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Welcome to another Spotlight Cache Showcase of the Marvel SNAP November War of the Nine Realms Season. In this article series, we review the contents of upcoming Spotlight Caches and decide if this is a week worth your resources or not.
This week we have the new Series 5 card Fenris Wolf appearing alongside Series 5 Annihilus and Series 5 Werewolf By Night.
FENRIS WOLF – Who's a Good Boy?
Fenris Wolf is the latest card to join Marvel SNAP as part of the War of the Nine Realms Season. It is a 2-Cost, 3-Power card with the ability Activate: Resurrect your opponent's highest-Power discarded or destroyed card on your side of this location. Its resurrection effect is similar to other cards you may be familiar with such as Ghost Riser and Hela.
Fenris Wolf may very well be the new Turn 6 boogeyman. As Shang-Chi hits nearly 30% popularity at Rank 70 and above, Fenris Wolf suddenly looks like an auto-include for most decks. At 2-Cost, the card is versatile and can be weaved into turns without much effort. Its greatest strength, however, may also be its greatest weakness - the card's Activate ability offers nuance and allows you to choose when to revive, but also requires proper planning before Turn 6 and is heavily telegraphed. Additionally, cards like U.S. Agent and Red Guardian have been seen an increase in play rate in both the Affliction Archetype and Sera Control Archetype, cards that hurt Fenris' utility.
FENRIS WOLF DECKS TO TRY
The secret winner here is the Mill Archetype, which has needed an extra something to be competitively viable. With Fenris, saving Shang for one lane and reviving in another may be the killing blow the archetype needs to climb higher on our Meta Tier List.
PROJECTED RANKING:
ANNIHILUS – Push Away Negativity
Annihilus is currently sitting in Tier D on our Card Tier List with a +0.13 average cube rate and flat 50.0% winrate while being played in 0.7% of decks at Rank 70 and above. Annihilus is most commonly played in the Clog Archetype and Affliction alongside Hazmat, Debrii and Viper.
ANNIHILUS DECKS TO TRY
Annihilus is long past its prime, with several Clog staples being nerfed and weakened since its heyday. Still, Annihilus may find a home in newer Affliction decks as they rise in popularity. Cards like Ajax and Cannonball still offer powerful end game lines for the archetype and Grand Master's recent buff helps double down on either Debrii or Hazmat. Unfortunately, playing Annihilus now is just a stark reminder of what the card once was.
RANKING:
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT – Hippity Hoppity
The final card in this week’s Spotlight Cache is Werewolf By Night. Currently Werewolf By Night is unranked on our Card Tier List, maintaining a +0.12 average cube rate and 51.1% winrate at Rank 70 and above. Werewolf By Night is most commonly played in the Bounce Archetype, where it synergies well with The Hood, Falcon and Beast.
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT DECKS TO TRY
Much like Annihilus, Werewolf By Night has seen better days. It's best archetype, Bounce, has opted for more consistent cards like Bishop and Hit-Monkey, moving on from depending on On Reveal cards and board space to generate power. It's also harder to throw priority with Werewolf on board, something Bounce lists favor above all. Still, Werewolf falls in and out of meta often, so it may be a good week to pick up for later.
RANKING:
Spotlight Variants
Each week, there's a chance you open exclusive Spotlight Cache Variants for the featured cards. These variants only appear once you own the base card, so you’ll need plenty of Spotlight Keys if you don't already own one. Spotlight Cache exclusive variants will not be available in-game again until one full year has passed following their release.
The featured artist for the War of the Nine Realms Season is Andrea Guardino, so we should expect all Spotlight Variants for new cards, such as Fenris Wolf, to get Andrea Guardino depictions. Annihilus receives a portrayal by InHyuk Lee and Werewolf By Night receives a new variant from Sean Galloway.
Final Thoughts
We're caught between a rock and a hard place with this week’s Spotlight Caches. Although we predict Fenris Wolf to be a must have, Annihilus and Werewolf By Night are both performing the worst they ever have, with numbers either barely or not even ranking on our Card Tier List. Some silver lining - they're all Series 5 at the moment, so it wouldn't be a total waste to pick up these if you were missing. Remember though, Series Drops are around the corner, and the candidates are still unknown.
Remember to consider the upcoming Spotlight Caches. Next week, we’ll see Gorr the God Butcher release alongside Havok and Legion, a particularly weak week in terms of resource management, due to Gorr being paired with two Series 4 cards.
What are your plans? Are you using Spotlight Keys to get Fenris Wolf or are Annihilus and Werewolf By Night making you second guess this week? Let us know over at @UntappedSNAP on Twitter/X. Alternatively, come and chat with the wider Marvel SNAP Community on our Discord Server!
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