Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List August 2, 2022: New and Improved Decks for Season’s End

Introduction

With around 6 days left to of the Love and Thunder Season 2 in Marvel Snap, our Meta Tier List also is adapting. While the general formula stays the same as to how we are presenting the top performing decks in the game, this week will be geared towards more creative, up-and-coming decks, rather than the ones you might see the most on ladder.

As such, this week’s tier list will be featuring a lot of Pool 3 based decks, as it became obvious after the July 19 nerfs that the all the most impactful cards are to be collected there. Sure, Angela and Bishop are still great to build around early in your experience, and you will probably play around them for a while unless you get lucky on your openings. However, if we confront these early cards to the juggernauts we find topping the leaderboard rankings, we can quickly see the limits of such cards.

For this week, I also want to address a special thank you to Dunkoro, a player I had the chance to discuss last week’s tier list with, and who pointed out it could be refined as to which decks are featured. While I usually roam Discord servers and social media to gather as much information as possible for those, I had the chance to receive help from a top ranked player this time:

Dunkoro has more than 12 years of combined card games experience, ranging from the more mainstay titles like Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh or Hearthstone, to lesser known titles like Gwent and Keyforge.

Always aiming for the highest competitive tier possible, he was well known in the Gwent community as a deck-crafter, consistently making up decks that contributed a noticable chunk of the metagame patch after patch.

In Keyforge he’s managed to become one of the most acclaimed players in the world, being one of the three total that have won more than one Vault Tour.

And in Snap he’s engaged with the game on a deep level, trying to optimize his plays and deckmaking to their fullest potential, already having been one of the primary contributors towards the developement and popularization of Deathwave as a strategy.

So with Season 3 almost upon us as well as potential balance changes, let’s look at which decks might be best to collect Cubes before season’s end!

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List – August 2, 2022

Tier 1

DeathWave

DeathWave

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

2

7x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

DeathWave continues its presence in the uppermost tier for another week, despite the fact that Killmonger stopped being as powerful a tool as it used to be due to the decline of Ka-Zar decks. Further diversification of the metagame also made card choices like Odin somewhat obsolete, as the primary function of the card was to provide a two-turn Wave lockout, which isn’t as useful as it used to be anymore. The card still is a consideration in the deck, and one wouldn’t be at fault for playing it, it simply isn’t feeling optimal in the current environment.

Deathwave also benefits from being not-that-easy to counter and quite easily accessible, requiring only 1 mandatory (Death) and 1 useful, but not must-have (The Hood) cards from Pool 3 at all. Obviously, those who missed on Wave during Season 1 might be annoyed, but she should be soon added to Pool 3 and be collectible by everyone.

The nerfed Jubilee freed up yet another spot in the deck and warranted another way to bring up the consistency of card draws. It prompted even more people to include Angel in their lists, as even though it only thins the deck in roughly half the games, that effect is still impactful enough to warrant a spot in the deck.

In her place, the absent 4-cost slot of the deck is still somewhat up for debate. Some players opt to go for the more high-roll potential of Moon Girl (copying Demon and Death is a lot of extra points). Others choose the more reliable value of White Queen, that also provides additional information and an alternate 6-cost play. Lastly, Rockslide is great at disrupting opposing game plan, especially against Magik decks.

Speaking of, Magik decks that aim to play Magik on turn 6 and then Shang-Chi to answer DeathWave’s big cards on turn 7 are somewhat of a problem, considering the deck doesn’t usually have much of any gas left turn 7… Could DeathWave finally be countered?

Discard Combo

Discard Combo

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Discard Combo has proven itself during the previous week to be a meta powerhouse. The deck utilizes the power of both Swarm and Apocalypse to drive the payoffs like Morbius, The Collector and Dracula to double-digit values, while potentially also playing multiple 3 or even 5 power Swarms to fill out the board. The already-present power of the deck as well as the upsurge in players prompted the deck to move to the topmost tier.

The deck also recently begun to favor Wong over the previously popular Moon Girl, due to both higher potential power output and being another power multiplier, allowing discard effects to work twice as hard. Another popularity-gaining option in the deck in recent days has been Mystique, capable of copying both the effect of Morbius for an additional payoff, or Wong, to make even a single Hellcow capable of discarding 8 times!

The previous Wave-weakness of the deck is also lessened by the fact that it’s become much less reliant on multiplying Swarm. With the focus shifting towards on Morbius and The Collector more instead, often even playing the Swarm for 2 energy so that the Discard effects can all reliably hit Apocalypse, most important for Dracula himself.

