Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List: December 8, 2023 – The Old Decks Are Back

Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Tier List for Conquest mode! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap meta. Then we bring you the decklists, and we provide an in-depth report about them. This report contains information like how their ranks are justified, how to play the decks, and how to build the deck with alternate cards to accommodate different collections.

Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Overview

We are just a couple of days after the start of the new season and the release of a massive balance update where two of the most used cards in Marvel Snap, America Chavez and Alioth, were changed.

In Conquest, cards that help your deck be more reliable or open some safe Snaps are incredibly impactful. Indeed, the former will help you Snap as early as possible, increasing the chances of your opponent staying in the match, and the latter will keep the opponent guessing whether you have it or not as soon as the situation would make that card really strong.

When it comes to America Chavez, there were many decks looking to find specific cards early on, such as Good Cards with Zabu, Lockdown with Nebula or Storm, Shuri Sauron with both of the namesake cards… All these decks want to repeat the same patterns over and over to rack up cubes, and America Chavez was a key part of maximizing your chances of doing so. As for Alioth, the card was just a nightmare to play around. Any player with priority who Snapped you would instigate that doubt of whether you should leave or play it out. Also, a few games have been decided by Iron Lad copying the ability and creating a lead way too big to come back from.

With these two off of the list of most impactful cards (at least for now), I was very curious to see what Conquest would look like. The game mode can reveal a lot of information about the best decks early in the season.

Sure, most of the player base is busy grinding back to Infinite during the first few days, which leads to Conquest not offering a large amount of games to look at. However, Conquest has the upside of limiting the surprise effect of a deck, something that can be extremely powerful when playing in the Ranked mode. After the first or second round of Conquest, the opponent should know most of what your strategy will be, and a bad deck won’t manage to get very far once its plan is revealed. Plus, Conquest has no bots to inflate the performance of each deck, which should give us a better representation of the true strength of the decks in the report this week.

As usual, take these with a grain of salt. The meta is far from being set, and an early performer could see a counter rise in the coming days and become a terrible idea to play.

With all these disclaimers out of the way, let’s discuss what this rather short Tier List contains, particularly the Silent Performers section where there are three very different strategies. Indeed, if we trust that Loki is a solid deck with a low play rate that fully deserves its spot on the list in Tier 1 (if more players used it), Junk and Hela Lockjaw are a different story. Neither were doing well at the end of the last season, so you might wonder how much they benefit from the current situation. Junk posted a 60% Win Rate overall, even while Destroy is the most popular archetype. This seems a bit odd, but the disruption that the deck is capable of is very annoying for Werewolf By Night and Ms. Marvel.

As for Hela Lockjaw, the deck isn’t trying to disrupt anyone; instead, it wants to beat the competition with points. And that seems to be working out pretty well as the 59% Win Rate indicates. It would have been just one percent off to be considered in Tier 1, but it would have placed atop Tier 2 and in the game’s top five archetypes for Conquest this week. It feels important to note that Black Knight wasn’t part of the best performing list, as Silver Samurai seems to be the preferred option. Both decks were pretty close in their Win Rate, though, so it might just be a case of gaining an edge in certain match ups. With Darkhawk taking the top spot, I can see how Silver Samurai has a lot of upsides right now.

The main body of this report will feature a lot of the usual suspects that dominate the competition, with only the Ongoing deck being a real surprise this week. There were plenty of archetypes with a very low amount of games, around 10 to 30 total, which obviously kept them out of this report. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t valid options to explore. From that list, I could mention Bounce, Electro Ramp, Hela Tribunal, and Move, all of which had a strong enough Win Rate to be considered but were extremely insignificant to the meta over a large sample size. This does show, however, that the best thing to do is keep experimenting for now; we might have a gem or two still left to find after the massive changes we had earlier this week.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List

Disclaimer and Tier Explanations

Conquest is not played as much as the Ladder, so it is difficult to have a clear representation of the meta in the game mode. Indeed, there currently is not enough data to precisely assess the power of each deck – even more so when the Proving Grounds have become the default unranked mode for Marvel Snap. Nevertheless, by scanning social media, looking at what players are having success with, and which decks are performing on Ladder, we can form an educated opinion about the best performing decks in Conquest, as well as those worth keeping an eye on.

This Tier List won’t be as detailed as the Ladder one; instead, it will focus on the very best decks right now and a few more worth keeping in mind (similar to the Silent Performers in the Ladder Tier List). I would rather keep this to a shorter list for now so I can provide a more in-depth reasoning, rather than a longer list that I would have to extrapolate on.

Tier 1

Devil Darkawk

Devil Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x 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+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
As you might expect with Darkhawk, there were quite a few different builds going around (you can find one with Annihilus in the potential additions). At the end of the day, most lists posted between a 56% and 60% Win Rate, but this one that uses the Devil Dinosaur synergy got to 63% over a few hundred games.

