Table of Contents
Introduction
Hi everyone, welcome to our weekly metagame snapshot, where I will analyze and classify the popular decks based on their current power level. I mentioned in last week’s meta breakdown about how cards in Pool 3 were starting to be more and more relevant in the metagame. In this current collection system, as time passes, more players are starting to reach high Collection Levels and unlock cards from Pool 3. Although there are 73 cards in total, creating a high variance in between each player above collection level 462, we can start pinpointing cards what may eventually dominate, or are already starting to do so.
Decks with Magik
Decks with Mister Negative
Ghost Rider, Sera or Death for example are either pushing an archetype or elevating some to new highs. Outside of these now-staples of the metagame, we can also see Magik, Patriot or Mister Negative making some noise, although there aren’t as oppressive yet. We could also consider the possibility of some cards not being explored, as not enough players have looted it so far.
The main hurdle to overcome in order to gauge the power of a Pool 3 cards is to know how many players can really test and give feedback on the card. One player posting about a build he found is really difficult to transform into a valuable and verified information. This information is only a reality for those who possess the card, or when the deck becomes popular enough to be played and faced by a non-negligible portion of the community.
On the large scale of things, not much has changed in a week, and I believe Nakia still is the gold standard in terms of how many decks she is pushing to be competitive. So, looking from afar, you might think the same archetypes are in this week’s Tier List compared to last week’s edition. However, I would like to draw your attention to the specific cards played in the decklists and how those changed compared to last week.
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List – July 19, 2022
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| Tier | Deck Name | Deck Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Sera Miracle Buff | Guide |
| Tier 2 | Control | |
| 1-Drop Ka-Zar Zoo | ||
| DeathWave | Guide | |
| Discard Combo | ||
| Ghost Rider Ramp | ||
| Tier 3 | 1 Drop Swarm | |
| Bounce | ||
| Patriot | ||
| Mister Negative | ||
| Tier 4 | Movement | |
| Hela Discard |
Tier 1
Sera adds Mojo and Ghost Rider to her main allies
den
After posting our guide on the deck during the weekend, I’ve had players reach out to discuss the list, and among those was this specific build.
Featuring four cards from Pool 3, this particular build isn’t one that you should see a lot, but could be the best take on the archetype so far.
The big difference from last week’s list is the addition of Ghost Rider and America Chavez, a combo worth 13 power on turn 6, in addition to other things we are doing on that turn.
The idea is to discard America Chavez with Lady Sif‘s discard requirement and then bring it back with Ghost Rider as a way to challenge a location with the card alone.
In addition to this synergy, playing America Chavez makes the deck more reliable, as it only draws from an 11 card pool rather than 12. When our strategy relies on drawing specific cards on turn 1, 3 and 5, reducing our deck by 8.5% increases our win rate quite a bit.
Tier 2
Magik joins the control archetype
den
The control archetype was already responsible for the downfall of the 1-Drop Zoo from S Tier to the bottom of Tier 1. With the addition of Magik to the deck, Control is now capable of annoying even more decks, especially the ones that try to combo out on turn 6.
The main benefit to playing Magik is that you can play her on the turn your opponent usually commits their hand. This leaves them unable to produce an extra explosive turn on 7 while the control deck gains a ton of information as to what they have to beat.
Shang-Chi is also making a return in the build lately, with the addition of Nidavellir to the location pool. Most of the time, if played on the last turn, Shang-Chi can win over that location on its own, clearing the opposing side of Nidavellir.
Overall, Control is looking like the most flexible archetype in the metagame. It is difficult to figure out the perfect list, as you constantly have to adapt to the metagame and what you are looking to beat. However, once you found a build that performs well, there should be no doubt you can rack up Cubes extremely quickly.
Pure KaZoo adapts and survives
Stella
A pretty straightforward Pure Kazoo list. I chose the 3 given locations for the following reasons:
Mojoworld: Elektra will auto-win if your opponent makes the mistake of committing a 1-drop, and the deck can easily dedicate 4 cards to the location.
Nidavellir: Iron man gets unbelievable value from this location, having an effective 10 power instead of 0.
Mindscape: It’s both easy and often beneficial to empty your hand on turn 5 for Strong Guy, giving your opponent nothing but a topdeck on 6.
As far as substitutions go, there’s an extremely strong argument to fit in Maximus for additional Strong Guy hate and general value. I think it’s a great option if you have it, and would replace either Kazar or Iceman.
If you have any questions feel free to message me on Twitter @StellaTetris or DM me on Discord @Stella#1148 🙂
Despite the entire meta seeming to shift to stand against “Pure Kazoo” in particular, the deck still retains many of the same qualities that made it so dangerous in the start of the July 2022 Love and Thunder Season.
