Table of Contents
Proactive decks that are able to control the Snap mechanic once again rule the meta in both Conquest and Ranked after the OTA. This time Hela is the deck to beat, but Mister Negative looks much more consistent. Surprisingly, Ongoing Doom has taken on a sort of a reactive role against these two, and a Good Cards Control deck didn’t do too bad in this environment either.
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Scream Move 73% Win Rate / 45 Games |
| Trending | Surtur 10 Power 64% Win Rate / 30 Games |
| Tier 1 | Hela 69% Win Rate / 520 Games |
| Tier 1 | Mister Negative 68% Win Rate / 210 Games |
| Tier 1 | Ongoing Doom 66% Win Rate/ 250 Games |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Control 66% Win Rate / 75 Games |
| Tier 2 | Bullseye Discard 64% Win Rate / 180 Games |
| Tier 2 | Toxic 59% Win Rate / 110 Games |
| Tier 3 | Mill 50% Win Rate / 90 Games |
Marvel Snap Conquest Overview
With Sanctum Showdown starting at the same time, this Infinity week has been much more quiet than usual. Still, in both this report and the Ranked report there were plenty of decks that managed to post consistent results.
The uncontested winner is Hela, which benefited from the now 7-Cost Skaar to add another high power card to its arsenal. Alongside it are the usual contenders: highly proactive decks like Ongoing Doom, Bullseye Discard, and Mister Negative.
You can also see some Control strategies making a comeback, which are aided by the current fantastic standalone cheap cards that are available (like Iron Patriot, Sam Wilson Captain America, and Rocket and Groot). These cards bolster the points potential of the Control decks and give them early Snap opportunities—even against decks with much higher ceilings than their own.
Overall, all three play styles (synergistic, flexible, and reactive) are represented, even if there are only a handful of decks that had enough games to be worth discussing. This means that the meta is in a fairly good place, and it could go in various directions once all the archetypes find their refined list. For now, the synergistic builds have the edge thanks to their obvious play patterns. This is how most metas start after a balance update, so we’ll see if it lasts.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Trending
den
Performance: 73% Win Rate / 45 Games
This same deck was Trending in the Ranked report, and I don’t really understand why Scream doesn’t see more play outside of a lack of cards in the community. There could be another reason, such as the presence of quite a few decks that don’t care about the position of their cards. For example, neither Mister Negative nor Hela are bothered if you move their early plays because they develop most of their points on Turn 6. The same could be said about Ongoing Doom, as moving their card only makes Doctor Doom awkward without stopping Doctor Doom 2099 from summoning cards or Spectrum from buffing them.
The Win Rate clearly indicates that Scream deserves more popularity. However, the meta and the need for a plethora of high Series cards might have a say in that.
den
Performance: 64% Win Rate / 30 Games
I typically wouldn’t include a deck with so few games recorded unless it is super exotic or tells some kind of story. In this case, Surtur 10 Power’s ranking tells me that it has lost most of its popularity despite remaining a decent deck (at least if you believe in small sample sizes).
One thing I will give the deck credit for is the Cosmo + Juggernaut duo. I I believe they must be great against the super popular Hela. Otherwise, those same Hela opponents look to have taken the spot of the “I develop more points than you can handle” archetype in the meta.
Tier 1
Hela
den
Performance: 69% Win Rate / 520 Games
Hela already posted a stellar performance in Ranked, and the exact same list posted the highest Win Rate among decks with over 100 games in Conquest. This should solidify Hela‘s status for the near future, and the huge popularity shows that the community is already in on it.
Points wise, it is hard to bet against Hela. This allows the deck to control the Snaps and Retreats of most matches. Indeed, unless the deck discards Hela or does not discard much, you will constantly be in doubt as to whether Hela is about to take your cubes or not. This doubt is exactly what Hela uses to steal cubes from opponents who are too scared to take a chance despite having a reasonable chance to win the round.
Potential Additions
Thaddeus Ross can replace Adam Warlock and Iron Man could be Blink, although these swaps had slightly worse Win Rates. There is also a list with no 2-Costs and Magneto instead.
Mister Negative
den
Performance: 68% Win Rate / 210 Games
Just like Hela, the exact same list performed the best in Ranked and Conquest for Mister Negative (which is a routine top contender after a balance patch). This time I think it might last a little longer than the typical few days, as Hela will call for specific counter cards that hardly impact Mister Negative at all. Maybe Alioth could trouble Mister Negative.
Potential Additions
Ironheart can be Cassandra Nova or Rogue, and Wong can be Super-Skrull depending on your target match ups.
Ongoing Doom
den
Performance: 66% Win Rate/ 250 Games
Another deck that posted great results in both modes, Ongoing Doom also feels like the best deck to use when you want to adapt to the other proactive lists. Indeed, Mobius M. Mobius and Super-Skrull already make sure this deck has a huge edge against Mister Negative, but Cosmo plus Jean Grey could dismantle Hela if you’re seeing more of that.
These disruptive cards are actually key to the deck’s success, as Ongoing Doom doesn’t have the same ability to bluff as Mister Negative and Hela do. This is because its development is much more linear, sort of turn-by-turn, whereas the other two can use their explosiveness to keep opponents in the dark.
