Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross is the latest card coming to Marvel Snap. You might recognize him as the character Harrison Ford plays in Captain America: Brave New World. With an actor of that pedigree playing him, you’d think he’d make for a meta-shaking card. Let’s take a look.
How Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross Works in Marvel Snap
Thunderbolt Ross is a 2 cost 2 power card with an ability that reads: When your opponent ends a turn with unspent Energy, draw a card with 10 or more Power.
This is pretty straightforward as we’ve seen this effect before with Thunderbolt Ross’ alter-ego Red Hulk and with High Evolutionary-effected cards.
Card draw is extremely powerful in Marvel Snap. If you had a 2 cost 2 power card that drew you a single card, it would be included in almost every single deck. However, the fact that Thunderbolt Ross only draws cards with 10 or more power severely limits its scope. Currently, he can draw you the following cards:
- Attuma
- Black Cat
- Crossbones
- Cull Obsidian
- Typhoid Mary
- Aero
- Heimdall
- Helicarrier
- Red Hulk
- Sasquatch
- She-Hulk
- Skaar
- Thanos (if generated into your deck)
- Orka
- Emperor Hulkling
- Hulk
- Magneto
- Death
- Red Skull
- Agatha Harkness (if generated into your deck)
- Giganto
- Destroyer
- The Infinaut
Most decks will have only one of the above in them – if any. However, if there’s more than a few of these cards in your deck, Thunderbolt Ross is a card you should definitely consider running. Deck thinning is quite a powerful tool as well, after all.
As for counters, Thunderbolt Ross is pretty much only countered directly by Red Guardian.
Best Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross Decks in Marvel Snap
As you’d expect, Thunderbolt Ross fits right into Surtur decks. As far as meta relevant decks go, that’s about it. Hela, however, isn’t a bad alternative for him despite the recent nerf to the former bane of the ranked ladder. Let’s take a look at Surtur first:
- Zabu
- Hydra Bob
- Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross
- Armor
- Cosmo
- Juggernaut
- Surtur
- Ares
- Attuma
- Crossbones
- Cull Obsidian
- Skaar
Click here to copy this list from Untapped.
Unfortunately, this list has quite a lot of Series 5 cards. Hydra Bob, Surtur, Ares, Cull Obsidian, and Skaar. You can switch out Hydra Bob for another 1 drop like Iceman, Nico Minoru, or even Spider-Ham. The rest are mandatory, though you can swap Cull Obsidian for Aero in a pinch.
The goal with this deck is straightforward. Play Surtur on 3 and follow it up with 10 power cards to raise it up to 10 power itself, making Skaar free. Juggernaut and Cosmo are great final turn counters, and Armor is here to make sure you’re not getting Shang-Chi’d down to size.
Thunderbolt Ross helps this deck out quite a lot as a single draw of a 10 cost card like Skaar can win you the match. In fact, I’d go so far as to say he’ll become mandatory in Surtur lists if you want to run them optimally.
Finally, here’s Thunderbolt Ross in a Hela deck:
- Black Knight
- Blade
- Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross
- Lady Sif
- Ghost Rider
- War Machine
- Hell Cow
- Black Cat
- Aero
- Hela
- The Infinaut
- Death
Click here to copy this list from Untapped.
The Series 5 cards in this list are Black Knight and War Machine. War Machine isn’t necessary, but I do like him as an alternative to Hela in order to drop The Infinaut on the final turn. You can replace him with Ares or even another discard activator like Swordmaster.
The goal here is to discard high power cards of different cost to revive with Hela on the final turn. Ideally these would be Black Cat, Aero, The Infinaut, and Death, as they all have different costs and meet Hela’s condition.
Thunderbolt Ross is here to help you draw those high power cards in order to discard them before the game is done, adding an extra layer of consistency. Black Knight and Ghost Rider are here to give you some consistent power output before the final turn as well.
Is Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross Worth Spotlight Cache Keys or Collector’s Tokens?
As of right now, unless you’re really into Surtur/Ares decks, I do not think Thunderbolt Ross is worth picking up if you’re short on resources. Sure, he’s going to get better as they add more 10 cost cards to the game, but few decks can make use of him. Worse still, Wiccan decks are at the top of the meta at the moment which means your opponents are likely to spend their energy every turn.