It is very possible that this deck posted better results thanks to already existing last season, and only a few players had to bring it back in order to profit from an already refined build. However, this deck also seems to be well on par with what Marvel Snap was pushing before the patch: a strong proactive strategy with multiple ways of spreading power. One might critique the lack of counter cards here, but Good Cards is historically one of the most flexible decks in the game. It shouldn’t be too difficult to include a couple if decks routinely putting up more points show up. Also, Korg, Black Widow, and Rockslide already represent a form of disruption that will work against any kind of deck. It’s perfect for the early stages of a meta when you don’t really know what you might be paired up against.

How to Play:
Devil Darkhawk is looking to leverage the power of its 4-, 5-, and 6-Cost cards that will represent the largest chunk of the deck’s potential. The cheaper card serve as a setup to boost the power of the more expensive ones. The deck can be divided in three separate sections:

• The Darkhawk package: Korg, Black Widow, Rockslide
• The Devil Dinosaur Package: Snowguard, Agent Coulson
• Strong standalone cards: Zabu, Iron Lad, Ms. Marvel, Doctor Doom

When playing this deck, you will usually rely on either the Darkhawk or the Devil Dinosaur plan and use the strong standalone cards as support. Mystique is the only card I didn’t mention because it can be a part of any tactic you choose by copying Darkhawk, Devil Dinosaur, or Ms. Marvel. Thanks to Zabu, you could consider a Turn 5 Devil Dinosaur followed by a Turn 6 Darkhawk plus Mystique (or another 4-Cost), but this will usually mean you managed to set up both Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur on Turns 1, 3, and 4.

By the end of the game, the spread of points will typically consist of one of your big cards on a lane and either a point spread with Ms. Marvel and Doctor Doom or Mystique representing your second anchor. On some occasions, Iron Lad will also copy of one your strongest abilities, which is a sign that you can Snap and focus on developing as many points as possible for the rest of the game.

No matter which path you decide to pick, the purpose of this deck is to develop proactively and play around the opponent’s traps if possible. You don’t want Enchantress or Rogue disabling your most powerful cards. In Conquest, you could play it safe in the early rounds to gather information, and then be more aggressive once you figure out which threats you should be careful about.

Potential Additions:
Shang-Chi, Rogue, or Shadow King would make sense as disruptive cards that you could fit on the last turn of play alongside Darkhawk or Mystique (with Zabu on board). Otherwise, the Good Cards archetype is so flexible that you can even go in a completely different direction:

Good Cards Junk

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Shuri Sauron

Shuri

Created by den

, updated 5 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 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Shuri wasn’t looking too good at the end of last season; several decks were able to beat it through sheer amount of points, and Shadow King was ready in every deck to remove Shuri‘s buff. While the 2-Cost card is still regarded as one of the better disruptive cards in the game, it seems like Shuri Sauron benefited a ton from the chaos we had early in the season. It did what has become its trademark over time: profit from unrefined proactive decks.

With a 61% Win Rate, Shuri didn’t steal its spot in Tier 1 this week. The lack of America Chavez and Alioth didn’t seem to bother a deck that usually played one of the two before they were nerfed. However, with a lot of Ongoing strategies going around, it seems like Echo and Enchantress were able to punish a fair amount of decks.

Let’s monitor how Shuri does and see if it can keep up the pace when the other archetypes find their balance in this meta.

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 Echo or Zero 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 in order to find some potential game winning lines of play. Enchantress for example, represent a good example of an alternate line of play

Potential Additions:
Nebula, She-Hulk, and Alioth come to mind as potential replacements for either Echo or Enchantress. You could also wonder if Luke Cage could be added to Armor as a way to stop Shadow King in addition to Shang-Chi.

Tier 2

InSheNaut

InShenaut

Created by den

, updated 5 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:
A synergy that many anticipated to do great with Luke Cage nerfed, InSheNaut didn’t disappoint (although its 58% Win Rate might be a little lower than some anticipated). Plus, the deck was ready to go for the new season, as absolutely nothing was changed from the last season. Even the disruption aspect was covered by Leech, which was regarded as a great card to counter the explosive synergies that were expected to come back with Alioth out of the picture.

If the setup was ideal, there were a few hurdles that InSheNaut didn’t manage to overcome to be a Tier 1 deck. First, Killmonger is immensely popular with both Destroy and Silver Surfer running rampant right now, which means you better find Armor to protect Sunspot and Misty Knight. Also, Snowguard is played in both Loki and Devil Darkhawk right now, opening the way for Limbo to be removed. There are also several opponent who have Storm in Lockdown and sometimes Silver Surfer. Last, Shadow King remains a popular disruptive card that is potentially included in any kind of archetype. It’s able to deny the power you built on Sunspot, or the afflictions from Cyclops.

