Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List August 29, 2022: Best Late Season Decks for Maximizing Cubes

Hi everyone, welcome to this week’s Tier List, which will be a bit different from our usual format. For the end of Season Three – Heroes for Hire, we thought we would focus on most people’s biggest need towards the end of the season: How to grind those last few ranks before the reset.

If you’d like to have our opinion on the current metagame environment from a broader perspective, last week’s Tier List is still available and very little has changed.

Today we are going to focus on the best decks to rack up Cubes as fast as possible. Unlike what we usually do in this column, we are going to take full advantage of the plethora of bots on Marvel Snap’s ladder, and try to benefit from their tendencies.

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List – August 29, 2022

Gacha Games

AFK Journey

ASTRA

Blue Archive

Brown Dust 2

Endfield

Genshin Impact

Honkai: Star Rail

Nikke

Snowbreak

Wuthering Waves

ZZZ

Card Games

Disney Lorcana

Dragon Ball

Magic

Marvel Snap

MTG Arena

One Piece

Pokémon

Shadowverse

Star Wars

Union Arena

Yu-Gi-Oh!

More Games

Full Collection Decks

Sera Miracle

Sera Miracle

Created by den

, updated 2 years 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

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When trying to rack up cubes as fast as possible, we want to be playing for eight cubes as often as possible. I believe Sera Miracle (no matter the build you decide to go with) is probably the best deck for the job.

Against bots, the deck is fantastic, as the opponent is very likely to Snap around turn three or four as they will be ahead on board. At this point, simply assess what your hand allows you to do in the last few turns, and either Snap back or Retreat.

The Ghost Rider build is the optimal one in my opinion from a pure cube farming standpoint. It is unpredictable for the opponent and faster than the Magik build due to not aiming for a seventh turn. If you are unfamiliar with the archetype, simply play with two locations in mind, using the third one for support abilities like Okoye.

Here is a classic play pattern for the deck:

• 1- Pass.
• 2- Play Angela on a good/neutral location. Okoye on a neutral/bad location.
• 3- Bishop on a good/neutral location.
• 4- Most of the time pass, but you can deploy Angela or Bishop here as well.
• 5- Play Sera on a good/neutral location.
• 6- Go nuts on both locations you expect to be winning, dump the other cards on the third location.

Mister Negative

Mister Negative

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Like Sera, Mister Negative allows for extremely explosive final turn plays that are tough to deal with.

Against bots, the results should be the same as with Sera. If you are passive in the first few turns, there is a high chance you entice your opponent to Snap. At this point, just look at your hand and either move on to the next game or raise the stakes to eight cubes, punishing the foolish bot who thought you were an easy win.

Compared to Sera, which feels like it always has a competitive shot regardless of your draws, Mister Negative can be viewed as a very simple equation if you have a farm oriented mindset:

• Snap if you have Mister Negative on turn four or Wong + Mystique in Hand.
• Retreat otherwise.

Obviously, this is a very reductive look at what the deck is capable of. That said, if you manage to play for eight cubes every time you draw your good cards, and retreat whenever you don’t, you will end up with a lot more cubes than you started with.

Here is a classic play pattern for the deck:

• 1- Pass.
• 2- Play Angela on a good/neutral location.
• 3 – Play Lockjaw if you do not have Mister Negative in hand.
• 4 – Play Mister Negative if you have him. Wong or Jubilee if you don’t. Wong over Jubilee if you have Mystique. Play onto Lockjaw’s location with anything except Wong and Mister Negative.
• 5 – Play Magik if you played Mister Negative the previous turn. Play Mystique if you played Wong the previous turn, possibly on the same location. Retreat before it’s too late if you haven’t gotten your setup cards on the board.
• 6- Benefit from previous setup.
• 7- Benefit even more.

Hela Discard

Hela Discard

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x 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+

This could be the most controversial pick on this “Full Collection Decks” list as Hela Discard is widely considered to be an unreliable list. In the context of trying to accumulate cubes as fast as possible, however, I don’t think this is a bad trait.

In other card games, this kind of deck would be labelled as a gimmick, or a high roll deck. But in Marvel Snap, we can control the stakes, meaning we can simply Snap when we roll high, and retreat when we don’t. In other words, Hela Discard looks to perfectly fit the bill as a deck to farm cubes mindlessly.