Tier 2

Mister Negative

Mister Negative

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

After a few weeks of being discussed and refined, Mister Negative finally feels like it hit its strides. The deck can still feel very volatile when not finding its signature card, likely forcing a retreat and a net lost of a Cube. It should however easily pay back for those occasional frustrating outcomes when you actually pick up Mister Negative early. In these scenarios, the deck will usually do very well, rewarding you for an early Snap, even if it is as early as turn 2 or 3, before playing Mister Negative and revealing your gameplan to your opponent.

Once in the Negative Zone, the deck is basically looking to make use of its cards as much as possible, as they all become powerful enough to represent a big threat to our opponent.

Magik, Wong and Iron Man tend to be the best performers in the deck:

• Magik allows having an additional turn to develop our inverted cards and lets us manipulate our hand a bit more freely as a result.
• Wong simply feels natural in a deck filled with On Reveal effects. He basically makes any card played on that location a potential game winner.
• Iron Man becoming a 0 cost, 5 power card is worth 10 points on its own, and basically guarantees you the location he is played at if paired up with a couple of other cards.

Magik Anti-Meta

A kind of Magic

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Magik was already gaining a lot of attention in the last few weeks, and it looks like she finally managed to push her own archetype. Based around disrupting the opponent as much as possible, this new Anti-Meta deck simply aims at making your opponent wish he never queued that game.

Only Sera is the real proactive play in this deck, as she represents a way to get stupidly strong turns 6 and 7 to close out the game. If you are able to go Mystique on her effect plus Magik on turn 6 (they would cost 2 and 4 respectively), you could play your whole hand on 7.

Rockslide could be considered the other card you can simply play on curve, but differently to Sera, the card is looking to annoy our opponent with the shuffled Rocks rather than set up anything on our side. The rest of the cards are also looking to be as annoying as possible to the opponent, answering a bit of everything that is currently popular.

Scorpion is a good disruptive tool early in the game, and Hazmat could also be played in this slot if you want to mitigate the power of decks going wide on the board late in the game. Even if we have 4 or 5 cards already in play, Hazmat being our first reveal after the opponent has played the final turn should often represent a solid 5 to 7 point benefit in our favor.

Killmonger, Enchantress, and Shang-Chi are simply three answers to various strategies, for KaZoo decks, Ongoing synergies, or developing big numbers onto the board. Because of these 3, the deck is able to play Red Skull, an eyebrow raising inclusion.
The card helps bring opposing numbers to Shang-Chi 9 power ranger, or can simply be silenced by Enchantress the following turn. Also, if it would buff 1 cost cards, then Killmonger would look even more powerful when he wipes them all.

Magik Feat Negative

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Here is another take on the deck, featuring Mister Negative has also been spotted on the ladder. The deck is built around mostly tech cards synergizing with Mister Negative, and represent another win condition for the deck.

Just like Sera, when Mister Negative gets played, we can start thinking about absurd play patterns to surprise our opponent in the last turns. Some argue this second build is better, as it allows for more power plays and much better combo oriented turns late in the game. Others are saying it a bit too inconsistent for their taste and like the first iteration of the deck more.

Sera Miracle

Sera Miracle Final

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Although it seems like it lost a lot of power, going down to the bottom of Tier 2, Sera Miracle mostly suffers from the way the other decks on this list operate. Wave, Magik or even Mister Negative, are all decks that are capable of countering Sera‘s final turn or unlock some crazy potential of their own and fight for the win.

Currently, the two big problems Sera has to overcome are Wave, basically denying the originally planned combo turn to win the game, and Magik, which forces a seventh turn when the Sera player has emptied their hand on 6. Scarlet Witch has become a core card as a result, representing the best answer to Magik‘s Limbo location. She should win you games where Magik is played on 5, and you are able to deny it on turn 6 with Scarlet Witch. However, when Magik gets played on 6, it is very hard to play around it, most of the time requiring you to be the second On Reveal priority and guessing the location right.

Kind of an old recipe, with Angela and Bishop still being the big scorers for the deck, and Ghost Rider still being included. Sera Miracle is a deck that is much easier to play than the other entries so far, but it might suffer from it too, as it is also easier to adapt and counter.

As such, we have seen Sera take her services to other archetypes this week, being included in the Magik archetypes. This goes to show that even if her signature archetype might not be a top-tier performer anymore, the card still is considered extremely powerful and worth being included in your build. This particular deck isn’t to forget about either, as we have seen decks that looked that they were past their prime rise back as the metagame stopped actively trying to counter them.

SandWave Lockdown

SandWave lockdown

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

3

4x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Being disruptive seems to be the name of the game to start the next season, as Sandman and Wave are joining forces to produce yet another deck looking to tell the opponent what they can, and cannot do. Differently to most other decks on our lists, the point of SandWave isn’t to develop as many points as possible over the last turns of the game. Rather, the deck aims at destroying any kind of surprising or explosive play patterns for both players.

