Knull, the newest card in MARVEL SNAP, is being added to Series 5 on December 13. We've broken down Knull's comics history, looked at the card's best potential synergies, and theorycrafted some decks that feature Knull.
Five Best Synergies for Knull
Ongoing: Has the combined Power of all cards destroyed this game.
Knull is a pretty hefty payoff for Destroy decks, a 6-Drop finisher that has the potential to bring a lot of Power and flip a location in your favor. Here are our picks for the five cards that are going to have the most impactful interactions with Knull.
Five - Mystique
On Reveal: If the last card you played has an Ongoing, copy its text. (if it's in play)
It might seem strange for us to start off with a card that doesn't have a Destroy effect - but Mystique has the ability to copy the Ongoing effect of Knull, meaning you can play his Power to multiple locations. Copying Knull's Ongoing with Mystique will require either an early Knull with the help of Wave or an extra turn from Magik, but it's doable.
Four - Shang-Chi
On Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards at this location that have 9 or more Power.
This is the first time that we'll point out that Knull copies the Power of all cards destroyed, and not just your cards. Shang-Chi's On Reveal removal edges Killmonger in this capacity specifically because Shang-Chi targets minions with a lot of Power, adding those big numbers to Knull's eventual entrance.
Three - Venom
On Reveal: Destroy your other cards at this location. Add their Power to this card.
Unlike the similar Carnage, Venom gains the Power of the cards it destroys - incentivizing the destruction of larger cards than those you would feed to Carnage. In turn, the bigger cards Venom destroys give a bigger boost to Knull.
Two - Galactus
On Reveal: If you're winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.
Galactus destroys everything, whether they're protected by Armor or not, and destroying everything gives a lot of Power to Knull - which should help win the one location spared by Galactus.
One - Deadpool
When this card is destroyed, return it to your hand with double the power.
In our opinion, Deadpool is the best card for synergizing with Knull. Every time you destroy Deadpool, his Power doubles and his previous Power is added to Knull's tab. For instance, if you destroy him four times, Deadpool will contribute 15 Power on his own to Knull's Ongoing effect. 15 is a lot of Power, in case you didn't know that.
Theorycrafting Knull
As a Series 5 card, Knull is going to be a very, very rare drop from Collector's Reserves and, unless you're ready to drop 6000 Collector's Tokens on an unproven card, he's unlikely to become a part of your (or our) collection any time soon. But is that going to stop us from theorycrafting a couple of decks that feature Knull? You read the heading, right?
Knullpool
We'll start by putting our money where our mouth is: with a Destroy deck designed to kill Deadpool as many times as possible so that his Power becomes Knull's Power. We're also running Shuri for an extra double Deadpool, Shang-Chi to turn our opponent's biggest cards to our benefit, and Taskmaster to copy all that Power we've given to Deadpool and Knull.
Knullactus
Galactus will love getting to hang out with another being that's older than the cosmos, and Knull should be a good fit for a deck that can do a lot of destroying; whether with Galactus, Shang-Chi, or Destroyer. We're running Psylocke, Electro, and Wave to get around those pesky Energy limits and unlock the full Power of Knull.
Who is Knull?
We briefly touched on Knull (and graded the flavor of his card) in our Who's Who article for The Power Cosmic Season, but now we'll go a little deeper into the comics history of this character - who he is, where he comes from, and what he's done so far.
Knull - King in Black, darkness incarnate, creator of the symbiote - is an eons-old being with godlike power and ambition. Knull was the darkness that enveloped existence before the Celestials formed the cosmos; angered at their intercession, Knull took physical form and waged war against them by crafting the god-slaying All-Black the Necrosword. Knull defeated at least one Celestial in combat before he was defeated and banished to the far reaches of the cosmos.
Finding a home in the darkness at the end of the universe, Knull experimented on the Celestial's severed head and crafted the symbiote - an invasive alien life-form and hive mind, the source of Venom and Carnage. After a symbiote dragon named Grendel was defeated by Thor, Knull's hold over his creation wavered and he was imprisoned by the symbiote in a construct they called Klyntar.
Knull's powers reasserted themselves when S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury infected American soldiers with symbiote during the Vietnam War. Knull took control of the Sym-Soldiers, turning them against their compatriots. However, he was still imprisoned. Knull eventually struck a deal with Cletus Kasady, the host of Carnage, who agreed to gather enough symbiote remains to overload the Klyntar hive mind and break Knull's prison.
Once freed, Knull brought an army of symbiote dragons and symbiote-infected Celestials to Earth, desiring its destruction and unbreakable control of his creations. He killed Eddie Brock and assimilated the Venom symbiote, but Brock was resurrected as the new Captain Universe. Wielding a battle-axe made by combining Mjolnir and Silver Surfer's board, Brock killed Knull and Venom took Knull's place as the new Hive Mind Nexus and King in Black.
That's the story of Knull, the newest card to come to MARVEL SNAP.
How do you feel about Knull? Share your thoughts on the new card in the comments!
Comments
I built the deck so guys can check it out.
https://outof.cards/marvel-snap/decks/143-knull-and-void
I just got Knull from a chest.
I don't have death yet, so not been running the death wave package. I've been playing a Deadpool/Venom deck with Taskmaster and Zola.
I have taken out Hood for Knull for now, see how it goes. Now the deck has 3 finishers, I'm sure it'll just be even stronger now.
The King in Black story sounds good. I remember the "Birth of Venom" story that came out of Secret Wars, and Black Suit Spidey, and then the "Maximum Carnage" story that was the beginning of Carnage (better book IMO)
TBH I stopped really paying attention to Symbiote stuff when I got older though, as it seemed to be way more commercial then when I was a young Gen X'er in the 80's.
Maybe they are worth checking out again though. I know I do really like my Symbiote/Destroy Deck in Snap, and even have collected Venomized Variants for as many of the cards for the Deck as I have been able to so far (love the Deadpool one the most)
I've been playing nothing but Galactus decks ever since his release (as a collectible card). I'm definetely grabbing this one as soon as possible.