Infinite Decks of the Week – February 26, 2022: Was Sandman’s Buff Really a Nerf?

A few days ago, Second Dinner pulled the good ol’ Surprise Balance Patch trick on us, changing six cards out of the blue. Among these six cards were two powerhouses of the current metagame: Thanos and Darkhawk. Also included was an unused disruptive tool, Sandman, which was changed from a 4|1 to a 5|5, creating quite the buzz in the community as the card finally seemed playable.

So far, Sandman has mostly been paired with Electro as the two work really well in a ramp oriented deck alongside expensive cards. Going into this week’s installment, I was eager to find what the community had prepared with Sandman and if anyone managed to reach the Infinite rank with the card. I am a little sad to not have any to report, unfortunately. Lists with Sandman do exist, and I have even tried some myself (I think they have a lot of merit currently) using Electro or in an Ongoing shell.

When it comes to decks shared by players breaking the final rank on the ladder, though, it seems the usual suspects kept being dominant after the patch. Indeed, Lockjaw Thanos, Shuri Zero, and Zabu Darkhawk haven’t lost a step with the patch and keep on dominating the competitive ranks.

Today, let’s review if any of these decks have underdone any changes and whether the patch could have any lasting impact on their current reign of terror.

Lockjaw now includes Doctor Doom

Krizaey M

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

9

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

4.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Maybe one of the biggest impacts Sandman has had on the recent environment is pushing Doctor Doom back in the spotlight as a great 6-cost card. Aero was already sending Doctor Doom into contention for popular 6-costs, but it was usually edged out by cards worth more points in the Lockjaw Thanos build. It seems like the return of Sandman was the last shove Doctor Doom needed.

With Blue Marvel already included in the deck, the card honestly just makes a lot of sense, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it stay even if the metagame changes. In the end, Lockjaw is incredible at cheating a lane, but developing power on the other two isn’t always simple to do with only six turns available. Doctor Doom is a great answer to this problem in the deck and probably should have been included before Sandman made its comeback.

For a deck many are wondering how to counter, watching it evolve and adapt to new environments so easily is a little scary. It could just be that the metagame hasn’t changed enough yet for Thanos Lockjaw players to be worried, or maybe the deck really is that good.

Shuri Zero did not change a thing

Brendan Cohen

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

6

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Shuri Zero would likely be the best deck in the game if its play patterns weren’t so common and counterable. Truthfully, the deck still being so dominant while literally everyone in the metagame runs Shang-Chi and Aero is downright scary. Armor and Cosmo appear to have taken over Sauron, which is definitely not worth investing the 6,000 tokens in order to play a refined build of Shuri Zero. Sauron still makes a ton of sense in the deck, but it doesn’t seem necessary to cancel Red Skull‘s ability to win games in a lot of situations. Instead, keeping your 30 power card protected is of the utmost priority.

With the patch, Shuri Zero has changed absolutely nothing to how it is built. Sure, Sandman could occasionally counter the pass on five, She-Hulk plus Taskmaster on six play pattern, but there are a few reasons it isn’t happening for now:

• Electro makes Sandman come down on turn four, so you go into your turn five with information on whether you can safely pass or not.
• The She-Hulk play pattern only happens when you don’t have Red Skull in hand in the Armor and Cosmo builds. With that in mind, you are already being careful and not snapping as the Shuri Zero player in that spot.
• Whenever Shuri Zero plays Shuri on turn four and snaps, it often leads to the opponent retreating rather than thinking are safe because they have Sandman. The card is better, but not to a point where you can counter snap one of the best decks in the game because of it.

Similar to Lockjaw Thanos, it is hard to picture what can shake Shuri Zero apart from a direct nerf to the deck. It seems like we already have most of the tools to face it, and a lot of players are even using these tools; still, ever since the deck started including Cosmo and Armor, it has been more budget friendly, more resilient to Shang-Chi and Aero, and, frankly, more unstoppable.

Did Darkhawk really get nerfed?

Attack on Geek

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

3

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Last on our list this week, we have the quieter deck of the dominant trio, Zabu Darkhawk. First, it is quite ironic that this deck was nerfed and the other two were left untouched (buffed, even), but the devs already told us these changes were locked in a while ago, before the Zabu and Silver Surfer nerf. Back then, Zabu Darkhawk was by far the best deck in the game, and it more than proved itself at the start of the season when two players used it to climb back to the Infinite rank in a few hours after the reset.

With a base power of zero, Darkhawk now definitely needs its best friends Korg and Rockslide, but still feels very good in a dedicated deck. It obviously is far from the deck it was in January with the old Zabu ruling Marvel Snap, but it does still represent a great core to build around. In the tweet below, we can see two different builds with Darkhawk as a points centerpiece in both, demonstrating how versatile the card can be.

Particularly in the Sera Control Build, Darkhawk makes a lot of sense as a way to challenge the opponent with points rather than stay locked into a reactive stance in every single game.

Arguably, this is the build that could be the most impact by Sandman returning to some degree of popularity, as the card is a notorious counter to Sera. We’ll see how that looks we take a deeper dive in the data in the next Tier List.

Closing Words

The surprise balance patch carried a lot of fears, such as Thanos receiving more power, but just as many promises with the Sandman revamp. After a few days, the reality has been made clear: not much has changed in the grand scheme of things for those done collecting Series 3.

Lockjaw Thanos and Shuri Zero are still miles above the competition, and their popularity reflects it well. Both decks have dominated the field of play for the last two weeks, and reliable counters still have not appeared.

One more glimmer of hope is still available. Cards dropping a Series might become popular enough to create some shake-ups. We already know Darkhawk could be a contender, and we can dream about a domino effect with Enchantress coming back as well if Darkhawk manages to build enough popularity. Outside of this last possibility, it is hard to envision what could dethrone Lockjaw Thanos and Shuri Zero from their spots as the best decks in the metagame.

Hopefully while gathering more information for the next Tier List early next week some decks will emerge as solid contenders to the current juggernauts. Until then, I hope you’re having fun on Marvel Snap! feel free to join us on Discord if you have any questions or want to discuss with the Marvel Snap Zone Team. You can also find me on Twitter.

Good Game Everyone.