MARVEL SNAP Explained: Who Is Snowguard?

Locations are a key part of MARVEL SNAP, and using them to one’s advantage is essential to winning games. While there are several cards that can manipulate locations and their abilities, the newly released Snowguard promises to bring a whole new, comics-inspired way of turning them to a player’s advantage. Here’s what you need to know about Snowguard in MARVEL SNAP and the comics.

Playing Snowguard in MARVEL SNAP

A 1-Cost, 2-Power card, Snowguard has a particularly unique ability. While she’s in a player’s hand, she’ll transform into either a Hawk or a Bear every turn. Both of those forms have the same Cost and Power as Snowguard, but their On Reveal abilities are different. Bear triggers a location’s effect, while Hawk allows players to ignore all location effects on the following turn. Playing Snowguard effectively thus requires taking advantage of those different abilities.

Snowguard will be most useful to players in a utility role, working to set the board up in an advantageous way. The Hawk form can be used to play on locations that might have otherwise been difficult or impossible to get into, like Death’s Domain, Luke’s Bar, or the Sanctum Sanctorum. Having control over just when someone can get into such locations can make or break a game.

As for the Bear form, players may use the version of Snowguard to trigger effects that are advantageous to them. Just what that means depends a lot on the specific type of deck a player is using, but The Raft is a potentially great location for Snowguard, as re-triggering that place’s effect could yield a second free 6-Cost card. Otherwise, locations such as Hala, Collapsed Mine, or Eternity Range could further impede an opponent’s strategy by giving them Rocks. Players could also use locations with move effects, such as Bifrost, Strange Academy, or New York, to alter the position of cards on the board and cause problems that way.

Due to the large number of potential uses for Snowguard, she can work in a lot of different deck types, though isn’t necessarily essential to any. One potential archetype where she may work well is in a 2-Power deck that takes advantage of Cerebro’s ability to buff cards with the same strength to deadly levels. Snowguard may also work well with decks that try and flood an opponent with cards. Those decks often include Darkhawk and/or Ronan the Accuser, as they gain Power depending on the number of cards in a player’s deck and hand, respectively. Snowguard’s Bear form could, for example, be played on Subterranea or the Triskelion to further flood an opponent’s hand or deck with cards, creating problems for them in terms of drawing what they need to succeed.

There are a few cards to whom Snowguard is vulnerable. Cosmo is a potentially good counter for Snowguard, as his ability will stop her On Reveal effects from working. She can also have her ability taken away by Leech. What works well about those cards is they stop Snowguard’s ability either when she’s played or before. Due to her low Cost, though, stopping Snowguard is very situation dependent, as a player might be able to put her out before either of those counters is possible due to their higher Costs.

Despite Snowguard’s focus on turning locations to her advantage, there are a few places that can spell trouble for her and should be approached with caution. Knowhere and Deep Space prevent On Reveal effects from happening, so it’s not advisable to play her at either of those. Additionally, Sakaar and Grand Central play cards directly from a player’s hand, meaning one might lose control of just when she goes out. Making Snowguard work for a player is a matter of being thoughtful and cautious, so those two locations could cause strategic problems.

Snowguard in the Comics

Created by Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse, Snowguard’s real name is Amka Aliyak. The hero debuted in CHAMPIONS (2016) #19. Hailing from Nunavut, Canada, Aliyak is Inuk and received her powers after freeing Sila, the Soul of the North, from captivity. As a result, Aliyak received the ability to transform into various types of wildlife. Snowguard’s ability in MARVEL SNAP is thus a direct reflection of those abilities in the comics.

As for her design, MARVEL SNAP shows Snowguard in the main suit that she’s worn in the comics and as part of the teenage superhero team Champions. However, the Sean Izaakse and Marcio Menyz variant for Snowguard in MARVEL SNAP is taken directly from the end of CHAMPIONS (2016) #21 and shows Aliyak embracing her newfound powers.

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MARVEL SNAP is available now on Android, iOS and Early Access Windows PC!