Infinite Decks of the Week – Guardians’ Greatest Hits Week 1: Stature and Nebula Are the Highlights of the New Season!

A new Marvel Snap season is always the time to see new archetypes rise as players look to counter the environment to climb back to the Infinite rank. As I write this, we are four days into the season, and already multiple new decks have emerged on ladder. Among these early contenders, we find two cards in particular: Nebula and Stature.

Nebula is the latest Season Pass card, as well as the hottest 1-cost card in Marvel Snap right now. The card managed to trump Sunspot and Iceman in that slot, being featured in almost any archetype you could think of in the current metagame. A testimony to Nebula‘s current status as the default 1-cost, the card is also helping other cards to be popular, such as Storm, who has seen a large increase in its popularity since Nebula joined the game.

Variants

Nebula

Each turn your opponent doesn’t play a card here, +2 Power. (except the turn you play this)

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Nebula

The other card to follow early in the season was Stature, who saw several decks built around her pairing with Black Bolt early in the season. With Wave coming back at the end of last season and Enchantress shutting off several of the popular Ongoing synergies, players started looking for cards able to bring that explosive Turn 6 play. Stature answered the call perfectly; it’s not so demanding to build around (adding Black Bolt to the deck is often enough), and it has allowed decks to be flexible in the early part of the match. Synergies around Darkhawk or Shuri have matched up incredibly well with Stature as a result.

Variants

Stature

Costs 1 if your opponent discarded a card from their hand this game.

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

view card details Start a deck Decks with Stature

The metagame still feels extremely dynamic, so more decks might emerge in the next few days. I have changed the formula of the Tier List in order to reflect this fast paced environment better. Until then, let’s take a look at the cards that dominated the early days of the new season!

Nebula Makes Popular Archetypes Build Around Her

Doom Wave nebula

Created by den

, updated 21 days ago

4

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x 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)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

While many decks have adopted Nebula already, the new DoomWave variant, originated by Shayed, seems to be the most talked about in the last few days. Without looking too much, I could easily find several people sharing it as their pick to get to the Infinite rank, while others were also sharing their success in tournament with the deck.

The shell is still the one made popular a few months ago, with Wave, She-Hulk, and Doctor Doom representing our default late game pattern. However, until Nebula showed up, Darkhawk seemed to be the preferred way to build the early game for the archetype. Since Nebula joined Marvel Snap, various builds, particularly this one, have dodged Darkhawk in favor of more cards to surround Nebula with.

The starting point for the deck is Storm, a particularly great ally for Nebula as it ensure the opponent will not be able to play cards on the location. Once you have Storm included in the mix, Jessica Jones and Jeff the Baby Land Shark also make a lot of sense because they have direct synergy with Storm. Last, we should also mention Goose, which prevents the opponent from playing on Nebula‘s lane when Wave‘s ability is in action.

Lots of intricacies in this deck, but it all makes senses. Love it.

Stature Making Her Presence Felt

Good Cards Stature

Created by den

, updated 21 days ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

With only Black Bolt (but sometimes Moon Knight) to support her ability, Stature has often struggled to be considered a reliable card in Marvel Snap, too often keeping her original cost of five energy. However, the card has been almost as discussed as Nebula for this new season’s start – and in several builds at that.

Ironically, the reason we saw the card so much has been that Stature only requires two cards to work out, allowing her to slot into decks without much room to work with. In the featured build, Stature and Black Bolt join Darkhawk, Nebula, Shang-Chi, and Enchantress for what could be considered a new way to build the “Good Cards” archetypes.

Indeed, apart from Miles Morales (another card making a comeback since Jeff the Baby Land Shark joined the game), most other cards in the deck could be considered amongst the best for their cost:

• Korg, Rockslide, and Darkhawk might be the best three card group in Marvel Snap right now. Zabu joins them in almost every deck since both Rockslide and Darkhawk are 4-costs.
• Nebula, Jeff, and Polaris are all regarded as top tier cards at their energy cost.
• Shang-Chi and Enchantress have been the two best counter cards for a while now, and they look even better in a deck with Zabu included already.
• Miles Morales completes the picture as it is easily enabled with Polaris and Jeff in the deck.

