Table of Contents
Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Tier List! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap meta. Then we bring you the deck lists, and we provide an in-depth report about them. This report contains information like how the ranks are justified, how the decks fare in both Ranked and Conquest modes, and how to build the deck with alternate cards to accommodate different collections.
This report is updated twice a week to make sure it is as close to the current meta as possible. Looking to figure out the impact of the newly released card or the latest balance changes? This is the place to be!
Marvel Snap Meta Overview
The Marvel Snap meta is an extremely difficult one to change compared to other games. You not only need to be a strong deck, you also need to impact the current environment enough that the community regards you as a superior deck.
Unfortunately, this is almost impossible to achieve – except when a massive balance patch happens or a newly released cards is particularly powerful. Indeed, the meta typically features too many decks for one to be able to come in and just take over. Sometimes decks can brute force their way in, like Thanos Blob did two weeks ago. When a new card isn’t pushing for a ton of points to be developed, or if it has a rather simple synergy to counter, the community is quick to dismiss it.
The current situation makes it even more difficult because there isn’t really one deck you have to beat, but a synergy based around a few cards that can be supported in a multitude of ways. Sure, all of those synergies will have their favored deck, such as Lockdown for Ms. Marvel, Good Cards for Darkhawk, and Junk for Annihilus. But these cards are strong enough to just go in another archetype if their signature one is currently struggling. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ms. Marvel in a Loki deck, or Annihilus in Good Cards (and both have already happened).
In this context of having archetypes with very little restrictions that are able to exchange cards in order to constantly adapt to whatever deck might be on the rise, it has become a real challenge to bring something truly new to Marvel Snap’s competitive environment. This is why I believe the Silent Performers section is so important; it puts a spotlight on rising decks that are worthy of a Tier 2 or better performance during the week that would otherwise have to literally break the meta to get some attention.
There are plenty to look at this week. The usual archetypes have, once again, dominated the popularity contest, which has lead to only six decks featured in our first two tiers. Among those, there are no surprises (unless you still consider Galactus to be one), and the same could be said for Tier 3 since the three decks there also have routinely been featured.
Let’s discuss the Silent Performers instead. The decks there feature mostly points-based strategies this week, except for the Annihilus Tempo build (which seems to be a sort of Good Cards deck but focused around disruptive cards). As for the other three, the goal is to beat the opponent through sheer amount of points while dodging opposing counter cards along the way. I believe all of those decks have the potential required to exist in the current meta, so it will mostly be their ability to stay afloat when the powers in place start building to counter them.
Can these new decks be the start of a new balance, or are Loki, Ms. Marvel, and Thanos going to dominate for another week? Let’s explore!
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Blob Tempo | |
| Silent Performer | Annihilus Tempo | Guide |
| Silent Performer | Ongoing Combo | |
| Silent Performer | Black Knight Tempo | |
| Tier 1 | Lockdown Move – Great in Conquest 🆕 | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Thanos Blob – Good in Conquest 🔼 | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Galactus | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Deadpool Destroy 🔼 | Guide |
| Tier 2 | Loki Collector – Great in Conquest | Guide |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards Darkhawk – Great in Conquest | Guide |
| Tier 3 | InSheNaut | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Silver Surfer 🔙 | |
| Tier 3 | Hela Lockjaw | |
| Budget | Ongoing Kazoo 🔁 | Guide |
| Budget | Devil Dinosaur Destroy 🔁 | |
| Budget | Swarm Discard Aggro 🔁 | |
| Budget | Ongoing Two Locations 🔁 | |
| Budget | On Reveal Control 🔁 | Guide |
| Budget | Big Cards 🔁 |
Disclaimer and Tier Explanations
In order to be featured here, a deck needs to represent at least 1% of the current environment and have a positive cube average in the Ranked mode. Win Rate is also taken into consideration, and it can greatly impact the ranking of a deck, particularly when several archetypes (or different builds of the same deck) have a similar Cube Average but big Win Rate discrepancies. The Marvel Snap mechanics do, however, push players to maximize cubes gained rather than win every single game.
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 Cube Average 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. They won’t have their own dedicated write up here, but they may be transferred to the main Tier List section. 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 Tiers 1 and 2.
For each deck, you will also get a write-up about their performance in the Conquest mode. In that section, we’ll discuss how the deck is doing and which differences, if any, exist when compared to the Ladder performance. In the chart above, you will also be notified of a strong archetype in Conquest with a Conquest flag next to their name.
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 rack up Cubes. 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.
Cube Average > 0.5
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.
Cube Average > 0.35
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.
Cube Average > 0.20
Good in Conquest: Has a deck above a 60% Win Rate in that mode.
Great in Conquest: Has a deck above a 65% Win Rate in that mode.
