Table of Contents
Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Tier List for Conquest mode! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap metagame. 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
I don’t think it’s arguable anymore – Elsa Bloodstone is untouchable as the best card in Marvel Snap since Alioth was nerfed. Indeed, with four out of six decks in our top two tiers, and three of those depending on Elsa Bloodstone for a large chunk of their total points, the card has become a must-own in the game. However, if most people could already guess that part when clicking to open this report, there is one deck I want to give a specific spotlight to this week in High Evolutionary.
First, let’s say that, yes, Luke Cage will be a hurdle for the deck and might ruin an otherwise very promising comeback if the card grows even more in popularity. Nevertheless, I was shocked to see the synergy do this well, as I thought Evolved DoomWave being gone would mean High Evolutionary was not gonna be part of the metagame for a while. However, if the performance was on more than just a few hundred games, this pure High Evolutionary could have challenged for Tier 1. Let’s take a look at why.
First, Loki is still one of the most popular decks in the game, and the Evolved powers do not transfer when stolen. I don’t know if it is enough to make a good matchup, but that is one reason to keep considering High Evolutionary, even after the loss of its signature archetype in DoomWave.
Then, and probably more impactful, the Conquest metagame has seen the reactive cards come back, and prove to be very effective. Shadow King opened the way, but was met by Luke Cage in several Elsa Bloodstone based decks. Then Shang-Chi gained momentum, but it made Armor more appealing, as Destroy is also a good deck you counter with that inclusion.
Lastly, we are seeing more of Enchantress and Rogue, although much more scarce than the two we mentioned, to kill those Ongoing abilities which are preventing important cards from functioning properly.
If I had to bet, I’d probably say this High Evolutionary build won’t do so well in the future, but it still carries a lot of information about the present. Counter cards are back on the menu now that Alioth isn’t an auto-include in every deck anymore. Plus, if you find a specific synergy which isn’t accounted for, or has the edge over a super popular archetype, you can still build a strong win rate, even with a deck many had given up on.
Let’s see what else we can learn from the current metagame, and maybe get an edge in an otherwise very Elsa Bloodstone kind of metagame.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Performer | High Evolutionary | |
| Silent Performer | Bounceless | Guide |
| Silent Performer | On Reveal | |
| Tier 1 | Move | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Shuri Sauron | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Sera Control 🆕 | Guide |
| Tier 2 | Loki Collector | Guide |
| Tier 2 | Thor Miracle | Guide 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Deadpool Destroy 🔼 | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Phoenix Force 🆕 | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Thanos Control 🔽 | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Iron Patriot 🔽 | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Guardians Lockdown 🆕 | Guide 🆕 |
| Tier 3 | Hela Tribunal | Guide |
Disclaimer and Tier Explanations
Conquest is not played as much as the Ladder, so it is difficult to have a clear representation of the metagame 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: Very high Win Rate decks over the last week. These decks look great in the current environment, either because of their overall strength, or thanks to a few match ups they can abuse. Depending on which reason prevails, a deck in Tier 1 can be considered one of the best archetypes in the game, or a great counter to the latest trending archetype.
Win Rate > 60%
Tier 2: Strong decks that are either not completely refined or have a weakness holding them back from Tier 1. When everything goes according to plan, these decks can reach the top of the mountain. However, considering one has to win a lot of matches in a row to successfully run the gauntlet, it is unlikely one of these decks will not face a counter or a deck with a higher points potential that it will have to overcome at some point during a full Conquest run.
60% > Win Rate > 55%
Tier 3: Weaker synergies compared to Tier 1 or Tier 2 if we look at their potential or match up table. Tier 3 decks will typically be decks that can make the most of a metagame that has completely forgotten about them (or if one of their good match ups is particularly popular). As such, if we add in the surprise effect, these decks are able to compete against the best.
55% > Win Rate > 50%
No matter which Tier a deck is ranked in, keep in mind that they represent one of the Top 10 or 15 archetypes in the game for Conquest. Also, decks with less than 1% representation are left out, as their sample size is too small to give us a real representation of their strength.
Meta stats and analytics directly from our Marvel Snap Tracker can also be found here.
Tier 1
Move
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Rank Justification:
While the list is slightly different, the numbers keep pointing in the same direction for Move, the top of the rankings. Once again, the margin isn’t big at all, and plenty of decks on the list can have a claim at beating it if you understand how to leverage your strategy. However, Move feels like it found that great recipe of a solid core, a very simple strategy to develop, with a few obvious Snaps as well, and a very strong turn six play depending on the situation as well.
