Best Ajax Decks In Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap is about to get toxic with the arrival of its next card drop for the current "Maximum Effort" season. One of Deadpool's known villains, Ajax, is looking to spicy things up from a gameplay perspective, which may revive one of the game's less favorable deck archetypes, Affliction, to empower itself.

Affliction cards and themed decks haven't been well-liked, given how annoying it is, but it has some strong counters that can be worked around with the right cards. As we focus on dear ol' Francis, we'll look into Ajax's card abilities, highlight key synergies, and provide some decks to try and play in Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap Ajax Card Abilities Explained

The second week of the Maximum Effort season sees one of Deadpool's most notable villains join Marvel Snap to exact his revenge on the Merc with a Mouth. Much like Deadpool in the comics, Ajax also underwent some experiments through the Weapon X program, gaining various abilities, most prominently a high pain threshold.

And pain is what exactly Ajax hopes to accomplish in Marvel Snap by taking away power from opponents thanks to his card ability. The card recently underwent a balance change before its release, for which it will now launch as a five-Cost and seven-Power card, but its ability remains intact.

According to its in-game card text, Ajax has an Ongoing ability to gain +1 Power for every card afflicted with negative power in play. Before we detail some of the card's best synergies and decks, players can acquire Ajax from the Spotlight Caches by using Spotlight Keys or spending 6,000 Collector's Tokens when purchasing the card from the Token Shop in-game.

Best Marvel Snap Ajax Decks: Ajax Is Junk & Toxic

Negative decks can be a nuisance to play against without the best counters; however, its win rate has failed to climb up the meta, but this may not be the case. With the recent balance change ahead of its release, Ajax may give negative decks some love (or hate), as there are a couple of card synergies that Ajax can be paired well, especially ones that deal affliction to cards like Selene, Hazmat, Scorpion, and Typhoid Mary.

Naturally, players will want to eliminate Ajax's best counter, being Luke Cage, with Rogue or Enchantress; however, with Rogue, it does prevent the player from afflicting their cards with negative power, which Red Guardian and Cosmo come into play. Marvel Snap content creator Ankh factors these notions in mind in a Toxic Junk deck, which includes both Rogue and Enchantress, but they can swap out either card for Cosmo and Red Guardian if needed.

The main focus is to fill up a location or locations with cards like Green Goblin and Debrii's Rocks before playing Scorpion and Hazmat, in which Grand Master or Wong will trigger either card's ability again. This gives them free board space to play White Widow and send over a Widow's Kiss, which is afflicted with negative power unless they remove the card with Carnage, Enchantress, or fill up its location.

Best Marvel Snap Ajax Decks: Highly Ajax

Ajax's most popular deckbuilding idea directed players to focus on a High Evolutionary deck, especially a Toxic package of Evolved Wasp, Cyclops, The Thing, and Abomination, as it's Ajax's best and strongest deck. Players will want to counter Luke Cage by running Rogue in their deck; however, she can still be vulnerable to an opponent's Rogue or Enchantress, which Cosmo or Red Guardian are good counters for players to consider.

This repackaged High Evolutionary deck from Marvel Snap content creator ReZ Snapper features key cards that benefit from High Evolutionary, like Cyclops and The Thing, which afflicts cards with negative power and helps discount Abomination, which lets them play the card a few turns early. Sunspot and Evolved Hulk will gain power throughout turns for lane priority, and both cards could gain further power once Misty Knight is in play.

Affliction-wise, Scorpion has been prioritized to deal affliction to their opponent's hand, with Red Guardian included to target a low-powered card with negative power and remove its text, which can be a good counter against Luke Cage. Magik has been included to prolong the game if they need more time setting up plays or they have yet to get the cards in their hand until they're ready to play Ajax, either in the final two turns or once possible counters have been dealt with.

Best Marvel Snap Ajax Decks: Toxic HawkSera

If playing a heavy Toxic deck isn't a direction players would want to explore, given the strong counters that can prevent Ajax from gaining Power but still want to try, combining lane priority with a side of toxicity may be an avenue worth exploring. A hybrid deck allowing players to maintain high power at locations while afflicting cards with negative deck, without worrying about Luke Cage, sees two powerful deck archetypes, Toxic Sera and Darkhawk, come together in this little repackaged deck.

This is the case in this affliction deck from Marvel Snap content creator ItsGuestGaming, which takes the best synergies of a Toxic Sera deck and packages it with a Darkhawk-styled deck. The aim is to give the opponent more cards (or Rocks) in their deck with Korg and Rockslide and, yes, more Rocks with Debrii to limit their board space.

These Rocks can be great targets for Red Guardian by giving a Rock negative Power unless they wait for Luke Cage to be played and target this card if played in an opposing lane. Hazmat and Scorpion will target the cards in play and their hand with their ability; Mystique can be brought out to copy Darkhawk, Sera, or Ajax, and the same can be said for Iron Lad, which can copy the text of the deck's top card if Darkhawk, Sera, or Ajax are still in the deck.

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: