Infinite Decks of the Week – February 5, 2023: Surprise, Son of Your Very Nice Mother!

Last week has not been the most joyful in Marvel Snap for our weekly series. Both the Infinite decks and the Tier List were plagued by how dominant Zabu was and how the ladder grind basically revolved around playing or trying to counter the card. Well, I don’t know if it is the end of the Lunar New Year event or the fact that most people looking to climb to Infinite are preferring to do it with their own brews. Maybe it’s that Zabu actually isn’t such a good card… Probably not, but seeing less of it still is great.

Either way, this week has been a very nice one, which I think will show in the decks featured. Battle Mode also seems to be a success and could have helped encourage more creative decks as players were able to test outside the ladder and maybe build some confidence before going into ranked mode. This allowed people to experiment around cards, and it could result in more diverse strategies being played.

So what did people use to get to the Infinite rank this week? Some Wolverine action around the newly buffed 2-Cost, a little story about a Hela Discard deck, and probably my all-time favorite entry on this list taking home the trophy of best bait I have ever seen.

This week five is going to make it up for the disappointing week four, I guarantee it.

Buffed Wolverine starts making an impact

Infinite Destroy

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

4

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Multiple players have called Baero as a deck to look for with Leader being nerfed. Most people, however, thought Wolverine would be shining alongside Deadpool or Galactus. Instead, Asad decided to pair the new Wolverine with Death and Wave, a deck that recently lost Leader and wasn’t particularly in the market for early game cards.

DeathWave only plays three destroy cards, two of which can affect Wolwevirne. Meaning Wolverine has a ceiling of six points baring good locations, and an average of four. In that regard, Wolverine can’t really be considered a big point contributor, but its contribution towards Death – being a constant target for destroy effects – probably makes it worth it in the eyes of some players.

Doctor Doom can be considered the weird inclusion in the deck, but the tweet mentioning Plunder Castle could explain the card. Even then, Doctor Doom is an overall solid card, so why not be a decent placeholder while one finds what to play instead of Leader in the deck.

Hela Discard can be a surprising deck

Hela Infinite

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Justin reached out to me on Twitter looking for some help to get to the Infinite rank. I wasn’t available when he sent me the message and we had to reschedule things, but once I messaged him again with more time to work with he told me he already “swept things up” with this Hela deck. Here is my theory regarding what happened outside Justin being a good enough player to complete the climb on their own.

I think when someone gets close to the Infinite rank and considers it is an important accomplishment, they tend to get stressed which leads to two kind of behaviors:

• Taking a lot of risks, so we try to get it done faster and get it over with, at the risk of losing it all.
• Playing extra safe because of the fear of losing those ranks again, which usually results in not winning either.

Most of the time, neither behaviors lead to anything productive, and the best course of action is simply to take a break, let the stress reduce, and come back to it fresh and focused. When someone asks for help from a more experienced player, though, they can think that the climb will be guaranteed and relax a bit. This relaxing actually leads to playing way better and allows finishing the climb on your own, just like you managed to get so close on your own.

The best part of it all is that this isn’t even a standard Hela version of the archetype, it is a build Justin put together with the cards they had at their disposal, missing Hellcow and Magneto for example. One could discuss Morbius being weird in a Hela deck, or Colleen Wing not discarding the cards we want at all. Even Moon Knight likely has to be worse than Blade in the deck.

If there is one thing to take from this whole story, it is to simply trust yourself; if you managed to grind to rank 95, you probably have what it takes to make it to 100. It only takes some composure and staying true to your own recipe.

Marvel Snap best bait of 2023

Galactus Bait

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

7

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Galactus is a great card, and its archetype already feel iconic in Marvel Snap. Galactus also is a card that doesn’t like to be a megastar too much, as being unpredictable is a key component of the deck being strong. Well, August took this concept to an entire new level, and got an Infinite rank to brag about as a result.

There isn’t much to say other than what is in the Tweet to be honest: the move archetype isn’t respected currently, and people trying to get that Infinite rank will look for any way they can to win cubes. As such, when they see a card that tips them to their opponent playing what they consider to be a bad deck, they will snap, and August will be expecting them to do exactly that.

I don’t know how many times I have said creativity and unpredictability are great traits of a Marvel Snap player when it comes to grind the ladder. I am super happy to finally see those traits be rewarded, even in a “very dumb deck”.

Closing Words

There are only a few days left to punch your ticket to the Infinite rank, so I’ll put on my coaching hat and try to give the simplest advice I can when it comes to grinding the ladder: Analyze and punish.

It is impossible to win every single game, so in order to win some cubes, you will have to lose some. However, you don’t have to lose cubes just for the sake of losing cubes, you can trade those for valuable information. Especially this season, with Zabu being the dominant card it is and content creators, Marvel Snap Zone included, sharing decks and rankings routinely, everyone is enticed to pick up a deck online and just see the cubes naturally come raining at their door.

The reality is that although the decks you see online are probably well-designed and should perform very well, they also fit the person’s metagame, play style, and comfort. As a result, if you just pick up the same deck without the knowledge of the environment it was played in, or at least the logic behind the cards, there is close to no chance you can replicate the numbers that were shared alongside the build. For that reason, keep informing yourself, keep looking at content from your favorite creators, but also put your own touch to it. Change a deck to fit popular opponents, your preferred play patterns, or simply because you think there is a better way to play the deck. Try to change some cards just like Justin did in the Hela build, bait people like August, or just try some recently changed cards like Asad.

Not only will it make Marvel Snap more fun to play, you might be surprised at how much better you’re going to get.

This was our last week of Infinite Decks of the week for Savage Land. Congrats to everyone who made it to the Infinite rank! Next week will mark the beginning of the Quantumania Season with MODOK joining the game and Zabu, Silver Surfer being nerfed. It should be quite the shake-up, and we can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Until then, find the whole Marvel Snap Zone crew on Discord, or get in touch with me directly on Twitter.

Good Game Everyone.