There might be decks with a higher points ceiling when everything goes according to plan, but in Marvel Snap with locations, and cards clearly telling you where points will end up by the end of the game such as Angela, flexibility seems to rack up more Cubes over large sample sizes. As long as you can develop enough points as well, obviously, which Move does very well.
How to Play:
Move is looking to create points through the Move synergy during the first five turns before landing a clean Alioth or Doctor Doom on the last turn.
Kraven (and also Angela if you run the card) will serve as a lane anchor by growing anywhere from six to ten power over the course of the match. Then, the deck can count on Silk, Spider-Man, and Miles Morales to add solid points for cheap in order to take the lead going into Turn 6.
Apart from Silk dictating where you want to play, the deck aims to be as flexible as possible. In an ideal scenario, you want to start focusing on priority around Turn 3 or Turn 4. This will largely impact where you place your cards during the mid-game. But, because you are a Move deck, you will change that setup on Turn 6 to contest the lanes you really covet.
Then, cards like Vision, Nightcrawler, and Jeff the Baby Land Shark can be placed solely depending on whether you have Kraven in order to wrestle priority. It might look weird during the match, but once Kraven comes down and you move everything to him (or reposition your cards to take the lead on a lane), Alioth can lock the opponent out of the game and it all starts to make sense.
Potential Additions:
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Shuri Sauron
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Rank Justification:
If Shuri Kitty put up a fight in the ranked mode, posting a similar performance than Shuri Sauron there, Conquest was a different story. Indeed, if I had to rank Shuri Kitty, it would sit at the bottom of Tier 2 in this particular mode.
Why is Shuri Sauron doing so much better, you might ask?
Firstly, Alioth is more popular in Conquest than it is in the ranked mode, and will cost you a lot of Cubes if you aren’t careful enough. Then, Shuri Sauron is also more capable of competing with the Elsa decks with fewer tools. For example, the deck can fight when it finds Sauron and not Shuri, while it can confidently Snap when it finds both.
Shuri Kitty on the other end, needs to find Kitty Pryde plus Elsa Bloodstone in order to feel any different from Shuri Sauron, and really present an upside compared to it.
As such, in a mode where you really are looking to maximize your Snaps, or scare your opponent into retreating early. Shuri Sauron seems better equipped to do so.
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 Nebula 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, and Enchantress is able to steal a few wins.
Potential Additions:
Alioth could replace America Chavez if you like the card’s potential more than increasing the deck’s overall reliability.
Sera Control
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Rank Justification:
I was surprised to see Sera ranked so high, and take the crown for the best Elsa Bloodstone focused deck in Conquest. However, it is undeniable how important counter cards are in mode where you are looking to scare your opponent, and steal Cubes.
Indeed, if you can get away with a fully proactive deck on ladder, which can afford to lose four or eight cubes on occasion, as the overall win rate will make up for it. Conquest rewards those who win those four and eight Cubes matches more than the ones able to pile on two Cube wins. In that regard, Shadow King, Shang-Chi but also Rogue if you feel like including it, seems to be great additions in order to get those high stakes wins, where both players stay in it.
Proof that Sera is doing something right, is that we are seeing more of Shang-Chi lately in other decks as well. It might actually mean Sera won’t be as appealing though, as the reactive cards really were what set the deck apart.
How to Play:
Sera Control is a Miracle deck that is either looking to develop a lot of points suddenly (mostly through the interaction between Hit Monkey and Mysterio), or counter what the opponent built during the match (with Shadow King and Shang-Chi). You could also consider other counter cards like Rogue, Enchantress, Killmonger in that role.
During the major part of the match, the deck will build up Angela and Bishop to establish itself across two lanes, or, if that’s not possible, just dominate one purely on points.
Then, once the end game comes around, you will either play your signature card to reduce the cost of your hand going into Turn 6, or try to have a proactive Turn 5 and a reactive Turn 6. For example, Mysterio plus Hit Monkey followed by Shadow King plus Shang-Chi.
Potential Additions:
Rogue is a big discussion point in the community about this deck. It helps against Mobius M. Mobius or Iron Man occasionally, but doesn’t win a lane like Shadow King or Shang-Chi can against a Elsa Bloodstone deck.
