Hit-Monkey Strategy and Weaknesses in Marvel Snap

Yes, the latest Marvel Snap Season Pass card is a monkey with a gun, which means you should probably drop the requisite $9.99 on it for that reason alone, though in a universe with a talking raccoon, he’s not the most outlandish character. He even has a little banana instead of an i in his name. As usual, the Animals Assemble Season Pass also comes with card backs, some great new variants of fellow mammals Cosmo and Goose, and a whack of credits and gold. This guide will address Hit-Monkey deck strategy and weaknesses in Marvel Snap.

Hit-Monkey is quite straightforward. At 2-energy and 0-power, its ability has to be good, and at first glance, it is: “On Reveal: Gain +2 Power for each other card you played this turn.” With recent nerfs to the powerful Thanos deck destabilizing the meta, Hit-Monkey has the chance to slip right in and cause some simian chaos, so we’ve put together the likely decks and synergies you’ll find Hit-Monkey in, as well as how to counter this most unexpected assassin.

Strategy and Weaknesses for Hit-Monkey Decks in Marvel Snap

As you can imagine, Hit-Monkey benefits from playing plenty of low-cost cards alongside it. His ability doesn’t warrant the creation of a new deck, but rather Hit-Monkey slots into two types of decks seamlessly and improves them: Bounce and Sera Control.

The goal of a Bounce deck is to use Falcon and Beast to return cheap, disruptive cards to your hand in order to play them again. Because the cards are cheap, Hit-Monkey can swing games on the final turn by increasing to 8 or more power alongside all the cards played with it. Note that this deck uses two Series 4 cards, so it’s a bit more expensive:

• The Hood
• Bast
• Iceman
• Korg
• Angela
• Black Widow
• Hit-Monkey
• Beast
• Falcon
• Mysterio
• Bishop
• Darkhawk

The key card in this deck is Mysterio since he counts as three cards played, ensuring Hit-Monkey will have at least 6 power. Since every single card has low power, Bast greatly empowers this deck, and Darkhawk, when combined with repeated plays of Black Window and Korg, gives it an alternative way to win a lane. The rest of the deck with Angela and Bishop has fairly straightforward synergy.

For a cheaper deck to use Hit-Monkey in, the potent Sera Control benefits from his inclusion. Sera Control, for those that don’t know, is a high-skill deck that looks to counter your opponent’s plays; it remains a powerful deck against just about every matchup. With Hit-Monkey included, it looks something like this:

• Nova
• Hit-Monkey
• Zabu
• Scarlet Witch
• Sentinel
• Mysterio
• Lizard
• Bishop
• Killmonger
• Shang-Chi
• Enchantress
• Sera

With only Zabu as a Series 4 card in this deck, it is likely the cheapest way to play Hit-Monkey in Marvel Snap for effective strategy. Both Zabu and Sera are the key, allowing you to play multiple cards to counter your opponent and increase Hit-Monkey’s size. With Sera on the board, the strong Hit-Monkey and Mysterio play costs only 2 energy, leaving you 4 energy to Shang-Chi a Red Skull or Enchantress an opposing Darkhawk.

Hit-Monkey isn’t much of a threat alone to warrant including specific cards to counter. However, Cosmo blocks his On Reveal effect if you can predict where your opponent will play him, and if he gets big enough, Shang-Chi can assassinate the simian assassin. You will likely see him in quite a lot of Bounce decks, so running Cosmo at the beginning of the season to stop disruptive, one-cost effects from Iceman and Korg will be a good idea anyway. Enchantress to slow down decks with Sera and Zabu will also limit the strength of your opponent’s final turn.

However, unlike previous Marvel Snap Season Pass cards, Hit-Monkey can slot into all manner of decks with multiple low-cost cards, such as a Zoo-type deck that floods the board with small-statted cards and buffs them, so he may take you by surprise. As a result, it’s likely that Hit-Monkey will find a place in many decks as an efficient inclusion but not as a card to build an entire archetype around, like pre-nerf Zabu and Silver Surfer, or even last month’s Nimrod. Instead, he’ll pop up now and again like his fellow buffable cards, Angela and Bishop.

That’s all you need to know about Hit-Monkey strategy and weaknesses and how not to get assassinated by a gun-wielding monkey in the opening days of the Marvel Snap Animals Assemble season. Good luck, fellow primates!

Related: How to Play a Thanos Deck in Marvel Snap on Gamepur