Potential Additions
Cosmo, Luke Cage, and other Ongoing cards that are able to give you an edge in certain match ups can replace Mobius M. Mobius and/or Super-Skrull.
Good Cards Control
den
Performance: 66% Win Rate / 75 Games
It is close to impossible to cover all three proactive juggernauts (Hela, Ongoing Doom, and Mister Negative) with a purely reactive deck. You would need Mobius M. Mobius, Enchantress, and Cosmo (and probably Juggernaut as well) at the very least just to get started. Keep in mind that this probably means you’ll have several useless cards against certain archetypes.
Then, even though you could include all these cards in this deck, it seems like the generic good cards that provide consistency and a solid number of points are the best way to build a Good Cards Control deck.
If the new cards don’t change the meta, I expect this deck to gain a lot of momentum in the near future—especially once the perfected build begins to spread.
Potential Additions
The 3-Cost cards are flexible, so you can adapt them to your target match ups. There are plenty to choose from if you’re missing any of the ones in this deck.
Tier 2
Bullseye Discard
den
Performance: 64% Win Rate / 180 Games
I am not a big fan of Gambit at the moment due to the explosive decks that don’t caring much about it, and hitting Cap's Shield is always a “feels bad” moment. Yet, apart from nitpicking the last few cards in the deck, there isn’t much to say about it at the moment. It was losing momentum before the OTA, but it seemed to have picked it back up with a top tier deck out of the equation (although another deck claimed the title of best Discard build).
Potential Additions
Grand Master can replace The Collector for more synergy rather than sheer amount of points.
Toxic
den
Performance: 59% Win Rate / 110 Games
Following the OTA, the list with Malekith over High Evolutionary, Abomination, and Miles Morales has been the best performer in both game modes. However, within those decks, the lists running Iron Patriot over Scorpion did significantly better, which shows that it might just be the points potential rather than the Toxic synergy itself that is currently carrying the archetype.
Potential Additions
Cassandra Nova could replace Diamondback or Red Guardian if you’re missing either.
Tier 3
Zemo Mill
den
Performance: 50% Win Rate / 90 Games
Past the decks in the first two tiers, there is a huge gap both in terms of performance and popularity. I thought it would be interesting to feature Mill due to its usual ability to do fairly well against synergistic decks. Indeed, the deck is supposed to be great against Mister Negative, and it usually knows for sure whether Hela is in the opponent’s hand or not.
With that in mind, I would assume Mill has a better potential than the 50% it Win Rate that it posted this week, but maybe the build needs to drop the Destroy package and focus instead on emptying the opponent’s deck.
That’s it for this week! As usual, you can find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord to discuss the report, or shoot me a direct message (@den_ccg) for coaching or specific requests.
Good Game Everyone.
Disclaimer and Tier Explanations
In order to be featured here, a deck needs to hold a Win Rate above the 50% threshold over more than a hundred Conquest games. Games in the Proving Grounds are never taken into account, but games in the Silver League are weighted depending on how much data is available for the Gold League. The Infinity League is open during the last week of each season, so that will be the focus of the report during that time.
In order to create this chart, den is using data from our Marvel Snap Tracker, as well as other available data online and his own expertise and opinion of respected players. If a deck showed great performances with a very limited presence in the meta, you can find it in the Silent Performers section. That section highlights decks with an excellent Win Rate, but too little of a sample size to be representative of their real strength.
Decks not good enough to be considered contenders but with a good representation will be ranked in Tier 3 in our chart. See those builds as decks that are good to know about, as you should face them when playing Marvel Snap. However, unless the meta changes or a new variation of the build emerges, these decks are a notch below the dominant ones in Tier 1 and Tier 2.
Silent Performer: Decks with a very little presence in the meta that still showcase a Cube Average and Win Rate worthy of a Tier 2 deck (or better). Oftentimes, these can be archetypes with some nice game play that have been left unchecked in the current environment, or decks on the rise that found a few good match ups to abuse.
Tier 1: Tier 1 represents decks with all the upsides we would be looking for to run the gauntlet. They have good match ups in the current meta, offer different play patterns during a match, and often have the ability for explosive or surprising turns. These should be decks worth investing into in order to climb for the coming week.
Win Rate > 65%
Tier 2: Tier 2 are very good decks but with a weakness holding them back – either not being as reliable in its draws as Tier 1 decks, countered by another popular deck, or still being a work in progress as you read this. A good pilot could probably take these and have the same results as with a Tier 1 deck, but their play patterns are more difficult to enact compared to the tier above.
Win Rate > 58%
Tier 3: This tier is made of decks that have a pervasive issue compared to Tier 1 or Tier 2 decks. Usually, Tier 3 will be a mix of decks on the rise that don’t have much data, old archetypes on the decline, decks that require substantial experience and/or knowledge to pilot properly, powerful decks that aren’t well positioned, or niche decks.
Win Rate > 52%
Budget: Decks that consist only of cards in Pool 1 and 2 that are still capable of competing with an experienced pilot in a similar Collection Level, Rank, and MMR range. See our matchmaking guide for more details.
Meta stats and analytics directly from our Marvel Snap Tracker can also be found here.
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