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There’s no question that Shuri and Red Skull are among the strongest cards in Marvel Snap right now, especially when used in tandem. To celebrate the launch of Version 3.0 our Marvel Snap Meta Decks and Stats section, today we’ll delve into some statistics to examine how the latest balance patch has impacted their usage, performance, and interaction.
Decks with Shuri
The two go hand-in-hand, right? It’s hard to argue or compete with a 26-power card on turn 5. Oh, and that bad boy is usually tucked safely behind the good boy (Cosmo). Or Armor.
The recent balance patch put a dent into nerfing Shuri, but, uh… just barely. She’s still dominating the meta. One such change was the decrease to Red Skull’s power. Sorry, your turn 6 Taskmaster will have a mere 26 power instead of 30.
Red Skull wasn’t strictly nerfed, though. His Ongoing ability was toned down so enemy cards gain only +1 power instead of +2. A Shuri-boosted Red Skull is still worth at least 22 power. Without the boost, his minimum value is now 9, up from 7 before the patch.
Ultimately, it’s a small nerf to Shuri decks, but a decent buff to un-boosted Red Skull. To gain a deeper understanding of how the patch affected these powerhouses, let’s explore some statistics collected by the Marvel Snap Tracker by Prometa. I looked at data for the most used Shuri and Red Skull decks during each game version.
The data consists of roughly 89,000 v12 games and 370,000 v13 games.
Usage Insights
The usage story is going how you’d expect. Shuri’s usage remains high, as her deck is nearly as powerful as before, and now it has less competition. Meanwhile, Red Skull’s usage is on the rise, both with and without Shuri.
Shuri decks without Red Skull have never been common, but they’ve become significantly rarer — plummeting from 27% of Shuri games to 6%.
Red Skull decks without Shuri are more common, at least in part because Red Skull is a pool 3 card while Shuri is in pool 4. Shuri’s drop to pool 4 predates the previous patch, though, and we’ve still seen Red Skull decks without Shuri increase from 11% of Red Skull games to 21%.
Performance Insights
When it comes to performance, there are two wrinkles. First, that cube acquisition rate is more important than win rate. Second, that player skill plays a big role in win rate, and an even bigger role in the cube rate. I can’t understate how important it is to know when to snap and when to retreat. That said, averages over many thousands of games should smooth some of that out and provide some useful insights.
Here’s a table looking at the performance stats of Red Skull and Shuri decks during the previous patch (v12) and the most recent one (v13):
For reference, here’s the kind of decks we’re referring to as titled above – it’s hard to give an exact decklist, as we’re studying large amount of data, but it should at least give you a guideline to understand from!
HowlingMines
HowlingMines
HowlingMines
Key Takeaways
- Decks rocking both Red Skull and Shuri have slightly improved, thanks to nerfs to major threat Thanos (less Leech — hallelujah!) and minor threat Aero.
- Solo Red Skull decks have seen a slight dip. I’m blaming Dracula Dump — one of the most popular Red Skull decks without Shuri — where Red Skull’s changes are more of a nerf.
- Solo Shuri decks have seen dramatic improvements, with the cube rate nearly doubling! The most common use of Shuri without Red Skull is Destroy (to target the latest season pass card, Nimrod), and most of those run Galactus, who is loving the decreased presence of Aero.
- Most importantly (and unsurprisingly), both Red Skull and Shuri perform better together than independently.
Conclusion
In summary, the recent balance patch has had a notable impact on Red Skull and Shuri, either played solo or as a pair. That’s as expected, but isn’t it interesting that Shuri seems to have been affected more, despite Red Skull being the only one of the two that underwent direct changes? The data confirms what we were all feeling: Shuri is thriving with nerfs that amount to a slap on the wrist compared to how hard other top-tier threats were hit.
Red Skull and Shuri are indeed a powerful pairing, but also an obvious one. It’s a combo that’s been thoroughly explored. There’s always the possibility that some strong, clever deck is waiting to be discovered — one that features either Red Skull or Shuri, but not both. It doesn’t seem very likely, but it would be fascinating to witness such a deck emerge!
Regardless of if anybody even wants to explore that space further or what any future nerfs may look like, I think Red Skull and Shuri are both likely to remain relevant (just not so relevant). When that happens, it’ll be refreshing to play in a metagame with more balance and variety.
