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Although the season is already past its mid-point, the big monthly patch shook the environment in Marvel Snap enough to feel as messy as it typically is during week one. Several things have happened since the patch: We have seen Kitty Pryde bring Bounce back to be a metagame contender; Wave went from a card nobody felt worth playing anymore to the best disruption tool in the game (revitalizing DoomWave in the process); and Death followed a similar path, feeling very difficult to abuse without Wave only to find herself again included in several archetypes by the end of the week.
When it comes to the grind to reach Infinite, this week wasn’t so much about the new archetypes brought by the patch on May 16th. Of course, I would vouch for Bounce and DoomWave to be great picks in order to rack up cubes. However, doing my weekly search for interesting archetypes to feature, I mostly found long-lasting, evergreen archetypes that have been in the metagame for some time already. Builds like Shuri Zero and Electro Sandman, both of which seemed to disappear after their nerfs in the previous months. With this new and forming metagame (and probably the need to play more of a one-sided game plan to facilitate reads as well), we are seeing these decks be mentioned much more often. For Electro and Shuri in particular, both archetypes gained a lot of ground lately, combining for almost 10% of the metagame in the ranks leading up to Infinite.
My guess as to why these decks are coming back is the surge of Bounce and similar synergistic decks, which are limited in the disruptive cards they can run. Without an annoying opponent trying to counter them, decks revolving around cards like Shuri and Sandman can massively impacting your overall game plan and are able to run though their power turns freely. This creates an environment where you will hear a lot about the shiny decks that emerged with the patch, but you might forget about the good ol’ reliable builds that could be more suited to climb the ranks in the end.
This week, let’s take a look at these silent performers that live in the shadow of the stars.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Continue to Rise During Their Featured Season!
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One of the archetypes to know about this season is the new Lockdown variant, courtesy of Nebula being added to the game. The archetype already started making waves last week when it entered the ranks in our Tier List. Now it seems like the deck is picking up steam and is a solid climbing option.
The main appeal to this deck is the ability to Snap early in a match. Indeed, when going for the Infinite rank (especially as you reach the last portion in the 90s), everyone starts being extremely careful. As such, if you tend to hold your Snaps for when the game is a surefire win, (i.e. around Turn 5 or maybe Turn 4), you won’t keep many opponents in the match. One cube is never bad to take, but we’d like to get more out of our good draws.
With the Nebula Control archetype, the deck revolves around locking lanes with specific cards: Storm, Professor X, and Spider-Man.And because the last location reveals on Turn 3, it seems like the deck allows for Snaps in the first part of the match much more often than other archetypes would. In addition, you can always count on the cocky Snap on Turn 5 with Daredevil to scare your opponent away and take a free cube.
It worked for Rodi, who considers themselves a very conservative Snapper, so it must be even better with a confident pilot.
Shuri’s Still Got It!
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Since being nerfed a month ago, Shuri lost most of her dominance in Marvel Snap. I mean, this card was considered one of the best in the game not so long ago, and now it is barely mentioned as a competitive archetype anymore. So much so that Shang-Chi isn’t the auto-include it once was, instead being replaced by Enchantress most of the time.
Well, this might be exactly what Shuri needed to regroup and become a force to be reckoned with once again. In the end, Shuri is not weaker if we’re talking about points. She’s just much more predictable. But if no one is packing the tools to punish Shuri (as it seems to be completely out of the metagame), then the nerf isn’t so relevant anymore. Telling our opponent what we are doing does not impair the deck’s ability to develop points, especially if they don’t have Shang-Chi. It feels like this is exactly what Leg0 tried to abuse, and had success with, in order to reach the Infinite rank this season.
Similar to Nebula Control, this is another deck looking to Snap rather early in the match. Considering we are basically telling our opponent every thing about our game plan at the moment we play Shuri, it seems implied we have to raise the stakes before this point. Once again, this can look like a scary tactic when every cube feels so important to reach your goal, but you’ll be surprised by how many cubes it actually gains you over a large sample size.
Death Lives On Without Wave
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Last Tuesday, when we learned about Wave being changed, a large part of the community reacted with a “RIP DeathWave message”. Indeed, even if Death saw her base cost lowered to eight, it was difficult to imagine the deck retaining most of its power. Even if we could discount Death enough, the explosive Turn 6 with She-Hulk or Doctor Doom was off the table, and that alone felt like too much to overcome.
