I am a big fan of flexible decks, especially those you can improve both through playing better during games and by constantly adapting to your environment and following the latest trends. As such, seeing the Good Cards archetypes dominate the first part of “Big in Japan” isn’t something I have a problem with. Plus, even though the default build of Good Cards Stature is kind of set at this point, that isn’t the case for the most recent Good Cards build known as Move Legion.

Sure, at least ten, probably eleven, of its cards are decided by now. However, the twelfth card is still very much up in the air. And even more interesting, that last card that continues to change from one list to another is a Move card! I would have expected to see Legion or America Chavez be the cards that would be considered flexible, but both of them are widely used and part of all the best performing lists so far.

Another question mark about the archetype, which is probably the most important to answer, is: How do we counter the deck?

For the third Tier List in a row (i.e. all the reports I have done for this season), Move Legion takes the top spot, and it isn’t really close to be honest. Is the Move synergy the best one to abuse in Marvel Snap, or are only the best players using the deck and bumping its performance in the process?

There are a lot of questions still unsolved in this metagame, and figuring out the puzzle will probably give you a big edge over the competition. Even more so as Move Legion is growing in popularity, which means there are fewer decks around to feed your win rate if you keep losing to the growing powerhouse.

Hopefully this report can give you a few options and help towards finding the sweet spot in Conquest!

Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List

Disclaimer and Tier Explanations

Conquest is still very new, so it is difficult to have a clear representation of the metagame in the mode. Indeed, there is currently not enough data to precisely assess the power of each deck, even more so when the Proving Grounds have become the unranked mode for Marvel Snap. Nevertheless, through scanning social media, looking at what players are having success with and which decks are performing on ladder as well. One can form an educated opinion about the best performing decks in Conquest, alongside those worth keeping an eye on.

This Tier List won’t be as detailed as the ladder one, instead focusing on the very best decks currently, alongside a few more worth keeping in mind, similarly to the Silent performers in the ladder Tier List. I would rather keep it to a shorter list for now, one I can develop around and provide a reasoning, rather than a longer list I would have to extrapolate about.

Tier 1

Move Legion

Move Legion

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

2

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:

Standing alone above the 65% win rate threshold, I could have made a Tier specifically for this deck. Indeed, Marvel Snap feels a little like the Move Legion show for the first week of Big in Japan.

As it stands, the tech card for the deck has not been found – even though limiting strategies with Professor X or Jean Grey seems to do decently. However, considering the deck is running cheap cards and an explosive game plan, it can easily adapt after the first round.

Shadow King was another idea, as it can take down Angela, Kraven, and Kitty Pryde, reducing the total amount of points by a ton. But, if we look at Silver Surfer‘s performance lately, it doesn’t seem to work out so well.

With the disruptive approach not looking so good, it appears the solution to challenge Move Legion is to come at the deck with a higher points ceiling that won’t be annoyed by your cards being moved around. Immediately, explosive Turn 6 decks come to mind like Mister Negative, Bounce, or even InSheNaut, which is doing pretty nice as well lately. Unfortunately, those can all be punished by Legion locking the game if they take too long to execute their game plan.

How to Play:

Mostly looking to build points proactively, Move Legion relies on Kraven and Angela to anchor your lanes. Either card is able to grow to eight, maybe even ten, power over the course of a match.

Then, with one lane contested via points, the second lane can be challenged through three different means:

• You can easily get points on a locked or unplayable location with Silk, Captain Marvel, and Jeff the Baby Land Shark.
• You can play a disruptive game with Legion, Spider-Man, and Shang-Chi.
• You can win a second lane on points with Silk, Legion, and a 1-Cost Miles Morales all representing good points for their costs.

Overall, it feels like once this deck is in the lead, its flexibility allows the pilot to dictate how the rest of the game will go. It does require some anticipation skills, but it has the ability to reach any location, develop points, and play counters, which gives you all the tools to turn an early lead into a successful Snap.

