Superior Iron Man is LEGIT! Here's Why... | Marvel Snap: Good or Garbage

Axis Inversion arrived with three cards pulling me toward three different answers. Superior Iron Man has a very high ceiling, but that ceiling can be fragile. Red Onslaught was the card I enjoyed playing most. Antipolar Magneto is powerful, yet my first day of testing did not find anything that was breaking it.

That makes the season-pass question more interesting than a simple yes or no. I think Superior Iron Man is good enough to justify the pass. It is a card I want to build around because it can become a lane winner and do some wild things statistically. Still, my early order puts Red Onslaught first, Superior Iron Man second, and Antipolar Magneto third. The card in second place is still legit.

Splat Surfer gives Superior Iron Man a natural job

I played Superior Iron Man in Splat Surfer, where the plan is to get reductions down and play a pile of three-cost cards on turn six or turn seven. It fits organically because it can drop to one cost alongside the other threes the deck wants to reduce.

Chameleon and Prodigy were particularly exciting beside it. When they later receive more buffs and take on Superior Iron Man's ability, those extra increases can become much more meaningful. I saw a Prodigy go into that lane, become a 34, and then receive Silver Surfer. That Surfer increase doubled as well. It was one of the interactions that surprised me in testing.

This is why I see it as a much better version of Sebastian Shaw. The card does ask you to dedicate a deck to its payoff, unlike Red Onslaught, but the payoff is a lane-winning threat rather than a card simply filling a slot.

The Splat Surfer list still feels maybe a card away from great. I considered removing Luna Snow for Hitmon for more points, although I liked having Magik and Luna Snow as consistency plans toward Sera, Blink, and Onslaught. Jack Flag felt very good in the list too. I would not sleep on Jack Flag in this kind of deck, which felt almost like an ongoing version of Splat.

Red Onslaught made every match feel different

Red Onslaught has two early homes for me: ongoing decks and Doom 2099. In my Doom 2099 version, I removed Iron Lad. That might sound blasphemous, yet Red Onslaught offered a higher possible ceiling than trying to work through the deck for a backup plan that might hit Doom or Doom 2099.

The appeal was not just the potential for clips. Every time I played Red Onslaught or faced it, the ladder match felt different because its ongoing abilities are random. I compared the experience to facing Rama-Tut, but for ongoing. From the other side, you do not know what Red Onslaught has in hand or what it is going to be.

Mystique adds another wrinkle. Played afterward, it receives three different random abilities rather than copying the same three random abilities. If abilities are later augmented, the augmentation applies to the abilities already there. It does not turn three random abilities into a new set of six or nine.

That uncertainty and range made Red Onslaught genuinely fun for me to play. My early verdict is straightforward: it is worth it. Getting it onto the board on turn three in Doom 2099 is a result I would be very happy with, and I am not done developing that version yet.

The ongoing shell pointed back to Red Onslaught

I also tried Antipolar Magneto in an ongoing variation. It was okay, but the test changed what I thought mattered in that shell. I came away less focused on Antipolar Magneto as a backup plan for Spectrum and more impressed by how good Red Onslaught was when the deck could feed off its other ongoing synergies.

My adjustment from there was blunt: remove Antipolar Magneto, turn the build into a Red Onslaught-Onslaught deck, and add Mystique. I think that is a great way to play Red Onslaught. The direction is a solid points deck that can scale surprisingly high.

Moonstone also stood out to me with Captain America and Captain Carter. That was part of why the ongoing package felt so well-rounded. Once those pieces are doing what they want to do, Red Onslaught is the card I want to emphasize.

Antipolar Magneto has power, but not a finished home

I am not calling Antipolar Magneto overpowered. It is powered. It is powerful. We still need to find the best way to use it, and I repeatedly found myself with two plays I preferred before I got to it. In those spots, I would rather play the cards where I need them than chase the high roll of nine more power and hope it lands in the places I need it.

If I had to assign it a likely home, I think Affliction may be the best fit because that deck is heavily focused on three- and four-cost cards. I also tried it in a hammers deck and came away thinking there is something to explore with N Sabonor and Antipolar Magneto. I did not find the answer in that attempt.

Affliction has a present-day problem, though. If you are playing Affliction right now, you are playing the Scorpion combo rather than this version. Antipolar Magneto may find a way in if Scorpion is dialed down and Affliction becomes more balanced. Until then, it is competing with a plan that already has a clearer reason to take those slots.

I also worry it will not age well. As players identify the best Antipolar Magneto strategies, I think it could become very counterable. I expect to see answers such as Stardust, Cosmos, and Juggernaut, including Juggernaut simply disrupting where the cards go. That leaves Antipolar Magneto in third place for me, even though that differs from the thumbnail.

The Red Onslaught route I would take toward Infinite

Of the decks I tested, the Red Onslaught list with Psylocke is probably the one I would take to Infinite. There is a very obvious case for cutting Psylocke for another five-cost card because the deck leans heavier on fives. Even so, I think Red Onslaught is very good as a four-drop there, and I am happy to use Psylocke to expedite it so my three- and four-cost cards have that value.

I also liked that the list could steal and throw priority as needed. That is why it became my goal deck from this first round of testing. Red Onslaught is really, really good in it.

Superior Iron Man remains the season-pass card I am most eager to push further. Zombies, Pixie, Wave, Hydraman, and major reduction cases are all still on my testing list. I want to see how those strange reductions play into it, especially with the Zombies deck players received from the login calendar. For now, Red Onslaught gets my strongest early recommendation, Superior Iron Man has a convincing home in Splat Surfer, and Antipolar Magneto still needs to prove it can beat the alternatives.

Watch the full discussion: the original episode.