After nine rounds of swiss and three final bracket matches, Derek0768 emerged victorious in the Golden Gauntlet using a rather typical Bounce deck.
To earn this milestone victory, Derek won twelve matches in a row, going undefeated in both parts of the tournament. Joining them in the Top 8 were all the players with eight wins and the player with the best tiebreakers among the seven wins players, Owi.
There were 21 players at seven wins by the end of the swiss, meaning a total of 28 players were in that qualifying range. Among them, 12 players were on Thanos (most of them using the Control build), which firmly established the dominance of the Mad Titan in the current competitive environment.
Joining Thanos in that elite group were five Move decks (three of them Bounce, the other two Scream) and three Clog decks. Surprisingly, there were no players on Toxic, although one Thanos deck had Toxic elements included. There was also just one Silver Surfer build in the top performing archetypes.
With that said, it looks like the Golden Gauntlet was an affair of who can beat Thanos. Well, let’s take a long look at the decks that managed to do so!
Buttsquad Pixie Hulkling Cook
Marvel Snap Zone
This build easily takes the crown when it comes to creativity and spice. Its presence in the top four was enough to spark everyone’s interest and give it a try.
Over the course of the tournament, Buttsquad only lost two matches. First on round nine against the future winner Derek0768, and then in the semifinals against Derek0768 again. That means Buttsquad must have won all their matches against Thanos on Saturday. They faced five of them, and some were piloted by well-known players such as Johnson. This was an undeniable top performance, so we have to ask ourselves: what makes this deck strong against Thanos?
First, there is Killmonger, which is a great card for limiting both Strange Supreme‘s and Mockingbird‘s synergy with the Infinity Stones. I would also venture an early Magneto can be quite painful since the 3-Cost cards in the Thanos deck don’t hold much power. If Cosmo, Red Guardian, and Mobius M. Mobius were to be dragged onto a location with some stones, Thanos would be stuck with a lost location that Magneto alone could be able to win. Of course, that only works if Surge or Pixie discounted Magneto so you can play it before Turn 6.
Most Thanos decks were running Mobius M. Mobius, a staple card at the moment. I believe that particular interaction must be key for this cook to function, as cheating energy seems to be the core of its strategy.
Clog
Marvel Snap Zone
With three representatives at the top, Clog was the second most represented deck, tied with Bounce Move. Up until the end of last season, Clog was widely regarded as a strong deck against Thanos, but then the arrival of Strange Supreme changed that dynamic a bit. Still, it seems like the deck still holds a favorable match up against the Mad Titan.
- Owi: 4 – 0 against Thanos
- Yakublevich: 1 – 1 against Thanos (the defeat was a 1-0 loss in round 9, which kept Yakublevich out of top 8 contention… brutal)
- Sakamakuame: 1 – 1 against Thanos
Overall, the top performers with Clog went 6-2 against Thanos, with the only one in top 8, Owi, sweeping the big purple guy four to nothing.
I’m sure Strange Supreme made life a little harder for Clog, yet it seems like the card didn’t make Thanos that good in that particular match up. Clog can still Snap whenever Strange Supreme isn’t around early anyway. Plus, Shadow King made an appearance in Owi’s build, ready to cancel all the power Strange Supreme gained during the course of the match.
Bounce Move
Marvel Snap Zone
Sizer5654’s pet deck for a very long time, Bounce Move has been alternating from a great deck to the target of Scream and Killmonger. Over nine rounds, it was extremely likely that you were going to meet these two threats a couple of times. As such, I feel like the deck was a bit of a risk to bring to this tournament since you would have to go 8-1 to guarantee a spot in the top 8 (or be the top 7-2 performer).
With three players managing to go 7-2 or better, Bounce Move was tied for the second most represented deck in that qualifying range, which shows that it was indeed a solid pick.
- Sizer: 3 – 0 against Thanos (and won his sole match against Scream)
- Zwinge: 1 – 1 against Thanos and another tie with decks including Killmonger; the loss was to Buttsquad
- Husky: 1 – 1 against Thanos but 2 – 0 against decks that included Killmonger
Overall, the three main threats in the meta for Bounce Move all ended as ties or in favor of the Move deck when you look at the top performing players. This further solidifies the idea that Bounce Move is mostly a skill challenge, one that can only be solved through putting in the time to learn all its intricacies.
Pure Bounce
Marvel Snap Zone
Is Derek0768 so good that they managed to go 12-0 with an average deck, or is Bounce secretly OP? I want to say both, but I also have to provide a little warning.
First, let’s touch on the most popular disruptive cards in the game at the moment and how Bounce interacts with them.
- Cosmo and Mobius M. Mobius feel annoying. The first one cancels all your important On Reveal abilities on a location, and the second because it stops Beast from discounting your cards.
- Shang-Chi and Enchantress should be non factors against Bounce because you can often keep their targets in hand until the last turn.
Against Thanos, I feel like Bounce has a solid chance. It should typically lose one, maybe two cubes because of Cosmo, but I would expect it to be in a good spot in games that go the distance thanks to its explosive firepower in the later turns.
With Clog and Bounce Move as the other decks in the top 8, I would favor Bounce against Clog. You can pick up certain cards to deny the space limiting part of Clog, and that deck doesn’t have much other than Shadow King to stop Bounce’s excellent points potential. Against Bounce Move there should be a points fiesta on both sides, but these two did not meet since Sizer lost in the other semi-finals. That could be a fun match up to test.
Now, there is one card that was missing from this tournament that appeared in our latest Ranked report: Sandman in Thanos Ongoing.
In the Top 8, the only Thanos Ongoing deck was played by 121Eggy, who sported a traditional list with Caiera and Super-Skrull as the flexible inclusions Blue Marvel was in the 5-Cost slot, just like in all Thanos Ongoing decks up until this week.
I believe Derek0768’s pick is a good one as long as you’re able to navigate the Thanos match up. However, I don’t know if the performance would be simple to replicate on the Ladder if the Sandman trend gains momentum.
Exotic 7–2 Decks
There’s going to be an OTA on Thursday, so who knows what the last part of the season will look like. But if you’re looking to test new decks before then, here are some ideas to explore among the players who barely missed the Top 8 on Saturday.
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