Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List: July 14, 2023 – Why Is Lockjaw Still So Good?

The first week of the season without the expected OTA balance update led to quite a stale situation for the Marvel Snap meta. A lot of players were eager to see what the monthly patch was about, and finally experience a change of scenery in the Marvel Snap metagame. Indeed, the situation where one had to build in order to beat either Bounce or Lockjaw to perform, outside of playing these two obviously, had run its course.

Upon reading the patch notes, many quickly realized Bounce had no reason to go away, the timing of when these monthly patches are locked in getting in the way. However, Lockjaw did suffer a couple nerfs, with both Evolved Wasp and Evolved Hulk taking a hit. Considering both were essential to the Evolved Lockjaw deck, the developers explained in the patch the intent was to limit Lockjaw‘s power, while not hurting the other High Evolutionary archetype too much.

As it stands, it seems like quite the opposite happened, even if I expect some interaction to take time to develop.

Indeed, Lockjaw still seems to be a great deck, especially as many dropped Shang-Chi from their deck, or just explored archetypes limited by the previous environment, which reinforced the deck relative power to this new, forming metagame. As such, the nerfed deck took the top spot for this early, post-patch Conquest Tier List, running free and slamming points the same way it did already. Behind it are the same decks as well, considering Bounce remains one of Lockjaw‘s worst matchups for now. Because Lockjaw and Bounce are still around, the rest of the high profile decks have no reason to change either, meaning the metagame feels awfully similar to before the patch.

There are some interesting developments to explore, though, such as Lockjaw maybe dropping the High Evolutionary package for the time being, or Nakia finding a spot in a few archetypes. However, if you hoped the patch would completely change the Marvel Snap landscape, we will probably have to wait a little more for that, probably until the next OTA hotfix at least.

Happy Conquest run, everyone!

Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List

Tier Explanation

Tier 1

Lockjaw On Reveal

Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

3

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
It is still unclear whether the High Evolutionary build of the deck, or the more old school one (listed above), is the best so far. With the limited data I could gather since the patch, decks including Wave seemed to do best overall, I would guess because they shut down Bounce and Sera a little better.

As it was the case already in the previous weeks, the downside of running this kind of variation is usually being unfavored in the mirror match. However, even if the power of Lockjaw has been evident in the first days of post-patch, its popularity is hard to gauge.

No matter the list you decide to pick, it seems like the metagame should quickly adapt to counter Lockjaw once again. The deck posting almost 60% win rate since the patch is downright stupid, considering it is better than before its nerf, even for the build with the High Evolutionary shell still included.

I would attribute part of that success to a lot of players not considering Lockjaw, and being heavily punished for it.

How to Play:
Based on its signature card, the deck aims to use cheap, weak cards behind Lockjaw in order to summon much stronger ones without paying the required energy. In that sense, Lockjaw’s lane is often very strong, and it is important to keep in mind how to win another one and not get caught up in abusing Lockjaw.

Without Lockjaw, Jubilee and Dracula will serve a similar purpose and try to cheat points for less than the usual amount of energy. We’ll usually throw the cheap cards behind Lockjaw in the last two turns, so Dracula isn’t so difficult to abuse in the deck. Make sure to play Jubilee before game’s end if you have both cards available.

The first two turns of the game can be very quiet for a Lockjaw deck, as we aren’t looking to do much (which now feeds Evolved Hulk if the card is in your hand, in the High Evolutionary list). On Turn 3, we will either look to have Lockjaw paired with Wasp, or Thor to shuffle Mjölnir into the deck. Turn 4 will typically be Jubilee or Dracula; Jubilee will be stronger behind Lockjaw while Dracula is good to set up on the board with Evolved Hulk or The Infinaut in hand already.

Once in the final two turns of the match, the goal is to think about our best outcomes and how we can high roll enough to win the game. If ahead, a simple Doctor Doom or Evolved Hulk could be enough to secure the win. If behind, it is important to know the chances of winning Lockjaw‘s lane based on what is left in our deck, while counting how big we can get Thor and Dracula to challenge the second lane.

