The Marvel universe includes plenty of witches, sorcerers, wizards, and spellcasters who use mystical powers to defeat enemies or to become the enemy themselves. One of these characters is Nico Minoru, who is a Japanese-American wizard and a part of the group of teenage heroes known as the Runaways.
Nico Minoru uses magic as her main weapon. She has the ability to summon a staff that can cast numerous spells. Nico Minoru is making her debut in Marvel Snap’s season this October that’s themed around Halloween. But this isn’t just any ordinary card debut because she will also be debuting a new mechanic with a lot of potential.
Here are the best Nico Minoru decks in Marvel Snap.
Marvel Snap Nico Minoru abilities, explained
Nico Minoru is a one-cost, two-Power card with an ability that reads “On Reveal: After you play your next card, cast a spell. (The spell changes each turn.)” She is the first card in the history of Marvel Snap to introduce the spell mechanic, and Nico Minoru’s card text randomly changes every turn.
Below is the list of her spells:
- On Reveal: After you play your next card, it becomes a demon.
- On Reveal: After you play your next card, destroy it and draw two cards.
- On Reveal: After you play your next card, give it +2 Power.
- On Reveal: After you play your next card, replace that card’s location.
- On Reveal: After you play your next card, add a copy of it to your hand.
- On Reveal: After you play your next card, double this card’s Power.
You can get Nico Minoru as a series five card, meaning you’ll have to spend 6,000 tokens to get her from the Weekly Spotlight section of the Token Shop. She, however, is also up for grabs as part of the weekly four-card pool of the Spotlight Caches from Oct. 24 to 31. So, be ready with your tokens or credits if you want to add the first spellcasting card in the game to your collection.
Strategy and best combos for Nico Minoru decks in Marvel Snap
Nico Minoru can literally be considered the card with the most effects in the game. Her toolbox of effects makes her a general tech card for decks. Even if her spells become random each turn, they can be used at the correct time if you need to adjust to certain scenarios. This includes making your cheap-cost units’ Power bigger, getting a copy of another card, drawing cards, or getting rid of a challenging location.
Her spells that cater to adding more Power to your cards can be best used on units that have a low cost. Using one-cost cards after playing Nico Minoru’s spell of turning your next card to a demon (one-cost, six-Power) or adding plus-two Power will only require you to use two energy. You can use this combo on your one-cost cards as early as turn two.
Nico Minoru’s spell to change a location also works well to surprise your opponents. Using this ability to change locations such as Limbo and the Flooded location by Storm can be game-changing, especially in making the scenario unpredictable for the opponent. The destruction spell of Nico Minoru, on the other hand, can be useful for cards that benefit from being destroyed. This includes Deadpool, X-23, Nova, Wolverine, and Nimrod.
The best Nico Minoru decks in Marvel Snap
Loki Collector
A proven and tested deck in the meta, the Loki Collector deck found massive success when the god of mischief was released as the season pass card for September. His ability to transform all of your cards in hand to random cards from your opponent’s deck with minus-one cost is game-changing, especially in paving the way for possible massive late-game plays. Putting Nico Minoru as a toolbox card in this deck can be something worth considering, given how her spells can adjust depending on the given scenario of the locations and your opponent’s setup.
Quinjet and Mobius M. Mobius are essential in this deck to possibly even lower the cost of the cards that you will get with Loki, as well as to protect your cards from the opponent’s Mobius M. Mobius. The Kitty Pryde and Angela combo is also present in this deck as another potential Power source.
Devil Dinosaur can be included since this deck is reliant on having multiple cards in your hand. As for the units that can also add cards to your hand aside from Loki, you can put in the likes of Mirage, Agent Coulson, and Nick Fury. Cap off the deck with Armor to prevent your cards from being destroyed, especially Quinjet, The Collector, and Devil Dinosaur.
Win condition cards for this deck
The win condition cards for this deck are:
- Loki
- The Collector
- Quinjet
- Devil Dinosaur
- Nick Fury
Loki and The Collector are the heart and soul of this deck. So, it should always be your priority to play these two cards in every game. The massive Power that you can create for The Collector could be game-changing, especially if you have more cards in your hand that can be transformed by the god of mischief.
As for Quinjet, it can spice things up by adding another layer of cost reduction possibility to your cards. Devil Dinosaur, on the other hand, is a steady late-game finisher, while Nick Fury can provide more late-game options.
Ongoing
Another deck where Nico Minoru can be used is in a classic Ongoing deck with the Ka-Zar Zoo package. Here, the main focus is to play multiple one-cost cards as much as possible to gain a handful of advantages in the early game while beefing them up with Ka-Zar and other Ongoing cards in the late game.
Aside from Nico Minoru, the other one-cost cards that can be included in this deck are Kitty Pryde, Ant-Man, and Nebula (for Power and setup control), while Yondu is there for possible card destruction. Elsa Bloodstone is beneficial thanks to her possible Power bonus as you play cards to fill your locations.
Armor and Cosmo are your Ongoing cards for protection and disruption. Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel are your Power boosters for your cards, while Spectrum and Onslaught provide the Ongoing advantage in the late game. This deck may not be that competitive in the current meta but it is surely a fun deck to try and test, especially with Nico Minoru’s toolbox of spells.
Win condition cards for this deck
The win condition cards for this deck are:
- Ka-Zar
- Blue Marvel
- Elsa Bloodstone
- Spectrum
- Onslaught
Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel provide the Power boost to a majority of your cards. As for Elsa Bloodstone, she can help the one-cost cards gain more Power, especially since filling up the locations would be the main name of the game for this deck.
Spectrum and Onslaught are there to provide the finishing touches to your Ongoing cards, as well as for their decent Power stats.
How to counter Nico Minoru decks in Marvel Snap
Nico Minoru has an On Reveal ability. This makes her prone to Cosmo’s effect since it can disrupt and prevent On Reveal abilities from happening on the same location as it (works for both players’ side of the locations). So, be careful and always look out for a possible Cosmo in the game, may it be from your or your opponent’s side.
For Nico Minoru’s spells that can give more Power to herself or to your other cards, Shadow King can be a great counter for it. He has the ability to bring back the Power of cards to the same location where you play him to their base Power. Shadow King can make the possible Power boost by Nico Minoru useless in the process.
For the spell that turns the next card you will play to a one-cost, six-Power Demon card, Killmonger would be the main counter for it since he can destroy all one-cost cards in the game (for both players’ side of the locations). As for the spell that destroys the next card you will play, Armor can prevent the destruction from happening because of its protection ability.
Nico Minoru decks’ current state in the meta
The Loki Collector deck has proven its success ever since it emerged in the meta of Marvel Snap in September. With Nico Minoru being another option for this deck, the toolbox of possibilities that can happen for the cards in the deck have become more diverse, especially in creating more power for the locations.
As for the Ongoing deck with the Ka-Zar package, it is a less competitive yet fun deck to play with.
