Marvel Snap Conquest Meta Tier List: Best Preliminary Decks

Regarded as the closest thing to a competitive experience inside the Marvel Snap client, Conquest will be available for everyone with the monthly patch on Tuesday, June 13th. Everyone has been wondering what to expect from this mode, and everything from from the league system to the awesome rewards for those who win it all has been largely discussed. So I want to talk about the nitty-gritty in this piece: What should you play?

Considering the mode will release alongside a balance patch (which we don’t know much about yet), it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how to make the most of the mode on the first day. Still, Conquest is played within the Battle Mode, just like all the tournaments that happen in the Marvel Snap community. I decided to take a look at the best performing decks in those tournaments, as well as ask the players themselves what advice they could share to someone looking to try their skills in Conquest:

Down the line, this might lead to a second Tier List that is dedicated to Conquest mode and aimed at helping you make educated choices to win it all. Indeed, Ladder and Conquest should be quite different when it comes to which decks are best to run. In the context of Battle Mode, where each player has ten cubes and plays several matches against the same opponent for a winner to emerge, gimmick decks are much harder to perform with as your opponent knows what you are up to after the first match. Similarly, some very strong decks in the metagame have a well known counter, such as Wave for Sera. While you can just Retreat against those and lose a cube when playing on the ladder, you have to beat them in Conquest or you are out. With that in mind, some archetypes see their power vary a lot depending on the environment they are used in.

I still felt it was a little premature to do one similar to the ladder article. As such, today will feature five decks I feel are ideal to get started in Conquest and some tips to understand how to approach the mode. Don’t look too much into the tier rankings, even though they represent the current results of these decks in the tournament metagame. Your own comfort (and reasoning behind picking and building your deck) can easily outweigh the data over a small size, which is what we are working with here.

Here is some great insight from KJB about the key differences between playing on the ladder and battle mode, which should help you understand why some great ladder decks might not be ideal tournaments picks.

Like other card games, you’ll see different “formats” or “modes”; this is no different from that. Cards, effects, game play, match ups may feel mostly the same in both modes. However, those are weighted differently in Conquest/Battle Mode which can create different outcomes from what you normally experience on the Marvel Snap ladder.

My approach and perspective of the normal Marvel Snap ladder is I’m mostly playing my hand and gaining appropriate value for it. All that matters on the ladder is having a positive cube gain, if I have a good hand, I Snap; if I have a bad hand, I’ll most likely Retreat when they Snap. In general, the opponent you play on ladder will change from a game to another. So having a great win rate isn’t that big of a deal and what truly matters is making sure you’re winning the maximum amount of cubes for your good hands and minimizing your loss on bad hands.

Another huge difference and this shows more in the tournament scene is you’re “stuck” playing your 12 cards. One of the core elements of Marvel Snap is the ability to just queue again if you hit a bad match up or have a bad opening hand. You can’t avoid this in Conquest/Battle Mode, you will be trapped to the current match up and will have to face it head on. This can and will affect people’s deck choices and overall list composition for tournaments and Conquest.

Are you ready for Conquest?

Marvel Snap Conquest Tier List

Tier 1

Evolved Lockjaw

Conquest Evolved Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

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 Starter Card

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
The Snap mechanic is easily the most important feature in the game when it comes to Battle Mode. As such, a deck that makes it simple to figure out when to Snap and when to move on from a game will usually do great in a tournament format. When that deck is also capable of developing a ton of power, adapting its build to different opponents and offering several play patterns in the second half of the game, you’ve got yourself a superb deck.

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 critical to keep in mind how to win another one and not get caught up in abusing Lockjaw.

Without Lockjaw, Jubilee and Thor will serve a similar purpose and try to cheat points for less than the usual amount of energy. We’ll typically throw the cheap cards behind Lockjaw in the last two turns, but, since we have Wasp and Mjölnir which both cost nothing, we still have enough energy to play on the other lanes.

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). On Turn 3, we will either look to have Lockjaw paired with Wasp, or Thor to shuffle Mjölnir into the deck. Jubilee is our go-to play on Turn 4, but you can also consider playing Thor on Turn 3 and Lockjaw on Turn 4, especially if you don’t have Wasp in hand yet.

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, or abuse the ability of either Odin or Magneto.

Wave represents another win condition against combo based decks by locking down the game for Sera or Bounce.

Tech Cards to consider:
The ladder build of the deck plays Dracula and The Infinaut instead of Magneto and Wave. Otherwise, you could also consider Shang-Chi for mirror matches, or Killmonger for decks like Lockdown to remove Nebula and Sunspot.

Good Cards Wave

Good Cards Conquest

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Fresh off a win in a tournament a week ago, Good Cards is among the decks that you can adapt to face almost any opponent in Marvel Snap. You won’t be able to counter all of them at once, but with Wave already included and two flexible slots in Cosmo and Enchantress, you have enough room in order to fit your vision of the current environment.

Then, the deck is simply good. It relies on established synergies, which will ruin decks like Lockjaw with Rocks or just beat other decks on points, as Darkhawk remains one of the biggest 4-Cost cards in the game to this day.

How to play:
This archetype relies on the power of Darkhawk, Nebula, Iron Lad, and Wave. With these four cards, we are able to disrupt the opponent with Rocks, push them to play on Nebula‘s location, get some high rolls with Iron Lad, and limit their ability to play with Wave. With that in mind, our first four turns should be geared towards developing points and solidifying our lead going into the final two. There, we can play Wave plus a cheap card on Turn 5 and follow that with Leader or Doctor Doom on Turn 6 to seal the deal.