Tier 2
Loki Collector
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Rank Justification:
A Tier 1 deck in the ranked mode, Loki suffers a bit from being too predictable when it comes to how it develops. Then, unless you Snap pretty early in the match, the deck falls prey to letting the opponent know if they have a shot at winning that match or not.
Cosmo is a great add to bring some counter ability, and Rogue, Shang-Chi are also gaining some traction in the deck. However, compared to other Elsa Bloodstone decks, this one also needs to run cards in order to feed The Collector enough as well.
In a mode where catching your opponent off guard is key, the limitations regarding deckbuilding seems to hold Loki back a little. The deck remains very strong nonetheless.
How to Play:
Centered around its two signature cards (with support from Quinjet), Loki Collector aims to build a lot of points on two lanes while keeping as many options as possible open for later on. Indeed, if you commit too hard, you might lack the space required for the cards Loki generates, or you might let your opponent know too much about your potential. Speaking of potential, the deck creates many cards during the match, so its biggest strength is keeping the opponent in the dark as to what they should expect. It can also rely on Elsa Bloodstone and Kitty Pryde to build points and mitigate the space used to play low-power cards.
Early on in the match, the deck will set up its anchors, which are usually Angela and The Collector. As direct support to these two, you have all the cards at three energy or less that will generate cards or simply grow Angela, with Kitty Pryde working for both cards at once. Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Mobius M. Mobius are simply very good cards right now, and Elsa Bloodstone simply is the best card in Marvel Snap.
Depending on your opponent and the quality of your hand, the timing of your Loki will vary. If their deck is expensive or runs a lot of counters to your primary plan, you might want to switch early on and create a new game plan with their cards. Otherwise, Loki can be played on Turn 5 to grow The Collector and open a very flexible Turn 6.
One of the biggest upsides of this deck is its ability to always find new options and play patterns. As such, it is really important to set your mind early on whether you are looking to play with the cards in your deck or trying to generate a new way to achieve victory. With Elsa Bloodstone in the deck, Loki Collector isn’t so reliant on its signature duo. As such, you could stay in the game if you have a big Angela and Kitty Pryde, and just go for The Collector and Loki together on Turn 5 to generate points.
Potential Additions:
Rogue can help stealing an opposing Mobius M. Mobius to get Loki back to full strength. Maria Hill also gained a ton of momentum since her change to generate a 2-cost card.
Thor Miracle
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Rank Justification:
With very little of Wave in the metagame, and a mode rewarding surprise and adaptation to your opponent, Thor Miracle was primed to do good things. In particular, Thor Miracle is great at racking up one or two Cubes from opposing retreats, fearing they just can’t stop the deck on turn six, and scared of what it could do.
Alioth is more popular in Conquest, where its nerf seems to have little impact compared to the ranked mode. As the best card to stop explosive, turn six based decks, it obviously impacts the performance of Thor Miracle quite a bit.
With both good and bad things going on in the metagame for Thor Miracle, the deck feels in its place in Tier 2.
How to Play:
Thor Miracle aims at building an absolute killer Turn 6 with Hit Monkey alongside a plethora of cheap cards. In order to get there, the deck has a few cards it wants to set up during the match, such as Angela, Thor, and Bishop. Then, with Turn 5 dedicated to Jane Foster Mighty Thor, Thor Miracle is all set for the fireworks. Against a deck you suspect to run Wave, make sure you also have Mobius M. Mobius in play by Turn 4 so you can safely play your 5-Cost card and not get punished.
The big consideration for the last turn of play is where to place your cards, which is heavily impacted by your set up and what you expect from your opponent.
First, you need to look at where you placed your most important cards. Indeed, if Thor and Bishop can challenge a lane on their own (since their power will grow from Mjölnir or the other cards you play), you have to play behind Angela to grow her power. Then, you also have to decide where Hit Monkey will go, as that will represent your biggest source of points that the opponent does not already have information about.
With this information, you can spread the support cards in the remaining spaces. Be careful about Yellowjacket if you don’t have Luke Cage.
In order to determine where to place your cards, you need to decide whether you want to build two very strong lanes or spread your points across all three. As a rule of thumb, spreading out against a reactive deck mitigates the impact of their counter cards, and picking two lanes against another proactive deck maximizes your chances of winning the points shootout.
Potential Additions:
Armor can help with Alioth, quite a bit problem for the deck. Mysterio is considered a staple in the deck, often played instead of Luke Cage or Shadow King. Last, Valkyrie sees play on occasion, as it has many synergies with the cheap cards in the deck.
