Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List August 22, 2022: Final Turn Plays, and the Budget Decks to Attack Them!

Introduction

This week hasn’t seen much change in the metagame in terms of dominant cards. However, it feels like Marvel Snap has taken a step into its evolution as a card game and how people play it. We have placed a new deck on the top of the tier list: Sera + Mister Negative.

The deck combines two of the strongest cards in recent weeks, and looks to get all the benefits they can provide to their deck. The reason I think this deck shows Marvel Snap in a different light is because Sera Negative is the first time we are seeing 2 dominant synergies merge into an even scarier one.

Up until this point, it was difficult to imagine running several win conditions when you only have 12 spots available. We saw decks with various ways of accomplishing the same win condition, or ones that could use their cards to their advantage, while being annoying for the opponent at the same time (Wave, Sandman, and so on). However, several win conditions never really coexisted in a such small decklists.

With Mister Negative and Sera joining forces, I believe we enter the land of maximizing the ceiling of a deck, even at the cost of not being adaptable, considering several win conditions eat up every available spot in the deck. This is an interesting development that we will follow closely before any further balance changes!

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List – August 22, 2022

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More Games

Tier 1

Sera Negative

Negative Serotonin

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

One of the newest developments during the last week has been further focus on a deck combining Sera and Mister Negative for supreme energy discounts. It gives the deck reliability even if only drawing one of (or even none of!) the two primary cards.

The deck cheats in most ways you are allowed to cheat in this game:

• Reducing cost of cards via Sera and Mister Negative
• Baseline stats that are already higher than the 1/2 energy to power ratio (that’s the “expected amount”) with Angela, Mojo, Wolfsbane, Bishop, Iron Man
• Digging into the deck deeper than the expected 9 cards with Jubilee and Magik
• Manipulating Ongoing abilities to our advantage via Rogue and Mystique

The only “fair” card this deck plays is The Punisher, which could also be Mister Fantastic, as the deck simply wanted another proactive 3-drop and those fit the bill perfectly.

When the deck low rolls, getting not getting either Mister Negative or Sera, the baseline is still higher than most decks. But when it hits one or even both of them, things really start getting out of hand, with 20+ power in all 3 lanes not being that unusual.

Countering the deck isn’t that easy either, considering you can’t really stop Magik when it’s played on turn 6, and you can’t even get equal value off of a card like Leader. Even Wave, a card that was typically decent versus Sera decks, isn’t that good here, considering our turn 6 play is 2 cards most of the time anyway.

DeathWave

Death Wave

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

3

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The addition of Wave to Pool 3 makes the deck more accessible now, as people who didn’t buy the season pass two seasons ago, can now finally access this powerhouse of a card. She makes sure most decks would only play 1 card on the next turn, while enabling us to play Death and a 6-cost card alongside one each other.

The new addition to the deck appears to be the newly buffed Rescue, as an easy to activate 4/9 card. It fills a previously mysterious slot in the deck that was previously occupied by Rockslide and White Queen, as they were long in the running due to just being solid 4/6 cards.

Deadpool is also starting to be a consideration in the deck, as the card can be destroyed in many ways in order to grow. The optimal list is still in the air for now as it is just starting to be tested, but we could finally see some innovation to the DeathWave archetype.

Due to the ever-increasing prevalence of Magik, the deck became slightly more top-heavy, adding Leader as an additional 6-cost, which lends the deck much more power on turn 7. Otherwise, the deck would probably run out of gas by turn 6, and give basically a free turn to an opponent prepared for an additional round. Additionally, Leader is exceptionally powerful at winning mirror matches. Scarlet Witch is a consideration but isn’t so easy to fit into the curve, while also doing nothing against Magik on turn 6.

An example of a DeathPool list:

Deathpool

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sera Miracle

Sera Miracle

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

4

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

While another iteration of a Sera deck managed to climb to the top spot on this week’s list, the Miracle build isn’t doing so bad either. Arguably, this take on the deck has a lower ceiling than the combination with Mister Negative does, as we effectively have one less way of cheating energy.

However, Sera Miracle is still very capable of developing a ton of power over the last turn of play. Also, being more flexible than the Sera Negative deck, this deck can include Scarlet Witch in order to counter the popular Magik. A luxury other decks can’t really afford lately, considering they are trying to fit as many strong overall cards as they can, rather than leave a few spots open for tech cards.

I would recommend running this version over the Mister Negative one if you aren’t familiar with the archetype yet. You would be able to get a hold of how to use Sera before learning how to explore all the other options as well.

Tier 2

Mister Negative

Mister Negative

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

3

2x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Similarly to Sera Miracle, Mister Negative played on its own should be done for a specific purpose, as the combination with Sera arguably can develop more points. However, if you fancy running some specific combos, like building around Wong for example, then Mister Negative on its own can offer more design space to do so.

As a result, one could consider the new pairing of Mister Negative with Sera to be the best possible deck if we don’t consider the opponent and were trying to proactively enforce our strategy during most games. Going for only Mister Negative allows for a bit more flexibility as to which cards we want to exploit when reverted, at the cost of having just the one win condition in our deck.

While we dropped it to tier 2 this week, mostly for consistency reasons, Mister Negative is still a card that is considered one of the best in the game right now.

SandWave Lockdown

Sandman Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

2

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)

4.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The more cards like Sera or Mister Negative become popular, and as DeathWave become accessible to the masses, the more I like Sandman as the best tech card in the game. While it clearly lacks the raw power level of the other decks above on this list, drawing into Sandman can often be game winning against them. Also, the deck is flexible in the cards it can play. Storm and Juggernaut, for example, are absolutely justified inclusions in the build.

