Unlocking High Evolutionary's Power in Marvel Snap

Some of the most popular and powerful villains in the Marvel universe are the Big Bad cards of Marvel Snap. They provide game-changing effects that can potentially turn matches upside down. Most of their abilities are based on their comic book characters or movie interpretations, including High Evolutionary.

High Evolutionary in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

High Evolutionary is the main villain of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. In the movie, he is a creator of civilizations and beings. He evolves creatures’ intelligence, power, and more.

High Evolutionary in Marvel Snap

In Marvel Snap, High Evolutionary is a four-Cost, four-Power card with the effect that reads, “At the start of the game, unlock the potential of your cards with no abilities.” This game-changing effect unlocks the secret abilities of all the vanilla cards, making multiple deck archetypes of his own that may potentially change the meta.

All Vanilla Cards’ Secret Abilities

Before we dive into the best cards to use with High Evolutionary, the newest of the Big Bad cards in Marvel Snap, here are all the secret abilities of the vanilla cards that the villain himself unlocks:

• Wasp (0-Cost, 1-Power): On Reveal: Afflict a random enemy card here with -1 Power.
• Misty Knight (1-Cost, 2-Power): When you end a turn with unspent Energy, give another friendly card +1 Power.
• Shocker (2-Cost, 3-Power): On Reveal: Give the leftmost card in your hand -1 Cost.
• Cyclops (3-Cost, 4-Power): When you end a turn with unspent Energy, afflict two random enemies here with -1 Power.
• The Thing (4-Cost, 6-Power): On Reveal: Afflict 3 random enemy cards here with -1 Power.
• Abomination (5-Cost, 9-Power): Costs one less for each enemy card in play that’s afflicted with negative Power.
• Hulk (6-Cost, 12-Power): Ongoing: When you end a turn with unspent Energy, +2 Power. (If in hand or in play).

The Best High Evolutionary Decks

Pure High Evolutionary

Defense is offense. Screenshot via Untaped.gg

The standard way to play High Evolutionary is in a deck with the majority of the current vanilla cards. This deck has two main mechanics, around which the overall strategy of its offensive and defensive engines revolve—conserving energy to put out multiple high-Powered cards and inflicting negative Power on your opponent’s cards to unlock powerful effects.

Cyclops, The Thing, and Abomination benefit from inflicting negative Power on your opponent’s cards. Scorpion and Spider-Woman can be added for another powerful debuff option.

As for the “saving unspent energy” (floating) strategy, the abilities of Misty Knight, Abomination, and Hulk all utilize the mechanic, especially with Hulk as your primary Power source for your locations in the late game. Sunspot can also be a potential Power source thanks to its ability to gain Power equal to your unspent energy every turn.

InSheNaut

Power is everything. Screenshot via Untaped.gg

Another deck where the creations of High Evolutionary can be used is in the InSheNaut deck. Here, the main strategy is to create as much Power as possible with the help of She-Hulk and The Inifinaut while taking advantage of the early to mid-game prowess of the High Evolutionary creations.

The main offensive engine of this deck is the turn six skip which can pave the way for the She-Hulk and Infinaut play on turn seven. That is why Magik is important to turn a location to Limbo which will extend the game and give you more time to set up the potential massive combo in the final turn.

The energy conservation you need to make She-Hulk a zero-cost, 10-Power unit on turn seven will benefit the combo of cards such as Sunspot and Misty Knight, as well as Cyclops’ ability which can be converted as offense for your side. This setup will build up Power to at least two locations, so always aim to pull off this scenario in every game as much as possible.

Cap off the deck with cards that can protect your units, such as Armor (for preventing your cards from being destroyed in any form), and Caiera (for protecting your one and six-cost cards). Cosmo can also be added since it can disrupt On Reveal abilities, making the abilities of cards like Shang-Chi and Killmonger ineffective.