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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
- This includes decks that only have 1 or 2 cards different from a meta list
- Unique twists on an existing archetype
- Well known decks that fly under the radar or classic lists (like Cerebro)
- Completely fresh idea
These decks are meant to be good enough to compete with, but may still struggle against the top meta performers. If you are looking to mix up the decks you are playing and want to try something new, you’ve come to the right place! Without further ado, let’s get into it!
New Cards Can Be Off Meta
Our first deck highlight for this week comes from community member Wasterdude! This is his favorite off-meta deck, featuring a fairly new card, Wiccan! This deck is essentially an alternate take on a traditional Sunspot + The Infinaut deck. Your aim is to use energy ramp from Wiccan and Hope Summers to pump up your Sunspot, as well as give you flexibility on where to slam down your big cards late game.
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If you’re wondering where The Infinaut is, this list prefers to use Red Hulk. This let’s you still play your big card without requiring a full turn 5 skip. The use of Spider-Ham helps to support Red Hulk by restricting your opponent’s best play options on curve. Nico gives the deck some flexibility, as well as give you an option to destroy your The Hood for draw. Snowguard gives you some location flexibility in matches, as well as help give cards to keep your curve strong for Wiccan. Caiera and Marvel Boy help you to support your 1-Cost cards, as well as give some extra snowballing Power.
The Classic
That last deck got me feeling nostalgic for an old favorite of mine. If you are a veteran player, this used to be a popular deck in Snap’s first months of live play. This is a Dracula dump deck! The idea here is to empty your hand on turn 6, leaving only your The Infinaut for Dracula to discard. The deck quickly got out paced with new card releases. Since then, we have gotten a ton of new abilities to play with, and balance changes to make old cards better. I have a soft spot for this deck, and this list actually was able to compete during my testing.
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Your key cards here are Dracula and Strong Guy. You can use these to hide your true power potential. The Infinaut has a partner now in the form of Red Hulk. This gives Dracula a backup target to hit, as well as a simply 6-Cost you can play on turn 6 without needing to skip turn 5. With Caiera now avaliable, you have more flexibility on where to station your cards and not worry about Killmonger. Nico gives you a ton of options to adapt your gameplay. Nebula can passively gain you Power when you can play on curve. Goose lets you fight for a location with your smaller cards a bit easier, while Dracula can fight for a second location. And Jeff is just a solid, flexible card that gives you options.
You have 2 play lines with this deck. First, play out your 1-Cost cards like Sunspot, Nebula, or Nico (where appropriate). Protect them with Caiera, and set your board up with Strong Guy and/or Dracula. Skip turn 5 to power up Sunspot, as well as prep the final turn. Turn 6, you can dump your hand by playing one of your Red Hulk, or using your small cards like Ant-Man, Rocket Racoon, Jeff. Dracula will discard your remaining card, giving that Power to him and empowering Strong Guy.
For option 2, you can use the classic Sunspot into The Infinaut on turn 6. Dracula can be used as a fake out or a distraction. If you set up a Dracula to his own location, your opponent likely will either abandon the location, or invest their resources there to contest it. Since most of your Power comes from a end-game Power dump, you get flexibility on if you should support the Dracula or abandon it. You can also simply play the Dracula or Strong Guy on turn 6 during your hand dump for more flexibility.
The deck itself has its bad draws, as well as it’s high rolls. The great feature of the deck is that you know when to finish a match, or when to bail out. You have a clear plan that is easy to predict if it’s worth staying, snapping, or retreating. If you haven’t tried the archetype before, I would highly recommend giving it a shot!
The Return of Lockdown?
This deck comes from community member Boof! For their favorite deck, we see the return of a lost archetype: Lockdown. After the nerf of Professor X, lockdown decks took a huge hit. With the addition of Nocturne and decks utilizing move cards to power up Angela, the lockdown style basically disappeared. This deck brings back that archetype by utilizing some of Snap’s best cards.
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Of course I mean Thena, Nebula, and Kitty Pryde. These cards are what bring Power to this deck. You can always shut a location down with Storm, but you are basically required to win that location to win the match. Nebula and Thena can both help ensure you have enough Power to scale up passively to win your Flooded location. To help lockdown a second location, you can use Goose to severely limit what options your opponent has. To further hinder their ability to stop you, Mobius can prevent them from discounting cards to duck under Goose. U.S. Agent can punish any big cards that make their way into your key locations, or he can help you aggressively take a new location by surprise. This deck doesn’t run any cards that cost more than 3, so you never have to worry about his effect.
Kitty Pryde serves a double purpose here. She can activate Angela repeatedly, letting you put pressure on your location with Goose. She also helps to proc Thena by always giving you a second card to play. With such low costing cards, you should always be able to end the match playing Kitty Pryde if she manages to grow to a high Power.
Nocturne, Cosmo, and Echo give you some counter ability. Echo and Cosmo can severely limit what your opponent can do to counter your strategy. Nocturne can flip a location to your favor, stop a turn 7 Limbo, or even reopen Flooded if something went wrong and you need to fight for it again.
Three Decks in One?
Our final deck this week comes from community member Aerisawesome! Can’t decide what kind of deck you want to play? Wishing you had more options in a match? Feel like the matchmaking is matching you against counter decks? Well this deck is what you need! You essentially are getting 3 card packages that can independently work to win you matches. You also get a few tech options for that extra flexibility!
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Your first package is with Hazmat, Cassandra Nova, and Ajax. These cards synergize well to give Ajax maximum Power for little investment. Luke Cage isn’t very popular right now, making this a good option. Cassandra gives you a huge advantage over the widely popular Arishem decks.
Package number 2 contains Thor, Beta Ray Bill, and Jane Foster Mighty Thor. These 3 cards make for a perfect turn 3, 4, and 5 curve. While you aren’t using Odin here, you are still getting a strong value out of only a 3 card investment in your deck. The 0-Cost hammers also give you options to play other packages or tech options on turn 6.
The final package is Magik, She-Hulk, and The Infinaut. The Infinaut decks were very popular in the comments last week, and this deck is no exception. This classic combo let’s you skip turn 6 for a huge turn 7 Power slam. If you happen to have some hammers to play, that Power slam gets even crazier.
When you combine these 3 packages with Sera, Shang-Chi, and Shadow King, you get a very flexible (and unpredictable) deck to surprise your opponent’s. Just be careful with that Shadow King, since he can eliminate Cassandra Nova‘s buffs, or lower Ajax‘s buff by resetting other card’s negative Power.
How Can You Sumbit a Deck?
If you are a fan of the series and want to share your favorite off Meta Deck, share it with us! In the comments below, tell us your favorite deck and a brief description on how to play it. We will pick decks from your comments and feature them in next week’s edition! Just make sure your deck follows the off-meta criteria listed at the top of this article.
Wrap Up
That’s all for this week’s edition! What do you think about this new Series? Do you have an off-meta deck to share? Let us know in the comments!
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