Table of Contents
As the Over The Air patches start becoming a regular occurrence on Thursdays, this series is looking more exciting than ever! Indeed, as the game gets more dynamic due to the changes, hitting Infinite soon after the OTA patch goes live should give a lot more credit to the deck.
I used to emphasize comfort with a deck a ton, saying how playing a deck you were extremely familiar with was probably a good idea for someone without a good grasp on how the metagame works. Now, with the weekly changes, players will be forced to adapt one way or another. At worst, their favorite deck might suffer a nerf, the same way Electro Ramp has lost quite some power and popularity after the last changes. At best, someone’s favorite archetype will be buffed, and they might rack up cubes incredibly fast until the rest of the players catch up on the new best deck. On average, though, even those playing an archetype that was not involved in the patch at all should have to adapt to the new environment. As such, one way or another, everyone needs to rethink their strategy after a balance update.
Today, this is exactly what we will look at: The various strategies players have used in order to reach the Infinite rank. From those who kept going with their beloved archetype to those abusing the newly buffed (and possibly the best decks in the metagame), everyone seemed to have their own way to climb through the last ranks of the ladder.
Bring on the spice!
Play Your Own Deck!
den
This first entry happened just before the OTA, but it is exactly what I’m trying to highlight in this series: Deckbuilding is incredibly rewarding when one accepts to give it a try.
In this variant of the Valkyrie Control deck, LaurenWhatever crafted a game plan where the deck could both function with or without priority:
- 1. Win a locked-down lane
- 2. Control T6 priority
- 3. Win with Juggernaut (with priority) or Valkyrie (without priority)
In this short resume of what the deck is trying to do, we only have two cards mentioned: Juggernaut and Valkyrie. It could seem like a ton of information is missing, but in reality, all the important pieces you have to know are there.
- The situation you are trying to create with the aim to win a locked-down lane
- You should focus on priority going into Turn 6
- The cards to look for in order to adapt your plan (Juggernaut and Valkyrie)
I’m sure LaurenWhatever could have explained the game plan being the deck in much more detail, but it wouldn’t be necessary in order to reach the Infinite rank. Indeed, climbing the ladder is a combination of your level of play and the time you are able to invest into your climb. The more information you include, the higher your level of play should be, leading to a faster climb (on paper). Still, with more information to remember, the less time you will be able to play at your highest level of play because you will have to maintain a huge level of focus to do so.
This is where two to three bullets points are perfect. They represent enough information for one to be able to play the deck to a decent enough level to climb, while also representing enough information in order to be able to make deductions about the rest of the game plan. This way you’re not exhausted after thirty minutes because you had to remember ten different things going into each game. The human brain is an incredibly well oiled machine, and it’s capable of making quick deductions if you give it something to start building upon.
So let’s ditch the super complex things. Remember the fundamentals and let your own logic fill in the blanks. You’ll be amazed at the results.
Build To Your Strengths!
den
“The Thanos X Darkhawk deck is a formidable counter to other Thanos decks, thanks to the presence of Darkhawk. The recent nerf to Sandman has allowed for more favorable matchmaking, with Ramp being less prevalent.
The Sera control match up is quite challenging, but if you can set up your Professor X on Turn 4 and a Spider-Man on Turn 5, the match will turn in your favor. If not, you need to retreat, as the new Enchantress is formidable against you.
The principle of the deck is either to win through your classic core of Darkhawk (Darkhawk/Mystique/Korg/Rock Slide) or by blocking lanes (Spider-Man/Professor X) through your Ramp via the Time Stone. During my Infinite grind, I Snapped as soon as I had the Time Stone on Turn 3, or as soon as I had Zabu. The deck is still a bit greedy, so don’t hesitate to concede if your first few turns aren’t very good, and conversely, Snap very early if you have your key cards in hand.”
These are the words of Chupa, creator of this deck, and now a proud owner of a nice Infinite card back. In addition to this explanation, I also wanted to highlight something that was said during our discussions: “this deck is incredibly greedy, but it made it easy to know when to Snap and Retreat”.
For a little backstory, I coached Chupa for an hour last week, and they mentioned they were afraid to Snap and barely did so during their games. During the session, it quickly appeared that the problem wasn’t the fact that they didn’t know when they were going to win or not. Instead, Chupa was constantly focusing on what could go wrong and would always find a pattern where the opponent could beat them, even if it was a very unlikely scenario.
Through building this greedy deck, Chupa managed to fight this fear of Snapping. Not because the deck is the best in the game – it won’t win every time. Rather, because the deck was offering simple play patterns where Chupa could see how they could lock the opponent out of any possible solution, dismantling the habit to always look for what could go wrong in the process.
Combo Decks Get a New Lease On Life After Sandman’s Nerf!
den
Every time someone reaches out to me on discord to share their accomplishment, I always ask if they want to write a little blurb about their build to include in the article. Most people write a few lines, almost feeling like they don’t deserve it. Snoww, on the other end, was really eager to share his deck and write as much as possible about it.
I know I said a few bullet points are perfect in order to get only the most important information in mind, but I wasn’t going to pass on a complete guide either.