Deadpool Destroy
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Rank Justification:
Conquest can be difficult for Destroy, as Alioth is more popular here, alongside Shadow King or Shang-Chi too, for Venom notably. However, with Armor seeing little popularity, and most decks centered around doing their own thing, or beating Elsa Bloodstone more than anything else, Destroy can be a scary opponent when it Snaps you early in match, as the points can quickly pile up. Plus, Destroy punishes a lot of off-meta decks as well.
Bottom of Tier 2 feels right in that regard, as Deadpool is playing a dangerous game right now, but has enough upsides to be considered for a successful Conquest run.
How to Play:
If you find Deadpool in your opening hand, buffing it with Forge or Hulkbuster and destroying it over and over until Turn 6 is the main concept with this deck. But there are other ways to score lots of points.
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 on Turn 6.
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 throw the opponent off.
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.
Also, Forge plus Taskmaster on the same card represent a bonus eight power, which alone can be enough to create a decent Taskmaster target. Venom also serves that role.
Potential Additions:
Lady Deathstrike has started making it into Destroy in ranked mode, and can be a very interesting card to run in Conquest as well.
America Chavez or Hulkbuster are the most likely cuts for it.
Tier 3
The metagame is very centered around Elsa Bloodstone, with just Shuri and Destroy able to sneak into the ranking without using the card. Tier 3 however, sees a few interesting decks, and features more diversity than both previous tiers combined.
Yes, one could see this as the sign we need some help from the developers, as decks can’t seem to make it past Tier 3, unless they run the latest Season Pass card. It might be true if we’re honest. However, not all decks in Tier 3 are equal. Indeed, some of those are falling, while others are on the rise.
As such, thinking Iron Patriot is not a trustworthy pick anymore or Hela Tribunal is too predictable to run in Conquest is completely understandable. Yet, we have to at least be curious about The Phoenix Force and Guardians Lockdown, which, even if they aren’t posting stellar numbers right now, are recent enough on those rankings to deserves to be looked at with an open mind.
Plus, even if Conquest might not be the best mode to try and catch your opponent off-guard with an entire archetype, an off-meta pick remains a valid way to try and sneak in those early four Cube wins, which can put you in a dominant position for the rest of the match.
In all fairness, Phoenix has lost a bit of momentum with less of Alioth, as the deck was really happy to see the card in every deck, considering it barely cares about its sixth turn a lot of the time. As for the Lockdown synergy, Storm in particular, is just bullied by the Move synergy being a dominant one in the current metagame.
With that in mind, I do think The Phoenix Force, and maybe other builds around Nimrod as well, have a reasonable shot with an experienced pilot. Otherwise, it is hard to argue against any of those decks deserving more than a Tier 3 ranking this week.
Phoenix Force
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Thanos Control
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Iron Patriot
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Guardians Lockdown
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Hela Tribunal
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Closing Words
It is undeniable we are living in a Elsa Bloodstone game. The card is permissive enough to be played in a lot of decks, and most of her allies are also flexible enough to follow that trend. Angela and Jeff the Baby Land Shark in particular, can find a spot in almost any deck as well. With those same cards multiplying across the best decks in the game, it’s only logical to start worrying about the current metagame, especially as we won’t have any balance changes this week.
However, I try to look at the bright side, and see how Destroy, Phoenix Force or High Evolutionary manage to sneak strong performances into that environment. Sure, they aren’t pushing to become the next dominant force everyone should be worried about, but they seem to be holding their own with a little help from being unexpected archetypes.
It’s not much, and you might be eagerly waiting for Elsa Bloodstone to be nerfed already, dismissing any other deck apart from Shuri. Honestly, it would be hard to fault for thinking this way, as the metagame is obviously extremely impacted by the card, and the perfect draw for Loki, Move, Bounce, Sera or Thor Miracle often isn’t worth staying in the match.
However, I also believe the current metagame presents a nice puzzle, as we keep seeing different synergies rise and post decent enough performance to make us curious about them. Junk in the past, Phoenix Force this week and High Evolutionary building in the shadows as well.
Maybe none of these decks will actually make it to be a thing before the end of the season, and Shuri truly is the only synergy we have to fight Elsa and her crew on equal grounds. Or maybe, as more decks keep emerging every week, we might finally find the one able to become a thing before the developers have to step in and balance things for us.
I hope this report was informative, and might have inspired you to give some of those decks a shot. As usual, if you need anything, 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.
