Marvel Snap’s weekly drop of new cards continues with this week’s debut card, U.S. Agent. This card was added as a part of the Thunderbolts season and features a familiar ability that fans can learn to exploit.

U.S. Agent specializes in lowering the Power of enemy cards, but finding a deck that works best for him can be tough. This guide can give you some great day-one decks, counters to watch out for, and synergies for building new decks.

Best U.S. Agent Decks

U.S. Agent’s ability states, “Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -3 Power.” This means that when opponents play a 4, 5, or 6-Cost card in the same lane as U.S. Agent, those cards will receive -3 Power. This can be a game changer if pulled off correctly, but getting the timing right can be tricky. Players can wait until the final turn to play U.S. Agent or play him early in the game (thanks to his low Cost) to force their opponent to avoid playing high-Cost cards in that lane. There is merit to both strategies, but which one will work best in a game depends on the deck being played and the strategy of the player using U.S. Agent.

U.S. Agent works similarly to Man-Thing, where Man-Thing lowers the Power of 1, 2, and 3-Cost cards, U.S. Agent lowers the Power of 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards. These two cards can be used in the same hand as a way to control the plays of the opponent, but whether this leads to a victory comes down mostly to luck and on-the-spot strategy. The best applications of U.S. Agent can be found in disrupt decks, toxic decks, or low-Cost decks. U.S. Agent’s ability will affect cards played by both players, so using a low-Cost deck avoids any potential negative side effects of the anti-hero.

Toxic Agent Deck

This deck leans into Agent’s ability to lower the Power of the opponent’s cards and adds more cards with the same skill (like Man-Thing and Hazmat). Players can also use cards like Wong and Mystique to double up on Hazmat’s ability, causing some chaos for the opponent. Since this deck focuses more on lowering the Power of the opponent’s cards rather than making large plays, it is important to have low-Cost / high-Power cards in the deck like Lizard and Jessica Jones that can potentially carry a lane on their own.

The support/tech cards in this deck are really the glue that binds things together. Luke Cage is a must, as he stops your cards from losing Power. Zabu can lower the Cost of cards like Jessica Jones, Man-Thing, Shang-Chi, and Wong. Goose is a great Ongoing card that will lock one lane for the opponent’s 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards, potentially leading them to place them in a location vulnerable to the effects of U.S. Agent.

Deck Contents:

• U.S. Agent (2-Cost, 3-Power)
• Goose (2-Cost, 2-Power)
• Hazmat (2-Cost, 2-Power)
• Lizard (2-Cost, 5-Power)
• Zabu (2-Cost, 2-Power)
• Luke Cage (3-Cost, 4-Power)
• Mystique (3-Cost, 0-Power)
• Rogue (3-Cost, 2-Power)
• Jessica Jones (4-Cost, 5-Power)
• Man-Thing (4-Cost, 5-Power)
• Shang-Chi (4-Cost, 3-Power)
• Wong (4-Cost, 2-Power)

Agent Disrupt Deck

This deck highlights the disruptive capabilities of U.S. Agent! The goal of this deck is to complicate things for the opponent, and with this lineup of cards that won’t be hard to do. Cards like Green Goblin and Hobgoblin are the obvious, and classic, choices for a disruptive deck as they swing to the opponent’s side of the board with their negative-Power. They are really the backbone of this deck, because players can lower their Power even more using other cards. If Selene is played, the lowest-Power card in each player’s hand gets -3 Power. This is usually going to be Hobgoblin or Green Goblin in our case, which means it goes to the opponent’s side causing even more damage.

If players throw down Man-Thing in Green Goblin’s lane or U.S. Agent in Hobgoblin’s lane, their Ongoing abilities will lower their Power even more! Spider-Woman can also be used to lower the Power of all opposing cards in a lane. Black Widow just causes general trouble for the enemy, throwing Widow’s Bite into their hand which forces them to play it down if they want to keep drawing cards. Spider-Ham, Goose, Cosmo, and Enchantress are all great supporting cards that cause chaos on the board but also have the potential to greatly upset the opponent’s strategy. Daredevil is the least essential card but can still be useful when playing Hobgoblin on turn five. This card is the easiest to swap out and may be better served as a Luke Cage.

