Marvel Snap Meta Tier List: March 3, 2024 – Proactive Strategies Dominate After the OTA!

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

It is customary to see proactive synergies do much better than reactive ones after an impactful balance change. When the environment is in a state of uncertainty, it is much easier to focus on your agenda than try to disrupt ones you aren’t really sure of. With this in mind, I came into this report ready to feature the usual early performers after an OTA, such as Mister Negative, Ongoing Tribunal, Discard, Loki, or even InSheNaut.

I wasn’t so far from the truth, as all of these made it into the report. Plus, Sera Control and Galactus Junk have been left out due to a Cube Average that was too low to even make it into Tier 3. Overall, the theory about proactive decks dominating after a balance update checks out. However, I was a little more surprised regarding the ranking of those proactive archetypes. Thanos takes the first spot, and Hela and Lockjaw are second. Also, Destroy is still ranked in the top five.

WHAT?!

I read through the OTA one more time and checked social media to see what people were saying. “Ahah, Thanos Lockjaw is finally dead”, “Finally, no more Destroy every two out of three games”. So, we did all see the same notes, apparently. Then why?

Flexibility, that’s why.

Thanos ditched Lockjaw, but it didn’t stop being an incredible foundation for a deck. Thanos Control has picked up right where the Lockjaw archetype left off, and it’s already back on the Marvel Snap throne. Same for Hela Lockjaw, which has accepted its fate of not being able to support an archetype alone; instead, they called other discard friends and mixed it all together to create a new build. As for Destroy, the synergy did get worse. The Cube Average it posted since the patch is the worst it has done in 2024. It remains better than most other archetypes, but this is still what the OTA aimed for.

This is kind of the story for this early meta. Everything got worse (except for maybe discard a whole since this is the first time we have both iconic archetypes ranked in Tier 1 in a very long time).

Thanos now has to work without Lockjaw, Hela can’t pass three turns and still get away with it, Good Cards needs to build without Darkhawk, and Destroy isn’t Snapping on Turn 1 as often. These four decks are all still excellent, but none are dominant.
In fact, no deck is dominant right now; the two best Cube Averages are with The Phoenix Force and Mister Negative, both in the Silent Performers section. These two were the only decks above the 0.5 mark this week. The same could be said for the Win Rate metric, as I couldn’t find a deck above the 60% mark with more than a hundred games to go with it. Discard Collector is the closest to it with 59.5%.

Overall, the Marvel Snap meta is wide open right now. It’s ready for you to figure out the next way to develop more points than your opponent. This report will give you plenty of ideas in that regard, but be quick! Reactive decks usually don’t wait too long before they come back.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

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 Performers

Explosive combo decks dominated the this section this week, with all three decks worthy of being inducted into Tier 1 if they had more games played.

The Phoenix Force and Mister Negative share a common trait in a very proactive meta: they can Snap early. Indeed, when it comes to battling purely on points, there aren’t many decks able to beat these two when they draw the nuts.

I was surprised to see these two do so well while Ongoing Tribunal, a deck with fairly similar characteristics, did worse in both Cube Average and Win Rate. Speaking with a few players, most reported they saw quite a lot of Enchantress after the OTA, which explains why explosive decks not based around the Ongoing synergy did significantly better. Mister Negative does use a lot of Ongoing cards, but it has the ability to hold its cards in hand to protect them. Then, with very little Alioth so far (only Lockdown and the few players still on Good Cards Junk used the card), Mister Negative didn’t seem to be targeted these last few days.

Last in this section, we have InSheNaut. It did pretty well when using Armor and Cosmo this week. It’s important to note that the list using Shocker and Caiera in their place would have ranked at the bottom of Tier 3. In a meta with a lot of combo decks, disruption is really InSheNaut’s life jacket. Cosmo and Leech help to be competitive against decks you would otherwise have no shot at beating. If you decide to pick up the deck, keep in mind that you probably need to focus on your opponent more than yourself right now.