With the massive increase in the amount of decks playing Killmonger, KaZoo players have had to adapt. Some decided to focus on the Swarm variant, a perfectly viable option, but others decided to remain in the Pure build and avoid Killmonger by ensuring they reveal second on turn 6.
Probably the main strength of running Pure KaZoo over any other variant currently in the meta is its ability to run Iron Man. Swarm doesn’t have the space with all the discard pieces, and Sera Miracle doesn’t have the mana on later turns. Iron Man not only single-handedly decimates the mirror match by creating an insurmountable power differential, it also lets the deck stand toe-to-toe with some stiff control-based competition. This includes decks such as Ghost Rider Ramp or DeathWave, where the deck would normally be unable to consolidate enough power into two individual lanes to consistently come out on top.
DeathWave stays competitive, but isn’t breaking through
den
DeathWave represents very well how difficult it is to assess how good a deck really is in the current state of Marvel Snap. Because the deck makes it mandatory to have both Death (Pool 3) and Wave (Premium Season Pass card due to be unlocked in August), the amount of players who can play it is limited.
The reason I am rating it this high on the Tier List is that every player talking about the deck so far has been praising the archetype. Yet, it is hard to evaluate the deck true relative power in the metagame. Indeed, with so few players actually able to play it, the deck doesn’t seem worth adapting to.
This situation creates a weird bubble where the success could be attributed to both its high power or the fact that no one is building to beat the deck.
The complete absence of Armor and Cosmo from the metagame for example, is a big reason why the deck can freely discount Death using its destroy synergy. One can imagine what would happen if DeathWave was a really popular deck and the community would actively try to counter it.
Could the deck still keep being a high performing deck? Would it lose a significant percentage of win rate? For now, one can only wonder. Regardless, Stella has wrote a deck guide on it for those who happen to be able to build the deck and want to explore the archetype further:
Discard Combo progresses slowly
den
Another deck based on Pool 3 that I highlighted last week, the full Discard synergy deck hasn’t really moved in the past 7 days. I have seen the deck being mentioned a bit more on social media or various Marvel Snap Discords, but the deck still gatekeeps a lot of players with Hellcow and Dracula being mandatory cards.
Discard is much more difficult to counter than DeathWave could be, as it forces playing much weaker tech cards than what Armor or Cosmo are. For example, one of the best counters to the deck is Leech, a card that is very disappointing outside the specific discard match up.
On paper, the potential is incredible. Every card is looking like it synergizes well in the deck, allowing for both explosive plays in the late game (Swarm and Apocalypse) or scalability through the course of a match (Morbius and The Collector). The flexible cards also look on point, like Moon Girl or Dracula making a lot of sense, although they would usually be associated in other synergies.
With limited ways to prevent the deck from reaching its full potential, Discard Combo is another deck that one could wonder how high it could be ranked if we had more data on it.
The birth of the Ramp archetype
den
Looking from afar, one might think this deck is a different take on the Control archetype, as both decks share most their cards. However, the few changes are especially relevant to understand how the deck operates. Indeed, this deck isn’t trying to limit and control what the opponent can do, instead, it is trying to do so much that it doesn’t matter what will be played on the other side of the table.
At this point, it feels like the Lady Sif + Ghost Rider combo has equalled the Jubilee + America Chavez synergy, in the sense that most players with both cards will include them together in a deck.
Both of these combos, joined with the now common Wave + Odin and Sunspot + The Infinaut all combine in a deck, where the gameplan couldn’t be simpler: We put together all the best ways to cheat on our energy count, and we fully intend to take advantage of that as much as possible.
Without Pool 3, this deck is not even worth thinking about, and with 4 cards from it, I don’t think more than 1% of players can even try this deck at the moment. Yet, the fact that these kinds of lists are able to be discussed and shared shows that we are slowly advancing towards the point where Pool 3 will be the most relevant one to build your deck around.
Tier 3
1-Drop Zoo reached its ceiling
den
The 1-Drop archetype, although I would still recommend it to most people looking to climb the ladder quickly, feels like it has reached its peak and won’t get any better in the future. As mentioned above, as more cards are being unlocked amongst the community, and players find ways to counter it, the only way to go for the 1-Drop Zoo is down.
While it probably still is one of the best decks to reach the Infinite rank, especially for beginners, since you should not face many of the decks listed above in the Tier List unless you are at least on collection level 500. It is starting become clear the difference in power that exists between a deck based around Pool 1 and 2 cards compared to a deck with access to several Pool 3 cards.
Most players using the deck likely has Lady Sif instead of Hellcow in their build, the latter being the only Pool 3 card in the build. If you did pull Hellcow early in your Pool 3 cards, the card does add to the deck overall power, but still isn’t good enough compared to other decks you can make using Pool 3 cards.