Deck Contents:

• U.S. Agent (2-Cost, 3-Power)
• Selene (1-Cost, 2-Power)
• Spider-Ham (1-Cost, 1-Power)
• Daredevil (2-Cost, 2-Power)
• Goose (2-Cost, 2-Power)
• Black Widow (3-Cost, 3-Power)
• Cosmo (3-Cost, 3-Power)
• Green Goblin (3-Cost, -3-Power)
• Enchantress (4-Cost, 5-Power)
• Man-Thing (4-Cost, 5-Power)
• Hobgoblin (5-Cost, -8-Power)
• Spider-Woman (5-Cost, 8-Power)

Agent Zoo Deck

This deck focuses on U.S. Agent’s negative effect on high-Cost cards by primarily utilizing low-Cost cards. The only high-Cost cards in this deck are Ka-Zar, Blue Marvel, and Onslaught, which should ideally all be played in the same lane, avoiding the impact of Agent’s ability. The goal here is to play down as many 1-Cost cards as possible and then greatly boost their Power using the cards mentioned earlier. The strategy here isn’t overly complex, but that doesn’t mean it’s useless. Barring the use of an Enchantress or a Killmonger (both of which have fallen out of the meta in recent weeks), this deck can pull some serious Power across all lanes.

Deck Contents:

• U.S. Agent (2-Cost, 3-Power)
• Hawkeye (1-Cost, 1-Power)
• Iceman (1-Cost, 2-Power)
• Nebula (1-Cost, 1-Power)
• Nightcrawler (1-Cost, 2-Power)
• Spider-Ham (1-Cost, 1-Power)
• Squirrel Girl (1-Cost, 2-Power)
• Yondu (1-Cost, 2-Power)
• Goose (2-Cost, 2-Power)
• Ka-Zar (4-Cost, 4-Power)
• Blue Marvel (5-Cost, 3-Power)
• Onslaught (6-Cost, 7-Power)

Best U.S. Agent Counters

The best counters to U.S. Agent are cards that can stop his Ongoing ability. The obvious choice here is Enchantress. Other Ongoing disruptors like Rogue won’t have a huge impact here since Agent’s ability affects both sides of a lane so it would cancel out the play of Rogue. Players can also slot in Hobgoblin, though in practice this isn’t as successful as Enchantress. Hobgoblin can swing to U.S. Agent’s side and lower the Power of that lane significantly, and it will also be affected by Agent’s ability, lowering its Power even further.

Best U.S. Agent Synergies

Luke Cage is a fantastic card to pair with U.S. Agent! Since Agent’s ability impacts cards on both sides of the board, Luke Cage can spare your cards while leaving the enemy’s plays vulnerable to Agent’s power. Goose is also a great card to pair with Agent, as it forces the opponent not to play 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards in a specific lane, making it easier to choreograph their movements and potentially get a surprise Agent play in on turn six.

Is U.S. Agent Worth It?

U.S. Agent’s ability is an interesting one, but will it have an impact on the overall meta? Unlikely. Decks that use Agent are mostly focused on disrupting the enemy’s gameplay strategy and these decks can yield some results, but are inconsistent in higher tiers of the ladder and conquest. Even then, the decks that use Agent aren’t necessarily built around him and some would even be better using cards besides him to accomplish their goals. Because of this, we recommend players wait to grab U.S. Agent until he is featured in a Series Drop in the future.

If players still want to get Agent while he’s around, there are two ways to do this. One is by using Collector’s Tokens in the Token Shop to purchase him. He will cost 6,000 Tokens since he is a Series 5 card. Players can also use Spotlight Keys to unlock the card in the Spotlight Cache. This will be a bit of a dice roll as players only have a 25% chance to draw him using one Key, with the chance going up with each roll. The Spotlight Cache will feature Mirage and Jeff, with their Spotlight variants featured above.

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