Phoenix Force

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Mister Negative

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

InSheNaut

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3x Starter Card

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 1

Thanos Control

Thanos Control

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

3

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

4.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Thanos Lockjaw isn’t even in the rankings after the OTA, probably because there weren’t enough games for it to pop in the data. Thanos Control, on the other hand, made sure the Mad Titan was still well represented. With a strong 0.45 Cube Average and 57% Win Rate, Thanos Control is positioning itself as a top contender for the foreseeable future.

While it does rely on a good dose of disruption (and I was quite surprised to not see Cull Obsidian included in the best performing list), Thanos Control doesn’t work like other disruptive decks. Indeed, while a Sera Control deck will look to cancel what the opponent built during the match, Thanos will fight for priority, develop points, and block the opponent before they get to play their powerful cards.

Looking at the rest of the meta, it’s filled with combo archetypes. As such, I have no doubt Professor X and Alioth did great this week.

Conquest Performance:
The same twelve cards have also put up a great performance in Conquest, posting a 60.5% Win Rate in the game mode. Also, while Thanos Lockjaw didn’t do anything worth mentioning in the Ranked mode, the deck managed to earn a Good in Conquest badge by posting a 59.5% Win Rate there.

Here’s the list for those who still want to play with the points driven archetype of Thanos:

Thanos Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

7x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Potential Additions:
Cull Obsidian, Wave, and Black Swan all synergize well with Professor X. Counter cards are also routinely included in such type of decks if you think Enchantress would perform better than Shang-Chi.

Discard Hela

Discard

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
With Colleen Wing creating two 0-Cost Swarms, Lockjaw still has plenty of opportunities to be abused inside the Discard synergy. However, Lockjaw isn’t the core of the deck anymore, and discard is now mixing both the Dracula + Apocalypse game plan with some Hela shenanigans. It is now up to the pilot to adapt and navigate the game properly based on which synergy they have available and has the highest chances of success.

With more than a 1,000 games at a 0.42 Cube Average, the question about the unreliability of mixing the two synergies appears to be answered already.

Conquest Performance:
Discard Hela shined in Conquest as well, posting a 60% Win Rate in that mode with the same twelve cards. Clearly, the Hela and Lockjaw due isn’t done after this OTA. Similar to before the update, the ability to Snap early in the match based on your hand can bring a lot of pressure onto the opponent, and the one cube retreats will quickly add up over time.

Potential Additions:
Proxima Midnight saw play instead of Gambit in some lists. You can consider this the flexible slot in the deck.

Discard Collector

Discard Collector

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Slightly in the shadow of the Hela version, Discard Collector cuts the big guys to instead focus on building points through the course of the match. Depending on how much ground Thanos Control gains in the near future, I could see this archetype becoming a better call since it is much more resilient to Professor X and Alioth. Considering this deck was just a few points behind in Cube Average and it holds a much better Win Rate (59% against 56%), the choice between the two Discard builds seems to come down to play style and the surrounding decks.

Conquest Performance:
In addition to being the highest Win Rate deck in Ranked, Discard Collector also earned that honor in Conquest with an impressive 64% Win Rate. This is 3% higher than the next best archetype, Lockdown.

Just like the other decks in Tier 1, the exact same list was used in both modes, which is a fairly normal phenomenon so close to an OTA. In the near future, I would expect the decks to change one or two cards to adapt to their popular opponents.

Potential Additions:
Colleen Wing, Miek, and even Daken can see play in the deck. Corvus Glaive and Helicarrier can be replaced if you are looking for less randomness, although it seems to be positive for Discard so far.

Tier 2

Good Cards Black Knight

Good Cards Black Knight

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
This is the third deck using discard abilities, which is really drilling in how strong the whole synergy is right now. Good Cards Black Knight has come back after a month long hiatus! Right now, the deck looks like the new home for the Junk trio after they needed to find some new friends with Darkhawk nerfed.

This one packs much less disruption since you aren’t throwing Rocks in your opponent’s deck anymore. However, the ability to develop a lot of power (either proactively with Sentry and Cull Obsidian, or later in the match with Ghost Rider) is great for such a flexible deck.

So far, the raw amount of points seems to be the important metric, hence why the other Discard builds are in the higher tier. Still, once the counter decks come back, Good Cards Black Knight might have a much easier time adapting compared to Discard Hela and Discard Dracula.

