Following the huge success of Marvel Super War, NetEase has once again assembled Earth’s mightiest heroes and villains for another all-out war. This time, though, Marvel Duel lets the fate of the universe hangs in the balance as you build your ultimate deck of heroes and villains and battle through iconic events in history to restore everything in its rightful place.
With over 150 characters featured in Marvel Duel, comic book fans and CCG enthusiasts alike will certainly find a couple or several of their favorite iconic characters in the game. There are themes to consider in building your ultimate deck, but there are no limitations as well as which heroes and villains you would like to team up.
The artwork on each card featured in Marvel Duel can suffice to wow fans of the Marvel Universe on its own, but the depth of gameplay, especially as far as strategy in deck-building and actual matches are concerned, provides fresh yet familiar aspects as in other popular CCGs. If you enjoy playing Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hearthstone, or other popular physical or virtual CCGS, then you will certainly get hooked on Marvel Duel!
Marvel Duel features a quick and easy tutorial as soon as you dive in and in a matter of minutes, you will find yourself in your first ever duel. During the tutorial session, it is important to take note of the game’s basic rules and mechanics. As such, be sure to carefully read through each line of advice from the first battles. While some of the rules and mechanics may seem daunting at first, Marvel Duel makes it so that even inexperienced players can quickly learn the ropes after a few rounds of card battles.
If you are looking to grow your card collection and build stronger decks, then be sure to check out our Marvel Duel tips, cheats and strategies below! Our comprehensive beginner’s guide comes with a bunch of tips to help you dominate each duel!
1. Keep A Good Balance Between The Three Subdecks
Marvel Duel currently holds 7 unique characters to choose from to helm your deck, each with his or her own unique skills and attributes to help you in battle. Although you can use any mix of 3 heroes in building your deck which is tricky, the end result will typically make it so that one may have to dominate the numbers in your entire card pool.
You need at least 10 cards for each hero or subdeck and a minimum of 10 cards as well for the neutral subdeck. As such, you will need to try as much as you can to have equal number of cards split across the 3 subdecks to ensure a viable utilization of each hero’s skills.
While you will start to choose a main hero initially, you will basically unlock 3 heroes with cards that meet the minimum requirement of having at least 40 cards in a working deck. The rest of the characters can be unlocked as you earn more cards needed to build their starter decks.
At this point, it can be difficult, if not impossible to determine which hero or heroes stand out among the rest, as their skills alone do not make them the best given that the number of cards you own within their specific decks should also suffice.
As such, it is best to get to know each hero well before finally deciding which ones to prioritize over the others. This goes beyond having how each subdeck works, but rather, also identifying how each one subdeck will sync with the rest of the cards in your pool.
It would be best to naturally consider the starting roster as your main focus but if you manage to secure more cards for a subdeck or hero that aligns well enough with your preferences and play style, then you should consider going for it. Keep in mind as well that winning matches will raise the level of the characters you are using and at certain milestones, will unlock more of that hero’s skills.
Spider-Man Decks revolve around Spider-verse characters as well as symbiotes. Spider-Man’s first skill, Swing Into Action, can refresh the shop at no cost and give all Spider-verse characters in the shop +3 Power. Web Warriors is a passive skill that can earn you 1 to 6 battle gems at the end of your turn if you have none.
Thwip! is a boost for symbiotes within your ranks and enables them to deal 3 damage to an opponent and stun them when they are defeated in battle. Spider-Sense is another passive boost for Spider-verse characters that enable them to boost an adjacent ally’s power by 1 whenever they enter the battlefield.
Iron Man Decks focus on Stark Industries cards as well as influence your draws with various active skills that can refresh the shop. Enter The Armory will refresh the shop and reduce the cost of all Stark Industries cards in the shop by 1. Armor Maintenance can return all deployed Stark Industries characters to your hand and boost their power by 10.
