Team Clash Strategy Guide - Mar '26

This guide covers how to play Team Clash well (and provides lots of deck ideas!). For coverage on the economy side of Team Clash, check out Lauren's article here:

Team Clash Economy Guide - Mar ’26

Lauren covers the economy for the second run of Team Clash. Should you buy the Premium Pass?

Fourth LocationLaurenWhatevs

Team Clash is Back from March 12-19

Team Clash is the game mode with the highest learning curve. There are so many new cards and abilities that it can be hard to keep track of all of them. Use this guide to give yourself a head start over your competition!

What's Changed

Since the last run, there have been a few balance changes, the pre-constructed decks have been tweaked and optimized, and we're getting a brand new team! Welcome to the Brotherhood of (Evil) Mutants! Here are some of the card changes:

How It Works

As a refresher, Team Clash is a mode where you choose one of 6 teams, each with its own unique mechanic. You can stick with the pre-constructed decks, or you can build your own decks. You must include all 6 of the pre-designated characters for each team, but you can fill the remaining 6 slots with any cards, including the characters on that team's larger extended roster or not. Other than each team's unique mechanic and the new abilities on the special characters, the mode is like normal Marvel Snap — the winner of two lanes after 6 turns (Magik is legal, though) wins the game. However, there are no cubes or snapping in this mode, just wins and losses. Wins net you 10 XP and 10 Emblems, losses still get you 5 of each. Winning also gets your ticket back, just like in Sanctum Showdown, and tickets again have a soft cap of 9.

Keys to Success

• Missions are often focused on playing and winning with different teams, so you'll need to be prepared to play with each team rather than just jamming with your favorite one.
• For maximum win rate, you'll need to modify the pre-cons. One or two of the pre-cons will inevitably float to the top, but, especially after the first few hours, pre-cons are going to fall behind.
• There are A LOT of cards. It's almost like learning an entirely new version of Marvel Snap. The initial mental load in the mode is high. Prepare ahead of time if you're going full try-hard mode.
• If you're free-to-play, you'll need to prioritize missions, be comfortable with all of the teams, and have solid lists for each team.

Note: The full extended rosters and banlist are at the end of the article. Team Clash deck-building works differently, so unfortunately there are no copyable codes, but I've organized recommendations into what to swap out of the pre-cons and what to swap in in their place.

Six Teams A'Clashing

Brotherhood of Mutants: Get Ahead and Stay Ahead

Brotherhood: End of Turn: Give a Brotherhood card in your hand +1 Power for each location you're winning.

Let's look in detail at the new Brotherhood designs

Magneto can push both ways! The Team Clash Magneto pushes cards away, rather than pulls like the main game version, for a nice flavorful inversion. Pushing away is a more reliable lane winning effect and with how critical 3 and 4 costs are, this is a very powerful effect.

Playing a sequence of Selene, Mystique, and White Queen can put us ahead in one lane with a hand full of buffed cards.

Scarlet Witch's secondary effect isn't amazing, the random card will occasionally be useless, but it's nice to have every-game access to location control, especially with greedy Magik decks running around.

Lady Deathstrike is another great twist on the main game ability. If you build up a big lane, she can take out some pretty giant targets. She'll be great for winning lanes you opponent is planning to win with one large card.

Overall, the Brotherhood looks really fun and powerful. I think this team could have a lot of snowball wins where it just runs out of control right out the gate. I think it's a great addition to the mode and I'm looking forward to playing with the team that now has the coolest characters.

What are We Boosting?

The Brotherhood ability can hand out giant buffs and the extended roster has some perfect partners for this effect.

The Pre-Con:

• Selene, Scarlet Witch, Mystique, White Queen, Lady Deathstrike, Magneto
• Quicksilver, Forge, Mister Sinister, Maverick, Sebastian Shaw, Juggernaut

Deck Upgrades

We're trying to get a board presence fast to start building buffs. Quicksilver is fine for this and the small roster means there aren't a lot of other 1-Costs, but we can improve the deck by replacing him with Juggernaut, Horseman of War. The rest of the pre-con is very strong and I think it works great out of the box. The extended Brotherhood roster is small and doesn't help with the team's strategy much. You do have access to Enchantress and Shadow King (with his anti-synergy).

Turbo Brotherhood

Other potential replacements: Juggernaut Horseman of War, Rogue, Nocturne, Xorn

The Brotherhood is also the team most equipped to add Shou-Lao, the current best card in the game, despite the lack of low-cost options.

Avengers: Go Tall in Two Lanes

Avengers: After you play an Avenger, give one of your Avengers there +1 Power. 

What's Changed for the Avengers?

The Avengers were really strong last time, so Captain America and the Hulk both took sizable nerfs. The team remains very strong and has access to some good new cards including most of the Zombies!

The Pre-Con:

• Hawkeye, Doctor Strange, Thor, Captain America, Vision, Hulk
• America Chavez, Quake, Sam Wilson, Ironheart, Captain Carter, Iron Man

Deck Upgrades

The goal is simple: make one giant Captain Carter lane and one giant Hulk lane. You can choose how you want to try to leverage Doctor Strange, if at all.