The problem with the 1-Drop Zoo archetype, in addition to being popular enough that most players have found a way to adapt against it, is its incapability to evolve. If you look at all the deck in Tier 1 and Tier 2, those decks still haven’t been fully figured out, and new cards are being tossed in the list every week, keeping the deck fresh and unpredictable.
We already saw how much damage Killmonger can do to the deck, which can completely annihilate the Ka-Zar build. The Swarm aggro list feels much better to play now, as it is more explosive and much less vulnerable to the popular tech cards.
Scarlet Witch is the other change to the deck, replacing Elektra, which gave the deck a slight edge to the mirror match, or as an answer to Sunspot. Scarlet Witch allows us to negate Limbo against an opponent playing Magik, a card growing in popularity as we speak.
Bounce still is looking for a breakthrough
den
Already featured last week, the Bounce archetype is still relatively silent on the ladder. Compared to other high profile cards from Pool 3, Beast and Falcon do not seem to appeal to many players.
Yet, this synergy is capable of doing some solid combos, and The Collector has never felt stronger than in this deck. The card can easily take a location on its own if played on turn 2, if we are able to go off with our bouncing mechanic.
The second location is a bit trickier to get, but most of the time, being able to land two Nakia buffs or copying the Demon from The Hood gives us a solid chance at winning it.
For now, the deck is praised for the fun it provides, and the unique mechanic it is based on. As time passes, we might hear more about the Bounce mechanic and see if it can contend with the higher ranked decks on our list.
Patriot
HunterBjork
Similarly to Bounce, Patriot and the vanilla (No Ability) synergy isn’t praised for being a ladder juggernaut. Rather, the deck provides a different way to surprise your opponent and uses cards that are otherwise left for dead in your collection.
The big problem with the deck comes when Patriot is nowhere to be seen, as our deck completely falls apart. Marvel Snap provides a simple solution for this, which is retreating, so we do not lose more than Cubes than necessary. On the contrary, when we see Patriot, Mystique, and Onslaught in our hand, we can Snap ourselves and expect to be rewarded for it.
Maybe in the future, these kinds of all-in decks could be the preferred way to grind the ladder, as you can tell early in the game if you should commit to playing or just move on to the next one. For now though, it seems like more flexible synergies, which are capable of baiting the opponent into Snapping are more popular and better performing once we are in Pool 3.
Mister Negative is the new kid on the competitive block
den
While the card has been discussed and built around since the start of July, Mister Negative always felt like a project more than a competitive option. Even now, there are a ton of cards that have been slotted in Mister Negative decks (basically any cards with a cost higher than its power), showing a consensus is far from achieved on the optimal Mister Negative build.
Now that more refined lists are starting to emerge, those showing a clear direction on what the deck is trying to accomplish rather than a pack of cards which look to be good with Mister Negative. We can start considering the deck as a competitive option in Marvel Snap.
The common list for Mister Negative so far is looking to play a controlish style, where the first step is to get our signature card out as soon as possible. To do so, we have Lockjaw to cycle through our deck and find Mister Negative. If we happened to have Mister Negative in hand early on, we can use Psylocke to gain mana and play him earlier.
Once all our cards have their cost and power reversed, we are looking to use their effect and play as a combo deck from turn 5 to 7, if we can find Magik. Thanks to their now relatively cheap cost, it should be easy to be competitive on at least 2 locations. Iron Man typically wins one almost on its own as long as other cards are played there, and we can use the On Reveal synergy (preferably buffed with Wong) in order to develop a high score on another location.
Closing Words
This week’s report has been quite difficult to compile to be honest. It felt that not much had changed but at the same time, almost every deck has evolved as new cards were being tested or new interactions were being discovered.
Magik is the big impact card of the week, and it helped the slower decks fight even more efficiently against the still very popular 1-Drop aggro deck. The deck found a way to adapt, inserting Scarlet Witch back into its 12 cards.
Yet, we can see that the popularity of the Ka-Zar archetype was mostly due to its accessibility, and the more time passes, the least effective it is looking to be in the higher ranks of the ladder. By the time Season 2 ends, I wouldn’t be surprised if only a very small portion of the players fighting for the leaderboard were still playing the deck. The majority should be relying on more unstable, yet much stronger synergies in order to rack some Cubes.
Also, our decks in Tier 3 might still be holding a surprise or two, especially Mister Negative or the Beast + Falcon Bounce archetype. Both decks are looking quite complex in terms of play patterns, indicating they might have a lot of room to get better in the near future.
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 brand new Discord server!
Good Game Everyone.