Once we break down the deck, we realize there are only two spots left to fill, which doesn’t leave many options to consider. One could consider strengthening the move synergy with Aero maybe, and have a strong standalone card to finish the deck. Otherwise, Stature and Black Bolt seem like a great fit to round up a deck who already has most of what it needs to perform but could always use an additional high roll when Darkhawk stays at the bottom of the deck.

Currently, this deck is the most talked about on social media from what I could see, and it is considered a top tier contender by most players sharing it. There are other builds using Stature, such as the others linked tweets, with a Shuri variant using very similar cards or a Death variant that aims to counter Wave decks. These have not reached the same level of excitement as the Darkhawk variant, though.

Sera Isn’t Going Anywhere!

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 21 days ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Even if the metagame is very dynamic during the first week of the new season, the old guard is still standing strong – especially Sera archetypes. In addition to Sandman not being much of an issue anymore, Sera Control was already running Killmonger in its deck, alleviating the need to play around Nebula.

Although the Stature and Darkhawk deck featured above is quickly rising in the metagame, and even though it has a higher win rate so far (probably thanks to still having that surprising element to it), Sera Control remains one of the most popular decks in Marvel Snap and a top performer in the new season. The DoomWave deck is also putting up a great performance, although slightly behind the other two when it comes to cube rate for now.

It should be quite interesting to look at the battle between these decks in the coming weeks now that they are all out for everyone to pick their favorite.

Shuri Was Kicked Out of Her Own Archetype?

Zero Nebula

Created by den

, updated 21 days ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Typically, the first week of the season is mostly focused on dominant archetypes in the metagame or new decks gaining a ton of popularity. The start of Guardians Greatest Hits didn’t disappoint in that regard as we already highlighted a nice mix of decks looking to dominate in the near future.

However, it wouldn’t be a good week if there wasn’t an original deck standing out and offering a different perspective on how to climb the ladder. This time, it comes from Zhirrzh, who reached out on Discord to share their Zero Nebula deck. Looking at it, my first question was about Shuri and Taskmaster not making the cut in the deck (which you can see it in the screenshot below).

From Zhirrzh’s answer, I would assume this deck is closer to the Darkhawk Stature deck we already discussed and really focuses on playing out cards flexibly rather than going for a very strong, pre-established play pattern. In the end, the only card worth considering for them in the deck would be Miles Morales, as both Jeff and Polaris are already a part of the build.

Closing Words

The early days of a season can really be hit or miss when it comes to discovering new archetypes. There are seasons where the dominant deck from the previous season just stomps the ladder in the first week, and there isn’t much to take from the early Infinite climbs. However, with the weekly balance patches and Nebula being a very impactful Season Pass card, I enjoyed this first week very much.

I think we had a great mix of old archetype staying on top, like Sera Control, and newcomers who look like future Tier 1 decks, like DoomWave Nebula or Darkhawk Stature. This mix of archetypes creates a great environment where players are not forced to default to a specific deck in order to climb. Instead, they are rewarded for reading the environment and finding the deck they can both play well and adapt to their most popular opponents.

As we could see this week, most of the top decks had a good mix of points and disruptive cards in the build, with Enchantress in particular being featured in every deck. It might be early to say so, but maybe reverting her buff or at least some of the two power she received might be something to expect in a future OTA. Nebula will likely not be touched for at least the full season, but the card is looking extremely promising as well. Her ability to quickly push other cards to be considered, such as Storm, is a testimony to her impact on the current metagame.

Overall, I’m very excited about the direction of this metagame, and I can’t wait to dive into the data for the Tier List to see if it matches what is transpiring on social media. To stay up to date with those developments, you can join the marvel snap zone team on Discord, or follow me on Twitter.

Good Game Everyone.