Infinite Decks of the Week – Rise of the Phoenix Week 1: Adapting to Fight Against Bounce and Lockjaw

The first week of the season usually goes in one of two directions: either the established best decks are dominating and shut down most of the original brews for the first few days (leading to a meta that is basically the same as the previous season), or there is a balance patch, a new card, or some sort of counter pick that emerges and enables some creativity to find its place in the metagame.

For the start of Rise of the Phoenix, it seems like both options have co-existed. As one might expect, Bounce and Lockjaw have retained their grasp on the metagame, with many players looking to quickly reach Infinite relying on these two decks.

However, creativity also existed during this first week. New decks emerged, some stemming from dominant archetypes with a new twist. Other builds aimed at countering the super popular decks that one could expect to face regularly on their climb also gained popularity.

As such, this week will be dedicated to those still looking to innovate, even in a metagame where we all know which decks are best. Indeed, Information is extremely precious right now; it is about the only leverage we have to consistently fight against the dominant decks. Even if it means playing archetypes that are unreliable or very committed to a certain game plan. Because we know what we will face in a large majority of games, we can leverage our Snaps and Retreats in order to boost our cube average quite a lot.

Let’s take at how some players have managed to do this and punched their ticket to the Infinite ranks in the first days of the season.

Invisible Woman Joins the Destroy Archetype

Invisible Destroy

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
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2
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5+

Already on the rise in many archetypes during the previous season, Invisible Woman keeps impacting the Marvel Snap metagame — particularly against Bounce. This time, the card joined the Destroy archetype and opened the way for two important synergies:

• It allows revealing Killmonger after all our opponent’s cards have turned face up, making sure Kitty Pryde and other 1-Cost cards are taken care of.
• It opens playing Taskmaster on Turn 5 behind Invisible Woman so it copies the Destroyer we play on Turn 6. Bonus points when done with Shuri as well for two 30 power cards.

The Destroy archetype was already gaining momentum last season, even though it never managed to reach the status of a dominant deck in Marvel Snap. The fact that the deck is still able to adapt, finding new play patterns to abuse and change the dynamic of popular matchups, is a great sign for the future of the archetype.

Can Bounce Get Even Better?

Infinite Thanos Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

I tested this deck out of curiosity, and my personal answer would be no. This deck is not stronger than current iterations of Bounce roaming the ladder. In particular, Killmonger feels extremely painful to face as it now can be a problem for both Kitty Pryde and the Infinity Stones.

Nevertheless, playing a different kind of Bounce was super refreshing. Also, the inclusion of Thanos and more 5-Cost cards in the deck leads to different play patterns that don’t rely solely on the cheap cards we wish to replay. I’m not entirely sure how to build the deck properly at this point as Carnage or Armor feel important to play around Killmonger; maybe we remove Blue Marvel for Spider-Man and have more of that Lockdown potential.

In another tweet, LambySeries mentioned including Hit Monkey over Carnage, giving the deck more of that Bounce vibe.

Just Counter Everything

Infinite Counters

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When I was talking about the value of information in the introduction, it doesn’t get better than this one. Indeed, even if extremely powerful, every deck has a counter of some sort. As such, when the metagame is getting stale and you keep facing the same archetypes over and over, playing a deck that targets those popular archetypes can make a lot of sense.

In this particular one, the goal is to punish Evolved Lockjaw, and it’s pretty simple to see the deck doing a great job in that regard. The Rocks, Professor X, Stegron, Shang-Chi, and even Absorbing Man make sure we cover all angles, which seems to make this deck an absolute nightmare for Lockjaw.

Obviously, this should lose a few percentage points against other archetypes since you cannot cover everything. Still, simply knowing you can confidently Snap against Lockjaw, a deck that tends to Snap early as well, should guarantee a solid cube income early in the season when a lot of players rely on Lockjaw to get their early Infinite climb done.

You Can Still Do Your Own Thing

Infinite Kingpin

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Last on our list today is this crazy idea by Baine, who uses a Move Control deck early in the season. We spoke a lot about using the information we have about the environment in order to leverage a faster climb. One could also take the opposite direction and play a deck nobody will see coming, completely denying the information they were trying to leverage.

In Baine’s submission, the concept is to use a proactive early game with Sunspot, Medusa, and Star-Lord. Then, from Turn 3 and on, it seems like the game plan switches to a more disruptive approach, culminating with Aero or Magneto to pull onto Kingpin‘s lane.

Similar to the counter deck (but this time using the fact that the opponent doesn’t really have an idea of where we are going with our deck), I’m guessing this build looks to leverage smart Snaps to keep the opponent in a game they don’t know they have already lost.

Closing Words

Marvel Snap doesn’t have many goals lined up for the players this season, at least for now. We all discovered Conquest last month, and I haven’t seen many people be particularly enthusiastic about the new cards, either. As such, the climb back to Infinite might be the big thing to do for July. Unfortunately, when it happens in the same metagame dominated by the same decks, that can quickly turn an exciting goal into a chore.

I am pleased to see players innovating and trying to make their climb more fun, challenging themselves with different decks. Even if it might lead to a bit of a longer climb, it transforms a pure grind into something more exciting. And you might learn from it rather than just have the satisfaction of being in the Infinite club once again.

On Tuesday, we should get the monthly patch that will hopefully be filled with balance changes to give a new, fresh look to our current environment. If you are not enjoying the metagame, it might be worth waiting for that patch until you start climbing for real. Otherwise, you can also just jam one of the good decks so you can then have fun testing once the changes go live.

If you do make it to Infinite after Tuesday’s patch, I’d love to feature you on this series! Feel free to tag me in the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or on Twitter where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.