Table of Contents
Looking for a sweet decklist to climb the ladder with? Every week, we scour the community for decks and highlight interesting ones that reach the Infinite rank on the Marvel Snap ranked ladder. We also provide commentary on each list, which allows us to discuss how the overall Marvel Snap metagame is developing so far and how these players took advantage of it.
Overview of the Week
The end of the season is oftentimes the most frustrating part of the month – especially for those with a goal they still have to work towards. For this part of the community, Marvel Snap has become a race against time, and an OTA less than a week before the timer runs out can either make that goal, or break it.
Most of the time, these OTAs will adjust the metagame to take care of problematic decks during the season and open more space for the archetypes coming in with the next season. Ideally, these OTAs will focus on buffs, only nerfing cards that are at the helm of some of the strongest or most frustrating decks in the game while also helping important tools of future decks with a bit of extra power. At the end of August, for example, we saw Legion and Captain Marvel each lose some power after Move dominated most of the month. We also got a stronger Doctor Doom and Lady Deathstrike. Although the latter has yet to prove it had any impact, Doctor Doom has been a top 6-Cost for the entire month of September with Evolved DoomWave serving as one of the best decks in the game over that same period.
On Thursday, we saw a similar pattern for the OTA. Galactus and Kitty Pryde both took a two power hit, which immediately spelled the end of Ramp and Shuri Kitty in the process. On the other side, the buffs raised the power of Psylocke and Squirrel Girl, two cards with very little impact on the current game.
As such, when the last OTA of August took something away from us (Move Legion), it also replaced it with another strong archetype. In September, the OTA has felt like it only decreased the number of playable decks.
For a player struggling to reach the Infinite rank, this can be the source of a lot of stress. Indeed, the metagame can quickly feel very limited, and facing the same archetypes over and over only adds to the frustration. As of now, players really only have three choices available to them: Loki, Shuri, or Alioth. If one of these three isn’t part of your deck, alongside the mandatory Mobius M. Mobius and other strong standalone cards such as Nebula, Wave, Doctor Doom… You have either found a hidden gem, or you have managed to navigate very deep waters with a deck that is supposedly worse than its competition.
I really want to keep this series focused on the creative side of things. We already have Tier Lists and other ways to give plenty of spotlight to the dominant decks. In my opinion, the Infinite Decks of the Week are about deckbuilding and finding creative ways to overcome challenges to finally reach the highest rank in the game.
Second Dinner isn’t making it easy, but I found a few players who managed to complete the climb with decks that are outside the big three I mentioned above. Let’s see what these players used to reach the promise land and celebrate the diversity they brought to a metagame in dire need of a new season.
Kazoo Has Still Got It!
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As the archetype we all started Marvel Snap with, Kazoo holds a special place in many players’ hearts – but rarely in their collections. However, in the Alioth vs. Loki metagame, Kazoo hasn’t been doing too bad. It effectively dodges Wave since most of its cards are already in play, and it gives Loki lots of cheap, low power cards without much use.
The bottom row in the deck looks excellent with cards that benefit mostly from lots of spaces being filled early on which allows you to play a card per turn in the second half of the match. Iron Man could be discussed as another potential strong Ongoing ability (or Iron Lad), but overall this looks solid. Maybe Armor and Cosmo could be considered in the deck too. Cosmo in particular feels like an insane card with priority lately.
As for the 1-Cost cards included, Iceman and Echo really feel like the flexible ones of the bunch. Ant Man benefits too much from Onslaught, Nebula is a top tier card, Nightcrawler brings some flexibility, and Squirrel Girl synergizes too well with Dazzler, Ka-Zar, and Blue Marvel.
It is a very simple game plan, but, sometimes, it’s good to go back to the basics and just proactively slam points.
High Evolutionary Outside DoomWave
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I would have thought Mobius M. Mobius was too much to keep running a cheap Abomination kind of deck, but Nowll apparently thinks differently – and I love it! Indeed, for the past month, High Evolutionary has been tied to the DoomWave core, and the other ways to build around the card have been completely neglected. With this build, the emphasis isn’t on the late game like with the more popular build of High Evolutionary; instead, we are looking to get our points out early on if we can – especially with Abomination before Wave or Mobius M. Mobius can come in and ruin it.
On your way to the Infinite rank, you are mostly looking to find reasons to Snap since that is the most important mechanic in the game to climb steadily. With that in mind, if you can find a solid deck with the same early game as another extremely popular archetype, you can mislead a lot of your opponents.
In this scenario, a lot of players will be pressed to use their cards proactively when they recognize a High Evolutionary deck. Indeed, you don’t want to keep too many cards in hand if you expect to see them cost four later on because of Wave. However, as you play your cards, you build your opponent’s Hazmat, giving them the perfect opportunity to get a free Abomination.
Build-A-Ladder Line Up
Reaching Infinite with your comfort deck is already a nice accomplishment, but being able to adapt to your environment is taking it one step further. Indeed, while knowing the ins and outs of your own deck will give you more confidence to Snap and allow you to manage your cubes more efficiently, the ability to change your deck (which can be done easily if you stick to proactive strategies since they require less information to be played at a reasonable level) opens tons of avenues to adapt to your environment.
A lot of the time, we associate a counter deck to a deck that can bully the opponent and completely deny their strategy. But simply switching the way you develop points in order to dodge the most common limiting cards you face is also a way to adapt and counter your local metagame.
This approach would be closer to building a tournament line up where you have the ability to rotate between a few decks with similar concepts. In addition to an easier time deckbuilding (because you don’t have to figure out tech cards and modify the same deck every time), this approach can also bring some nice diversity to your climb.
Closing Words
If you really want to reach your goal and can’t afford to take a break from the game when the metagame isn’t pleasing enough to motivate you, finding a way to bring some diversity into your game play can be crucial to keeping your mood in the right place.
Playing a different deck from what you are constantly facing, finding a smart twist to a deck to surprise your opponents, and building a line up instead of sticking to the same deck are all various tricks that you can use to make your time in Marvel Snap much more enjoyable overall – especially if you are prone to tilting, or you just need to have fun in order to play at your best.
On Tuesday, a new season and a new balance patch will roll out, which will hopefully change the current landscape and allow this series to showcase some hot, new archetypes that have been created to sneak into the Infinite rank.
Until then, I wish that you all reach your goals before the season ends, and I’ll see you in Bloodstone!
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.
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