Potential Additions:

Aero can replace Vision. You could also use that slot for a counter card.

Good Cards Stature

Good Cards Stature

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:

In a bit of a shocking turn of events, the best list for Good Cards Stature this week did not feature Jeff the Baby Land Shark. It might be because Captain Marvel is enough to secure unplayable locations, or maybe Professor X lost enough popularity to not be a consideration anymore.

Instead, it feels like Good Cards Stature relies on Zabu as much as possible; this deck is filled with as many 4-Cost cards as possible. If the trend continues, it would seem logical to see America Chavez come back as a staple in the archetype alongside a 5- or 6-Cost card to replace Stature and Black Bolt.

The only explanation to the deck being all over the place seems to be looking for a way to beat Move Legion. By removing a Move card to not buff Kraven and exaggerating the synergy around our best card, Zabu, it feels like the best way to maximize the deck’s ability to overcome this difficult match up is to chase a high roll and hope for the best.

How to Play:

Good Cards is a very tempo oriented build looking to use its energy while staying flexible on where it can invest in the future. Ideally, one would be looking to stay flexible for a large part of the game before committing to lanes in the last two turns. Overall, this archetype relies a lot on how its built, which will impact your game plan a lot.

With so many options, it is difficult to outline a specific play pattern outside Black Bolt on Turn 5 with Stature in hand. Ideally, you want to set up Turn 6 to be a 4-Cost plus Jeff the Baby Land Shark or Stature, or two 4-Cost cards. The rest of your game plan should be based on which package of cards you draw and your opponent. Try to assess early on which cards are fundamental to play and which turns make the most sense to play them; you can then use your other cards to fill the holes in your established pattern.

Finally, keep in mind that the deck is able to play proactively with Darkhawk and Stature, but also reactively with Enchantress and Shang-Chi. This can lead to a desire to play every card since they all have their upsides. But remember, Darkhawk also requires Rockslide and Korg to be effective, and Stature needs Black Bolt. As such, don’t forget the commitment that goes with each card. It will help you plan how much energy you can work with, and thus how many other cards can fit into your plan.

Potential Additions:

America Chavez and Legion are gaining momentum in the deck, as well as Doctor Doom and other standalone solid cards. A few players have mentioned the possibility of going back to the Wave variation of the archetype.

Tier 2

InSheNaut

InSheNaut

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4x Starter Card

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:

InSheNaut is the other archetype on the rise lately, and it’s now the undisputed best way to build around High Evolutionary. It looks well suited to the current metagame thanks to two key elements:

• Leech is currently looking great, as explosive decks on Turn 6 appear to make a comeback. The card also works very nicely against Discard and Destroy.
• Many decks rely on their tech cards, but InSheNaut is trying to lose priority going into its big turn with She-Hulk plus Evolved Hulk or The Infinaut, which naturally limits Shang-Chi‘s effectiveness.

We are far from the same progression or momentum Move Legion has accumulated. Still, InSheNaut is the other archetype to keep in mind currently for Conquest.

How to Play:

In this new and improved build around She-Hulk and The Infinaut, the goal is to make the game about points – a battle you are more than suited to win. Ideally, the deck wants to play Magik on Turn 3, Leech on Turn 5, and profit from passing Turn 6 with Sunspot and Misty Knight before dropping two high power cards on Turn 7. However, there are many more play patterns in the deck to achieve victory:

• With Armor, Cosmo, and Leech, the deck has quite a formidable disruptive ability against many different decks, in addition to the ability to protect it’s own important cards.
• If Shocker hits The Infinaut, it unlocks a pattern where you pass on Turn 4, play The Infinaut on Turn 5, and then play Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. When reducing either of your 6-Cost cards, you can pass on Turn 5 and play the reduced one plus She-Hulk.
• Without Magik, you can try passing Turn 3 or 4 to play She-Hulk early and follow with a big Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. With Limbo and no Leech, you could also pass on Turn 5 to do the same The Infinaut into Evolved Hulk kind of pattern.
• With a hot start through the 1-Costs giving you a nice lead, you might not want to create Limbo and give your opponent more time to mount a potential comeback.