Since then, Death has started to regroup and now appears in several archetypes. The card was never going to completely disappear thanks to its core status in the Galactus archetype, but that isn’t a “Death” archetype – one with the Destroy synergy being the main game plan. As such, it feels great to see players try to build around Death in more exotic decks.
Well, “build” might not suit this precise entry, as Rodgers reached Infinite with the exact same deck last month without Wave included in the first place. In this one, we are just destroying things, plain and simple. However, thanks to Arnim Zola and Knull, this particular Death deck isn’t really countered by Wave like the more combo oriented builds are.
Electro Sandman Comes Back to Counter Bounce’s Popularity!
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Similar to Shuri Zero when Shuri suffered from the nerf gun, Electro Sandman saw its play rate dip when Sandman lost two points of power; the archetype was often replaced by Wave decks as the new disruptive trend. After the monthly patch earlier this week and the resurgence of many explosive decks like Bounce and Stature Good Cards, Electro Ramp found a reason to come back.
From a personal standpoint, I think DoomWave is a stronger deck than Electro Ramp. It should lead to better results while countering Bounce and such decks just as easily. However, it is hard to take anything from Electro Sandman, and I completely understand why someone with experience with the archetype would favor it as their default pick. Notably (and it is a bit of a theme this week), Electro Sandman is a deck that makes it extremely clear when to Snap and when to hold back. As soon as you recognize your opponent’s build and you possess the cards to counter their game plan, you can pull the trigger. This should lead to being able to Snap as early as Turn 2 or 3, leading to gaining two cubes instead of one once the opponent figures out what is going on.
This feels like a great pick for the Infinite climb right now.
Orka Makes It Two Weeks In A Row!
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I was so surprised to find another Orka deck that I felt obligated to include it. Also, we haven’t talked much about it during this piece, but Galactus is a very popular archetype right now, one of the few rivaling Bounce for the title of most played deck. As such, finding a deck which supposedly acts as a counter to Galactus might be just as good as countering Bounce.
Why does it counter Galactus, you might ask? Well, Cosmo and Professor X are two of the best cards to punish the Devourer of Worlds. Then, we also have Daredevil, telling us where Galactus will be played on Turn 5 and offering an opportunity to Snap (or bluff Snap) as a result.
Once more, this deck brings back memories of a forgotten archetype: The “Attuma Tempo” deck Oceanmud made popular a few months ago. The archetype never really became popular, but, similar to Thanos Ongoing Zoo or Ongoing Destroyer, it’s a deck that is able to pack several tech cards as core parts of its game plan, which can shine in the right environment.
Closing Words
As the end of the season looms on the horizon and the frustration of not climbing as much as one had hoped starts kicking in, being able to pick a deck outside of the few obvious choices can be an extremely valuable skill. First, you reduce the risk of running into regular mirror matches where your draws are typically more impactful. Then, you also bring an element of surprise to your strategy, and you might be rewarded for catching an opponent off guard on occasions.
Last, your Snaps should be much more impactful as the opponent cannot easily read your game plan and picture what the remaining turns might look like. This might lead to more players Retreating out of fear and a lot of 1-cube wins (which, ultimately, do not amount to much progress); however, let’s not underestimate the value of a good winning streak for your morale and confidence.
Because that’s often what is the most important part of the climb. Finding the fun in it, the passion to keep it going until you reach your goal. In that regard, all those 1-cube wins will feed your confidence, reassuring you that you are indeed on the right path to get that Infinite rank before the season’s end. Unconsciously, it will reinforce your belief in your deck, strengthening the idea that you made the right choice. You will be less likely to fall prey to just switching to any deck you saw on social media or from a content creator, creating the need to relearn the play patterns you already mastered with your previous deck.
I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for your accomplishment and share it with the community. To submit a deck for this series, you can find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or you can follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
Upcoming events you might be interested in:
- May 27th: Qualifiers #3 and #4 of the TYB 616 Open. Anyone can join and try to qualify for their share of a $1,000 prize pool.
- May 28th: Coaching seminar alongside Freshlobster about the fundamentals of deck building, game planning, Snapping, and Retreating.
