On The Spot: Black Swan Review, Guide, and Best Decks

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Welcome to another installment of “On The Spot”, the series where we review the cards available in this week’s Spotlight Cache.

Today we’ll be breaking down the stats, synergies, and decks with Black Swan, a Series 5 card that is available in Spotlight Caches right now alongside Marvel SNAP’s newest card, Arishem, and Hercules.

So, is Black Swan worthy of your Spotlight Keys? Let’s find out.

We’ll be ranking Black Swan based on the following set of parameters:

We’ll be looking at Black Swan’s performance in Infinite Ranks, including a special mention of the Top 50% of the Infinite Rank to get a solid idea of how it performs.

We’ll be considering Black Swan’s overall win percentage in these ranks, but also its average cubes and popularity.

Finally, we will also take a quick look at how the archetype the card best fits performs in the current meta.

Who Is Black Swan?

Emerging from the tragic events of Earth-1365, Black Swan, a formidable warrior of the enigmatic Beyonders, played a pivotal role in the incursion crisis. Her allegiance to the Beyonders and enigmatic role in shaping the multiverse marked her as a mysterious force, intertwining her fate with the cosmic fabric alongside characters like Doctor Doom and the Illuminati.

In Marvel SNAP, Black Swan costs 3 energy and has 5 power. It has the effect: "On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 1-Cost cards cost 0." As a Series 5 card, Black Swan can be purchased for 6k Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop if you ultimately decide to not use your Spotlight Keys this week.

The Stats

Black Swan doesn’t even have a Tier since it’s played so sparsely. It has a -0.23 average cube rate in Infinite Ranks which is extremely underwhelming, that sneaks up to a meager -0.02 average cube rate inside of the Top 50% of Infinite. Black Swan’s winrate is currently sitting at a very weak 45.8%.

Looking at other cards that are frequently played with Black Swan that have a similar popularity, currently being played in mere 0.4% of decks, we see that it stacks up poorly against the likes of Werewolf By Night’s -0.07 average cube rate and Lockjaw’s 48.5% winrate—both of which still have extremely weak stats.

For now, Black Swan is sitting with similar statistics to Start-Lord, Yellowjacket, and Maria Hill, which indicates that it’s an extremely fringe card that currently does not have a place in the meta.

Remember that these stats may change over time, so make sure you revisit the card stats in our Card Tier List to see where Black Swan lands in terms of power level and popularity.

Best Decks With Black Swan

Looking at over 930k games played at Ranks 70+ with the Untapped.gg Companion in the last 7 days, we’ve got a (not so) great selection of decks to choose from if you’re looking to find a home for your freshly opened Black Swan. Let’s take a look at some of the best-performing options:

Bounce Deck

Cerebro 5 Deck

The standout deck is definitely Bounce, which is a fairly niche archetype right now. The deck often plays cards like Kitty Pryde, Bishop, and newcomer Sasquatch which all have great synergy with Black Swan. Don’t worry if you are missing any of these cards though, you can always find a deck tailored to your collection on our Marvel SNAP decks page.

Final Thoughts

So, is Black Swan worth your Keys or Tokens? As we’ve mentioned at the beginning of this article, the analysis revolves around two dimensions, Black Swan’s power level and how strong its decks are in the current Marvel SNAP meta.

The data indicates that Black Swan has not been a strong enough card to make any meaningful impact on the meta. Black Swan seems to fit mostly in Bounce decks currently, which are not competitive at all at the moment. If that’s a style of play you like, Black Swan could be a good addition to your collection—but you might be fighting an uphill battle to gain ranks!

But what do you think? Would you be happy with opening Black Swan? Let us know your thoughts over at @UntappedSNAP on Twitter/X, or come chat with the wider Marvel SNAP community in our Discord Server.

Make sure to check out our recent article with early stats and decks for Arishem. Come back tomorrow for a brand new article for fellow Spotlight Cache card, Hercules.

See you in the Multiverse!