Through these various scenarios, you can see that this build of InSheNaut is actually trying to get away from the very rigid patterns Moon Girl was pushing for that made the deck too predictable as of late. Right now, you should consider this deck a High Evolutionary tempo build, except it can play around with its energy to change which turns it develops points and which it adopts a more passive stance.

Potential Additions:

Nebula is usually included, but Cyclops took her spot this time. Shocker and Cosmo are also cards that have looked flexible.

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:

Although the deck isn’t as reliable as our top three this week – particularly because Shuri Sauron is much less flexible than the decks we already covered – it remains one of the few archetypes that gets a solid amount of wins through putting points on the table more than trying to counter the opponent.

In that sense, Shuri Sauron might be closer to being able to beat Move Legion than Good Cards Stature is, as it doesn’t bother trying to counter it with specific cards. Instead, both decks focus on developing as many points as possible; the problem is that Move Legion does this with more flexibility.

How to Play:

Shuri Sauron is based around the idea of cancelling negative Ongoing abilities with Sauron and abusing Shuri to create a huge amount of points. In that regard, the deck is very rigid in the mid-game since Turns 3, 4, and 5 are almost always the same: Sauron → Shuri → any card worth doubling the power. Often times, Turn 2 will also be dedicated to Armor as a way to prevent an opposing Shang-Chi from ruining your plans. Speaking of Shang-Chi, Vision is another way to play around it, as hitting a moving target isn’t so simple.

This leaves only Turn 1 and Turn 6 to be truly flexible, with Zero sometimes taking up the 1-Cost slot and Taskmaster usually being the default Turn 6 play alongside Ebony Maw.

If this very straightforward approach can lead to a ton of points on two lanes, it also often doesn’t equate to a lot of cubes. Indeed, unless you are Snapping aggressively, the opponent can see the points coming and will rarely stay in the game once you show Shuri (and they can’t handle it). This creates two important factors to take into consideration when playing Shuri Sauron:

• You have to accept Snaps early in the game, especially when Sauron and Shuri show up.
• You need to find lines of play even when you don’t have the best play pattern with the deck, especially when the opponent does not Snap. Even without Shuri, the deck can develop a solid amount of points, and Enchantress is able to steal a few wins.

The last important point to cover is positioning, especially when you don’t draw into Sauron or Shuri. Indeed, while both cards will dictate a lot of your strategies, there are other pairings to know about:

• Nebula and Armor is nice against Killmonger, and you could even follow it up with Ebony Maw if you don’t expect Sauron to show up.
• Enchantress can cancel the ability of Lizard, Typhoid Mary, and Red Skull.
• Taskmaster into an unprotected card is better to play with priority. On the contrary, if the target can’t be destroyed, playing without priority protects Taskmaster. Position your cards in order to gain or lose priority depending on the situation.
• Invisible Woman allows you to hide Taskmaster so it copies your last played card on Turn 6 (or the card that reveals before it behind Invisible Woman). This is a great way to lose priority and make an opposing Shang-Chi worthless.

Potential Additions:

Nebula appears to be the flexible card in the deck. It also seems like it is losing momentum with Move Legion running Kitty Pryde in addition to Move cards.

Sera Control

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:

Sera Control does a little worse in Conquest compared to the Ladder, which is a natural consequence of being a deck with a clear signal on whether the game is going well for them. Nevertheless, with a solid 57% win rate across the board, Sera Control remains well positioned, especially if you can fit a surprise card in your deck.

Speaking of surprises, this is probably what is missing the most in Sera Control lately; the best performing list for the archetype remains awfully similar to what it has always been, hence something most players know the ins and outs of. There must be a reason for the deck to stay the same for so long, and its balance must be more important than trying to catch the opponent off guard with a surprising inclusion.