In the On Reveal based list, the deck’s disruption power is much greater, at the cost of a lower points ceiling. Here, we’ll be trying to leverage Spider-Ham and Wave in order to reduce our opponent’s ability to develop, stopping their best play-pattern in their track.
While this variant is a little more difficult to leverage, as it is more match-up based, it also has a stronger snap ability, as you often can’t be punished by a Shang-Chi on game’s end, contrary to the other ways to build the archetype.

Potential Additions:
Aero is the flexible card in the On Reveal shell of Lockjaw, replaceable with a lot of different 5 and 6-cost cards depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

If you like points, you can drop the On Reveal synergy and run the deck this way:

Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

You can also keep the High Evolutionary shell with a very similar idea:

Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Bounce

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Starter Card

2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
As it was ignored in the last balance patch, Bounce had no reason to be weakened. However, it got the top spot stolen from it as Lockjaw benefited from a metagame which almost only focused on countering Bounce, the expected deck to beat.

Outside the environment changing around Bounce, the deck feels like it reach its peak, with barely anything to note on the creative side anymore. The numbers posted are great, enough to challenge for the title of best deck in the game every week, and although Invisible Woman plus Killmonger, or Wave plus Odin are known to counter the deck pretty well. It has not been enough to make Bounce appear like anything less than a top 3 contender in Marvel Snap.

Compared to Lockjaw, or even Sera, which need to figure out how to build their list for the opponents they expect to face, Bounce seems to be able to take the exact same list on Ladder or Conquest, and post similar results in both modes.

How to Play:
Bounce relies on replaying cheap cards several times through the use of Beast, Kitty Pryde, and Falcon, leading to several benefits:

• Their abilities can be great, such as Iceman or Spider-Ham.
• They serve to buff cards like Angela or Bishop as they grow when you play more cards.
• It gives you an easy way to plan ahead of time because you don’t necessarily depend on your draw to use your energy. You can reuse cards already in play.
• You are much more flexible with your available space because you can remove cards and play others instead.
• Bounced cards are usually quite cheap, leading to very flexible turns down the line.

With Hit Monkey in the deck, Bounce also looks to keep those cheap cards in hand to have an explosive Turn 6 play. Through the Bounce mechanic, we are able to both play cards to buff Angela and Bishop during the game and also have them available to play alongside Hit Monkey.

Strategy wise, the deck wants to be as flexible as possible and only commit to lanes on Turns 5 and 6 in order to withhold as much information as possible from the opponent. Until this last turn, the deck will use Beast and Falcon to manage its hand and locations. The idea should be to abuse the abilities of our cards to disrupt the opponent while building the best hand possible going into the final turns. Depending on the situation, you will typically use Beast on Turn 4 or 5. Then, with a very cheap hand at your disposal, you can build two very strong turns and spread your power as you see fit.

Against an opponent you expect to play Wave, it is completely fine to go off on Turn 5. A 1-Cost Mysterio plus Hit Monkey will provide enough points, and we can keep a strong standalone card to play on Turn 6. This is why the Iron Man variant tends to do slightly better in Conquest, you have agency to adapt to an otherwise difficult card to beat.

Potential Additions:
In Conquest, the Iron Man build tends to do better, and can include Shang-Chi if needed for specific matchups. However, the mode will also reward a player able to play to the best of their ability. As such, if you feel more comfortable with the lower cost, Falcon build, this is also a great deck.

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x 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+

Sera Control

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Lockjaw running more of Spider-Ham, the metagame adapting quite heavily for Bounce, and with more Lockdown or Wave surfacing, Sera Control has been a bit of collateral damage in Conquest.

On the ladder, the deck will be able to get away with one, maybe two Cubes lost when such cards or matchups arise, while leveraging four or eight Cubes wins on the other hand. In Conquest, the bad matchups are not going away, meaning Sera needs to find a way to win to keep its run alive.

The environment isn’t so bad that Sera Control is a bad idea to run, and the deck can go toe to toe with Bounce and Lockjaw thanks to Killmonger and Shang-Chi. However, the Snap and Retreat game is much more tight in Conquest than it is on the ladder, so it’s obviously more difficult for the deck to post the same cube average.

Interesting to note, Sera seems to have adopted Nakia, which was included in the archetype back in the days, when she used to buff the whole hand. For now, the card is more popular than Rogue, or Enchantress. We’ll see how that develops.

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 – we 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, we don’t need to have an incredible Turn 6 or perfectly guess our 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 our reactive cards are at their best.

Against an opponent you expect to play Wave, it is completely fine to skip Sera and go off on Turn 5. Kitty Pryde, Mysterio, and Hit Monkey will provide enough points, and then we can simply play Enchantress or Shang-Chi on the following turn.

Invisible Woman is gaining traction in the deck, allowing you to play reactive cards on curve and opening more energy for Turn 6. The deck can hide Killmonger, Shang-Chi, and/or Hit Monkey behind her for their ability to trigger on Turn 6. Also, it can serve as a way to not get Kitty Pryde back in hand on Turn 5.

Potential Additions:
A counter card for the Ongoing synergy probably is the first thing to include if you run into a lot of those. Rogue tends to be preferred to Enchantress if you are not running Zabu as well lately.

Otherwise, Scarlet Witch is being replaced by Jeff the Baby Land Shark if you like the flexibility to reach unplayable locations.

Tier 2

Lockdown Surfer

Lockdown Surfer

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
If Lockjaw did not remain one of the best decks in the game for now, Silver Surfer could be competing for the throne. Indeed, the deck seems unable to find a way to edge that particular matchup, while it has a shot against any other archetype. Especially against Bounce, and other explosive decks on turn six, the Lockdown package is incredible.

Unfortunately, the flexibility of the various 3-cost cards in the decks come at the price of a lower power ceiling for the deck. As such, if the opponent is able to drop a large amount of points on your Storm or Spider-Man lane, which Lockjaw is great at doing through Thor, Jubilee, Dracula, or Lockjaw itself. Your whole gameplan suddenly becomes shaky at best.

How to Play:
In this new way to play the Silver Surfer archetype, the core idea is intact, but the supporting cast has changed quite a bit. Indeed, if playing our 3-cost cards and buffing them on the last turn of play remains the go-to game plan. The deck took a page from the Lockdown archetype, including Spider-Man instead of Sera. The card joins forces with Storm and Goose in order to prevent the opponent from playing as they wish.

Considering the Silver Surfer synergy is weaker than Bounce or Lockjaw when it comes to sheer amount of points, including this synergy help to win locations for cheap. It frees the deck to then invest a lot of its total points on one location only, enabling the Surfer deck to compete with the better decks on that location.

Ideally, the plan would be to gain a location through the lockdown synergy. It can be Storm plus Juggernaut, or with Brood, which we can buff later on. Otherwise, Spider-Man on turn five is the other way to try to steal a lane from our opponent.

If that part of the plan goes smoothly, it opens Maximus (max points) or Killmonger (Nova synergy plus destroying opponent’s cards) plus Silver Surfer in order to win the second lane. Usually, Goose will be a valuable ally in order to limit the opponent’s development there, even if both Bounce and Lockjaw are pretty at playing around the card.

Potential Additions:
Jean Grey can totally fit in this deck, but hasn’t popped in the stat sheet yet, so keeping her in the “potential” cards for now. Although Spider-Man gained a lot of momentum lately, Sera is still a card most players are running, and worth using for a more combo oriented approach. Cosmo is another card one could include without much drawback from running it.

Lastly, Nova has been replaced by Spider-Ham in a few lists, but the sample size is too sample to tell if the change is impactful or not.

Iron Patriot

Iron Patriot

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
A deck I expected to make quite the comeback with the patch, Iron Patriot, unfortunately also suffered from the metagame not changing as much as we would expect. It could be a blessing in disguise down the line, as it means Shang-Chi will remain the popular tech card, limiting Enchantress or Rogue popularity.

However, It feels like the deck has enough room to adapt to one popular opponent, which helps the deck make up for its less flexible game plan and points spread. Most of the time, Patriot will be able to challenge all three lanes, but rarely will be able to match the 25 power Bounce or Lockjaw will routinely put up on two lanes.

If the patch’s consequences went as planned, and Bounce was left as the only deck to beat, Iron Patriot would probably be higher on the list. Unfortunately, as the metagame has not changed much so far, Patriot is still stuck with a game plan not good enough to match the potential of the deck it doesn’t have room to tech against.