The deck is built to focus on its development (except for one 4-Cost tech card), so it should be played with a proactive mindset and look to build the biggest lead before playing Wave. It is only on Turn 5 that we start to consider actively countering our opponent’s game plan, either with Wave or our tech card.

Tech Cards to consider:
Shang-Chi is the first card you might want to think about in this deck, with Nebula a close second if you want an extra 1-Cost. Iceman is another one to keep in mind against timing decks in the 1-Cost slot. Cosmo and Enchantress are in those spots for now, but they represent the flexible pieces in the deck.

Tier 2

Iron Patriot

Conquest Patriot

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

0

2x 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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
While the deck never posted a stellar performance on the ladder, Iron Patriot has been a force to be reckoned with in tournaments for over a month now. Similar to Evolved Lockjaw, the deck is fantastic in the Snap and Retreat department. Indeed, your hand should be rather easy to read going into future turns, and the specific cards you added for particular match ups help with that as well.

The recent Rogue buff could be scary for Patriot, but Enchantress is slowly being replaced by Shang-Chi as Evolved Lockjaw is getting more popular, evening out the threats for the deck.

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.

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 reason based solely on how many points you can develop. Then, you will be looking to build around Patriot, Iron Lad, Iron Man, Onslaught, and other such high potential cards. This is particularly effective now that Invisible Woman can help hide some of our key cards.

On the other hand, you could also be looking to derail your opponent’s game plan with Debrii and Killmonger. In that case, try to only develop what’s necessary to have priority, and then focus on how to break your opponent’s play patterns. You can then build your proactive turns around this game plan.

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.

Tech Cards to consider:
Killmonger and Super-Skrull are the disposable cards in the deck that you can swap to adapt to various opponents. Wave, Ultron, Iron Man, Shang-Chi… There are several cards that can help based on what you expect to face.

Tier 3

Sera Control 

Conquest Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Not being able to Retreat and move on against an opposing Wave immediately makes Sera Control much more difficult to leverage in a tournament format. However, the many counter cards the deck is built around, alongside the deck’s flexibility regarding the 2- and 4-Cost cards it can include, still keeps it in the discussion for a high stakes environment.

In the higher tiers, we mostly featured proactive archetypes that are able to develop more points than the average deck in Marvel Snap. With Sera Control, the emphasis will be to figure out the opponent’s plan in the first few rounds while leveraging Killmonger, Shang-Chi, and Enchantress to raise the stakes at the right time in the later rounds.

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, Enchantress, 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 or Nova, Mysterio, and Hit Monkey will provide enough points, and then we can simply play Enchantress or Shang-Chi on the following turn.

Tech Cards to consider:
Doctor Doom can see play as a way to mitigate Wave. Otherwise, there are many ways to build around Sera Control, with cards like Zabu, Sentinel, and Jeff the Baby Land Shark often being included in the 2-Cost slot.

Sera Surfer

Conquest Surfer

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
With Rogue recently buffed and Luke Cage an easy include in the deck as the second 2-Cost card, Sera Surfer naturally counters several popular archetypes in the metagame while keeping its ability to adapt to others (if needed).

The main problem with the deck is the points ceiling, which is arguably lower compared to the other archetypes on this list. Nevertheless, if you have the right metagame read and can match it with the appropriate cards, Silver Surfer can post impressive results.

How to play:
The deck follows a pretty simple play pattern that culminates into an explosive Turn 6 and hopefully catches the opponent off guard.

On Turns 2, 3, and 4, you will usually just play a card and focus on spending your energy efficiently and advancing your game plan. Apart from the Storm–Juggernaut duo on Turns 3 and 4, there aren’t many synergies going on. Look to play cards you won’t be able to fit in on Turns 5 and 6 but still need to have in play. Usually, Nova is better to be played on Turn 4 with more information available rather than on Turn 1. It also disguises our archetype from the opponent better.

Turn 5 will usually be a Sera play, if you can. If you don’t have Sera, it can be a 3-Cost plus a 2-Cost (Goose can lock a location from a big card being played by our opponent while barely impacting us). On the last turn of play, the deck has many play patterns. The general game plan is dumping two 3-Cost cards followed by Silver Surfer in order to surprise the opponent with power.

Tech Cards to consider:
Cosmo, Shadow King, Kingpin, and even Wave might be cards to include in the deck. Similarly, the 2-Cost slot can be adapted with inclusions like Armor, Invisible Woman, Scorpion, Medusa, and Jeff the Baby Land Shark.

Closing Words

Conquest should open a different way to play Marvel Snap. First, the stakes should be much higher since losing a game will actually mean something. Playing on the ladder gets us used to losing on a regular basis and just moving on from it. We should also need to manage our time much more efficiently, as a Battle mode game isn’t something you can do while sitting in the bathroom. We’re talking about 15 to 30 minutes per game here, which will amount to several hours if you want to compete for the higher leagues.

In addition to this mindset change, the environment will also be slightly different; tech cards tend to be much more impactful in Battle Mode compared to the ladder, leading to Conquest being quite the challenge for someone who believed they would get a similar experience compared to ranked play. My advice about all this is to take it easy at first. If you don’t have much experience in tournaments, don’t over complicate things. Rely on your own comfort and knowledge of the game. Then, through playing the mode, you will catch some important clues that others might have figured out from their previous experiences.

It might be weird, but I would personally enjoy a chaotic environment where everyone just plays exotic brews and tries to have fun. A very competitive metagame that requires specific knowledge and experience to perform wouldn’t be as fun. It should lead to a more enjoyable time for the majority, which is the goal of any new game mode in the end.

All that is left now is for me to wish you a lot of medals and fun in this new game mode. If you are interested in having a regular column about conquest mode, let me know in the comments. For anything else, 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.