If you ask around the community, you might be surprised with what everyone thinks is the best build for Sera Control. Some think it should be a proactive build with just Shang-Chi and much closer to what Bounce was in the past, and others believe the Darkhawk package is the better way to go about it.

These iterations do not appear in the statistics, so it is difficult to know how much potential they have. They could be worth exploring if you enjoy Sera Control and feel stuck with the same list for a while.

How to Play:

This archetype relies on giving up priority going into the last turn, so it can punish the opponent with reactive cards like Shang-Chi and Killmonger. Ever since Hit Monkey joined the deck, it also unlocked a proactive pattern on Turn 6 with the monkey assassin able to challenge a lane with points rather than looking to counter what the opponent did.

Sera is at the core of this strategy, as she allows reducing the cost of cards in your hand, strengthening your Turn 6 potential and making it worth to purposefully give the lead to your opponent. Note that losing priority doesn’t mean losing the game – you can be in the lead on a location and close on the other two. Since Sera only has four power, your opponent will typically have a stronger Turn 5 than you do and take back priority. This way, you don’t need to have an incredible Turn 6 or perfectly guess your opponent’s plays to win every game. Most of this deck’s strength relies on its ability to be able to stay as close as possible while not having priority, so your reactive cards are at their best.

While the basic ideology of Sera Control remains the same from one build to another, this is one of the most flexible archetypes in Marvel Snap. As such, some builds will look to focus on reacting to the opponent, while others might have more of a proactive development in mind by answering one lane and developing points on another. Make sure to understand the goal of your build and how your deck aims to win over two lanes by game’s end.

Potential Additions:

Sentinel and Jeff the Baby Land Shark battle for the last slot among the 2-Cost cards, while Enchantress and Rogue are being swapped depending on which Ongoing cards you are trying to counter.

Tier 3

Thanos Control managed to stop the bleeding with a new updated build, but it remains a work in progress as far as results go. Still, for a deck many were considering on the way out as a victim of a different metagame, Thanos remains a very popular card that pushes several archetypes to be relevant. In Conquest, the Control build seems to do better than the Zoo or Death builds, probably because the Snaps are much easier to anticipate and it has better flexibility once the opponent knows your deck.

Regarding the other two archetypes in Tier 3 this week, both Lockjaw and Discard operate with the same idea: developing more points than the opponent can deal with. This shows that proactive strategies do have a role to play in the current metagame outside of just Shuri Sauron. Neither deck is trying to do complicated play patterns or pull particular tricks on their opponents. There is a simple-to-understand game plan that develops points across all three lanes, and that allows you to Snap almost exclusively based on your hand. Obviously, this leads to worse results compared to much more complex builds and opens you to devastating counter cards since you can’t get out of match ups like you could on Ladder. However, it also shows the metagame is slowing changing, as points driven strategies are progressing (even if they remain in the lower tiers when it comes to Conquest).

Be a little careful about both Lockjaw and Dracula, though, as Lady Deathstrike just released and could destroy either card.

Thanos Control

Thanos Control

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Evolved Lockjaw

Evolved Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

1x Starter Card

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula

Created by den

, updated 8 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

While the Ladder saw the same deck dominate the climb during this first week in the new season, Conquest tends to be less diverse because some strategies cannot exist if their counter is around. Also, when a deck beats you on the Ladder, you can quickly forget about it. However, if someone crushes you over several rounds during a Conquest match, chances are you will remember their deck much more. With that in mind, it only makes sense to see Legion Move continue its progression towards slowly taking over Conquest.

You could see this as a bad thing, especially if you don’t like playing or facing that deck, and anticipate the next era of dominance in Marvel Snap. Or you could see the positive, which is that the Move synergy is finally getting some time in the spotlight (alongside a target for all deck builders to try to counter in the near future). No matter which side you pick, Big In Japan feels much more like the season of Move than the previous two, and we still have a lot to discover about it. And the future balance changes could push it in any direction, really.

As usual, if you need anything, be it a question related to this piece or a coaching inquiry, 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.