The base gameplay ofMarvel Snaprevolves around winning two out of three locations, and the most common way to win these are by having more power than your opponent. Certain cards however aren’t really about the power, but about making your opponent unable to play.
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Jean Grey is a card that doesn’t stop your opponent from playing, but makes them do a less-than-optimal play. And if you’re the one playing her, you may take a huge advantage from her power. She’s tricky to learn but rewarding as well, and it’s all about what cards you pair her with.
Jean Grey
The ability of Jean Grey is that both players must play their first card on her location, if possible. She’s the first card to have this clarification, so if you play her in a flooded location, her ability won’t trigger.
Some of the best ways to play her is on an empty location, or when you see your opponent preparing some form of play, like setting up aDeadpool in a destroy deck. And she always gives you the advantage on empty areas; If your focus is to fill that lane quickly, you already have one card played there by default.
9Nebula
Nebula already has plenty of cards thatwork well with her, and Jean is no exception. Both of them work on a lock-down deck just fine, plus Jean gives Nebula some options for placement. you may just play Nebula and Jean in the same location and call it a day.
While you won’t get the most out of Nebula, they will have to fill it quickly, and you may reap the benefits on the later turns. The real trick is to play Nebula somewhere else, making it difficult for your opponent to play both on the Jean location and on Nebula’s.
8Wasp
If you want to add Jean Grey to any kind of deck without sacrificing much in return, adding Wasp as well gives you a lot of freedom. A Jean play on turn four makes playing the highly powerful five cost cards very tricky, but with Wasp that is not a problem for you.
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As you could imagine, the point of Wasp in a Jean Grey deck is that having a zero cost card lets you play it first, then do whatever else you wanted to do that turn. And if you want to spice it up, you could also add in the High Evolutionary package and make that Wasp all the better.
7Jeff
A lot of cards that work well with Jean can be found in lock-down decks, so it was only natural that Jeff would show his little jaws on the list. Nothing can stop Jeff from being played wherever so not only is he great for your own deck, but he’s also a good way to counter it.
With both cards being three power, lock-down is not their only home; consider adding them to a Cerebro deck, a play style that has risen from just a meme to a real competitive build. While Bast is what makes it work, Jeff and Jean are what elevates it.
6Dazzler
While her initial form saw Dazzler be basically unplayable, her current form makes her a great addition to decks looking to fill up locations. She helps decks with Jean Grey by mitigating the weaknesses of it; sometimes Jean ends up countering you more than your opponent.
In those situations, it is usually better to not play her. But with Dazzler, even a suboptimal play can buff a different area, since all you need to trigger the pop star is to have things filled up. As a plus, being both ongoing and three cost cards makes them synergize with the same cards, so if you may add one, you can likely add the other.
5Mojo
Without locations to support her, Mojo has a hard time being played correctly. You could save it as a last-minute surprise, but there are better things to do at turn five or six. Given how easy it is to counter her, and how hard it is to play her compared to the power she gives, most decks just pass up on the card.
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Jean Grey gives Mojo new life, because even if you play her on turn two, a turn three Jean means they are forced to play into the Mojo location. For this type of deck, finishing off with a Spectrum play can be a great final turn.
4Brood
Brood calls in three Broodlings to fill up a lane, so the synergy with Jean Grey is clear. A turn-four Brood into a Jean location gives you the freedom to play whatever you want on the other ones, while your opponent is forced to keep playing in the same place. Add to this a Goose on a different lane, and you just locked them down without really trying.
If they play a lot of power into the Brooded lane, and you need to power it up, you have plenty of options; even if you can’t beat that location you can likely beat the other ones, since you had more turns to develop the other lanes compared to your opponent.
3Silver Surfer
There are a lot of powerful three cost cards, and a lot of them synergize quite well with each other. The glue that keeps them all together on the same deck will always be Silver Surfer. There have been a lot of iterations of the deck, yet with each meta change and balance patch, it just keeps growing in power.
Jean already combines extremely well with other three cost cards like Dazzler and Brood, add the Surfer plus Patriot and Mystique and you already have a killer combination. From there you could shift the deck however you please, like adding Sera for an explosive final turn, or having Odin in hand for an unexpected double Surfer.
2Valkyrie
Whenever you plan to fill your opponent’s side of a location, always keep Valkyrie in mind. Against flat power cards she can instantly turn the tide in your favor, or at least even the playfield. With Jean Grey, you don’t even need to plan that much ahead since they are already falling into your trap.
Valkyrie can be played as a final turn win or an equalizer, depending on what you need and what your options are at any given moment. If you also have Hood in your deck, you could play him and Jean on turn five, then Valk followed by the Demon for an easy win. Keep in mind that Valk won’t work on cards likeDarkhawk.
1Professor X
Jean’s mentor just had to be on the list. The master of lockdown himself, Professor X is incredibly powerful, being able to win unplayable locations like Death’s Domain by himself. While the classic way of playing him involves Daredevil, it makes it a dead giveaway that there’s an X play incoming on turn five.
Jean can make said play very sneaky. A Brooded Jean location means you may just drop X wherever, and they likely won’t have enough power to answer. Or on the very turn five, you can play Wasp on the Jean area, then X somewhere else. No one expects the Wasp into Professor X, so Snap beforehand since they will likely retreat.
