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The balance patch on March 21st did have an impact on the Marvel Snap metagame after all. Unfortunately, Shuri Zero still looks to be a dominant deck, and the meta continues to warp around it; however, Thanos Lockjaw seems to have relinquished its top tier status. Much more diversity was seen this week compared to the previous month.
With a little more space to play different decks, the discussion and deck sharing on social media has been a little wild. Tweets ranged from people talking about their favorite decks from a flavor standpoint to people saying they found the next gem (but are already in the Infinite rank and don’t find much pressure to perform). It can quickly become difficult to separate the true performers from the nice gimmicks.
Until we get more data and I work on a polished Tier List, looking at the decks that managed to hit Infinite seems like a good start. Indeed, these deck for sure have climbed over the last couple of days. Sometimes it is just a couple of ranks, finishing the climb from rank 95. Other times the deck was used from a further rank and truly managed to rack up cubes over a decent sample size.
From the expected performer, Sera Control, to the emerging build “MagiNaut”, I really enjoyed scanning social media for some cool decks this week. Hopefully the balance patch will have a long-lasting impact on the Marvel Snap metagame and this kind of diversity remains from this week to the next.
Let’s get to the decks!
Sera Control Retains a Top Tier Status
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Before the patch, the Darkhawk variant of Sera Control was easily the most popular one – in large part thanks to Thanos feeding Darkhawk‘s power. With the former losing a ton of popularity for this first week after the balance patch, seeing a more old-school Sera control build seems to make sense.
I don’t know if no Zabu is intentional or Rog does not own the card, but it doesn’t feel so weird not seeing it included in the deck without Darkhawk and Rockslide included alongside the usual 4-cost cards. Instead of Zabu, Angela is slotted as the 2-cost card. A former staple in the deck, Sera Control is one of the few archetypes where you can still get good value from Angela even if you don’t play her on Turn 2.
The other difference with common builds is including Magneto. Usually, 6-cost cards are a big no-no in Sera archetypes since most players just retreat if they can’t find the signature card by Turn 5. With Magneto as a potential Turn 6, one could imagine playing a more proactive approach with Shang-Chi or Enchantress to cancel out a card on Turn 5.
Most players predicted Sera Control would be a strong deck after the patch, but the way its built might surprise us down the line. Other ways to build the deck have already emerged, with the Toxic variant reaching Infinite as well since the patch went live.
MagiNaut Performs With Two Nerfed Cards!
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I have seen several names for this archetype, in addition to several ways to build it. The core idea is to work around Moon Girl, She-Hulk, and The Infinaut to create an incredible final turn. As direct support, we have Quinjet and Magik to help with energy management, and America Chavez for consistency. Sunspot feels only natural in the deck since we will pass a turn at some point to set up for the She-Hulk plus The Infinaut follow up.
The rest of the build is very flexible, and there are takes on this archetype where the early part of the game is built around lane disruption with Viper, Green Goblin, and such rather than the 1-costs presented here. I do like the idea of having all those cheap cards as it should make it easier to manage our hand with Moon Girl.
Before the patch, the deck had a hard time existing because of Leech cancelling She-Hulk. Sure, it would make The Infinaut playable without meeting the condition, but the deck is built around the idea of passing a turn anyway so it wasn’t such a big help compared to losing the ability to play She-Hulk.
With less of the green man on the horizon, the deck has been shared by several players and could be on the comeback trail.
Discard Rejoices as Leech Lost a Lot of Popularity
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Completely ridiculed in February, when it was supposed to be the synergy on top thanks to , Discard decks probably suffered the most from Leech‘s rise in popularity. With the patch hitting Thanos Lockjaw, Discard gained a lot of room to get its synergies going. Morbius, Dracula, and Hela have all felt much better lately.
It is hard to have a feel of what the best lists are looking like right now considering a lot of weird experiments were done around Discard during the last month. For what it’s worth, I think we might go back to the Lockjaw based list for Dracula Discard now that we can hold our resources in hand and plan for highly synergistic turns.
As for Hela, the deck went through a lot of different phases without ever really finding its footing during the previous metagame. MODOK and Hela are the core of the deck, but the way you surround them and try to get the combo off is very up in the air. Lockjaw, Invisible Woman, or even ways to try to play both at the same time (Magik on Turn 5 into Wave plus Psylocke on Turn 6 enable Hela plus MODOK on Turn 7, for example) are being tested as we speak.
As usual, we will need to see where this goes, but it’s nice to see Discard wasn’t abandoned despite its huge lack of success last season.
Aero Finds Great Allies in Wave and Sandman in the Electro Ramp Archetype
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Aero has definitely felt like the biggest change of the patch, right behind Quinjet. The card divided the community upon the announcement of its change.
With its new effect, Aero sort of lost its staple status in the metagame. Still, it has very good allies to be paired with (just not in every deck). In Kyle’s deck, we can see both of those allies: Wave and Sandman. Both cards slow the game down immensely by turning it into a one-card-per-turn kind of deal, which makes Aero turn into her old self again. Other decks with Wave have resurfaced as well, but Electro Ramp feels like a great home for Aero because you can also find Odin in case you want to reactivate her as well.
Similar to Sera Control, Electro Ramp isn’t really a surprise to see after the patch, although this precise take (including Shang-Chi) is a bit more teched than the otherwise synergistic and traditional build. Shuri Zero remains a difficult opponent, but we have seen many more synergistic decks come back with Thanos Lockjaw nerfed, and those decks can be very annoyed by Sandman.
The future might be bright for Electro Ramp, depending on which decks emerge next week.
Closing Words
While Shuri Zero still remains a dominant deck, there was a much bigger sense of diversity this week compared to what was the Days of Future Past season up until this point. In that regard, it feels like the balance patch was a step in the right direction.
In my opinion, Shuri Zero still standing strong is a bit of a gamble from Second Dinner. I think they might believe there are enough tools in the game to keep the deck in check if it is the sole problem to solve. That is a question we will get an answer to shortly as the end of the season is getting close and there are tournaments happening all over. Next week should be a good testimony as the player base will hopefully have had enough time to figure out how to attack Shuri Zero.
Until then, I wish you all a sweet climb on the Marvel Snap ladder. May the cube gods be with you!
If you want to discuss anything Marvel Snap related, feel free to join the Marvel Snap Zone community on Discord. As for myself, I am sharing decks, spicy opinions, and some coaching tips on Twitter most of the time.
Good Game Everyone.