Grand Invention allows you to refresh the shop with cards of a specific cost based on your shop level but only once per game. Like Grand Invention, Power Boost is an active skill that can also be activated only once per battle and will refresh the shop with as many different cards as possible with the same cost as the shop level.
Related: Marvel Duel Deck Guide: Basic Deck Builds to Help You Earn More Wins with Your Favorite Heroes
Thor Decks are designed for Asgradians and can fetch cards on top of enhancing Asgardian characters. Mighty Power is a decent passive that reduces the first shop refresh cost to 0 each turn. Battle Hardened grants an equipped Asgardian an extra action time in combat. Banquet of the Gods can boost a random Asgardian character’s power by 1 and armor by 6. Bridge Summoning is a unique skill that lets you fetch an Asgardian card from your library into your hand so long as it is not in the card pool.
Hela Decks are a little trickier to use and master in the game and focuses on Ragnarok characters and Maverick skills. Spirit’s Visage will boost your right-most character’s power by 4 whenever a Ragnarok character is defeated. Cursed Destiny can summon a duplicate of Hela that counts as an illusion. Soul Master can curse a character and remove them from play and change the power of all characters with the same name on both sides of the field to 1. Doomed Isolation can boost your characters’ power by 2 whenever an illusion is defeated.
Intergalactic War Decks helmed by Captain Marvel typically become stronger as the battle rages on. These decks involve characters that can inflict damage from skills prior to the start of an action. Photonic Power is a passive skill that can earn you a battle gem whenever your characters star boost. Take Flight can grant a character +1 action time until the end of the next battle.
Spacial Defense can grant an Intergalactic War character assault until the end of the next battle. Strength of the Stars can raise a Star 1 Intergalactic War character’s star level.
Star Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy Deck and is a deck built for speed reliant on defeating enemies early on. Captain’s Bounty is a passive skill that can earn you 2 battle gems the first time your left-most and right-most heroes deployed defeat opponents in battle. Galactic Charge can boost all attack characters power by 10 once per game.
Double Tempo can trigger the effects of triumph skills twice until the end of the next battle. Guardians Unite will reduce all your deployed character’s power by 3 but trigger their triumph skills 3 times until the end of turn once per battle.
Last, but definitely not the least, the Marvel Knights Deck represented by Elektra is one of, if not, the simplest subdeck to build and has an overall balanced offensive and defensive capabilities. Weapon Master instantly completes a random quest. Eyes of the warrior deals 1 damage to you but earns you 3 battle gems. Assassin’s Pursuit can fetch you an equipment card from your card pool costing 1 less than your shop’s level. Killer Instinct gains you 2 random quests.
2. Get To Know As Many Cards Immediately
As you start on your grand adventure in Marvel Duel, you will have a lot of cards in your deck and collection to utilize in battles. Although you can read through each card’s abilities and traits while in a duel, knowing each card in your deck by heart will help you decide faster in play. Since turns are timed in duels, it is still best to read through each card by browsing through them in your collection instead. You can tap on the deck icon at the bottom of the screen and browse through each card you have or, better yet, tap on the collection icon and peer through all the available cards instead.
Beyond knowing what the deck you are building is fully capable of, you should learn what each card in the collection can do as you will eventually face them in a duel. Knowing a card’s cost, for one, tells you how sooner or later it can be deployed in play, more or less giving you an idea on how to prepare against it.
Likewise, having an idea what each card can do overall and how it potentially works with other cards in the deck can also give you a more solid guess of the other cards in the opponent’s deck. Another point to consider is the trio of subdecks used in the opponent’s arsenal to delimit the potential assumptions as to how the deck is built and the general strategy behind each of your opponent’s plays.
The whole idea itself of looking into each card’s details may seem overwhelming and a feat suitable for more experienced players. However, it is a good learning experience for beginners to make a habit of early on especially if you want to quickly dominate the battlefield. Note that there are sequences as well as far as a card’s skill activates so be sure to take note of which ones trigger before action, during the battle, and after the hero is defeated.