Conquest Performance:
Good Cards Black Knight managed to post a 59% Win Rate in Conquest since the OTA, which was enough to earn its Good in Conquest badge this time around. Again, the same build was used in Ranked and Conquest for the archetype.

I would have loved to see a Spider-Ham or other disruptive tool instead of Nico Minoru since Conquest tends to reward those more than the Ranked mode. Still, posting a solid performance in both modes is a great start for this “new” Good Cards build that mixes the Junk package and the previous build around Black Knight and Zabu.

Potential Additions:
Nico Minoru feels like the flexible card in the deck with Spider-Ham, Echo, or another strong standalone 1-Cost being worth exploring. Shang-Chi can also be swapped with Mobius M. Mobius, Enchantress, or another disruptive or limiting card.

Destroy

Destroy

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
If I’m honest, a 0.3 Cubes Average and 53.5% Win Rate is more than I would have expected from Destroy after the OTA. But, at the same time, it was to be expected. Yes, the firepower isn’t as good as it was earlier in the week. However, because Destroy always had to cut Deathlok to fit in Shang-Chi, Alioth, or Arnim Zola, it simply slotted the 3-Cost back in the deck and kept on playing the game.

It probably won’t be the same deck going forward, but Destroy is far from dead after this OTA (and Nimrod is doing some nice things in other decks as well).

Conquest Performance:
This is usually a solid archetype in Conquest, but Destroy fell to being a good but not particularly threatening opponent in the mode after posting a 56.5% Win Rate. This is probably the biggest sign of Destroy taking a hit with the OTA since Conquest is a better metric of how oppressing a proactive deck can be. Without Forge, the opportunities to Snap early in the match are more scarce, which logically impacts how good Destroy is.

Potential Additions:
Shang-Chi or Alioth can replace Arnim Zola.

Ongoing Tribunal

Ongoing Tribunal

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Starter Card

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
A meta dominated by those who can put out the most points has to be a great one for Ongoing Tribunal. That is, if the deck is not anticipated and tech cards aren’t being picked to counter it. Then it shows how fragile this deck can be whenever Enchantress is around.

So far, Shang-Chi remains the most popular card alongside Zabu. But with a meager 50% Win Rate, Ongoing Tribunal is walking a tightrope right now. The 0.3 Cube Average is entirely due to how good the pilot is at the Snap and Retreat game.

Conquest Performance:
I was expecting Ongoing Tribunal to do pretty bad in Conquest since the deck loses a lot of upsides once you know you are facing it. However, the deck still managed to post a decent 55% Win Rate, which is among the best performances for a combo deck (especially when you consider Mister Negative and The Phoenix Force didn’t do as well).

I would recommend running Cosmo in the deck to have a shot at beating a deck with Enchantress, or at least open different lines of play to get the win. Plus, the card can be worth a Snap against certain opponents.

Potential Additions:
Cosmo can help the deck with survivability. You can cut either Wave or Super-Skrull for it, but the latter will hurt you in the mirror match.

Good Cards Junk

Good Cards Junk

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Good Card Black Knight has posted the best performance with the Junk trio included, but Darkhawk isn’t exactly dead yet. Indeed, with a 0.25 Cube Average and 55% Win Rate, the deck remains one of the best ways to build around Zabu after the OTA.

I would attribute a lot of that success to the disruption brought by Darkhawk, which is absolutely key against the flurry of combo decks we currently have. Against those, the game is mostly based on whether you can stop their combo or not. Darkhawk being a [5/4] barely impacts the outcome of the game since the card was very rarely enough to win a lane anyway. Earlier in the match, you would rather go for Sentry into Annihilus for disruption, and Turn 6 will very often be an Alioth play.

Conquest Performance:
A 54% Win Rate isn’t bad for a recently nerfed deck, but it definitely shows the deck is struggling compared to before the OTA. Indeed, Good Cards Junk was the deck on the rise in Conquest over the past few weeks, gaining momentum on its way to crossing the 60% Win Rate threshold and competing with Hela and Thanos.

I’ve come across another build that looks to have potential, and the disruption is very nice in Conquest. There isn’t much data about it, but here it is if you care to try it:

Conquest Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Potential Additions:
The entire Darkhawk package is flexible at this point, and I already discussed an alternate with the Black Knight build.

