MARVEL SNAP Explained: Who Is the High Evolutionary?

While many MARVEL SNAP cards affect one or two elements of the game, the High Evolutionary is opening up a whole new way to play. Thanks to a comics-inspired ability, the High Evolutionary pushes several already beloved cards to new heights, making them deadlier than ever before. With that in mind, here’s what you need to know about playing High Evolutionary in MARVEL SNAP and the character in the comics.

Playing High Evolutionary in MARVEL SNAP

A 4-Cost, 7-Power card, High Evolutionary’s effect gives several cards that otherwise lack abilities new skills at the start of the game. Those abilities boil down to reducing the Power of cards and/or giving a player benefits for having unspent Energy. Right now, those affected cards are Wasp, who gains an On Reveal that gives two enemy cards at her location -1 Power; Misty Knight, who gives one of her player’s cards +1 Power if they end a turn with unspent Energy; Shocker, who has an On Reveal that gives the leftmost card in his player’s hand -1 Cost; Cyclops, who causes two random enemies at a location to get -1 Power if a player ends a turn with unspent Energy; The Thing, who has an On Reveal that gives a random enemy -1 Power, and that repeats twice; Abomination, who gets -1 Cost for each enemy card that has negative Power; and Hulk, who has an Ongoing ability that gives players +2 Power when turns end with unspent Energy. The best High Evolutionary decks will feature all or most of those cards.

Assuming a player uses all those cards enhanced by the High Evolutionary, their main goal is then to try and reduce the Power of their opponent’s cards. While that’s going on, players will also want to conserve all the Energy they can to buff their own cards. A main goal of the deck is then to get Hulk and Abomination out as early as possible to benefit from, and increase, their already high Power. Since a MARVEL SNAP deck consists of twelve cards, those using the High Evolutionary and all the cards he changes will have four unfilled spots on their roster. There are a few ways that players can go about filling them to make the best High Evolutionary deck possible, though any additions should synergize with the above goals or work to counter opponents, with Shang-Chi, Cosmo, and Enchantress being examples of the latter.

There are several cards in MARVEL SNAP that have effects that reduce the Power of an opponent’s line-up. At 2-Cost, Hazmat is a cheap card with an On Reveal that gives everything on the board -1 Power. One of the most common cards paired with her is Luke Cage, who prevents the Power of his player’s cards from being reduced. For those that don’t want to use up two slots, Spider-Woman is a powerful late-game character that gives all enemy cards at a location -1 Power.

For those looking at cards that help save Energy, Electro, Wave, and Sera are all potential choices. Wave is a particularly good option, as she changes the Cost of all cards in both player’s hands to 4 on the next turn, making it easier to get Hulk out early and benefit from his ability. They can also be combined with Sunspot and She-Hulk, who benefit from a player ending a turn with unspent Energy.

There are no real direct counters for High Evolutionary, and there are no locations that really benefit or hurt him. Instead, defeating a High Evolutionary-based deck means focusing on the specific cards he empowers. In that case, the strongest counters are Luke Cage and Cosmo, since they stifle the deck’s Power reduction and On Reveal effects, respectively. Shang-Chi can also work to take out cards that get too powerful.

High Evolutionary in the Comics

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Herbert Edgar Wyndham, AKA High Evolutionary, debuted in THOR (1966) #134 and has generally served as a villain in the Marvel Universe. Around the start of the 20th century, Wyndham was a geneticist. With help from an Inhuman named Phaeder, Wyndham gained an advanced knowledge of his field that allowed him to experiment with genetic manipulation and alteration in ways far ahead of his time.

That knowledge allowed Wyndham to manipulate the genetic code of many different characters and creatures, which is reflected in his MARVEL SNAP ability. His most iconic act of evolutionary manipulation is undoubtedly the creation of the New Men, animals evolved to have human levels of intelligence. After creating them, the High Evolutionary went on to make Man-Beast, a genetically enhanced wolf that served as the nemesis of Adam Warlock, one of the Marvel Universe’s strongest heroes.

Outside of the New Men and Man-Beast, Wyndham also used his knowledge to help in the recovery of Jessica Drew when she became sick from radiation poisoning, with his use of his genetic accelerator being a key factor in her gaining the powers that made her Spider-Woman. Additionally, Wyndham encountered Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, and Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver, as babies. During that meeting, he tampered with their genetic codes to enhance their latent powers and make them appear to be mutants. In UNCANNY AVENGERS (2015) #2, the High Evolutionary went on to use genetic templates he’d taken from them to create Luminous, a being with the powers of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

In terms of the High Evolutionary’s card design, the character’s main look and variants in MARVEL SNAP are all inspired by the comics. The Dan Hipp variant, for example, reflects how the High Evolutionary looked in his early years, specifically around his debut in THOR #134. Otherwise, the costumes draw from later re-designs, with the main card resembling what the High Evolutionary wore in such comics as X-MEN (2021) #3.

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