Table of Contents
Shuri Zero remains the top dog in Marvel Snap for yet another week. The deck continues to resist a metagame that is constantly adapting to counter it. Cosmo has proven to be enough to keep the deck safe against Shang-Chi and Valkyrie, but Iceman and Goose are knocking at the door. These two cards have seen more play this week in several archetypes, such as Silver Surfer, Lockjaw Thor, Bounce, and Thanos Ongoing, to name a few. While these two tech cards are strong in their own right, it seems clear that Shuri Zero has kept its position as the deck to beat.
The big news, though, is the return of Thanos Lockjaw after a disappointing first week post patch. The traditional build we knew before the balance changes is no more, and the Death and Killmonger variant has taken over as the go-to build for the archetype. With that change, the archetype immediately reclaimed a Tier 1 spot and looks closer than any other deck to dethroning Shuri Zero. The Thanos Ongoing build is also picking up, but it’s a bit more confusing to read into as it looks like a Thanos Ongoing Zoo deck that decided to start running Lockjaw over Valkyrie.
While it could be a good thing to show Shuri Zero isn’t an unbeatable force, going back to the battle from before the 13.13 patch doesn’t sound so good either. First, it would truly show how huge of a gap there was between the two “nerfed” decks and the rest of the metagame. Second, considering we tried the good cop method (only nerfing what felt absolutely necessary without chopping either deck to pieces), it seems like the bad cop might have to take this one and strike a little harder than his colleague did.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like other archetypes have managed to rise apart from Thanos Lockjaw, leaving our Tier List to be quite similar to last week’s. In Tier 2, Sera Surfer might be the deck most deserving of discussion, particularly because it showcases the power of 3-cost cards in the current environment. Cosmo, Killmonger, and Polaris have already achieved the status of staples in several archetypes, but other cards like Storm and Juggernaut have started to pick up in popularity. Indeed, lane control has proven to be a strong disruptive mechanic against both Shuri Zero and Thanos Lockjaw in the past.
The start of the Animals Assemble Season might change this weird feeling that we are heading back to something awfully close to what existed before the last patch. More on that in the closing words.
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
| Tier | Deck | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Shuri Zero | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Thanos Death Lockjaw 🔼 | Guide |
| Tier 1 | Sera Control | Guide |
| Tier 2 (High) | Thanos Lockjaw Ongoing 🔼 | Guide |
| Tier 2 (High) | Zabu Devil Darkhawk | Guide |
| Tier 2 (High) | Lockjaw Thor 🔼 | |
| Tier 2 (Low) | Good Cards DoomWave | Guide |
| Tier 2 (Low) | Sera Surfer 🔼 | |
| Tier 2 (Low) | Electro Ramp | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Galactus | |
| Tier 3 | DeathWave | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Patriot Ultron đź”˝ | Guide |
| Tier 3 | Dracula Discard đź”˝ | Guide |
| Tier 4 | Bounce 🆕 | Guide |
| Tier 4 | Kazoocula 🆕 | Guide |
| Tier 4 | Cerebro 2 🆕 | Guide |
| Tier 4 | Negative Surfer | Guide |
| Budget | Handsize Destroy | |
| Budget | Ongoing | |
| Budget | Sandman Kazoo | Guide |
| Budget | Control |
Silent Performers of the Week
| Deck | Guide |
|---|---|
| Thanos Control | |
| Devil Dinosaur Control |
This week’s silent performers are two decks that can annoy Shuri Zero (I know, shocker!). Both of these control builds are focused on limiting where the opponent is able to play, and they’re able to dominate a single lane through powerful abilities. The Thanos Control deck has arguably made more strides lately, but Devil Dinosaur Control could be considered a solid Pool 3 option following a similar logic. With both decks, you are looking to take over a lane with your disruptive tools and compete on another one through points.
The Thanos Control list uses some cards from the Bounce archetype, notably Bishop and Beast. With Hit Monkey available soon, we are, of course, eager to know the potential of the deck. As you can see in the rankings, Bounce isn’t doing so good overall, but I would attribute a lot of that to the build being much more difficult to pilot than the average Marvel Snap deck. Paired with some control tools, however, the deck seems to perform much better.
Whether this is an indication that the proactive build isn’t strong enough to compete (something Hit Monkey could help with) or simply that the control tools are very important in the current metagame is up for debate. I would personally lean toward the latter; limiting board space has proven to be much more efficient than trying to compete on points against Shuri Zero and Thanos Lockjaw in the past. With that in mind, it only makes sense to see reactive, disruption based decks perform better than their proactive counterparts.
Tier Explanation
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 metagame, 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.
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.
Tier 3: This tier is made of decks that have a pervasive issue compared to Tier One or Two decks. Usually, Tier 3 will be a mix of decks on the rise which don’t have much data about themselves, 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.
Tier 4: Off-meta decks that have fallen off in recent times.
Budget: Decks that consist only cards in Pool 1 and 2 but 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. Version 3 now out!
Tier 1
Shuri Zero
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Rank Justification: Even if the metagame seems to be trying to find ways to dethrone Shuri Zero, the deck is solidly anchored at the top spot for now. More than anything, it’s the ability to make good snap and retreat decisions based almost entirely on our hands that makes the deck so simple to perform with. Even if Thanos Lockjaw took back the best win rate in the game this week, Shuri Zero still retained the best cube average in Marvel Snap. Considering the deck’s popularity, representing more than 10% of the metagame at any given rank, maintaining this level of performance shows the deck is just good, no matter the environment you play it in.
There have been a few interesting developments this week. The return of Thanos Death (one of the few bad match ups Shuri Zero had before the patch) and the increasing popularity of Iceman and Goose have rattled the deck just a bit – we’ll see how these develop into the new season. Cosmo seems to have kept the deck safe from the Valkyrie invasion we witnessed last week.
How to play: The whole point of the deck is to overwhelm the opponent with impossible-to-match numbers, most of the time during the second part of the game. Ideally, one will play Shuri on Turn 4, Red Skull on Turn 5, and Taskmaster on Turn 6, leading to two 26-point monsters to contest two lanes and win the game. Because of this relative rigidity in the last three turns, Shuri Zero often needs to play its other cards before this point and can’t really hold too many resources in hand for a surprise later on. The only flexibility we might have are 1-cost cards, which can be paired up with Taskmaster on Turn 6.
While Red Skull is usually the go-to card on Turn 5, there are other, more flexible options to consider – even if they are worth a little less points. Vision took over Aero with the patch and serves as both a solid Shuri target and a difficult target for the opponent’s Shang-Chi thanks to its ability to move.
Lastly, because the deck is looking to abuse 5-cost cards most of the time, She-Hulk makes it worth to consider passing your turn on five and then slamming your 5-cost alongside She-Hulk on six. This strategy is especially effective when you want to lose priority against an expected Shang-Chi or wait and see where your opponent plays their Galactus.
Potential additions:
- Aero and Captain Marvel can be played instead of Vision.
- Sauron and Ebony Maw can be played instead of Sunspot and Polaris.
Thanos Death Lockjaw 🔼
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Rank Justification: This deck represented less than 4% of the metagame while Shuri Zero was over 12% and Sera Control at 13%, so the surprise factor could have worked in favor of Thanos Death Lockjaw this week. Nevertheless, Lockjaw and Death soared in the win rate, each card hitting a staggering 59% and taking the top spot in that category this week. These percentages are higher even than Shuri Zero‘s.
Before the patch, this variant of Thanos Lockjaw was considered the counter to the much more popular build of the archetype and appeared mostly in tournaments. In the coming week, we will see how big it is able to grow when it is the premier way to build around the Thanos and Lockjaw pair.
How to play: This deck is a mix of two popular archetypes: DeathWave and Thanos Lockjaw, and it uses both their play patterns to generate a ton of points. At the center of both synergies are the Infinity Stones. They’re used to abuse Lockjaw’s ability and to reduce Death‘s cost with Killmonger.
The biggest strength the deck has is the ability to remain totally unpredictable and still very effective. Here are a few synergies to keep in mind:
- Lockjaw serves to cycle the Infinity Stones back in our deck and replace them with our big cards. Keep in mind that each Stone has a powerful ability, so they can contribute outside this synergy as well.
- Killmonger, Wave, and Death represent another explosive pattern for the deck. They give the Stones another purpose when we don’t find Lockjaw. Use Killmonger to destroy the Stones, then Wave on Turn 5 for an explosive Turn 6 with Death and She-Hulk.
- Leech represents the third win condition for the deck. You will usually win the game if you can get it out early with Lockjaw or the Time Stone.
At its core, Thanos Death Lockjaw is quite the high roll strategy. Its win rate lets us know it is working more often than not, but the true secret with this deck is to be fearless with your Snaps when you have one of your high rolls. Bad draws happen – they’ll cost you a cube, and then you’re on to the next game.
Potential additions: The deck just resurfaced this week, so it is open to a lot of changes:
- Psylocke can serve as another ramp tool for Leech
- Magneto and Aero might be worth testing in the build
- Kitty Pryde has been experimented with in the deck
- Vision, and Move cards in general, tend to have a nice synergy with Lockjaw
Sera Control
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Rank Justification: Sera Control’s win rate is on par with most decks in Tier 2, but the deck’s ability to rack up cubes against an overconfident opponent still appears unmatched. If we look at win rates, Shuri Zero is 4% ahead of Sera Control, a difference worthy of almost two entire Tiers in a different game. However, if we look at the cube average, Sera Control is just 0.05 behind Shuri Zero, a testimony to the deck’s ability to make each win count much more than its losses. The big difference between the two most popular decks in the game is the consistency depending on the collection level. Sera Control is particularly strong for players below collection 4000. Past that mark, Shuri Zero retains most of its power while Sera Control feels more like a mid-Tier 2 deck.
The deck seems to have ten cards locked, and Enchantress seems to be back for good. Considering the Ongoing synergy is going strong, the card feels like it is definitely worth a spot. This week, the flexible cards were The Hood and Carnage, replacing Valkyrie and Mister Sinister in last week’s build. Depending on whether you are trying to have a well-rounded deck or a more targeted approach, these last two spots are very much up in the air.
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.
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.
Potential Additions: There are many ways to build Sera Control, and the deck seems to adapt each and every week. This time, it is the destroy package of The Hood and Carnage which is used to round up the build. You can remove both cards to include other tools you feel are more useful to your success. Here are a couple duos worth exploring:
- Kitty Pryde and Angela
- Valkyrie and Mister Sinister
- Sentinel and another standalone card, such as Aero or Maximus
- Zabu and any other 4-cost card. Absorbing Man, Rescue, and White Queen have been played in the past
Tier 2
Thanos Lockjaw Ongoing 🔼
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Rank Justification: With Cosmo showing up in a ton of decks and featuring very few cards that are vulnerable to Shang-Chi, the Ongoing synergy is a great one to play in the current metagame. This week, this build mixed with the Thanos Ongoing Zoo deck in terms of results since both have ten cards in common.
Killmonger being featured in a few archetypes (Lockjaw Death, DeathWave, Silver Surfer…) still appears to limit Thanos’s ability to compete for a Tier 1 spot on its own. Even so, the deck had a great resurgence after feeling like it was totally abandoned in our previous report.
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.
When it comes to winning lanes, the deck has three main 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 near 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, Lizard, and other cheap cards that are also supported by Ka-Zar, Blue Marvel, and Spectrum.
Potential additions: The Thanos Zoo build still exists as well, and it features a more targeted list towards beating Shuri Zero. Notably, Goose and Valkyrie help in this specific match up.
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Zabu Devil Darkhawk
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Rank Justification: Devil Dinosaur has always been a solid choice, although it never quite manages to challenge Tier 1. Lockjaw did pick up a bit of popularity towards the end of the season, so shuffling some rocks could have been helpful in those match ups. Otherwise, the deck hasn’t changed much from its usual recipe, and it seems to be anchored as a high Tier 2 deck for the foreseeable future.
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.
Without Zabu, we are a bit less explosive and usually rely on Mystique copying Devil Dinosaur or Darkhawk alongside Cosmo to protect either of them from Shang-Chi. We could also use Quinjet to cheat some energy on cards copied with Moon Girl to create a different Turn 6.
Potential additions: Agent Coulson seems to be the flexible card in the build and can be replaced for a tech card you find valuable in your meta. Some 6-cost cards can also be worth exploring, such as Doctor Doom or Magneto.
Lockjaw Thor 🔼
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Rank Justification: I don’t fully understand why there aren’t more decks using Iceman to disrupt Shuri Zero, but the addition of the card here seemed to have worked very well for the Pool 3 build of Lockjaw this week. Of course, the deck stays in the shadow of Thanos Lockjaw, mostly because of the high roll potential of both decks. Nevertheless, any deck finding a tiny bit of an edge against Shuri Zero should quickly rise in the rankings.
Another worthy card to mention is Dracula, a great way to get points while not fearing Shang-Chi, a card that is in almost every deck right now.
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 important to keep in mind how to win another one and not get caught up in abusing Lockjaw.
The first three turns of the game can be very quiet for a Lockjaw deck, as we aren’t looking to do much. If you have Lockjaw in hand, you could even consider not playing Sunspot in order to cycle it for a bigger card later on. Ideally, the player would go all in on Lockjaw on Turn 5 and dedicate Turn 3 to Thor so there’s time to find Mjölnir. This opens Turn 4 to play Dracula or Jubilee, both good cards to anchor a location. We’ll usually throw the cheap cards behind Lockjaw in the last two turns, so Dracula isn’t so difficult to abuse in the deck.
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 Magneto play 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 and Dracula to challenge the second lane.
Potential additions: The deck’s flexibility mostly lies in the cards you are trying to pull with Lockjaw. Leech, in particular, is a card that is often added in the deck over Iceman or Vision. The choice is mostly based on whether you want to focus on Shuri Zero or the other decks.
Good Cards DoomWave
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Rank Justification: This has been a bit of a difficult week for DoomWave after it rose to top tier status right after the patch. The archetype remains in the discussion of the current great decks in Marvel Snap, but it could start lacking that surprising trait that is so important to steal some cubes from a few careless opponents.
The increased popularity of Electro Ramp could also have hurt the deck as Sandman remains one of the best Wave counters in the game. Indeed, without the ability to play the expected She-Hulk in addition to a strong 6-cost, the meager three points Wave contributes to a location is a bit of a problem.
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, usually Aero, Doctor Doom, or, at worst, America Chavez. 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: As usual with the Good Cards archetype, a lot of cards could be mentioned as long as they are worth enough points to satisfy the deck’s game plan.
Currently, Polaris and Magneto are logical inclusions as they are good cards against many other archetypes.
Sera Surfer 🔼
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Rank Justification: Silver Surfer isn’t able to compete in a points shootout since it was nerfed, but you probably already knew that. This deck packs a few interesting abilities in order to be very annoying in the current metagame. Goose, Juggernaut, and Storm are solid cards against Shuri Zero, either by limiting where the opponent can play with Goose and Storm or by trying to send Taskmaster to the same lane as Red Skull with Juggernaut. Indeed, since the opponent cannot play Taskmaster where Cosmo or Goose are, we usually have a decent read on where the card will end up.
As for the other match ups, Killmonger, Cosmo, and Polaris are still great cards in Marvel Snap, and they give the deck a fighting chance against the field.
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: A lot of 3-cost cards can enter the deck and make sense. Feel free to play around with the abilities you think are valuable to the deck’s success. When it comes to 2-cost cards, Goose is currently in the lead to annoy Shuri Zero. Otherwise, Lizard and Scorpion tend to be the next best things.
If we want to go for another route, Zabu can allow us to play some 4-costs along with our Surfer game plan. Zabu plus Sera even allows us to play them for two energy on Turn 6 with our other 3-cost cards. If your board is already full of 3-costs, playing Wong, Silver Surfer, and Absorbing Man can develop enough points to rival Shuri Zero. You can also mix in some disruption using Shang-Chi.