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.
Tier 1
Lockdown Move
den
Rank Justification:
Featuring a very different list that was inspired by the player currently holding the #1 ranked spot I believe, Lockdown has mixed with the Move synergy to create a flexible build that still has a strong disruptive side to it. It looks to be a great idea because this list had a 63% Win Rate and a 0.6 Cube Average, while the more traditional Lockdown decks were doing significantly worse – probably Tier 2 kind of numbers.
The meta has largely adapted around the Ongoing synergy since the OTA with Super-Skrull coming back in the mix, joining both Rogue and Echo (which were already seeing play). Removing Professor X to instead focus on more points while keeping the ability to use Echo, Storm, and Alioth to stop the opponent seems to be a nice middle ground. It does require a better grasp of where to position your cards, but it seems to reward you with more agency as well, which is a key success factor in a meta where counter cards dictate a lot of the matches.
Conquest Performance:
The Move hybrid deck didn’t have enough games to represent anything significant, but Lockdown still had a solid showing in Conquest this week featuring the more traditional build.
As usual, the ability to collect information and learn the best way to limit what the opponent can do is very strong in Conquest. As the rounds pass, Lockdown should become more and more precise in how to use Storm, Professor X, and Alioth. It can always just default to a proactive game plan when Nebula and Zabu show up early in hand.
den
Potential Additions:
Iceman and other tempo based cards can replace Nightcrawler or Silk if you believe another ability would be stronger than moving your card around. As for the top of the curve, Magneto is regarded as a strong 6-Cost right now because it is able to replace either Doctor Doom or Alioth.
Thanos Blob
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Rank Justification:
After a challenging time adapting to the Professor X nerf (which hit Thanos harder than most as the Infinity Stones make it difficult to leverage Ms. Marvel), the deck soared back to a Tier 1 performance with a 0.6 Cube Average alongside a 59% Win Rate. You can see Professor X is still part of the deck, but, mostly, Enchantress joined in on the fun to help against the rise of Ongoing decks.
Overall, the strategy hasn’t changed much if we compare it to our last report, but the added disruption seems to be a big factor in how the deck performed back then compared to right now. We can also see how the deck isn’t playing Ongoing abilities itself with Blue Marvel or Devil Dinosaur missing from the the list, which is likely to dodge the many counter cards running around.
Without those changes, I doubt Thanos Blob would have put up such a strong performance. This once again shows that archetypes should be considered toolboxes more than anything in the current environment.
Conquest Performance:
Thanos also upped its game in Conquest this week with builds focused more around points rather than disruption. Notably, you can see Alioth in the best Thanos decks in that mode, and Blue Marvel is also included in the deck with either Aero or Devil Dinosaur taking up that other available slot for a 5-Cost. Although Enchantress enables devastating Snaps on the Ladder, it seems like the more straight-forward approach nets more cubes in Conquest. Alioth allows you to simply focus on priority, and it represents a bigger threat whenever you have the lead going into Turn 6. Okoye was part of most of the successful decks as well, replacing Nico Minoru and once again pushing for the idea that it might be better to focus on your own potential in Conquest – at least for the first few rounds, until you can pinpoint what exactly is in your opponent’s deck.
Potential Additions:
Magneto is a card you routinely see in the deck, with Alioth also making the cut at times. Otherwise, you can play around with various disruptive cards to replace Shang-Chi or Enchantress, such as Rogue, Shadow King, Echo, Cosmo…
Galactus
den
Rank Justification:
As time passes, Galactus keeps building its case as a strong contender in the current meta (although it is never included in the conversation about the dominant builds in the game). This week, the deck kept innovating, even if it might be in the wrong direction looking at how many Ongoing counter cards there are in other decks. Nevertheless, the 0.55 Cube Average is very solid, even if the 56% Win Rate is the lowest among all the decks in Tiers 1 and 2. Galactus is clearly leveraging the Snap mechanic in order to compete with the other dominant archetypes, and it might get a little help from being unexpected compared to Loki, Darkhawk, or Thanos.
I would expect the list to change in the near future considering the amount of Ongoing hate cards going around. Still, even if it is under-the-radar, Galactus is showing the ability to adapt its list from one week to another, building around the same core and changing how it supports that core or builds points.
Conquest Performance:
Even if it manages a decent Win Rate above the 50% threshold, it is clear that Galactus isn’t a good synergy to build around in Conquest. You might demolish a few synergistic decks that are unable to derail your game plan, but most flexible archetypes will eat you alive once they know what they are up against.