How to Play:
Without a 1-Cost, this Patriot build is more passive than the traditional one. The idea is that the late game will be crazy enough to not need to invest early on, especially if we intend to use Ultron. With Invisible Woman joining the deck, we now have a way to protect Patriot as well as hide our deck a little, since one could simply play on one lane and let Ultron fill the other two on game’s end. In addition, we can also hide some important tech cards, such as Killmonger or Shang-Chi, to keep our opponent in the game while they’ve already lost it.

The biggest choice you have to make with this deck is which route you are looking to take: the proactive one, or the disruptive one. If you think you can beat your opponent in a points contest, and they can’t punish you for it, it is completely reasonable to plan based solely on how many points you can develop. Then, you will be looking to build around Patriot, Iron Lad, Mystique, Ultron, and Blue Marvel. This is particularly effective now that Invisible Woman can help hide some of our key cards, preventing the opponent from counting how many points they have to beat.

On the other hand, you can also plan for a more disruptive approach and use Killmonger and Shang-Chi, Super-Skrull, or other tech cards include to counter your opponent’s plan. Then, you would be looking to play Patriot in the mid-game (typically either Turn 3 or Turn 5) and finish with Ultron behind Invisible Woman. This way, you still have a lot of energy on Turns 4 and 5 to use your counter cards. Just make sure to have Killmonger reveal before Ultron so you have a decent amount of points to contest the lanes where you’ve left the opponent impaired.

Because of the many high rolls this deck can pull, it is important to be fearless about your Snaps and Retreats, even with Enchantress representing a scary prospect. Once you know your opponent runs some Ongoing hate card, make sure to hide them behind Invisible Woman for protection.

Potential Additions:
Wave, Shang-Chi and Super-Skrull are two popular additions as tech cards, depending on your anticipated opponents. Otherwise, Wasp, Shocker, Debrii and other staples of the Patriot archetype can be included in the deck.

Tier 3

Considering the metagame hasn’t changed much yet, the decks with the best chance to perform outside of the usual powerhouses are the gimmicks able to rival their points potential. More than anything, the goal with both Mister Negative and Hela Discard is to get a 4 or an 8 Cube win from the first time you reveal your archetype to your opponent. Then, with the lead, you will be able to leverage your Snaps and Retreats much more efficiently, even bluffing wonderful hands, when you really don’t have that much to show for your Snap.

Mister Negative has been gaining some nice momentum in Conquest for the past few weeks, leading to finally being a consideration because the Black Panther plus Arnim Zola duo can rival a lot of decks point-wise.

As for Hela discard, the deck benefits a lot from everyone running Invisible Woman these days. Most of the time in Conquest, your opponent will often put you on Patriot more than Hela. Hide your archetype efficiently, catch them off-guard on one of your good hands, and then leverage your lead to make Hela Discard a nice, outside the box pick in this metagame.

Also, Gambit on turn three sniping Lockjaw or Thor is incredible, considering the archetype is still very popular. If it wasn’t for Lockjaw, Lady Sif probably would take the nod. Even without the card, Death still serves as a nice safety net against Spider-Ham.

Mister Negative

Negative

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hela Discard

Hela

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

7.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

Like most of the community, I would guess, I wished this tier list was filled with new archetypes, and the start of a new metagame for Marvel Snap. Unfortunately, the top decks have yet to change since the patch went live, and hopefully it is just a matter of the aftermath taking longer than expected.

There is still some good to take out of all of this, particularly in the gimmick decks which are slowly gaining momentum, as Lockjaw does not run many disruptive cards. Spider-Ham is the big one to dodge for decks like Hela, Mister Negative and other gimmicky decks. Nevertheless, I fully believe these decks have the points potential to challenge Lockjaw or Bounce, and the disrespect they get is only a benefit in a mode where leveraging your snaps is everything.

Jean Grey also made a bit of noise already, and still needs to find her best decks. Also, we have an OTA coming next week, so this metagame can still change long before the end of the season. Until then, we will have to keep fighting against the same powerhouses, but at least we know their weaknesses already.

I hope this report was helpful to get a better understanding of the Conquest mode. I wish you the best of luck in your future runs. As usual if you need to reach out, for any questions or coaching enquiry. 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.