Electro Ramp
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Rank Justification: A great deck among Pool 3 players since Sandman has finally established itself as a premier counter to Sera Control and other explosive strategies. Unfortunately, Electro Ramp suffers a lot from Shuri Zero representing about a fifth of the total metagame.
For the second week in a row, it seems like the standalone cards have performed better than the more synergistic packages (i.e. Nimrod and Destroyer, Black Panther and Arnim Zola…). The deck could climb a few more ranks on this list if everyone settled on the best list available.
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.
In the current metagame where disruption seems to be more important, Electro Ramp will usually value Sandman, Magneto, and Aero more if the opponent didn’t have a strong early game. In this approach, playing proactively before Electro is quite important because the deck will develop fewer points later on.
Sunspot makes this approach to play low cost cards such as Shang-Chi in the later rounds a valid option, giving the deck the possibility of being disruptive with fewer points developed.
Potential additions:
- Iceman, Armor, and
Scorpion highlight the popular cheap cards the deck could run outside the ones included. Squirrel Girl could be considered for priority purposes, or as a soft synergy with Sandman.
For the late game, there are a few duos worth mentioning:
Black Panther andArnim Zola go very well in the On Reveal shell the deck pushes for. - Doctor Octopus and Heimdall have a nice synergy going on.
- Shuri and Nimrod are fine if you include Arnim Zola or Destroyer as well.
Tier 3
Galactus
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Rank Justification: Every week Galactus creates a controversy with its ranking as the archetype still has hardcore fans who will not be satisfied with anything less than a Tier 1 ranking. However, with Cosmo, Goose, and Polaris being so popular now (and Aero not being completely gone either), it is difficult to see Galactus as more than a good deck in the wrong environment.
If we were talking about raw power only, where the environment didn’t matter, Galactus could be much higher in the rankings. Unfortunately for the Devourer of Worlds, this is not how it works.
How to play: In this iteration of the build, we have two main routes we can take:
- The Galactus route, usually followed up with a Knull, Death, or Shang-Chi play.
- A Shuri route, using Destroyer, Doctor Octopus, and Taskmaster to contest two different lanes.
The direction to take will obviously depend on your hand and opponent. Considering both patterns aren’t starting before Turn 4, you should play as flexibility as possible early on in the match. Ideally, try not to play onto several locations to keep your options open for Galactus.
Potential Additions: The proper way to build Galactus seems to be changing every week. It’s ranged from a full on combo build centered solely around playing Galactus early on to a more flexible one that is able to compete without it’s signature card. The best advice I could give is to have a list you can build a reasoning around.
DeathWave
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Rank Justification: When the most popular deck in the game runs both Armor and Cosmo, it is difficult to climb much higher than Tier 3 with DeathWave. The deck has been a staple in Marvel Snap for over six months now, so I have no doubts it will bounce back and stay relevant one way or another.
Until Shuri Zero takes some form of a hit, DeathWave shall remain a Tier 3 or worse deck.
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: The deck usually rotates through four different 1-cost cards: Nova, Yondu, The Hood, and Squirrel Girl, and each has its own merits. Moon Girl is a notable inclusion, as duplicating She-Hulk or Death often opens some crazy strong turns. America Chavez can also be considered for more consistency, although both Shang-Chi and Aero seem impossible to remove right now.
Patriot Ultron đź”˝
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Rank Justification: For a reason I can’t really explain, the hybrid Patriot list from last week had a terrible showing in the Infinite ranks. The deck was solid in the ranks leading up to the last floor, but it becomes a terrible pick once there. As a result, the more traditional Patriot build, usually considered more predictable, had better numbers across the board this week.
If Thanos Lockjaw rises in the popularity rankings as word of the Death Variant being a very strong contender spreads around, it wouldn’t be impossible to see Patriot gain some momentum as well. The deck is one of the few that can embrace the popularity of Leech in the 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