackiness and this card has a chance to be “the card of the season.”

En Sabah Nur

His Objective isn't especially hard, but it can be blocked by bad location luck. Maybe he goes in a rocks deck or other tokens deck with Selene and Gambit. He seems too fiddly for this payoff. I guess we can swap out a rock or a Squirrel, but the targeting is weak.

Juggernaut

He's a 2/8 but with no way to multiply or repeat it like Ongoings, other keywords, he's not a build around, just a good card in an era when “good cards” decks aren't especially strong. Both he and Caliban can easily be thrown into any deck that is already incidentally fulfilling their objective, though.

Caliban 

Caliban and Juggernaut are basically tied in my mind. They're not bad cards at all. They provide good power for Energy spent, and have easy, straightforward objectives to achieve. Both will absolutely elbow their way into certain decks as raw power. When these are the potential lowest ranked cards in a season, it feels like a pretty strong season.

Thanks for watching and reading! Be sure to come back next month for our ratings of the X-Men: End of Days season!

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