Archetype pages are updated after each Tier List is made. If a page isn’t up-to-date, it means there was nothing worth mentioning in the last report, either because there was no data about the archetype or it did poorly.
Ranked Performance
den
The best deck from the second half of last season has kept its throne heading into the new year. This week it was backed by Iron Patriot, as well as the new addition of Rocket and Groot.
In the last season, Toxic mostly leveraged its ability to bully Doctor Doom 2099 in order to to rack up some cubes. While the 4-Cost is still quite popular, the other recent additions help the deck to simply develop points, which gives it a better shot against archetypes that are not weak to the affliction synergy.
At a 65.5% Win Rate, Toxic is just an overall great deck.
Conquest Performance
Toxic managed to keep its throne in the Ranked mode, but it failed to accomplish the same in Conquest and only managed to look like an average deck. At a 57% Win Rate, it is difficult to explain the big loss of momentum for Hazmat and Ajax. I think the most probable answer is that Doctor Doom 2099 lost a lot of popularity in Conquest, which removed a great match up for Toxic.
How to Play
The Toxic archetype gets its name from cards that afflict your opponent’s cards with negative power, such as Hazmat, Man-Thing, and U.S. Agent. Coupled with Luke Cage, these effects become one-sided and much stronger. Not only will these cards lower your opponent’s total power, they will also beef up Ajax, a card that can routinely challenge for a location on its own in this deck. In addition to this power manipulation core are strong standalone cards that help the deck develop enough points to contest locations when key cards like Luke Cage, Hazmat, and Ajax don’t show up.
At the core of the Toxic strategy are two key concepts:
- Manipulate priority to maximize the power of Hazmat, Red Guardian, and other such cards while also dodging counter cards like Cosmo and Alioth.
- Anticipate your opponent’s points output, whether that’s the amount or, more importantly, the location. If you can guess which locations your opponent can or cannot be beat, you will gain the ability to be much more precise with your power afflictions.
Typically, Toxic shines in metas with predictable opponents or decks that try to flood the board with cards. That second category will typically make your Hazmat and either Man-Thing or U.S. Agent (depending on which cards they use) incredibly strong for their cost.
Archetype Evolution Over Time
- Toxic is in a great place, routinely challenging for the top spot in our weekly Tier List for the past month.
This section was reset at the start of 2025 with the Dark Avengers season.
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