Infinite Decks of the Week – Guardians’ Greatest Hits Week 4: High Evolutionary Impacts the Infinite Climb!

Most of the time, a new Series 5 card joining the game on Tuesday rarely impacts the metagame during its first week. Indeed, investing 6,000 Collector’s Tokens is a bit of a commitment that leads to cards not seeing enough play to be a real consideration in their debut week. May was already an anomaly in that regard, as Iron Lad kind of broke the mold with an unusually high play rate. Still, no card has come close to High Evolutionary when it comes to how popular a card has been in its first week (and we aren’t looking at the popularity of Battle Pass cards, either). The new Big Bad had a big impact on the metagame, pushing a new archetype around it as well as making cards like Luke Cage, used to counter the “Power Affliction” package, much more popular.

In this installment of Infinite Decks of the Week, I have focused on the decks impacted by the release of the new card – most notably, the archetypes that gained some momentum with High Evolutionary joining Marvel Snap. Of course, I also included a few High Evolutionary builds that reached Infinite this week, but we will dive deeper into those archetypes in the next Tier List.

With no OTA balance patch next week and The Living Tribunal not looking like it should be popular enough to have a big impact on release, the metagame this week probably will remain similar until the season’s end. As such, if you are looking to climb to Infinite (or simply want to learn more about the current environment), this is the perfect time for some thorough research.

Let’s take a look!

Sera Control: Strong in Any Environment

Infinite Sera

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sera was a little under the weather lately as Wave grew to be way too popular for combo oriented decks to be considered reliable options; however, High Evolutionary (and the new Hulk in particular) has put a dagger in Wave‘s play rate this week. Don’t get me wrong – Wave is still a great card, and her featured archetype (Good Cards Wave) might very well retain the top spot in our rankings come Tuesday. Still, with a match up Wave could not completely dominate, alongside a lot of players testing High Evolutionary, Sera Control has found enough room to exist.

It is still a little early to call what is a good or a bad match up for the new Big Bad, especially considering how many variations exist around the card. If we believe Dartill and DamienNewell, they seem to think Sera Control is favored into High Evolutionary decks.

It isn’t so far-fetched if we think about it for a second. We have Enchantress and Shang-Chi, both of which are excellent answers to Evolved Hulk and Evolved Abomination. We don’t need to play many cards until the late game, limiting the potential of the “power affliction” cards such as Wasp or Cyclops. Last, Toxic Sera Control already exists and Luke Cage is a natural inclusion.

We might need a little bit more data to call it a favored match up for sure, but it does look pretty good so far.

Bounce is Back as Wave Loses Popularity!

Infinite Bounce

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

If we’re being honest, Bounce never really left the metagame. The deck did lose a ton of popularity, though, going from 8% when Kitty Pryde returned to around 2% since High Evolutionary joined the game. It is only logical if you think about it; a counter was found early on with Wave, and the new Big Bad gave a lot of players a shiny new toy to play with.

The thing is, most of Marvel Snap’s high cube rate performers aren’t part of the most popular decks. You probably read it already a couple of times in previous articles, but surprise is pretty powerful in this game. As such, Bounce losing popularity might have helped the deck, or at least those who decided to stick with it. Particularly, the deck’s ability to manage its space and bounce back cards that have been afflicted with negative power helps a lot against High Evolutionary.

It doesn’t seem like you have to be extremely creative or include particular tech cards for the archetype to perform. At least, Plup didn’t seem to need to.

Silver Surfer Adapts to the Current Metagame!

Infinite Surfer

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

With Sera Control already in today’s piece, I could have simply mentioned Silver Surfer as another similar deck that is able to profit from the current environment. However, the deck lists I found while doing research deserved some spotlight. In particular, this one from Tums is extremely different from the usual build:

• Professor X replaces Sera, probably because the deck is quite certain to win the locked lane with the Silver Surfer buff on the next turn. With Storm being a staple in the archetype for months, the idea isn’t so far-fetched. Spider-Man is now an intriguing prospect in a build with Zabu as a 2-cost. We can also play Daredevil in the 2-cost slot to help with landing our Professor X.
• Negasonic Teenage Warhead also finds a slot in the deck. I was quite skeptical after her buff on Thursday, but it seems like some players are enjoying the card.
• Nova and Killmonger are absent from this build and replaced by Nebula and Rogue. Nebula can virtually be slotted into any deck right now, and Rogue gained a lot of popularity with High Evolutionary joining the game since it can steal the ability of Luke Cage or Evolved Hulk, in addition to the usual Patriot counter.

For a more traditional build, I also included one from Eddie Lee that has adapted the basic version to counter the likes of Bounce and High Evolutionary. As long as you can find counter cards in the 2- or 3-Cost slot in Marvel Snap, Silver Surfer looks pretty good.

High Evolutionary and the Thousand Builds

Although some builds of High Evolutionary are starting to show a high cube rate, the new card is featured in a lot of different decks. Here are a few that reached Infinite this week:

Closing Words

It is rare to see the kind of metagame shift High Evolutionary provoked outside of the start of a new season or a substantial balance patch. Considering The Living Tribunal isn’t expected to have much of an impact (especially in a metagame where Enchantress is considered a staple and Rogue is gaining popularity), we should remain in a similar environment for the rest of the season.

As it stands, we have a bit of a trio to consider, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. High Evolutionary is the midrange representative. It’s an overall strong build with a few specific weaknesses: Bounce and Sera Control (and also Galactus, in a way) seem to be able to punish the new Big Bad the most in the current environment. Kitty Pryde in particular leads the way for archetypes who seem capable of handling the power affliction synergy well. To punish Kitty Pryde, Wave seems to remain the best card in the game, and if played in a Patriot deck you can add Debrii for the Galactus match up as well.

I would personally give the nod to Wave if I had to pick one. The card is easier to build around when it comes to deck building restrictions. Still, both Kitty Pryde and High Evolutionary put up great performances this week, showing one can really go towards the archetype they feel the most comfortable with.

The next Tier List will release soon with a deeper analysis of the metagame, as well as more precision regarding how to build around each of those cards. Until then, I hope you are having fun and finding some success in Marvel Snap!

If you need anything, 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.