3. Claim Free Card Packs But Prioritize Spending For Your Main Deck
Marvel Duel employs the gacha method for acquiring new cards. By clicking on the “Packs” icon at the lower right side of your screen, you can visit the store where you can claim free cards as well as purchase packs as well using coins or Iso-Gems. General Expansion Packs can be purchased using coins and a free pack can be claimed each day. Four different packs showcasing deck-specific cards can be purchased using Iso-Gems and a free one can be claimed every time a new pack arrives. Do note that some cards specific for each deck or hero can only be obtained via the specific Superhero Packs, most especially for epic and higher grade cards.
The free packs, along with in-game rewards and gifts you will receive can truly enable you to expand your collection fast enough. The thing is, given that cards fall under different rarity grades, some will definitely be harder to pull while others will seemingly overflow. Since you can only use 4 similar cards in your deck, extra copies of each card will be converted to crystals. Crystals, in turn, can be used to create specific cards you need by tapping on the card under the collection menu, and clicking on “create”.
For the most part, there is no point in holding on to your coins. As soon as you have enough coins to purchase a pack, you should immediately do so as having more cards to choose from to revise your deck is always advantageous. In the case of Superhero Packs, however, maintaining focus on the 3 subdeck compositions of your main deck is highly recommended.
After browsing through your current deck’s components and keeping an end in mind as far as its ultimate version is concerned, you should have a concrete idea of which subdecks need more cards. Prioritization should then be based on which pack exclusive cards can be obtained from the most.
4. Always Edit Your Deck When New Cards Arrive
Most especially at the early part of your journey towards saving the Marvel Universe, Marvel Duel provides a lot of opportunities for you to earn free cards on top of acquiring currencies needed to purchase additional ones. Although the starting deck is playable and can even earn you some wins with the right strategy, you should make it a habit to always upgrade your deck with new cards you have obtained.
You can actually create up to 9 new decks in addition to the starting deck and you can freely edit each one as you please. You can tap on the “Decks” button at the bottom of the screen and tap on the starting deck to edit its content or the “+” beside it to create a new deck.
You will notice that there are 4 icons at the top of the deck editing menu with 3 for specific heroes and an extra one for the neutral cards. Deck-building in Marvel Duel is actually made easier compared to most other CCGs. For one, there will not be any need to balance the ratio of associated costs in the deck as you need to choose 2 different cards per cost, ensuring balance as far as costs are concerned.
There is also a rule that you need to have at least 10 cards per subdeck, leaving a total minimum of 40 cards for the whole deck. Essentially, you will need to balance card types and consider card skills that are dependent or effective only to specific card types and abilities.
For starters as well, try to stick with the card type ratio that your starter deck initially had. This goes for how many hero cards there are, how many equipment, and so on. As you play in any game mode, you will notice instances when some of the card types you gravely need may not be available even after several shop refreshes. This should be indicative enough that you need to swap in more copies of those card types.
5. Test New Decks In Training Mode
Every session spent on editing your deck may impact its overall performance. Especially for beginners, there may be a huge disparity between how you would assume the revised or upgraded deck would perform as against how it actually would. Every insertion of a new card and subsequent increase in the number of cards in your deck will impact the probability of each card being drawn and displayed on the in-battle shop.
Although there is always RnG and the luck of draw, how you choose to insert more copies of some cards will have a noticeable effect on your deck’s performance. As such, it is best to take them out for a test run on the practice mode first.
Win or lose, there are no quantifiable rewards to be obtained from each training session. Basically, the only purpose it serves is to identify your deck’s strengths and weaknesses as you pit it against different types of decks. You can spend as many runs on practice as you want.
You can also skip it at any point if you feel that the time spent has sufficiently apprised you of the information you need as well as enlightened you on potential strategies you can use in an actual match. Once you are confident enough with your deck’s current setup, then it is time to move on the other game modes available in Marvel Duel.
