Early on in Grand Arena, four champions have proven their worth and four have struggled to get off the ground. You’ll find Doctor Doom, Mister Fantastic, H.E.R.B.I.E., and Human Torch First Steps in the top group, while The Thing First Steps, Mole Man, Invisible Woman, and Carnage are not doing as well.
Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic battled for the top spot for most of the first day. The former represents the more flexible decks, powered by a spell used to summon Agatha Harkness on Turn 2 and backed up by counter cards for the other popular synergies. On the other hand, Mister Fantastic focused solely on the Ongoing synergy and developing more points than anyone without Enchantress could beat.
As time passed, H.E.R.B.I.E. slowly took over, beating both Doctor Doom and Mister Fantastic to be the best. On day 2, the robot basically turned Grand Arena into the same Marvel Snap we play in Ranked: dominated by Good Cards and Silver Surfer.
Who could have guessed Mister Fantastic First Steps on Turn 1 would be good?
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier S | [H.E.R.B.I.E.] Good Cards Control 72% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | [H.E.R.B.I.E.] Buff Surfer 63.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | [Mister Fantastic] Ongoing Combo 63% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | [Doctor Doom] Ramp Control 63% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | [Human Torch First Steps] Silver Surfer 61.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | [H.E.R.B.I.E.] On Reveal 61.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | [H.E.R.B.I.E.] Sera Control 60.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | [Human Torch First Steps] Good Cards Buff 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | [Mister Fantastic] Toxic 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | [H.E.R.B.I.E.] KaZoo 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | [H.E.R.B.I.E.] Clog 59.5% Win Rate |
Bummed your favorite champion is not part of this early Tier List? Here are the top performing builds for each of the four champions left out of these rankings:
den
Performance: 57.5% Win Rate
den
Performance: 57.5% Win Rate
Performance: 56.5% Win Rate
den
Performance: 55.5% Win Rate
If you need some pointers on how to optimize your time to collect Mole Man and Mad Thinker, LaurenWhatevs wrote a great guide on the economy of the mode that answers all your questions.
Tier S
[H.E.R.B.I.E.] Good Cards Control
den
Performance: 72% Win Rate
We usually get at least a day or two to enjoy synergistic shenanigans before this type of deck comes in to crash the party. But because something extremely similar is already dominating the Marvel Snap Ladder, there was a deck ready to go as soon as the mode got released.
Grab priority and keep your Alioth and Cosmo close to stand a chance. The other alternative is to find a way to cheat enough energy to play all your important cards on Turn 6.
Tier 1
[H.E.R.B.I.E.] Buff Surfer
den
Performance: 63.5% Win Rate
I’m surprised the deck managed to post such a high win rate with only Red Guardian as a disruptive piece. Yet, I have no doubt this build of Silver Surfer will outpoint most opponents when the game is a points’ competition. With Enchantress picking up momentum, Cosmo will probably need to join the deck in the near future.
[Mister Fantastic] Ongoing Combo
den
Performance: 63% Win Rate
If you can dodge Enchantress, either with Cosmo or by keeping your key cards in hand to play them flexibly on the last turn, this deck packs the highest potential in the mode. Unfortunately, you have to assume every opponent is running Enchantress, and the mirror usually packs Super-Skrull.
[Doctor Doom] Ramp Control
den
Performance: 63% Win Rate
This had been the best deck for a bit, but then Good Cards Control took over. The idea here is to let Agatha Harkness play herself on Turn 2 every time thanks to the champion spell you play on Turn 1. From there, all you have to do is play a Sera Control style deck with a few high-cost follow ups available.
Tier 2
[Human Torch] Silver Surfer
den
Performance: 61.5% Win Rate
Human Torch First Steps has two decks, Silver Surfer and Good Cards, and both are posting solid results. Unfortunately, H.E.R.B.I.E. is posting better results with both archetypes, which means you should probably only pick this deck for personal preferences.
However, seeing Silver Surfer twice in the top 5 is a testament to how good the archetype is in Grand Arena.
[H.E.R.B.I.E.] On Reveal
den
Performance: 61.5% Win Rate
If the Ongoing decks disappear because of too much Enchantress, this deck could improve in the future since Cosmo might go away. Otherwise, every Ongoing deck will pack the 3-Cost, and Alioth is part of a few other archetypes. That all limits this deck’s ability to develop and leverage Wong.
[H.E.R.B.I.E.] Sera Control
den
Performance: 60.5% Win Rate
As time passed, this deck lost a bit of momentum because Cosmo and Alioth became popular in decks looking to deny counter cards. Without those two, this deck is capable of turning most games around. Sera on Turn 4 plus the champion spell on Turn 5 means you enter Turn 6 with nine energy and all your cards are discounted. It is quite usual to be able to play your entire hand in that scenario.
[Human Torch] Good Cards Buff
den
Performance: 60% Win Rate
In the same way that H.E.R.B.I.E. is posting better results in Surfer, the 2-Cost is also beating Human Torch First Steps in the Good Cards archetype. Even though the champion spell costs two more energy, it just does so many more things. Plus, despite Human Torch First Steps on Turn 2 being a great play, there are so many strong cards for three energy that you rarely take advantage of your champion.
[Mister Fantastic] Toxic
den
Performance: 60% Win Rate
If the Cosmo + Alioth duo keeps getting popular, Toxic could become a good pick for disruptive players. Indeed, this is one of the rare synergies that is able to impact a location by playing somewhere else, which makes it much harder to figure out how and when to counter Hazmat.
Mister Fantastic First Steps is solely included for its champion spell because it gives you a way to cheat some energy and possibly get Sera out on Turn 3.
Tier 3
[H.E.R.B.I.E.] KaZoo
den
Performance: 59.5% Win Rate
With a full collection, I feel like there are so many better decks than KaZoo—especially with Enchantress keeping Mister Fantastic First Steps‘s Ongoing deck in check. I would probably look at this as a solid option for players who are still in Pool 3, and you can just replace Hawkeye Kate Bishop, Marvel Boy, and Gilgamesh with whatever you have available.
[H.E.R.B.I.E.] Clog
Performance: 59.5% Win Rate
Destroy has failed to be a part of the great performers early on, and it should lose even more popularity as time passes. Clog will probably follow the opposite path and progress with time as an under-the-radar synergy. A lot of decks are trying to be flexible and wait until Turn 6 to explode onto the board, and Clog is a great way to punish them for not playing proactively enough.
That’s it for this early look at Grand Arena ! To reach out, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or shoot me a direct message (@den_ccg) for specific stuff or coaching.
Good Game Everyone.
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