Best Diamondback Decks In Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap's "Brave New World" season is approaching a heroic end as the final card release is now available for the card battler game. With the next season on the horizon, Snappers have been introduced to a new gameplay mode, the Sanctum Showdown, to earn Scrolls and Charms, the latter of which can help them acquire three new cards.

As Snappers are building decks to bring with them into the Sanctum Sanctorum, Diamondback may be worth considering, but is this card worth getting or skipping entirely? This diamond cut guide explains everything we know about Diamondback, including how to get the card, key synergies and counters, and three competitive decks to try featuring the new card in Marvel Snap!

Marvel Snap Diamondback Card Abilities Explained

Within Marvel Comics, two characters earned the moniker of Diamondback, but given the theme of February 2025's "Brave New World" season, the final card release for Marvel Snap introduces Rachel Leighton as the eponymous character. As a notable member of the Serpent Society, she completed her training under the tutelage of Taskmaster before being contacted by Seth Voelker / Sidewinder to join the villainous ensemble before she abandoned the group after encountering Captain America, where she assisted the First Avenger in thwarting any attempts made by the Serpent Society.

With her arrival to Marvel Snap, Diamondback is a Series 5 card release with three-Cost and three Power and an Ongoing ability that is well-suited for Snappers who enjoy the Affliction playstyle. Daimondback's Ongoing ability will afflict an additional -2 Power to all afflicted enemy cards at its location.

The Affliction-based playstyle may not be for every Snapper, but Diamondback has strong synergies like Silver Sable, Selene, Hazmat, Scorpion, Lasher, Cassandra Nova, US Agent, Man-Thing, and Ajax. Likewise, some notable counters include Rogue, Luke Cage, Red Guardian, Enchantress, and Alioth to turn off any Ongoing abilities or nip potential threats in the bud to give opponents the upper hand.

Regarding the card's acquisition, Diamondback is available during its release week through the Spotlight Caches system using their Spotlight Keys in the hopes of getting Diamondback. Alternatively, they can spend 6,000 Collector's Tokens by purchasing the card through the Token Shop.

Best Marvel Snap Diamondback Decks: Diamond Evolved

Naturally, the first deck archetype that comes to mind when considering where to slot Diamondback is the High Evolutionary deck, which is great for free-to-play (F2P) Snappers. While ideally, packaging Wasp, Cyclops, The Thing, and Abomination with Diamondback makes this deck more viable for F2P Snappers, this spotlighted deck adds a new twist by including a Move package to ensure Snappers gain priority at specific locations and afflicting their opponent's cards simultaneously.

This evolved deck from Marvel Snap content creator DenHearthstone pairs the High Evolutionary with Abomination, the latter whose Cost gets discounted for every afflicted enemy card in play. The Move package of Sam Wilson / Captain America, Rocket Raccoon & Groot, and Miles Morales, in which the latter card gets discounted to one Cost if a card was moved the last turn.

With Rocket Raccoon & Groot stealing power from cards played at its location, Snappers will have Silver Sable to steal power from a card in their opponent's deck. Lastly, Hazmat and Scorpion will afflict negative power to cards in play, and in the deck, Man-Thing afflicts one, two, and three-Cost cards at its location, with Diamondback to afflict additional negative power before Ajax can be played to gain as much Power possible.

Best Marvel Snap Diamondback Decks: The Diamond Kingpin

Focusing on the Move archetype, Diamondback can be inserted within this archetype by pairing the card with noted Move cards that mainly aim at disrupting their opponent's play while afflicting negative power to cards moved to specific locations. Like the previous spotlighted deck, Snappers can swap out various cards if they have yet to own them or help gain more power at these locations since this deck doesn't include Kraven.

This on-the-move deck from Marvel Snap content creator ReZ Snapper is centered on the Kingpin and Scream duo, in which Scream steals power from an enemy card that moves, and Kingpin afflicts all cards moved to its location. This can be achieved with Spider-Man, Polaris, Stegron, Cannonball, Aero, and Magneto; the latter can be done for a massive final turn play.

Snappers will also have Nebula to gain power at a location should their opponent not play a card at its location, Adam Warlock to get important cards drawn to their hand, and Rocket Raccoon & Groot, which also steal power from cards played at its location. Diamondback will, therefore, afflict additional negative power to afflicted cards in play at its location, hopefully giving Snappers priority and the Victory Screen!

Best Marvel Snap Diamondback Decks: Diamond Strong

Perhaps the best synergistic archetype for Diamondback that does have its drawbacks is the Ongoing Affliction deck, which features a handful of recently released Premium cards. With the exception of Hazmat, Snappers can swap out one of these cards for Wong to maximize Hazmat's affliction-based ability and take advantage of buffing all Ongoing cards with Spectrum.

This diamond-strong deck from Marvel Snap content creator dddrewsky will require Snappers to be more methodical with the playline given the inclusion of Moonstone, which has the Ongoing effects of all one, two, and three-Cost Ongoing cards. Saving Hazmat and US Agent for the later turns, Snappers can play Ant-Man and Sam Wilson / Captain America at adjacent locations while Mister Fantastic and Moonstone in the middle location before Cosmo can be played to prevent any Ongoing cards from being countered by Rogue, Red Guardian and Enchantress.

Man-Thing and US Agent can be played to target specific cards at specific locations to prevent their opponents from gaining priority and powering Ajax before he's played. Hazmat and Luke Cage (keep Cage with Cosmo) can then be on board before playing Spectrum to give all Ongoing cards additional power and secure them a win if they have priority at two locations. 

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: