Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List, April 25th, 2023: Why is Everyone Playing Super-Skrull!?

A lot has happened in Marvel Snap since the April 18th balance patch. Most of the events unfolding this week were expected, such as Electro Ramp, Patriot, and Wave based decks giving a strong showing. Sera decks suffered setbacks as several of their difficult match ups rose in popularity. Also, the lack of a new archetype was anticipated as the logical result of the lack of buffs, leading to the good decks eating up all the popularity Shuri Zero dropped after its nerf. Finally, without a clear dominant deck in the metagame, Marvel Snap feels much more open when it comes to what is playable and what isn’t.

Indeed, this week’s report has a total of 14 decks, and all of them are above the 0.1 cube average (with Tier 1 decks featuring an average above 0.4). This is also one of the rare weeks with four decks worthy of Tier 1 status, showing how dense the current environment is with all the choices players have regarding what to play. This leads me to the more unexpected events of this week: Dino Darkhawk taking the top spot, as well as both Sera Surfer and Sera Control keeping their Tier 1 status.

I would explain the former as Dino Darkhawk being an archetype that is a bit outside the current war going on between Sandman and combo based decks. Similar to Patriot, Dino Darkhawk is a deck that can play one big card per turn or save options for an explosive Turn 6. In that regard, the deck took full advantage of being an afterthought and bulldozed its way through the metagame.

Even more surprising, Sera still managed to be very relevant thanks to the Surfer archetype managing Sandman’s restrictions much better and the Control archetype adapting its build to fight the new environment.

Topping Sera for the biggest surprise of the week, though, was Leader not being as good as expected. The card exists, and it sees play in several archetypes, but many decks that played the card before its major nerf a few months ago have not included it again. Instead, the card every one is talking about is Super-Skrull. It’s been used to gain an edge in the Patriot mirror, and it’s slowly gaining ground in decks to help against other Ongoing synergies like Thanos Lockjaw and Dino Darkhawk.

Overall, the April 18th patch was a great one. It managed to start a much needed new dynamic in Marvel Snap. Still, I have already read several complaints about Electro Sandman being too restrictive of a deck. Rest assured, the deck is still very far from what Shuri Zero was before its multiple nerfs, and a few solid counters have emerged. Let’s explore the rise of the new dominant decks, how the other archetypes have adapted, and what you should keep an eye on for the future.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

In order to be featured here, a deck needs to represent at least 1% of the current environment and have a positive cube average using data from our Marvel Snap Tracker. If a deck showed great performances with a very limited presence in the metagame, you can find it in the new “Silent Performers” section. There, I will highlight decks with an excellent cube per game ratio 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 4 in our chart and won’t have their own dedicated writeup here but may be transferred to the main Tier List section. See Tier 4 as decks that are good to know about, as you should face those when playing Marvel Snap. However, unless the metagame changes or a new variation of the build emerges, these decks aren’t noteworthy picks at the moment.

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

Silent Performers of the Week

This week’s Silent Performers are very different decks, although they do share the same interest for being based on previously nerfed cards – She-Hulk and Magik for the MoonGirl Infinaut deck, and Silver Surfer in the Surfer Move build.

As a deck, MoonGirl Infinaut is pushing the Snap and Retreat concept to its maximum. Indeed, this deck will Retreat as soon as it sees Sandman because the card completely dismantles the double She-Hulk plus The Infinaut plan it has going on. Still, considering Electro Ramp is rather easy to recognize early in the game, MoonGirl Infinaut is able to Snap against a lot of opponents as soon as it has its combo in hand.

In particular, the return of Magik in the deck tells us how much ground Thanos Lockjaw and Sera Control have lost. Indeed, with the Reality Stone and Scarlet Witch in both decks, running Magik was impossible before the patch. Now, the deck finds many more opponents with no way to stop them. And with She-Hulk bypassing Wave‘s ability, the deck does not fear DeathWave or DoomWave very much.

The Silver Surfer deck is a bit more difficult to assess. It did have a great win rate and cube rate, but the sample size was minimal so this might be due to a few lucky runs. Nevertheless, with Sera Surfer posting great results (this time with a much larger sample size), it could also very well be that Silver Surfer is back to being a solid win condition in Marvel Snap.

Outside some love for the Move package, I really like the inclusions of Goose and Storm in the deck. Both cards are great against the popular Electro Ramp deck, and both cards synergize very well with the Move cards and give the deck a lot of flexibility. This flexibility makes up for the lower point ceiling compared to Patriot or Dino Darkhawk.

Tier Explanation

Tier 1

Dino Darkhawk 🔼

Dino Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

3

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Apart from Darkhawk and Zabu in Series 4, every other card in the deck is Pool 3, making Dino Darkhawk a fairly easy deck to build; however, we see the deck’s best performance when looking at players above Collection Level 3500, where Dino Darkhawk holds a 60% win rate and a 0.52 cube average – second to Moon Girl The Infinaut, but with a much bigger sample size. The biggest strength of this archetype is its very strong core around Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur, both of which provide enough points to challenge most other decks in the game. Even with both packages included by default, the deck still has one or two flexible slots in the list and can include most cards in the game.

With Patriot and Electro Sandman being the front runners when it comes to popularity, Dino Darkhawk went completely under the radar and took advantage of the situation. Let’s see how it performs now that players know about its power, and with more Enchantress, Rogue, and Super-Skrull in the meta as well.

How to play:

The goal here is to be very efficient with our energy while also keeping our options open for the last few turns. We have three main win conditions: Darkhawk, Devil Dinosaur, and Shang-Chi, and Mystique could represent a fourth win condition if she copies either of our two huge Ongoing cards. When we find Zabu on Turn 2, we are able to keep Darkhawk and Mystique together for a Turn 6 play, creating a solid one-two punch with Devil Dinosaur on Turn 5. Shang-Chi plus Darkhawk is another very strong Turn 6. With Doctor Doom in the deck, the need to hold a card to be explosive is reduced, and you can just play proactively with this list.

Without Zabu, we are a bit less explosive and usually rely on Doctor Doom. This build does not run Quinjet, instead favoring Iceman to disrupt Electro Sandman‘s curve.

Potential Additions: Quinjet is the first card to consider in this deck. It would usually replace either Iceman or Doctor Doom. Cosmo, Armor, and other early strong cards are good ones to keep in mind as well. She-Hulk can also be included over Doctor Doom, opening a pass on Turn 5 into a Dino plus She-Hulk on Turn 6.

Even if you don’t have Darkhawk, there is a control variant that is performing well too. It isn’t Tier 1 material, but worth exploring for sure:

Dino Control

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

4

5x 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)

1x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Electro Ramp 🔼

Electro Ramp

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

4

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: This was probably the most anticipated deck after the April 18th balance patch, and it did not disappoint. As expected, Sandman put a dagger through every combo player’s heart, and if it wasn’t for Patriot the deck probably would have beaten Dino Darkhawk for this first week in this new metagame.

Due to some bad match ups for the deck being quickly identified, Electro Ramp has not been able to dominate the metagame completely. It still holds a solid 56% win rate overall, and a cube average ranging from 0.25 to 0.45 depending on builds, ranks, and Collection Level – quite an accomplishment considering every one knew the deck was coming. With almost 10% of decks in the metagame, Electro Ramp was the most popular deck of the week.

Depending on how the metagame progresses, whether Patriot keeps on rising or if some Ongoing hate keeps it in check, the next week could go either way for Electro Ramp.

How to play:

Electro Ramp relies on very simple concepts, and it’s usually a deck that is great for players struggling with flexible play-patterns.

At its core, the deck is trying to play Electro on Turn 3 and then go on a 5-6-6-cost pattern for the three remaining turns. For example, the Sandman → Doctor Doom → Odin pattern has been the deck’s bread and butter for a while.

If you are against an opponent which can challenge you playing only one card a turn, then you want to go for a more proactive approach. Devil Dinosaur, Magneto, and other such cards will be more powerful, instead of trying to win with Sandman locking the game.

Potential additions: Considering the deck’s popularity, we have seen many cards be included in the deck lately:

• Iceman for the mirror match
• Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Lizard highlight the most common 2-cost cards
• Vision and Aero also see play as 5-cost cards
• Jubilee is often played alongside Jeff for energy efficiency

Sera Control / Sera Surfer 🔼

Sera Surfer

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Sera players had a very chaotic week to say the least, but they ended it with two archetypes around the 0.4 cube average mark and a win rate above 55%. Indeed, after Electro Sandman crushed all Hit Monkey‘s hopes to finally be the metagame king, Sera Surfer started to become more popular. It now represents about 2% of the metagame at the end of the weekend.

On the other end, Sera Control (which you can see in the potential additions section) has included more high cost cards in order to still have something to play when Sandman or Wave hit the board. It isn’t listed in either lists, but Doctor Doom made an appearance in both archetypes and is starting to be an extremely popular card across Marvel Snap.

Right now, both archetypes only add up to less than 4% of the entire metagame, which is almost 10% less than before the April 18th patch for Sera archetypes. Nevertheless, reactive builds have always been at their best when nobody expects them since they can catch their opponents off guard and keep them in games they should have left already. Also, with Patriot slowly progressing, Sera Control can easily slot Enchantress back in the deck while Sera Surfer already plays Rogue.

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.

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.

Potential additions:

Sera Control

Created by Baodai

, updated 5 months ago

0

7x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Patriot Ultron

Patriot Ultron

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2x Starter Card

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: After many weeks flirting with it, Patriot finally made it to Tier 1 courtesy of Electro Sandman being so popular. I thought the deck would be much more popular considering Electro Ramp represents more than 10% of the metagame, but Patriot only represented between 5% and 7% of the environment depending on the rank and Collection Level you are at. Similar to the other decks in Tier 1 one this week, Patriot is around the 56% win rate and 0.4 cube average. It also share the same common trait as Sera Control of being adaptable, although the basic Ultron list appears to be the most popular and the best performing.

A big LAN event this weekend had a group of players (Moyen, Lowell, Kawatek) use Super-Skrull in their Patriot deck, and that deck list has started to become really popular. I wouldn’t be surprised if Patriot popularity was rising as I’m writing the report. However, similar to Electro Ramp, Patriot’s counters are well known, so it might be safer for the deck not to reach too big of a popularity. If it did, it could quickly be met with some devastating Enchantresses, an easy card to include in many archetypes of the current metagame.

How to play:

At its core, Patriot is a points-based deck looking to develop as many as possible across the three locations. Most of the time, because Patriot and his best friend Mystique are worth very few points, the deck will abandon the location where these cards are played. In exchange, the other locations should be very strong, as all the cards there receive a solid +4 power buff.

Depending on the opponent, you might also want to balance your points and have Patriot and Mystique on different lanes. This can be done to avoid a disastrous Enchantress, or simply because you believe you have a higher ceiling than your opponent and want to force them into investing into each lane to win it.

Strategy wise, most of the thinking will be done based on what is in your hand since the deck isn’t exactly flexible. You will, of course, have different ways to build your turns, but the end result should be the same, meaning the emphasis is on how to get there. In that regard, there are a few questions one needs to ask when playing Patriot:

• How much information do you want to give your opponent before going all in? For example, Squirrel Girl, Cosmo, or even Ka-Zar aren’t a tell of exactly what you are playing, while Misty Knight and Shocker are obvious clues.
• Which locations will you go for, and which one will serve to host your low scoring cards?
• Are you relying on Ultron to fill the whole board at once on the last turn, or are you building the board incrementally?

Because Patriot doesn’t have many game plans, it can’t really try to be flexible regarding how to win. Through asking these key questions, you can at least manipulate and control how you will get to the final point, how you will keep your opponent on their toes, or, at least, how you will hide the location and the amount of points you will develop.

Potential additions: In the traditional build, a few cards can make sense. Cosmo can protect from Enchantress. Wave and Magik can allow some form of energy cheating to open playing several 6-cost cards in the same match. You can consider Onslaught or even Hulk in that scenario. Lastly, most targets for Patriot could be considered one way or another.

Tier 2

DoomWave

DoomWave

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: DoomWave’s win rate is on par with the decks in Tier 1 (north of the 55% mark), but the archetype only has a 0.3 cube rate when the four above all broke the 0.4 barrier this week. I could see various reason to explain this:

• A lot of decks have started to adapt to Electro Ramp and Sandman, which leads to Wave being less effective on Turn 5. Also, Wave isn’t as good as Sandman against Sera Surfer since the opponent will still be able to play two cards with Sera in play.
• Doctor Doom is no longer a card only DoomWave uses, and without She-Hulk in hand our Turn 6 is just the same as every one else. It can also be worse than Ultron for Patriot or Electro Sandman using Odin to trigger Doctor Doom once again.
• Patriot has drawn more Ongoing hate cards in the metagame, which limits how strong Darkhawk can carry a lane on its own.

It is a very peculiar situation, but all the other strong decks have impacted the metagame in a way that pushes archetypes to also adapt to DoomWave. It leads to the deck still being among the best in the game, but still being less punishing than it could be for the opponent.

How to play:

The deck’s bread and butter is the Turn 5 and 6 play pattern using Wave followed by She-Hulk plus another big card. Shang-Chi is a consideration when the card is able to turn a lane around as well.

In order to make sure this late game sequence locks the game for good, we need to be ahead on Turn 5. Then playing only Wave won’t represent such a sacrifice since we need to keep two energy saved for She-Hulk to be a 2-cost card on Turn 6. Once every card costs four, we should be in the driver’s seat to lock the game, either going big on a location or spreading our points.

In order to take the lead in the first four turns, we have the usual good cards suspects at every energy cost. The way you want to spread your points early in the game should depend on whether you anticipate going for Aero or Doctor Doom late in the match. The former would push for building two solid locations because Aero can pull any opposing cards to the third one. The latter, on the other hand, allows us to win close and contested lanes on the last turn and is fine with seeing you spread your points around.

Potential additions: The non Darkhawk variant is still going strong as well. This is WWLos build, and it shows the various replacements you can make.

DoomWave

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

DeathWave 🔼

Death Wave

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: If there was one deck to pick among those who benefited from Shuri Zero‘s downfall, DeathWave is most likely that deck. With barely any sign of Armor, and Cosmo not being played in a deck which represents over 15% of the metagame anymore, DeathWave soared in the rankings. Sure, Sandman can still hurt the deck quite badly when you don’t expect it, but being able to develop your game plan without worrying about your synergy being countered is a big relief for the deck. Also, Doctor Doom isn’t difficult to include in the build, which allows adapting to that particular match if needed. It basically makes DeathWave become DoomWave with a different early game, and Death as a bonus on Turn 6.

Among other positive traits in the metagame are the strength of Wave and Killmonger. Wave is being mitigated as decks have started adapting to Sandman, but Killmonger is being ignored right now, and it has a lot of good targets running around.

Bucky Barnes has been cut in some of the best performing list for the archetype, to make room for Iceman and Doctor Doom. The card remains a staple of the archetype, and will return as soon as Electro Ramp isn’t the most popular deck anymore.

How to play:

The whole point of the deck is to get at least two destroy effects while having reveal priority going into Turn 6. This should be achieved with a simple on-curve play during the first four turns, as the destroy synergy is able to generate solid power through its signature cards Bucky Barnes, Deathlok, and Carnage.

Turn 5 should be a Wave play and nothing else. If we have She-Hulk in hand, the card will be a 2-cost on the next turn and can be paired with anything else. If we manage to get to four destroy effects, Death becomes free and both her and She-Hulk can be played in addition to another card. Squirrel Girl being destroyed by Killmonger is usually the way we get our four destructions in time.

Outside this basic play pattern, the deck is quite flexible and is able to develop points even without drawing into Wave. The destroy synergy shines especially well when it comes to cleaning up annoying cards that appear on our side of the board.

Potential additions: Moon Girl and Squirrel Girl are the two cards to consider in this deck as both card support the deck’s game plan directly. They can replace the metagame cards which are Iceman, Doctor Doom, Shang-Chi, and Aero.

Thanos Ongoing

Ongoing Thanos

2

3x Collection Level 1-14

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2x Recruit Season

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: The quartet of Goose, Armor, Cosmo, and Professor X seems pretty strong in the current metagame. Goose and Cosmo are very annoying for Electro Ramp, and if they play Ebony Maw then you can simply lock all lanes from them. As for Armor and Professor X, they help against the surge of Deathwave and can lock a lane before Patriot uses Ultron to fill it. Professor X is also very decent against Wave based decks as its lack of power isn’t punished (because the opponent only develops three points on Turn 5 as well).

However, Thanos Ongoing is held back by the growth of hate cards against the Ongoing synergy, and is collateral damage to Patriot bringing Super-Skrull and Enchantress back in the conversation. Depending on how the metagame evolves in the coming week, Thanos Ongoing could either rise to be a Tier 1 consideration or get blown out by Ongoing counters.

Valkyrie has lost a lot of upsides with Shuri Zero not being among the top decks anymore, so Mystique is filling in for now as the default inclusion in an Ongoing deck with only eleven cards. Figuring out this last slot could be the difference maker for the deck.

How to play: Compared to the previous Ongoing deck with Destroyer, this one clearly retains a very similar theme. Thanos, however, makes it a little more complicated to navigate, especially because the Infinity Stones can quickly fill our side of the board and block some lanes for us. As such, be careful when playing the non-Ongoing Stones and consider holding them in hand if you have no precise reason to use up that space and don’t need the card draw.

When it comes to winning lanes, the deck has various angles of attack:

• Going big with Devil Dinosaur (and Cosmo for protection) alongside cheap support.
• Valkyrie should win us a lane most of the time since it is nearly impossible for our cards to stay at the three power they are set to considering the many buffs they can receive.
• Using Ant-Man, Goose, and other cheap cards that are also supported by Ka-Zar, Blue Marvel, and Spectrum.
• Professor X can lock a lane we are ahead on, and we can still impact it with our buffing abilities on Turn 6 if needed.

Potential additions: Most of all, the deck needs to figure out what the last card is. Mystique has a ton of targets with Devil Dinosaur, Blue Marvel, and Ka-Zar in the deck, and the deck doesn’t feel like it needs an extra tech card in a particular match up. Iron Man, Daredevil, and She-Hulk were also cards I saw when browsing the various deck list for the archetype.

Thanos Lockjaw

Ongoing Thanos

1