Marvel Snap: The Best Arana Deck

Marvel Snap‘s September 17 release introduced Arana (pronounced: ah-RAH-nyah), a Series Five Activate card that can buff and move the next card you play. With a Cost and Power of one, Arana joins the game as the latest movement-friendly character following the release of Madame Web.

Prior to her launch, Arana was expected to be a Forge-inspired card with added benefits, particularly her movement ability. However, post-release testing by Marvel Snap players revealed that Arana’s text is somewhat complicated and does not provide the synergies many players had hoped for. This complexity has made it slightly challenging to build the perfect deck around her.

Arana (1–1)

Activate
: Give the next card you play +2 Power and move it to the right.

Series
: Five (Ultra Rare)

Release Date
: Sep 17, 2024

Season
:
The Amazing Spider-Season

The Best Deck for Arana

A safe deck for Arana is a Madame Web-Beast lineup with The Living Tribunal as the win condition. You can replicate this setup by combining the said quartet (Arana, Beast, Madame Web, and The Living Tribunal) with the following cards: Forge, Vulture, Dagger, Hercules, Ghost-Spider, Human Torch, Doctor Strange, and Iron Fist.

The Synergies in Arana’s Deck

• Arana and Forge are buff providers, ideally targeting one of the move cards: Human Torch, Vulture, or Dagger.
• Madame Web, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Hercules, and Ghost-Spider are movement activators.
• Beast is a joker card, allowing you to recollect and replay cards at a lower cost.
• The Living Tribunal is a win condition, distributing the stats from one overpowered lane across all other locations.

How Arana’s Effect Works

Arana’s Activate ability is similar to Aunt May’s. When activated, Arana targets the next card you play, granting it +2 Power and moving it to the right. However, her effect triggers only after you play a card, meaning she will wait for the targeted card to perform its ability—if it has one—before applying her buff and movement.

To illustrate Arana’s effect, imagine you want to play Brood after her to generate two four-Power Broodlings. Unfortunately, this won’t happen because Brood will first spawn its Broodlings (two two-Power cards) and then be affected by Arana, which will only buff the base card and not the spawns.

How to Play Arana Effectively

Exploit Arana by using her as a buff provider for cards that gain Power through movement. For example, Human Torch is an ideal target; after being hit by Arana, he will start as an eight-Power card—the +2 Power will increase his Power to four, and the subsequent movement will double it to eight—making him a perfect fit for a movement lineup.

Here are some key points to keep in mind when playing Arana:

• Drop her early. Having Arana on the board is more beneficial than harmful. Play her in the early rounds to set up potential combos. As prominent Marvel Snap player Alex Coccia noted, “[Arana] is a very confident play on turn one and in the early game as a whole.” Take advantage of this.
• Keep the middle and right lanes clear. Since Arana can only move cards to the right, ensure the other two lanes are empty to allow her effect to trigger without issues.
• Avoid synergizing based on On Reveal abilities. Remember that the target will reveal its ability before Arana activates. So, combos like Arana + Brood won’t yield the desired results.

How to Counter Arana

Currently, there are no direct Cosmo-like counters for Activate cards. However, you can counter Arana using Shadow King, Red Guardian, Kraven, and Kingpin. Here’s how each of these counters works:

• Shadow King: Reverts Arana’s buff and resets all cards in the lane to their base stats.
• Red Guardian: Can remove Arana’s text before she unleashes her Activate effect.
• Kraven: Gains benefits from the movement caused by Arana and other movement cards.
• Kingpin: Punishes the moved cards by inflicting them with -2 Power.

Is Arana Worth It?

Arana is a valuable plug-and-play addition to movement decks, justifying her price. She often enhances the board, even when her buff and move aren’t perfectly timed.

CozySnap, a prominent Marvel Snap creator, said, “[With Arana], you’re getting two birds with one stone: Power and move.” Overall, Arana’s community reception has been largely positive, with the main criticism being her lack of synergy with cards like Brood.