Lockdown

Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Starter Card

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
I was expecting Lockdown to be higher on the list since the archetype typically does pretty well after a balance change (and the environment looks quite decent for it currently). A 0.25 Cube Average and 55% Win Rate isn’t bad, but such established archetypes tend to lose momentum once the meta settles since they don’t have that much room to grow. If this is already the peak of Lockdown in the current meta, it isn’t looking particularly good for the deck.

Conquest Performance:
While the Ladder performance was subpar compared to my expectations, Lockdown delivered in Conquest. It ranked second overall, and it looks like the proactive disruptive deck you would expect it to be. The same list was used again, which is a bit odd when you think about how the deck has a 5% difference in how many games it wins from one mode to the other.

Still, with Thanos Control coming back strong thanks to Professor X and Alioth shutting down combo decks, it would have been weird if Lockdown wasn’t at least doing better than average.

The big question now is which direction Lockdown is headed: the solid Conquest performance or the decent Ranked one.

Potential Additions:
The Junk package (The Hood, Sentry, and Annihilus) can replace Medusa, Jessica Jones, and Vision for more disruption. I would recommend it in the current meta.

As for standalone additions, Spider-Ham, Omega Red, and Enchantress are good considerations.

Tier 3

This Tier 3 is baffling to me. I didn’t expect to see Corvus Ramp or Loki to be ranked so low, and I didn’t expect to see Patriot Zoo at all.

First, let’s start by saying the gap isn’t so big between Tier 1 and Tier 3 this week, so a placement here isn’t the sign of a bad deck. If you excuse Loki considering how demanding the deck can be to play (the constant adaptation required can quickly become mentally draining), it is hard to say the same for Corvus Ramp – especially with another Hela deck ranked in Tier 1 that posted double the Cube Average of Corvus Ramp.

As such, if you take anything from these two being in Tier 3, I would say that Loki might not be the simple archetype many thought it was. Unless you are really good at the game or have played plenty of Loki in the past, considering it an easy pick after a balance patch might not be such a good idea.

As for Corvus Ramp, I personally would love to slot some disruption in there. A Leech, Sandman, or maybe Doctor Octopus would go a long way to making it a little more versatile. Otherwise, I’m afraid the deck will need to pick up the slack if it wants to remain a consideration compared to the other Discard archetypes.

Moving on to the surprise inclusion this week, Patriot Zoo, there was actually quite a bit of data for this deck with more than 500 games recorded. While the numbers aren’t stellar (0.15 Cube Average and 53% Win Rate), the deck is looking fairly good for a synergy we haven’t seen in a very long time. It looks to be a nice pick if you enjoy these types of Zoo decks, and it’s probably more versatile than the Ka-Zar-based decks right now.

Corvus Ramp

Corvus Ramp

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

7.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Patriot Zoo

Patriot Zoo

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Loki

Good Cards Loki

Created by den

, updated 2 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

6x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

The meta had a few surprises in store for these first few days after the OTA, but nothing is absolutely ground breaking.

The proactive decks are dominant overall, with Discard – the synergy that got two new cards and hasn’t been nerfed in a while – at the top, which is common pattern after a balance update. Thanos Control managed to quickly counter many combo oriented decks, which pushed it to be the best deck. It wasn’t such an obvious deck to anticipate when looking at the OTA, but the logic behind it doing so well isn’t difficult to grasp. Last, all the nerfed decks have regressed, with Destroy, Thanos Lockjaw, and Hela Lockjaw each losing a fair share of momentum. The only criticism one might have is that Hela and Lockjaw quickly found another home in a modified Discard deck. I would blame that on the synergy being in a great spot right now.

Overall, the OTA hit most of the right spots if you look at the early days after it happened. The overall feeling might not be completely new yet since we still have similar foundations (Thanos, Discard, Good Cards) posting the best results. However, their performances are all a little worse than before the update, and they had to reinvent themselves in order to get it done.

Now it’s up to the other archetypes to refine their lists with the new information available and show whether they can compete. But, of course, that will be for the next report.

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful to get you going in this new meta. 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.