Overall, InSheNaut did progress with the patch in the same way that most refined and untouched archetypes did. A top three placement is nothing to be ashamed of. Still, it seems like those claiming it is the best, or even a nerf-worthy, on social media might have jumped the gun a little early on this one.

How to Play:
The goal with this deck 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 in some variations of the deck, 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.

Playing InSheNaut the right way often comes down to identifying which patterns are available and then evaluating how many points you need to win.

Potential Additions:
Nebula is sometimes played in the deck, or another disruptive card instead of Leech, but the list has been pretty much the same for a while now.

Deadpool Destroy

Deadpool Destroy

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Unfortunately for Destroy, the deck seems to have once again suffered from being expected and adapted against. In particular, InSheNaut’s high popularity meant facing Armor and Cosmo together, which isn’t a pleasant experience for Deadpool and company. Plus, Shadow King has remained pretty popular after its nerf, and it’s able to remove all the power from Deadpool and/or Venom. Even with these issues in the meta, Destroy still lived up to most player’s expectations and easily took the title of most popular deck. Plus, the 58% Win Rate, the same as InSheNaut, isn’t so bad overall.

Once more decks get refined and become the new trend, Destroy might have more space to exist, and it should be able to return to being a Tier 1 kind of deck.

How to Play:
If you find Deadpool in your opening hand, buffing it with Forge or Hulk Buster and destroying it over and over again until Turn 6 is the main concept with this deck. But there are other ways to score lots of points and emerge victorious, alongside leverage a timely Shang-Chi for the win.

First, it is important to understand the role of X-23: to give you energy on specific turns so you can break the expected timing your opponent has for your cards. For example, going for Deadpool plus Taskmaster on Turn 5 can throw an opponent off, and it opens a Knull play on the following turn. Similarly, if you destroy X-23 on Turn 5, you can play both Deadpool plus Knull, or Arnim Zola on Turn 6. Even if some of those cards are not part of the featured list this week, it shows how you can use X-23 to create play-patterns your opponent won’t easily anticipate.

Since you are playing a deck that is easily recognizable and well known in the community, finding those unusual ways of developing your play patterns will open avenues to catch your opponent off guard. Also, keep in mind your should have an agressive Snap strategy, otherwise, your opponent will not stay in a game if you already showed them your hand.

Once you understand the key concepts around your 1-Costs, the rest of the deck is really about dodging the opponent’s traps. Death needs to be played as soon as possible if you suspect your opponent is playing Mobius M. Mobius. Killmonger can be used to destroy opposing cards, not just your Deadpool. Last, Arnim Zola or Taskmaster, if you decide to play one of the two, can also be used on Knull, Death, or Venom to create a lot of points.

Potential Additions:
Taskmaster and Arnim Zola are popular inclusions in the deck, usually instead of Hulkbuster.

Ongoing

Ongoing

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 1-14

6x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
This is the surprise entry this week. At first I thought it was a budget deck and I had my filters wrong when I looked at the available data, but “Ongoing” (for lack of a better name) managed to post a reasonable 56% Win Rate. There’s a mix of good disruptive cards (Armor, Cosmo, Goose) and the ability to develop quite a lot of points with Onslaught and Spectrum atop the curve.

If I’m being honest, I definitely do not expect this sort of deck to make it past week one. It would be butchered by counter cards if it were to get any close to being dominant at some point. However, it does show that, sometimes, a very simple strategy can do really well in Marvel Snap – especially when every one else is trying different things. Hela Tribunal in the Silent Performers is another example of how you can do a lot of damage with a deck that is simple to navigate when other players didn’t pack the right counter cards for you.

Out of curiosity, I checked how the On Reveal synergy was doing. There is a similar concept of just abusing a specific keyword with Wong, Black Panther, White Tiger, and other such cards. It performed worse overall, so maybe there were more Cosmos than Rogues and Enchantresses this week, or maybe this deck is keeping opponents in the game more than the other deck since it can be easier to recognize.

How to Play:
Ideally, this deck looks to place Cosmo or Invisible Woman, Ms. Marvel, Klaw, and Onslaught in the middle location (and a card on each side to make sure Ms. Marvel activates). This will produce at least 10 points on the left, 19 points in the middle, and 22 points on the right location, which is already a decent amount of points. However, this deck rarely wins by just slamming points on the table; that would be a little too simple for the opponent to play around. The important part of this deck is leveraging some disruptive cards – especially Armor and Cosmo – to reduce the opponent’s points potential.