• Have Invisible Woman in your opening hand? Snap.
• Tons of discard effects and Hela still in the deck? Snap.
• No game plan and the opponent Snapped? Retreat.
• You took a gamble and discarded Hela? Retreat.

Of course, this approach is very limited, maybe a bit stupid. In all honestly, farming the ladder in any card game when we lack the time to sit and reflect on our approach and tactics is quite a stupid exercise.

Compared to Sera or Mister Negative decks, I think Hela Discard will lose more games over the same sample size. However, because the deck isn’t as demanding in terms of knowledge and play patterns as the other two, I could see myself putting on a TV show and spamming some Hela Discard on the side.

Here is a classic play pattern for the deck:

• 1- Pass. Play Ebony Maw if the location you see isn’t one you can abuse.
• 2- Play Invisible Woman. You can also play Colleen Wing with Ebony Maw in hand.
• 3- Play any discard if Hela isn’t at risk. Retreat if you discard her.
• 4- Play any discard if Hela isn’t at risk. Retreat if you discard her.
• 5- Play any discard if Hela isn’t at risk. Retreat if you discard her.
• 6- Play Hela on Invisible Woman‘s location.

Budget Collection Decks

Sandman Ongoing

Sandman Aggro

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

0

3x Collection Level 1-14

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

When on a budget, it is very likely you will end up asking Angela and Bishop for help. Another card that has been doing a lot of work in Pool Two lately is Sandman. While he isn’t key to the deck, the card honestly feels pretty good in this Ongoing aggressive build.

Against bots, the deck can easily be played without Sandman. Instead, focus on growing Angela to secure a location, and use Namor alongside buffs from Mister Fantastic or Klaw to help with the second one. On the last turn, we can deploy Spectrum for her massive buff and some surprise potential.

Against human players, Sandman feels necessary, as the card allows us to drastically reduce our opponent’s potential power while keeping ours mostly untouched if we find two of the other four high cost cards. Namor is very happy to be alone on its location and Iron Man is usually a location winner. Lastly, Klaw and Spectrum allow for the multi-lane flexibility, even though we can only play one card due to Sandman.

Discard Aggro

Discard Swarm Pool 2

Created by den

, updated 2 years ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

8x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Recruit Season

2.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Another deck looking to grow Angela, this time alongside Bishop, is the Discard archetype. With Swarm and Apocalypse as discard targets, the cheap cards that usually do well alongside Angela and Bishop are great to manage our hand. Their cheap costs make sure we hit the right cards when playing Lady Sif, Blade or Sword Master.

While this deck doesn’t benefit specifically from playing against bots or real players, I think it is a great one with which to adopt a farming mindset. We don’t have much flexibility in our game plan, and playing the deck is all about how well can you maximize your synergies.

If you are on a budget, I would expect you to still be learning some of the Marvel Snap fundamentals, or to have difficulties identifying the deck your opponent is playing based on the first few turns. Discard won’t punish you for this, making it a good choice for newer players.

In each game, look to maximize Angela and Bishop‘s growth while trying to discard Swarm and Apocalypse as much as possible. There are some subtler lines of play, like using Iron Fist to grow Angela, or to reach a locked up location (Kyln, Sanctum Sanctorum). Overall, I think this is the easiest of today’s deck to pick up and start playing.

Closing Words

Unlike other card games, Marvel Snap allows us to change the approach we have to grinding the ladder. In most card games, grinding the ladder usually means playing a super high win rate deck, or a very fast deck.

In Marvel Snap, the only way to make a game go faster is through retreating or pushing our opponent to retreat. Outside of this, we will play six turns, and even if you play extremely fast each turn, you still have to wait for your opponent.

As a result, deckbuilding emphasis should be put on being able to play games for higher stakes, and pushing the opponent to think the same way. In this scenario, unpredictability is a big factor, one that Pool Three decks are more than happy to abuse.

For budget players, who can’t really play with this surprise element, the fastest path to racking up cubes is trying to Snap early in the game to force a retreat, or to abuse bots that rarely concede compared to human players.

In this piece, I tried to focus on these situations, picking decks for a pure grind scenario. I hope I managed to illustrate that thought process and helped a few of you to understand the correct mindset to have when grinding cubes in Marvel Snap.

Good game everyone.