Best Surtur Decks in Marvel Snap

With the We Are Venom season that saw five Symbiote-themed cards released into Marvel Snap concluded, we’re now heading into a Norse-themed War of the Nine Realms season, starting with the fiery Surtur as a Season Pass card. Let’s take a closer look at him.

How Surtur Works in Marvel Snap

Surtur is a 3 cost 5 power card with an ability that reads: After you play a card with 10+ Power, this gains +3 Power.

As you can imagine, that’s a pretty powerful effect. Playing a Typhoid Mary or Crossbones after Surtur on turn 4 will bring him up to 8 power, and then playing Red Hulk on turn 6 raises him to an 11 power card.

Surtur has insane synergy with Skaar, and you’re likely not going to run one without the other.

There’s two caveats: Surtur has to be on the board to receive these buffs, making him less effective after turn 3, and you must build your deck around his effect.

Finally, the 10 power card played must be 10 power when dropped onto the board, so something like Thor that becomes 10 power later does not synergize with Surtur.

Best Day One Surtur Decks in Marvel Snap

Surtur, as you’ve probably guessed, works incredibly well in decks with many cards over 10 power. While it did recently get nerfed after Storm went up in cost by one, a War Machine deck with Skaar and Surtur is poised to take over the meta. Here’s a list:

• Nebula
• Zabu
• Ebony Maw
• Armor
• Surtur
• Shang-Chi
• War Machine
• Crossbones
• Cull Obsidian
• Typhoid Mary
• Skaar
• The Infinaut

Click here to copy this list from Untapped.

War Machine, Cull Obsidian, and Skaar are all Series 5 cards necessary to make this deck work and aren’t really replaceable.

The playline is rather simple with this deck, as you’re going to want to play Nebula or Zabu early. Zabu helps discount the five 5 cost cards this deck runs, leading to some surprise plays and helping you get them out early if necessary. If you play Surtur on turn 3 and War Machine on turn 4, all you then have to worry about is placement to win lanes with a discounted Skaar alongside another 4 cost card or a surprise Shang-Chi (trust us, you’re going to want one) or just slamming down The Infinaut.

Surtur also promises the return of Shuri into the meta as the two cards have quite a lot of synergy together, creating a much more consistent list. Here it is:

• Zero
• Ebony Maw
• Armor
• Lizard
• Sauron
• Surtur
• Shuri
• Enchantress
• Typhoid Mary
• Red Skull
• Taskmaster
• Skaar

Click here to copy this list from Untapped.

Skaar is the only Season 5 card in this deck that can be replaced with something like Vision to provide more flexibility. In fact, it might be better, but if Surtur gets two buffs it further discounts Skaar.

This deck has two playlines. If you have the classic Sauron, Shuri, and Red Skull into Taskmaster, go that route, though you can swap Sauron for Surtur if you don’t draw the former. If you miss Shuri, Surtur into Typhoid Mary into Red Skull will fully discount Skaar by turn 6, allowing you to play Shuri alongside him or something like Enchantress to negate Red Skull’s effect.

Surtur Counters in Marvel Snap

With the release of Surtur, expect to see a lot of Shang-Chi – and a lot of Armor as well. Shang-Chi is pretty much the best card in Marvel Snap in any given meta, and the kung fu master is about to see even greater popularity with the power Surtur promises. 

Otherwise, Shadow King can cut Surtur back down to 5 power. Sleeper counters would be Cassandra Nova or even Scorpion, as they can decrease the 10 power cards down to 9 power.

Should You Buy the Season Pass for Surtur?

Yes, as of right now Surtur is an incredibly powerful Season Pass card. Though he’s rather narrow in scope – you have to slot him in with a bunch of 10 power cards to truly make use of him – he’s only going to get even stronger as Marvel Snap continues to introduce high-powered cards. I would say he’s on par with Agent Venom, which is featured in most of the top-tier decks currently. Throw in all the extra gold and credits you get with the premium season pass, and you can’t really go wrong with Surtur.