Giant Manipulation, by Snoww
This deck is about using Stature and She-Hulk‘s abilities to reduce their costs to one on Turn 6 to then have a Turn 6 that is both aggressive in power and defensive with our 4-cost control cards.
Pros:
- Flexibility in many situations
- Can completely negate combos against some decks
- Lots of power on Turn 6 – huge surprise factor as we give priority to the opponent
Cons:
- Requires a lot of experience to Snap and Retreat properly
- Randomness exists because of Moon Knight
- Dependent on combo outs
Cards in the deck:
- Sunspot: It is our way to guarantee we don’t lose value if we have to spend a turn for She-Hulk or early while waiting for one of our combos.
- Iceman: A card to break opposing decks, allows instant retreat of Electro Ramp or Galactus decks depending on the card that was hit.
- Colleen Wing: This card has two uses: combo with Swarm to get ten power for a cost of two, or to discard a useless card from our hand to give Moon Girl room.
- Swarm: This card is there to be used by Colleen, but it also can be a discard target by Moon Knight.
- Mister Fantastic: Allows us to reach locations that are inaccessible to our deck because there is no move or cloning mechanic in this deck.
- Moon Knight: It is one of the Stature triggers, plus it allows us to potentially discard a key card of the opponent.
Shang=Chi : One of the best control cards. Allows you to deal with creatures that beat our Statures or She-Hulks. With a cost of four, it can be played with two She-Hulks or two Statures on Turn 6.- Moon Girl: A key card in the deck that allows us to double our Stature or She-Hulk to make our Turn 6 unmanageable for the opponent.
- Enchantress: Management card for the current meta, she is a win condition against Devil Darkhawk, Patriot Ultron, and Thanos Ongoing. With the recent buff, it’s a powerhouse to play it with double She-Hulk for a total of 24 power and Ongoing negate!
- Black Bolt: Stature‘s main trigger, it also gets rid of the opponent’s combo cards or bounce cards like Hit Monkey and Deadpool.
- Stature: One of the two win conditions of the deck. It allows you to play seven power for one energy if an opponent has discarded a card. Stature is one of the cards we definitely want to duplicate with Moon Girl.
- She-Hulk: Another win condition of the deck, this one allows an impressive power output on Turn 6 at nine power for one energy. As with Stature, we definitely want to duplicate this card on Turn 4 with Moon Girl.
The combos of the decks: For this part I will group the combos of two or three cards together, but it is possible to merge these combos during a game.
- Sunspot + Moon Girl + She-Hulk + Turn 5 pass = 18 power + Shang-Chi or Enchantress
- Moon Girl + Stature + Black Bolt or Moon Knight = 14 power + Shang-Chi or Enchantress
- Colleen Wing + Swarm = 10 power for two energy
- Colleen Wing + Swarm + Moon Knight = 16 power and -1 card in the opponent’s hand for five energy, if our Moon Knight discards a Swarm
- Sunspot + pass Turn 5 + She-Hulk = 14 power for one energy on Turn 6
Snap:
- Moon Girl + She-Hulk
- Moon Girl + Stature activated
- Moon Girl + Stature + Black Bolt
- Colleen Wing + Swarm + Moon Knight (if it discards a Swarm)
- Black Bolt or Moon Knight discarding an opponent’s key card
Enchantress and Discard Decks Are This Week’s Diversity Batch Superstars!
den
Tmage reached Infinite on Friday the 28th during a coaching session with den with DoomWave. They are not using Twitter, so no links to provide for this one.
Closing Words
The last week of the season is always a very busy one for the Infinite rank; it’s typically the time when the most players finish their climb. As usual, I want to congratulate all of those who reached their goal for the season and cheer for those who will try to make it in the last few days before the May 2023 Season – Guardians Greatest Hits start on Tuesday at 3 AM GMT.
Up until this point, the important thing to consider for someone looking to grind the ladder were the hot and featured locations. They will typically have a big impact on your climb as the balance of the metagame is completely off during those days. Most of the time, the community splits into two categories regarding those locations: Some are looking to abuse them to boost their climb, while others will take a break from the game to avoid losing too much to a deck they don’t enjoy seeing way too often.
I expect the OTA patches to have a similar impact. Those with their favorite deck positively impacted by the changes will aggressively try to abuse this new environment before everyone else catches up. Conversely, the players who just got their favorite deck stripped of an important piece should consider taking a small break while they let the metagame develop and see which deck might suit them now.
I am a big fan of pushing people to adapt in card games, and Marvel Snap is built to reward the players able to do it consistently. With the addition of weekly changes, players have yet another event in the week to prepare for, and they can’t count on being able to spam the same overpowered deck for a full season. In such a situations, knowing your own strengths and weaknesses will be key in adapting quickly and protecting your cubes while you learn about the new environment.
To stay up to date with the changes and have an idea about what others might be doing, you can join our community Discord and discuss with players of all ranks and play styles! You can also follow me on Twitter, where I share a deck per day and discuss Marvel Snap with the community.
Good Game Everyone.
