Best Red Guardian Decks In Marvel Snap

Alexei Shostakov has been known for his incredible career as an accomplished pilot before changing sides to join the KGB. Utilizing his expert combative skills to infiltrate some of Marvel Comics' biggest organizations, like S.H.I.E.L.D. and even his own country, Shostakov has completed missions under the pseudonym of the Red Guardian.

Now, he'll be entering a new type of battleground, debuting in Marvel Snap as its latest featured card, boasting some new abilities that may come in handy. Ahead of the Red Guardian's release, we've unpacked everything about this highly skilled operative, highlighting the card's abilities and synergies and spotlighting a few good deck options to try playing from day one in Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap Red Guardian Card Abilities Explained

Within Marvel Comics, Alexei Shostakov was a Russian test pilot recruited by the KGB after catching their attention and becoming one of their most notable intelligence officers. Due to the nature of his missions, he was bestowed with an alias and the identity of the Red Guardian, Russia's answer to Captain America.

Luckily for Marvel Snap players, the Red Guardian will bring his highly trained expertise and knowledge to the game in the game's April 2024 Season Pass centered around the Thunderbolts. While the Red Guardian may not have officially been a member of this assembled team, he does have close ties with a few of its members, but how well does he work with others?

Red Guardian is a three-Cost and three-Powered card with an On Reveal ability to afflict the lowest Powered card on their opponent's side of the board with -2 Power and remove its text. This card will be featured in its release week's Spotlight Cache and available from the in-game Shop for 6,000 Collector's Tokens.

Best Marvel Snap Red Guardian Card Decks: The High Guardian

Red Guardian has a few notable card synergies and is positioned as one of the best recently released tech cards since Mobius M. Mobius (MMM). As its ability will afflict the lowered Powered card played on their opponent's side of the board while removing its text, this card could target important cards regardless of whether they have no Ability or an Ongoing ability.

One of the first few decks from Marvel Snap content creator Drewberry that players can slot Red Guardian in is in a High evolutionary deck. Pairing Red Guardian with a few cards that will afflict their opponent's cards with negative Power like Hazmat, Scorpion, Evolved The Thing, and Wasp to make Evolved Abomination viable.

This allows Red Guardian to target an opponent's lowest Powered card further, which, when played with Wong, can swing a location in their favor. Nico Minoru could help players restrategize due to her myriad of abilities, but there are a few suitable replacement cards for her that players can try that could synergize with Red Guardian.

Best Marvel Snap Red Guardian Card Decks: Sera Surfin' With Guardian

Another great synergy for the Red Guardian is the Sera/Silver Surfer pairing due to the card's three-Cost, which will be slotted into Silver Surfer decks. This deck from Marvel Snap content creator Its GuestGaming allows flexibility to add any three-Cost cards within it to make it more functional and appealing, but unlike the High EV/Guardian deck, the main priority of this deck is gaining power.

Some of the cards included in this deck are Sera, which discounts all cards by one energy; Forge, which gives the next card played +2 Power; and Okoye, which offers all cards in the deck +1 Power. Sebastian Shaw will be another reliable card for gaining Power, which pairs well with Nova, Killmonger, Silver Silver, and Absorbing Man since Red Guardian doesn't synergize well in removing On Reveal text.

Gladiator will help Red Guardian by destroying a card with a Power value lower than Gladiator's 8 Power to give a location a lower or negative location value. Jeff the Baby Land Shark will be a flexible card in this deck, although there are some other viable replacements to utilize, like Nakia.

Best Marvel Snap Red Guardian Card Decks: Red Guardian Tempo

One last deck that could see a Red Guardian feature is a Tempo deck, specifically a Tech Tempo deck such as this one from Marvel Snap content creator Docty. For players unfamiliar with Tempo decks in Marvel Snap, this playstyle sees players gaining priority fairly early in the game with low-cost, Powered cards or cards that give them priority either by destroying cards or removing or halting abilities.

Elsa Bloodstone, Crossbones, and Adam Warlock are examples of cards that greatly benefit from building Power, while Bloodstone can create this playstyle and possibly Dazzler. As players will be looking for cards that benefit from this playstyle or produce, it will feature cards like Jeff the Baby Land Shark, Lizard, Silk (or Spider-Man), and Gladiator for early priority, while Killmonger eliminates one-Cost cards from the board for Red Guardian to possibly target.

Luke Cage will support Lizard's ability, which could reduce a card by -4 Power if their opponent has four cards played at a location and prevent a card from being afflicted by an opponent's Red Guardian. Sandman will prevent players from making significant plays on Turn 6, allowing only one card to be played per turn.

Legion can be used to copy locations, especially ones that afflict negative power, like Necrosha, Jotunheim, The Negative Zone, Sewer System, and Thunderbolts Tower. Other notable locations that Legion can copy are Shadowland, which gives players a negative card, and Fisk Tower, which can be applicable if Silk is swapped for Spider-Man to move an opponent's card to this location.

For more Marvel Snap news, be sure to check out our dedicated section or take a look at some of our Guides & Tutorials just below: