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Welcome to our new series, where we take a step back from the meta and explore some different brews players are cooking up. Criteria to qualify as an Off-Meta deck include:
- Decks can’t be used in the current meta (see our current meta rankings)
- This includes decks that only have 1 or 2 cards different from a meta list
- Decks that offer unique twists on an existing archetype
- Well known decks that fly under the radar or classic lists (like Cerebro)
- Completely fresh ideas
These decks are meant to be good enough to compete, but they may still struggle against the top meta performers. If you are looking to mix up the decks you play and want to try something new, you’ve come to the right place!
This week we are also featuring a Deck Building Challenge for our readers! The winner will recieve a special prize and be chosen by our special guest! I will get into the details at the end of this article. Let’s get started and dive into some great off-meta lists!
The Galactus Experience
Galactus has been one of the most infamous cards in Marvel Snap. His game play is extremely unique and can turn the tides of a game instantly. While the card recently got a small Power buff, this deck by reader Lunarlux_52 takes Galactus to a whole new level! They made a great write up of their deck, so below is their deck and description:
CanadianAlfredo
This deck serves the purpose of essentially four separate Galactus combos in one. The first one you want to try and pull of is one of the classics; Iron Fist, Shuri, Galactus (or Hobgoblin). This guarantees either a 12 Power Galactus, or a massive -16 Power Hobgoblin that your opponent may have a hard time getting rid of.
Second, there’s Iron Fist, Storm, War Machine, Hobgoblin, Galactus. The idea here is simple on paper: get Storm out of your Flooded lane and utilize War Machine‘s ability to Hobgoblin into Galactus in a lane that your opponent cannot play into.
The third and fourth strategies are very similar in practice; both require Limbo, Wong + Mystique, and, if you need it, Odin. The first will use Hazmat as the third card in your Wong lane. With this, any location with two cards is going down by at least 32 Power, which gives your Galactus more than enough room to do his thing. Alternatively, you can play Forge as your third card to guarantee a 38 Power Galactus. This is statistically less efficient in numbers, but it’s harder for your opponent to play around.
Explosive Cer3bro
Cerebro is a classic off-meta deck style. It usually is strong enough to compete and catch your opponent off guard, but it’s not always strong enough to beat the top meta decks consistently. This Cerebro deck tries a new angle with three power cards by using Black Swan.
CanadianAlfredo
You may see this list and ask yourself why use Black Swan with only two 1-Cost cards? This deck’s plan is to conceal its power until the last turn. You set up the board with Black Swan, Ravonna, Luke Cage, Sentinel, and Cosmo. On Turn 5, you can play out either Cerebro and Mystique or Iron Man (and make sure you activate Black Swan here). On the final turn, play both your 1-Cost cards for free, then steal a lane with your Valkyrie or play out your Iron Man + Mystique. You can also play Cerebro, Mystique, Sentinel, and both 1-Costs for a rapid power swing.
Cerebro 3 has lots of options available, so you could also cut Ravonna and go with the Bast route instead. You could also cut the Black Swan package in favor of Blue Marvel or a tech card like Shang-Chi or Killmonger. The deck itself has lots of play lines and lots of new tools. However you decide to modify your Cerebro 3 list, the deck is a fun way to mix up any meta.
A Curious Creation
This deck may look a bit more unique than other decks, but that’s the definition of off-meta! A fun idea that puts cards together you wouldn’t normally think about. This list comes from reader Fishyishyfishy!
The deck’s idea is to get high value from Mister Sinister using Araña and Symbiote Spider-Man. Ironheart allows you to buff Mister Sinister for extra value, as well as potentially Iron Man or Scarlet Spider.
Since you already have some movement cards involved here, the list also includes a small Move package with Madame Web, Vulture, and Miles Morales. Also, from the deck creator directly, you don’t need to include Black Widow; you should swap her with Nocturne if you own the card.
The deck itself is very unexpected, which can gain you plenty of surprise cubes. It’s kind of like an Arishem deck—if your opponent doesn’t know what to play against, you gain a massive advantage. The deck’s only tech option is Killmonger, which makes it a bit of a sandcastle deck. This means you aim to win by simply building a bigger sandcastle than your opponent can without interacting with their plans.
Reworking a Classic
Shuri Sauron decks used to be at the top of the meta, but they wre constantly nerfed until the deck all but disappeared. While the devs reverted some nerfs over time, the deck never really made a comeback. Despite losing popularity, the deck can still be quite strong—and it has some new tools that are worth exploring!
CanadianAlfredo
You begin with the classic shell: Shuri, Red Skull, and Taskmaster (with Typhoid Mary as a backup). Sauron allows you to remove the downsides from your big cards as well as allow you to play your Ebony Maw. Armor protects your big cards from Shang-Chi.
The new tools this deck leverages are Ravonna, Grand Master, and Skaar. It also brings back some lesser-used Shuri Sauron cards, She-Hulk and Invisible Woman. These additions allow you to create some fun changes in this classic deck. Ravonna allows you to play Shuri on Turn 3 and set up for a Typhoid Mary on Turn 4. She also allows you to play Shuri on Turn 4 and cleanly curve into She-Hulk on Turn 5. Invisible Woman allows you to play cards after Shuri without losing the double Power buff. You can also play your Ebony Maw out when Sauron doesn’t show up. In addition, Ravonna also allows Taskmaster to be played on Turn 5 (like he used to). This lets you hide him behind Invisible Woman or set up for a Turn 5 skip into She-Hulk+Taskmaster.
The idea behind Grand Master is to give you a second trigger on Shuri when Taskmaster doesn’t show up. On Turn 6, you can retrigger Shuri and follow up with Skaar, Ebony Maw, or Typhoid Mary. Outside of Shuri, Taskmaster is unfortunately a dead card outside of some niche tech options like Green Goblin clog. You could swap out Invisible Woman for Enchantress, but I find the flexibility of the former is worth losing a tech card.
Deck Building Challenge!
We are going to change things up a little this week. In the spirit of all things Off-Meta, we are having a deck building challenge for readers to take part in! Here’s the rules for this challenge:
- Deck must meet standard Off-Meta criteria (listed at the top of the page)
- Deck must include at least 2 of the following cards: Yellowjacket, Zero, M'Baku, Quake, Namor, Lockjaw, Red Skull, or Kang
- Arishem and Loki are the only banned cards
- Deck doesn’t have to be a totally new idea or deck, but bonus points if it is!
To make things interesting, whoever submits the best deck will be crowned the winner, and they will receive a free season pass! If you already have the season pass for We Are Venom, next season’s pass will be free!
To fairly judge this competition, we want to welcome our special judge, OrdinaryHarry! This popular content creator is known for his fun off-meta streams on Twitch! He also was the winner of Marvel Snap’s first Creator Clash, where he showed the world how strong Thanos really was and how to properly Snap your Mind Stone.
OrdinaryHarry will pick his favorite submissions and a few runner-ups. The chosen decks will be featured in the next Off-Meta edition, and the winner will be revealed! Submissions begin now and will close on October 19th at 9pm EST.
To submit your deck, simply leave your deck code in the comments! You can add a brief description on how to use the deck as well if you would like. Only decks submitted on this article will be considered. Be sure to tune in to OrdinaryHarry’s Stream, as many of your decks will be getting tested out on stream! Good luck to all contenders!
Wrap Up
That’s all for this week’s edition! What do you think about this Series? Do you have suggestions on how to improve future editions or future deck building challenges? Do you have an off-meta deck to share? Let us know in the comments!
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