In that regard, I would consider SandWave Lockdown the first relative power deck on this list. All the other decks above are built with the intent to develop something and abuse the power of a card based on the impact it has on their deck. SandWave could very well go Wave Into Doctor Doom into White Tiger into Odin on the same location and probably would develop a ton of power as a result. Despite that, this will likely win less games than simply going Sandman on turn 4 against most of the competitive builds.

I believe this is a big reason as to why Sandman isn’t a very popular card yet because the deck only reaches its highest potential when played in a super competitive environment, which doesn’t exist currently in Marvel Snap.

Hela Discard

Hela Discard

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

7.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

With most of the Discard focused decks still mourning the change to Hellcow, Hela Discard is the deck that didn’t really get impact with the change. Indeed, Hellcow wasn’t a mandatory high scoring part of the game plan for the deck, and even as a 4 cost, running it isn’t so bad.

In this deck, the two cards we want to see all the time are Invisible Woman and Hela. The former in order to delay our Discard effects until the end of the game as a way to prevent potentially losing Hela because of it. The latter because as the last card played on Invisible Woman‘s location, she should bring back a ton of power and win the game with some fireworks. In this scenario, paying 2 or 4 energy for Hellcow doesn’t matter much, as the deck basically only plays Discard effects until turn 6 except for Invisible Woman.

Not much else happened in the Discard world this week, so for now, we are keeping Hela as the best archetype built around the synergy.

Discard Combo

Discard Combo

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Although the latest patch didn’t manage to kill the deck, it doesn’t seem like many players are trying to revive this archetype either. The only discussion for this week is The Collector, a card that has become increasingly difficult to play considering it is arguably the weakest of the 2 drops in the deck. Also, its ability isn’t even an Ongoing ability that can be copied with Mystique.

As such, I would expect the card to be removed from the deck in the near future and here are a few potential replacements:

• America Chavez: Simply a card that helps with consistency, something combo decks never turn down.
• Blade: The cheapest Discard effect not included in the deck. It usually does not see play as playing it on turn 1 is very risky but could be used for combo purposes later on.
• Moon Knight: a nice disruption tool, alongside Wong, it can discard some key cards for the opponent before turn 6 (I would personally pick this one).

Tier 3

Destroyer

Destroyer

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

6

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Destroyer decks had some popularity before, but got massively more popular with the introduction of the new piece of the deck: Daredevil. The primary function of the card is to guarantee a Professor X lane, which makes it so that Destroyer winning 1 more lane is a game win, unlike previously where the deck had to rely on the 50/50 of Professor.

The deck has a lot of ways to guarantee that Destroyer‘s drawback is either employed for its benefit such as Nova and Bucky Barnes, or at least not to detriment with Colossus, Armor, the two Goblins, Cosmo, and Professor X.

The deck has an inherently nice matchup versus DeathWave, due to running Armor and Cosmo which mitigates the effects of Destroy and On Reveal cards for the opponent. With Daredevil effect active, it is quite easy to keep Wave in check and completely deny the opponent’s otherwise insane turn 6.

It does, however, not have that much power, and if you don’t draw some of your key pieces, \your entire gameplan can fall apart. Winning without drawing Destroyer, for instance, is extremely difficult in any match up.

Bounce

Bounce Disrupt

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The nerf to The Collector was quite a low blow to the deck, especially as the Bounce archetype was finally starting to feel like a refined deck. With the latest balance update, it is likely the archetype goes back to square one, and this take on the deck is neither the only one you could face, nor the clear-cut best 12 card list.

In this iteration of Bounce, we are focusing on disrupting the opponent as much as possible while growing Angela, Bishop and Human Torch. Backed up with America Chavez or the Demon from The Hood, this trio is more than capable of winning over 2 locations.

In order to do so, we are mixing cards that will help them grow (Cloak, Falcon and Beast mostly), with cards making the opponent’s deck much weaker than what they intended upon building it. Korg, Iceman and Black Widow, mostly, can repeat their effects to affect the opponent’s hand and deck to limit their possibilities.

While cutting The Collector from the deck could be wrong, the card felt a little weak after its rebalancing. It can still grow to a nice 7 or 8 power, which is still big for a 2 cost, but also isn’t worth playing if we don’t draw it by turn 2 in a lot of scenarios. As such, I decided to focus my efforts around the other high scoring potential in the deck, as they also have synergies that go very well together. Cutting The Collector means cutting other card generators like Agent 13, for example.

Budget

A new level has appeared on our tier list: The “Budget” tier, decks that only feature cards up to Pool 2 (below Collection Level 474) as a way to offer decks to players interested in climbing the ladder but cannot build the decks, or their variations on the tier list due to the constraints of their collection.

These decks are not ranked in our tier list, as they obviously are weaker than optimized decks running several of the most impactful cards in the game, especially from Pool 3 (Collection Level 486 and beyond), or purchased Season Passes. However, one has to work with what the Marvel Snap gods allowed them to get as we climb the Collection Level Road, and we are trying to help in that regard.

This week, we are showcasing three decks:

Sandman Aggro

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

6

2x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Pool 2 Control

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

8x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Discard Swarm Pool 2

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

7x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Recruit Season

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

Outside some novelty in Tier 1, namely the Sera Negative and Deadpool being tested, the rest of the metagame didn’t appear to change too much. Pool 2 and Pool 3 decks especially, look to be solidly anchored in their position, and should be waiting for exterior events to progress further.

I personally have high hopes for Sandman to progress in the coming week, as it looks like the perfect card to punish the currently most competitive decks. The question is whether you are facing those enough to justify running a counter anti-meta build.

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.

Contributor

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.