Potential Additions:
This list is pretty unique since it features a big Ongoing package with Iron Man and Onslaught. If you were to remove those (and maybe Ravonna Renslayer if you don’t think two targets are enough), you could try some standalone strong cards instead, with Vision, Electro, Daredevil, Doctor Octopus, or Shang-Chi routinely finding their way in Galactus decks.
Deadpool Destroy
Rank Justification:
With most decks focused on disrupting the Ongoing synergy, Destroy had some freedom to explore this week, which lead to a 0.5 Cube Average and a 59% Win Rate. Once again, the list is the same other than the Taskmaster slot, which has been Arnim Zola, Shang-Chi, or Nico Minoru in the past. At this point, it feels like the best card to finish the deck is just the one that you will be able to surprise your opponent with.
Taskmaster allows you to focus on two lanes with a lot of points, which could be a good idea in a meta with Ms. Marvel spreading points around in almost every archetype. Then you can just abandon one and make sure you win the other two while your opponent is trying to play on all three and diluting their power where it really counts. One could wonder if Ms. Marvel couldn’t be the last card in Destroy as well…
Another upside of Destroy is the popularity of Annihilus with Selene‘s release. The new card isn’t featured in this report since there isn’t much data about it yet (and the data available isn’t showing anything great so far). Still, Selene was pushing a very specific kind of game play that Destroy happens to love playing against, which naturally raised the stock of Deadpool and its signature archetype. Finally, Killmonger remains a very good card in a meta with both Loki and Thanos still featured among the most popular decks.
Conquest Performance:
Destroy is very all-in when it comes to the Conquest mode; it can stomp its opponent when paired against Junk or a deck without the appropriate counter cards, but it can also look completely helpless when the opponent is playing both Shadow King and Shang-Chi, in addition to the Ongoing hate cards limiting Knull. The Win Rate remains decent, around 57%, but it is a notch below what the deck can do in the ranked mode.
Potential Additions:
Taskmaster and Hulkbuster are the two flexible slots in the deck. You can replace them with various cards depending on your goal. Arnim Zola, Shang-Chi, and Nico Minoru are the most common ones, but Lady Deathstrike, Enchantress, and Rogue could also make sense.
Tier 2
Loki Collector
den
Rank Justification:
Unless you are willing to Snap very early in the match, it seems like Loki struggles to keep opponents in once it raises the stakes. At least, that is what the 60% Win Rate seems to indicate. It’s one of the best this week, third behind Lockdown and Blob Tempo in the Silent Performers, but it only has a 0.4 Cube Average to go with it.
Despite this lower Cube Average (a trait shared by the Good Cards archetype as well), Loki has everything it needs to thrive right now – even if the Werewolf By Night change forced some rebuilding. Devil Dinosaur has joined the Collector as a second lane anchor, while Rogue and Shang-Chi keep providing the deck with the needed disruption. The rest of the deck is fairly standard, which enables Loki to quickly adapt to the environment less than a week after one of its key cards was nerfed.
Conquest Performance:
If the Ladder isn’t too keen on Loki and most opponent are quick to Retreat, Conquest is a different story because they will have to beat you eventually. Looking at the stellar Win Rate (three different builds posted a Win Rate north of 65%), it seems like not many opponents have found a way to get that win.
The core is similar to most decks with Maria Hill, Nico Minoru, and Snowguard always included for the 1-Cost cards, and Shang-Chi as the go-to counter card in the deck. With the Collector and Loki obviously staples, this still leaves six slots open to build your perfect Conquest deck. Some will go for a Lockdown approach with Ms. Marvel, Professor X, Alioth, and three tempo oriented cards like Quinjet, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, and Agent Coulson. Others will mix some Bounce elements in with Falcon, Beast, Forge, and Bishop included in the mix. You could even keep building around Werewolf By Night with Zabu in your deck, and then add Enchantress or even Nick Fury to profit from more 4-Costs.
As for disruptive cards, Rogue is a popular inclusion (or Enchantress in the Zabu shell), and Goose is gaining momentum as well to annoy Lockdown strategies.
Potential Additions:
Zabu plus Enchantress can easily be added to the deck for a synergy around 4-Cost cards alongside Werewolf. Otherwise, most cards have a potential replacement with the exception of the core of the deck: Loki, the Collector, and Snowguard. If you’re missing a card, you can consider Sentinel, Agent 13, Cable, or even Nick Fury with Zabu in the deck as potential replacements.
Good Cards Darkhawk
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Rank Justification:
Similar to Loki, Good Cards has a very high Win Rate, 59%, but it can’t really convert that into a great Cube Average. It only posted 0.35 this week. This isn’t a bad performance, but it feels quite far from Galactus or Destroy, two archetypes that are arguably more limited when it comes to adapting to their environment. Unfortunately, if Ronan the Accuser was able to bring a new twist to the archetype, it seems like the majority have gone back to playing Darkhawk and lost the surprise factor as a result.