6. Complete The Hero Trial For More Cards
At this point in time, you may already be itching to duel with other players and climb up the ranks. As you have potentially earned a lot of cards as well, more can still be earned by completing each hero trial in the game. The Hero Trial stands as one of 2 current game modes available in Marvel Duel.
You can access it via the Adventure banner at the lowerleft-most side of the main screen. In essence, it is the easier PvE game mode as you will only utilize one subdeck for matches and there will be instructions that make the duels seem like part of an extended tutorial.
Each hero trial is divided into 3 sessions. Each session completed earns you valuable cards specific to the hero’s subdeck and completing all 3 trials earns you card pack tickets. For heroes you have already unlocked, the rewards can definitely boost your collection and can empower your starting deck drastically.
For the rest, you will be one or a couple of steps closer to unlocking the other heroes’ starting decks. In any case, these trials only take a few minutes to complete. On top of the additional tips and strategies to learn from each of them, the rewards will jumpstart your overall card collection.
7. Push To Progress In The Challenge Mode
Unlike the Hero Trial that utilizes pre-built decks composed of only a specific hero subdeck, Challenge Mode serves as the game’s main story that you can progress in using your any of the decks you have built. The story’s dialogue, for one, is full of hilarity reminiscent of Marvel’s cinematic incarnations as well as the TV shows. As you make progress, you will also be immersed into the rationale behind the ensuing chaos that rattled every participating hero to join forces to save the universe.
Each chapter in the challenge mode is divided into 5 sub-chapters, each with its own unique rewards. Typically, the rewards you earn are proportionate to the relative difficulty of the battle and for the most part, the gradual increase in difficulty will serve as the next level of training you can go through to prepare your deck even further before jumping into the Duel Mode.
Marvel Duel’s challenge mode is unique in the sense that status of your in-game deck, deployed heroes, shop, and hero’s life continues on from one subchapter to the next. In essence, you will have to accomplish all 5 subchapters through and through much like a survival battle mode.
It can be tricky, but a good start goes a long way. Keep in mind that your hero will only have 10 life points to survive through 5 battles. As such, make sure to play a little more defensively to avoid enemies scraping away at your minimal life points.
8. Accomplish Quests To Earn More Rewards
Beyond the outright cards and currencies you obtain as a rewards for battles you engage in as you progress through each of Marvel Duel’s game modes, more are still in store for you if your time spend in the game is aligned with the activities outlined under the season quest feature. You can click on the Season Pass icon at the left side of the main screen to view different quests you can accomplish for extra coins and Medal EXP.
Note as well that as you earn Medal EXP and level up your account, More coins, crystals, pack vouchers, and even cards can be earned. You can reach up to level 50 per season and the best way to reach that level is to continue pushing to accomplish quest objectives.
There are growth quests, daily quests, challenge quests, and victory quests. Note that while each one outlines different objectives for you to complete, engaging in a single match can take you a step closer towards accomplishing more than one goal.
Playing normally without even consulting the quest list can surprisingly accomplish some of the listed objectives. However, be sure to browse through each of the available quests for you to accomplish and let the lists serve as your guide towards the subsequent activities to engage in.
After going through each of the tips and strategies we mentioned in our guide, you should be suitably ready to take on the next challenge ahead, which is to engage in a duel against other players. If you prefer, you can go for another training session by engaging in casual mode first before diving into ladder mode. In any case, do not lose hope if you lose some matches and try to learn from each one of them.
And that’s it for our Marvel Duel beginner’s guide. We certainly hope that you learned a bunch from the simple tips and strategies we shared and that you enjoyed reading through the article as well. Keep in mind that nothing really prevents you from spending as much time as you want to engage in matches, so be sure to ready yourself for a lot of immersive hours early on to jumpstart your adventure.
If you have played Marvel Duel extensively enough and chanced upon unique tips or strategies in addition to what we have shared, do not hesitate to drop us a line!