Marvel Snap Infinite Decks of the Week – Spider-Versus Week 1: OTA Impact, and Move Slides Back Into the Fray!

We are just getting started in the Spider-Versus season, and there is already a lot to cover in the Marvel Snap metagame. From the Move archetype making a comeback thanks to Ghost-Spider to Spider-Man and Bounce falling under heavy scrutiny after the OTA balance patch earlier this week, this season is shaping up to be a great one!

Although they won’t tell us the whole story, the Infinite Decks of the Week are a nice first approach to how the metagame is evolving after undergoing various changes. In the end, the players looking to close in on the Infinite rank are the ones most likely to take these changes seriously and quickly resume their climb.

From the look of the decks massively shared over the last few days on social media, it seems like Move benefited a ton from Ghost-Spider joining the game as the Season Pass card. As for the OTA on Thursday, Spider-Man changing to a 5-Cost did not look like a big impact for Evolved Lockdown. On the other hand, Bounce lost quite a bit of popularity, even if the performances do not seem to justify abandoning the deck just yet. I have seen a few players mention it on their climb to Infinite, but Spider-Man easily won that contest.

Outside the expected headlines created by the big changes, the community also managed to post some original ideas. Let’s explore all these decks and see if we can find your next pick to climb to the Infinite rank!

Evolved Lockdown – Just Like Before

5/4 spiderman

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3x Starter Card

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Many panicked with the announcement of Spider-Man becoming a [5/4] because it was supposed to derail the Evolved Lockdown deck’s game plan. Honestly, it doesn’t look like it skipped a beat, easily taking home the crown of most shared deck on the road to Infinite.

As you can see in the many tweets below, there are several ways to go about building the deck – and Spider-Man is in all of them. At the end of the day, the card is still strong, fitting the deck’s game plan better than Professor X because of the inclusion of Doctor Doom. The only potential trouble with the card is not activating our synergies, as we spent all our energy on Turn 5. Still, considering Spider-Man is able to win the lane it is played on, it largely makes up for not triggering Evolved Hulk and Evolved Cyclops for a turn.

The other reason the deck kept being popular is the current metagame. Indeed, with Evolved Lockjaw considered one of the better decks out there and Galactus not included at all in the OTA, both decks are running rampant lately. As such, a Lockdown strategy that is able to derail both decks has a lot of merit, even if it was recently nerfed. If one of these two decks were to be nerfed in the coming monthly patch, it could hurt Evolved Lockown more than Spider-Man costing an extra energy.

Is DeathWave Back?!

DeathWave ?!

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

It’s not really a DeathWave deck rather than a pure Destroy deck, especially as we see Arnim Zola slotted in. It seems like the goal here is to discount Death or build a big Knull, either of which we can duplicate for a ton of points. For that game plan, Wave can be used in order to play Knull early so we can dedicate our Turn 6 to Arnim Zola if we need to.

Also, there is a chance this deck can simply have a decent Turn 5. For example, Carnage eating Bucky Barnes and Nova will often take the lead. In that scenario, playing Wave with the three remaining energy knowing we have either Knull or Death in our hand does not seem so far-fetched. And Wave still shuts down quite a lot of archetypes on the ladder, which is always a nice bonus.

Ghost-Spider Has a Huge Impact on Move

move

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

There have been a lot of different Move decks shared since the start of the season, most of them much more invested in the Move synergy. Still, this one is the latest inductee into the Infinite club, and it is quite interesting to look at. Indeed, this feels like a mix of several packages put together with some Nebula, Wave, Move, and even Maximus thrown in there.

While I won’t question the creator (even though this is very far from what I’m used to seeing when it comes to a Move deck), this deck highlights a big upside to Ghost-Spider joining the game: Move finally has enough to just be a package inside a deck.

Up until this point, it was very difficult to use Move at all. The full deck wasn’t strong enough, and trying to only keep a few pieces in a deck was either too wobbly or too expensive. With this new 2-Cost joining the game, Ghost-Spider provided both a cheap and good card to pair with Vulture or Human Torch. Her addition allows the deck to either keep all the Move cards together for a big Vulture on Turn 6, or just use them in the early stages of the game before transferring to the other synergies in your deck.

Mister Negative Still Roams the Ladder

negative

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

It’s quite funny how Mister Negative always finds a way to exist right after some changes. Most of the time, it’s because a card lost some power, leading to the Negative synergy being experiment with it. This time, there wasn’t a card for Mister Negative to abuse, which means that there must have been another reason for the deck to come back.

To be completely honest, I don’t think there was any reason to run Mister Negative, except to abuse the typical chaos after a balance patch. Indeed, considering a lot of people felt like they had to find a new deck, the ladder tends to be all over the place for a day after the cards were changed. Everyone is either trying the ideas they find online or their own brews they just came up with.

In that environment, an established archetype, even a struggling one, should see its performance boosted, especially with an experienced pilot. I don’t think Mister Negative can claim to be a good deck in the long run; however, considering we are getting regular changes in Marvel Snap, having a deck you can just default to whenever you are looking for temporary comfort can be extremely valuable. You might not crush the ladder the same way you would have if you found the perfect deck after the changes, but you have the ability to catch a few opponents off guard because they are focusing on their newly crafted deck instead of you. Also, since this is quite the simple deck to read in terms of Snaps and Retreats, you should be able to get mostly “Yes/No” situations. Other decks will need to figure out a lot more information to make an educated decision.

Closing Words

Although buffs and nerfs to the already established (and probably the best) decks in the game tend to be the more impactful, a balance patch is the perfect occasion to see left for dead archetypes and newcomers try their luck at coming back in the metagame. Obviously, the new system probably helped those decks as well, making the climb to Infinite much easier than it might have been. Still, being able to see Mister Negative or some weird Move deck reach the pinnacle of ranked play should give faith to those still chasing that goal.

Soon enough, we’ll get a new mode, Conquest, where most people expect the competition to be much tougher and the games more rewarding. As such, seeing a ladder with more wacky decks finding success seems like a way to let everyone enjoy the game the way they wish.

On Tuesday we’ll get the bigger patch of the month, likely with even more impactful changes. I’m curious to see which decks make it into Infinite next week.

Until then, I hope everyone has a good time, and may the cubes be with you. As usual, you can find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.