It is difficult to picture a way for the Good Cards archetype to significantly raise its Cube Average in the current set of things apart from accepting a riskier approach, which would keep the opponent in the game more often against a Snap. The other way would be to Snap in the first or second turn every game and count on the high Win Rate to win more often than not.
Conquest Performance:
Although it is seeing less play compared to Loki, Good Cards follows the same idea of winning a lot when the opponent can’t simply move on from facing you. With a large variety of decks with fewer than a hundred matches listed (mostly due to disruptive cards being changed often in the archetype), Good Cards takes the crown when it comes to Conquest performance this week. The best lists are very similar to the ones used in ranked with the usual flexible slots for disruptive cards. Leech, however, is part of every list and looks like a staple 5-Cost right now for the archetype.
If you are looking to beat the Ongoing synergy in particular, the Ronan build still does incredibly well in that role. You could even replace Nebula and Cosmo with Spider-Ham and Killmonger depending on which match ups you want to gain an edge against. The second duo are stronger against Loki and Thanos in particular.
den
Potential Additions:
Shadow King, Shang-Chi, and Leech are the flexible cards that are included to disrupt, but they can be replaced with other cards that serve a similar role such as Killmonger or Enchantress. Also, there are some proactive options you can explore like Spider-Ham, Vision, Alioth, or Jessica Jones.
Tier 3
Tier 1 and Tier 2 featured most of the flexible archetypes that are able to build their deck several ways to always stay on top of the meta (and Destroy which has the highest potential when left unchecked). Tier 3, on the other hand, is the home of good synergies that don’t have the luxury of adapting their build too much.
InSheNaut already has disruption, but it struggles to include other cards when the environment isn’t favorable. Plus, not knowing whether the opponent can interact with Limbo or not is incredibly important for the deck. It seems to do so much better in Conquest where it can use the first few rounds to gather that kind of information.
Silver Surfer keeps trying to find a list with enough firepower to compete with the potential of other decks, which is something made even harder now that Werewolf By Night is no longer a 3-Cost card. Goose has replaced Okoye since disruption beats potential right now, which would also explain why Forge and Sera aren’t in the deck anymore, either. Instead, the deck focuses on a reliable curve with annoying cards that are able to be played with priority. I’m a little curious as to why I don’t see Rogue in this deck, but I imagine Cosmo or Polaris could easily be replaced for it.
Last is Hela Lockjaw, which saw a surge in popularity with Black Knight in the Spotlight Caches. The deck is solid overall, but it requires a mastery of the Snap mechanic to perform at the same level as other decks on this report. Indeed, Hela Lockjaw functions in a similar way as Galactus; it has a lower Win Rate because it relies on the ability to keep the opponent guessing about several aspects of its points spread. Unfortunately, as soon as you play Blade or Black Knight, you immediately give away which deck you are. That means you have to Snap extremely early if you really want your opponent to be guessing as to what the rest of the match will be about.
Overall, all three decks here can compete, but they are each held back by how important it is to know what your opponent is doing as early as possible. You need that knowledge so you can start planning which disruptive cards you might need, or if you can focus on your strategy since you know the opponent can’t really stop it. While InSheNaut and Hela have a points ceiling that is high enough to compete with most other decks, they are often the ones that give away a lot of information early in the match and have to gamble on opponent running a card that would ruin their whole game plan.
InSheNaut
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Silver Surfer
Hela Lockjaw
Closing Words
Even if we see some decks trying to build some momentum on the back of a lot of points, the dominant archetypes remain anchored in that role and are able to adapt to stop any kind of momentum. Only Galactus appears to be able to sneak into that mix with a solid performance, which is probably thanks to never becoming popular enough to be a target. Other combo oriented decks immediately get shut down whenever they gain too much attention. We will see where this week’s Silent Performers will be when we revisit the meta in our next report. I would love to see at least one of them make it into the report and show that there are still some small holes to be exploited in order to shake things up.
I believe the key for this to happen is several synergies that can’t be countered by the same cards emerging at the same time. This will force the likes of Good Cards, Thanos, and Loki to make a choice, and they will potentially be weaker against the decks they aren’t prepared for. This still looks to be a long shot since cards like Alioth, Leech, and Ms. Marvel can contribute against any kind of opponent as long as your deck can match their requirement. Still, with four different synergies gaining attention this week, and with Blob, Black Knight, Annihilus, and Ongoing each pushing their own agenda, we might have a chance at seeing a rare natural meta shift happen.
I guess we can only wait and see if it happens and, in the meantime, do our best to refine these decks. Until then, I hope you are having a great time in this holiday period!
To reach out, 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.
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