Fully Assembled

Ironheart is the weakest link in the pre-con, despite her usefulness with Doctor Strange to boost Iron Man and Captain Carter. Obvious subs include Shang Chi or Iron Lad. Goose is also a great idea to counter some of what this new meta might bring.

Zombie Avengers

Wiccan Avengers

Wiccan can take advantage of the release of Shang Chi, Master of the Rings and set up for explosive turns.

Spider-Verse: Energy Producers and Scalers

Spider-Verse: You get +2 Energy if one of your Spider-Verse cards moved last turn.

What's Changed for the Spider-Verse

The Spider-Verse team was one of the big disappointments in the mode last time. Many expected this to be one of the strongest teams because the team mechanic is so strong. Symbiote Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, and Anti-Venom all felt pretty bad. In particular, Team Clash Anti-Venom felt like one of the worst cards in the mode, so it's nice to see that they've changed him entirely. The team should be stronger this time around, despite some of its cards being a little awkward still, because of the changes and some of the new cards released in the interim.

The Pre-Con:

• Agony, Ghost-Spider, Starlet Spider, Anti-Venom, Symbiote Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099
• Vulture, Madame Web, Kraven, Peni Parker, Silk, Man-Spider

Deck Upgrades

You have to make a choice of which scalers you're going to prioritize. Here's a deck focused on Man-Spider:

Spider Focus

And here on Move Scalers:

Scaler Focus

Thunderbolts: Comeback Potential

Thunderbolts: Each turn, give the first Thunderbolt you reveal at a losing location +2 Power.

The Thunderbolts are less focused on playing massive amounts of Thunderbolts and their mechanic is based on coming from behind, which adds up to the highest potential to include tech.

What's Changed for the Thunderbolts

The Thunderbolt's team ability has taken a massive nerf. Instead of buffing all cards that reveal at a location, you're only getting a buff on the first one. Thunderbolts were unexpectedly dominant last time, so it's a welcome change. Valentina has been buffed down to a 1-Cost so compensate.

The Pre-Con:

• Valentina, Toxie Doxie, Winter Soldier, Ghost, Taskmaster, Sentry
• The Hood, Hulkbuster, Viper, Absorbing Man, Klaw, Red Hulk

Deck Upgrades

Of course T-Bolts is also our best place to play flavor-of-the-week Gambit, Horseman of Death.

Guardians: Mind Games

Guardians of the Galaxy: ALL cards reveal with +1 Power at the glowing location.

What's Changed For the Guardians

Not much with the core Guardians. They weren't one of the stronger factions last time, but nerfs elsewhere should help them find their footing a bit more. The main thing that's changed is the new cards that Guardians got that will make them much more competitive.

The Guardians have a bit of a funky roster. Most of the cards that are best suited to the mechanic are already in the pre-con. There are powerful build-around cards on the extended roster, but the pieces that go with them aren't. Are we really going to build a Darkhawk deck or a Black Bolt/Stature deck? Or combine the two? It's possible. It's also interesting that this is the Team that has access to Cosmo, but wants him the least (her, if you're a movie fan). Sera is an inherently powerful card, so you could just replace the worst card with her (probably Bill) and roll with that.

The Pre-Con:

• Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, Star-Lord, Drax, Groot, Gamora
• Nebula, Adam Warlock, Angela, FS Silver Surfer, Gladiator, Beta Ray Bill

Deck Upgrades

The obvious inclusion is the new Star-Lord, who will completely transform the deck's identity.

Just Put in the Good Ones

The regular ladder partners for Star-Lord MotS, Absorbing Man and Grandmaster, fit right in with the Guardians!

Guarda

X-Men: Flood the Board

X-Men: You get +1 Energy for each location where you have 3 or more X-Men.

What's Changed for the X-Men

Wolverine was a victim of the mid-mode changes last time when Armor was added to the pre-con. They took the opportunity between runs to give him an ability that meshes with the rest of his team a lot more, even it it's a little less flavorful. They took Armor out of the pre-con, so beware Elektra! I think the X-Men were considered the most fun last time, and I expect that to continue this time.

The Pre-Con:

• Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jubilee, Professor X
• Sunspot, Iceman, Hope Summers, Prodigy, Legion, Magneto

Deck Upgrades

X-Reign

X-Pop

Fallen One

Final Thoughts

Last time everyone thought Spider-Verse would run away with it, but it was one of the weakest decks while Thunderbolts dominated. There have been a lot of new cards released since we last had this mode and we've got a brand new team in the mix. It's going to be a chaotic few day before the best strategies are found. My money is on X-Men to be a favorite while Guardians and Spider-verse do a lot better than last time. Another thing that strikes me about the mode this time is how much better all of the pre-cons look. Last time you would get trounced sticking with any of the pre-cons, but I think you'll be able to have pretty strong results just sticking to them this time around. I'm excited to see how this mode shakes out and would love to see even more teams in the future: monsters and other creepy creatures, maybe? More villainous teams?

Banned Cards

Full Extended Team Rosters:

Note: The normal versions of the new Team Clash cards are available for use, outside their teams. You CAN play regular Nightcrawler in the Avengers, but you CAN’T play regular Nightcrawler in the X-Men or Team Clash Nightcrawler in the Avengers.