What to do with Gambit, Horseman of Death
If you love the random destruction the first Gambit Marvel Snap card has wrought over the last 3 years, you're going to love the new Horseman of Death. Will your opponents feel the same joy?
…probably not. How toxic can we make this card? There are two main ways I envision Gambit being a pain in the opponent’s rear – by rushing his effect early to cut opponents off at the knees, and by repeating this effect beyond just the one instance. I'll tell you everything I'm excited to try with Gambit, Horseman of War.
How Does He Actually Work?
Once you've played 5 Cost worth of created cards, Gambit will go off. This means created cards that are simply on board (Broodlings, DoomBots, cards pulled by Eson or similar) won't count, but that created Skills will despite banishing themselves right away. Gambit will continue to target opposing cards until he's destroyed 4-Cost worth of cards, if he is able – he won't go above 4-Cost. For example, if your opponent has two 3-Costs in play, he'll destroy 1. But if they have two 3-Costs and three 1-Costs, he might destroy the 3 and a 1 or he might hit the 3 1s first and run out of juice. 0-Cost cards will get destroyed if they're targeted after you've already reached 4 (R.I.P. Horde… more than usual, I mean).
Where Are We Getting Our Createds?
Meta Generators
The Card Stuffers
V-Hand Package
These cards all commonly pop up in Victoria Hand decks. That's not to say you can't use these outside of V-Hand builds to set off Gambit, but this is where you might be most familiar with these cards.
Are people actually going to be creative with this card or are they just going to pop a Valentina in their deck and call it a day? Valentina seems like the single best synergy for this card.
Less Common Generators to Consider
Play 5 Cost Worth of Created Cards
So we need to get to 5. Let's look at some combinations that would get us there.
Temporal Manipulation + Images of Ikonn
Ikonnic
Demon + Demon + Frigga’d Victoria Hand + Mirage card
V-Hand Gambit
Arishem Generated Comic Ghost Rider or Legion
'Shem Death
I get that both of these are often hard run in Arishem lists, but the point still stands that getting to the Cost is incredibly easy in an Arishem deck. I expect Gambit to be a staple in that deck from now on, despite the inherent inconsistency of not drawing him every game, and 3 being the most awkward cost in an Arishem deck.
Mind, Power, Reality, Soul, and Space Stones
His Favorite Horseman
Even if you don't get your 6th stone down, Gambit will go off. I do think Thanos will need 1-2 more created card sources to justify running Horseman Gambit, so consider Iron Patriot, Mirage, and Valentina.
Other Play Lines that Hit the Objective
Here are more play lines that will get Gambit go to off. There are so many directions to go with this card and plenty of deck for which hitting the required amount of created cards will be trivial. That makes Gambit pretty scary!
Infinity Mind Stone + Infinity Power Stone + ?
Valentina Card + Demon
Summoning Ritual 2 + Summoning Ritual 3 + Demon + Moira cars
Ebony Blade + Merlin Spell
A Single Coulsen (sometimes) or Fury Card
6 Rocks (when that archetype comes out, this will be fun)
White Queen’d Fin Fang Foom
6 Morgan Le Fay cards
Wild Cerebro shenanigans anyone?
Sentinel + Sentinel + Sentinel
Frigga'd Cerebro + ?
Tao Mandala + ?
Is He Worth It?
Gambit's objective is deceptively easy to achieve. The meta can adjust to make him useless (the Star-Lord decks that skip early turns are barely affected, for example), but I do worry Gambit will bully lower-curve strategies out of the meta, at least temporarily. I think he's an interesting enough card that his play rate is going to be sky high during his first week. I think he's clearly powerful and flexible enough to scratch the deck-building itch for players focused on creativity. Is he good for the game? That's less clear.
Below the paywall you'll find more Gambit Horseman concepts including Fantomex, Loki, Helicarrier, and more greedy decks.
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