In this build, the goal is to get to a point where the lategame is decided by playing only 1 card per turn, either with Sandman being in play, or with Wave followed by Odin. Because our deck is built with the best multi-lane cards in the game, we should be looking great to win 2 out of 3 locations in that specific setup.

Through combining the Move synergy (Nightcrawler, Captain Marvel) and the ability to impact several lanes at once (White Tiger, Doctor Doom, Mister Fantastic, Klaw, Leader), SandWave lockdown simply creates a setup it is highly favored to win.

The hardest part with this deck is to not fall behind too much during the early turns. Considering a lot of decks are passing in order to set up a big Nakia on turn 3, we aren’t looking so bad. Ebony Maw is capable of fighting for a lane on its own while not locking us from adding more cards later on through On reveal or move effects.

As it looked like the Control archetype couldn’t keep its competitive status after July 19 patch aftermath, SandWave joins Magik on the list of decks looking to disrupt rather than develop in order to achieve victory.

Tier 3

Discard Swarm

Discard Swarm

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

6x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

A worse Discard Combo deck for many high ranked players, the aggressive take on the Discard archetype still feels relevant in the metagame. The reason for this list to be included is how easy it is to play compared to all Tier 1 and Tier 2 in the current set of things. With Marvel Snap developing, and more players taking the game seriously, the lists have become very complex at the top of the Infinite rank.

As such, the Discard Aggro list is one that features the good old reliable Angela and Bishop, supporting them with the Discard mechanic and mostly using Swarm to grow their power total.

The ceiling of this deck isn’t as high as Discard Combo, and it isn’t as surprising as Sera Miracle. However, Discard Swarm is still a simple yet effective build, that does not require players to map out a 6 turn plan and figure out our opponent’s next 4 moves. It also is an adaptable one, as Sword Master can be slotted in to make it more budget friendly. You could also include more 1 drops (Iceman or Elektra are great inclusions) as a way to manage your hand more effectively.

Bounce

Boucing Movement

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Beast and Falcon have pushed the bounce archetype to competitive status recently, but the perfect list is still up in the air. Truthfully, although the deck is unique in the play patterns it offers, it was often too gimmicky to compete with the higher ups of the metagame. This week, we are featuring a new take on the build including a bit of the move synergy in order to use Human Torch as an extra payoff, in addition to Angela, Bishop, and The Collector.

While the deck still plays the same overall gameplan, looking to bounce the disposable cards while buffing the point makers, adding one more payoff could be a game changer. Indeed, the problem with the Bounce archetype is the need to threaten several locations at the same time. Even if we can get Angela or Bishop to double-digit power kind of numbers, the deck still feels quite predictable, as we are basically telling our opponent where we would invest.

With Human Torch in the mix, and Cloak plus Iron Fist to support it, we now have a way to be more unpredictable. Human Torch can serve as a primary threat, or be moved around the locations in order to complement one of our already buffed threats. This effectively gives the deck more flexibility while also increasing the potential ceiling of the deck.

Hela Discard

Hela Discard

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

7.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hela decks suffer from an inconsistency that can’t be easily fixed, as well as reliance on multiple (easily 7+) Pool 3 cards required for the deck to function reliably enough. Despite those facts, the deck has an avid playerbase that enjoys getting 90% of their power during the last turns, especially as the deck is a mystery to bots, giving it very easy 8-Cube games.

The basic idea is to hide Discard effects behind Invisible Woman, dropping Hela there as well on turn 6, so that the discarders can’t get rid of her, providing a chunk of big bodies all at once. Captain Marvel and Doctor Doom are particularly important to shore up the random placement of the power on the board.

Closing Words

I realize this week’s tier list is almost only presenting Pool 3 intensive decks, which might turn off a lot of the audience who doesn’t have those cards yet. The reality is, after the July 19 patch, Pool 3 really is the money maker in Marvel Snap. If it wasn’t for Angela, Bishop, Swarm or The Collector, Pool 1 and Pool 2 would only be transitional stages of your experience, or support cards at best. As such, I wanted to use this week’s tier list, and the experience Dunkoro brought to it as a way to show those who aren’t there yet, what the game really looks like past the Infinite Rank.

I will make sure to include more budget options in the future, or even include a “Budget Tier” for those who are limited in their collection. However keep in mind that for now, as the bots are allowing most of us to rack up Cubes using sub-par decks, and only a few players are able to play the game at its full potential due to the low player population.

If you’d like to discuss the current metagame or have questions about a specific deck, feel free to leave a comment in the section below. To get in touch with me for any question, you can find me on Twitter or on our community Discord server!

Good Game Everyone.