Ongoing is able to compete with highly synergistic decks like Destroy by navigating both lines of play. It can either develop its own power across every lane, even having the ability to reach any kind of location thanks to Nightcrawler, Armor, and possibly even Colossus if you fancy playing it, or it can disrupt the opponent’s game plan.

Potential Additions:
Pretty much any card with Ongoing written on it could make sense if you can find a reason to run it in the deck. This is as close to a budget deck as it gets, so it seems impossible for most collections to not be able to build some sort of deck around this shell.

Lockdown

Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
I was very surprised to see Lockdown so low on the list considering the deck is pretty solid against both Destroy and InSheNaut. Unfortunately, Lockdown is also an archetype that needs to find its pieces on time, unlike Darkhawk or Loki. With America Chavez out of the equation and Alioth still in the deck, Lockdown might need a little time to rebuild some momentum.

It still managed to sneak into Tier 2 with a 55% Win Rate, which shows that the deck can still compete in its current form. It might still be able to perform once a few players find out how to balance it again. This is another deck to monitor in the near future.

How to Play:
Most of the time, the goal with this deck is either to develop points flexibly or hide from your opponent where you plan to act. You can also aggressively block your opponent’s play patterns, which is easier in Conquest where you should gather information from one round to another. With Ms. Marvel in the equation, Lockdown is trying to lock one of the side lanes with Storm or Professor X in order to land Ms. Marvel in the middle for support.

If you expect your opponent to run an Ongoing counter, you could play Storm on Turn 3 in the lane where you wish to play Ms. Marvel so the opponent can’t land their card later on.

Typically, Storm is stronger if you have ways of supporting it (either with the Move cards or with Doctor Doom down the line). Professor X, on the other hand, will push for Alioth or America Chavez to be used to win the second lane.

A hot start with Nebula, Medusa, and Storm can quickly lead to you winning a lane, which allows you to focus entirely on another one with a card like Alioth at the end of the game. Furthermore, the deck is also decent at spreading its points through Ms. Marvel and Doctor Doom – especially if Iron Lad hits either of those. You can then accept a battle based on points, where you would become a proactive deck.

Finally, the Move cards simply provide flexibility for Ms. Marvel so you can make sure it reliably adds points to every lane. You can reposition your cards if you need to in order to play one with the same cost on that location.

Potential Additions:
The deck is very similar to what it was before the patch, which makes it hard to guess what to replace so far. Move-based cards tend to do great in the deck, such as Vision (or maybe Stegron as a Storm follow up). Echo also saw play in the deck in the past, as did Shang-Chi and the Annihilus package.

Tier 3

Alone in Tier 3, Silver Surfer didn’t manage to convince anyone with its performance this week. It did benefit from a large popularity thanks to the new Season Pass card, Sebastian Shaw, being almost exclusive to the archetype. Unfortunately for the new card (which had some big shoes to fill after Loki, Elsa Bloodstone, and Ms. Marvel all ended up being meta-defining at some point), Sebastian Shaw doesn’t seem to push Silver Surfer to be extremely competitive. Indeed, even if the points potential is decent, the deck can’t seem to be flexible enough in the current environment.

When you build it to maximize your points output, you are quick to compare it to a Darkhawk, Shuri, or Destroy deck, and you quickly realize the potential is similar at best but often requires more cards. Then, if you go the other direction and include Rogue, Cosmo, and Shadow King for disruption, you enter Loki and Bounce territory and realize that you can leverage those cards more easily in other archetypes.

From the various opinions I saw about the deck, most players seem to agree that Sebastian Shaw has potential worth exploring, but the deck to do so just isn’t there yet.

Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

I would have expected to see some new brews make a bigger impact in the first few days, at least making it in the Silent Performers section if they were not popular enough. Unfortunately, it seems like Conquest was the place for some safe play early in the season. The majority of players elected to rely on decks that were barely impacted by the changes. Good Cards Darkhawk, in particular, represented a shell that many players experimented with because it offered a solid, flexible base. Destroy, Shuri Sauron, and InSheNaut were also among the most popular decks since no work was required to have a functional list immediately.

You could see this as a sad news that shows how the larger part of the community cares more about winning than exploring the new avenues that the balance patch and Sebastian Shaw opened. However, this should be regarded as a necessary step to find the strongest decks, either among the old guard or the new archetypes that will emerge at some point in the future. Then, let’s not think the meta hasn’t changed and the same decks are still dominating. Instead, let’s see this as the first stepping stone towards the next Marvel Snap where we have established which decks need to be beaten in order to find success. These first two days were more about gathering information rather than setting anything in stone, and we should be ready to enter a more innovative phase with decks built towards a specific purpose.

As usual, if you need anything or simply want to share your reaction to this report, you can post a comment below, 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.