Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List, July 3rd, 2023: Looking Back on a Lot of Movement

What was supposed to be a month all about the Move synergy turned into a fight between Bounce and High Evolutionary for Marvel Snap’s finest archetype. Early in the month, High Evolutionary was dominating the contest with all three of its archetype looking hot (and complementing each other nicely).

Then, as June progressed and the community started to have a better understanding of Lockjaw, Lockdown, and Pure Evolution, these decks started to have some kind of cyclical run. Lockjaw stayed atop the High Evolutionary hierarchy for the whole month, but as Bounce progressed more, Lockjaw performed less. On the other hand, Lockdown lost quite a bit of momentum early on, but it picked it back up when Bounce started being the dominant deck.

As for Bounce, the deck has been on an upward trajectory the whole season, culminating in this past week where the deck dominated Conquest, won a tournament, and apparently became everyone’s favorite archetype in the process. Only now are we starting to see decks appears in order to specifically limit its power. Electro Ramp already came back to profit, but the deck doesn’t seem good enough outside punishing Bounce; it won’t even be on the ranking this week due to posting a negative cube average.

Killmonger, though, and Wave as well, kept being the two most reliable answers to Bounce, even though they were rarely enough on their own. Killmonger paired with Invisible Woman (to make sure we were hitting Kitty Pryde on game’s end) while Wave started calling on Odin more in order to have a two turn lockdown instead of one. For now, Bounce remains the deck to beat, but it posted a slightly worse performance this week compared to last, showing that the environment managed to limit its dominance.

As for the rest of the archetypes, the OTA did a lot of good for Shuri Sauron, and Good Cards Stature kept progressing as well, resurfacing after hitting rock bottom earlier in the season. As for Sera and both her archetypes, they seem to be doing well as usual, just like every other week in the office.

Past the top eight or ten decks in the game, the rest of the field seems to have a downside they can’t overcome. There are some synergies on the right path, such as Hela Discard and Mister Negative, that benefit a lot from the metagame being very self-centered. Nevertheless, these decks are still far from being able to compete reliably over large sample sizes, which is what the Ladder pushes for.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

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 3 or 4 in our chart and won’t have their own dedicated write up. They may be transferred to the main Tier List section in the future. See those builds 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 are a notch below the dominant ones in Tier 1 and 2.

Last, these rankings represent the global strength of each archetype. Some lists can perform widely differently inside the same archetype. Try what feels good for you, and adapt to your own environment, it could make a world of difference.

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

Tier Explanation

Tier 1

Bounce

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
The deck to beat currently, Bounce dominates the metagame thanks to flexible play patterns and tons of points on game’s end. The month started kind of slow for the archetype, as the change to Beast threw a bit of doubt around an archetype that had been among the game’s best since Kitty Pryde returned to Marvel Snap.

With Lockjaw rising during the month and shutting down a lot of archetypes unable to spread their points flexibly to match the deck’s erratic development, Bounce emerged as a great and reliable counter that used Beast and Falcon to reposition its cards depending on the opponent. It was also adaptable enough to run cards like Shang-Chi if it needed to really crush the match up.

This week, the archetype slowed down a little as the metagame has turned its attention towards countering Bounce. Nevertheless, Bounce is still hovering around the 0.4 cube average mark, enough to be considered the best in the game for this week.

How to play:
Bounce relies on replaying cheap cards several times through the use of Beast, Kitty Pryde, and Falcon, leading to several benefits:

• Their abilities can be great, such as Iceman or Spider-Ham.
• They serve to buff cards like Angela or Bishop as they grow when you play more cards.
• It gives you an easy way to plan ahead of time because you don’t necessarily depend on your draw to use your energy. You can reuse cards already in play.
• You are much more flexible with your available space because you can remove cards and play others instead.
• Bounced cards are usually quite cheap, leading to very flexible turns down the line.

With Hit Monkey in the deck, Bounce also looks to keep those cheap cards in hand to have an explosive Turn 6 play. Through the Bounce mechanic, we are able to both play cards to buff Angela and Bishop during the game and also have them available to play alongside Hit Monkey.

Strategy wise, the deck wants to be as flexible as possible and only commit to lanes on Turns 5 and 6 in order to withhold as much information as possible from the opponent. Until this last turn, the deck will use Beast and Falcon to manage its hand and locations. The idea should be to abuse the abilities of our cards to disrupt the opponent while building the best hand possible going into the final turns.

Against an opponent you expect to play Wave, it is completely fine to go off on Turn 5. Kitty Pryde, Mysterio, and Hit Monkey will provide enough points on Turn 5, and we can keep a strong standalone card to play on six.

Potential additions:

Dmoney Bounce

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

1.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sera Control

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
While the deck is very under the radar, Sera has been posting great results all month long, averaging a lofty 0.4 cube average overall. Especially since Invisible Woman started joining some of the most popular builds, Sera Control managed to balance the match up against Bounce, solidifying its spot as one of the best decks in the game.

With Bounce having a target on its back lately, Sera Control might be collateral damage. Still, even though Wave is a problem for Sera Control since the card is able to shut it down the same way it does for Bounce, other Bounce counters like Killmonger or archetypes looking to develop a ton of points to profit from a lack of interaction aren’t much of a problem for Sera Control.

Overall, if Bounce is the deck with the most power, Sera Control is definitely the deck with the most adaptability in Marvel Snap.

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 and Killmonger. Ever since Hit Monkey joined the deck, it also unlocked a proactive pattern on Turn 6 with the monkey assassin able to challenge a lane with points rather than looking to counter what the opponent did.

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.

Against an opponent you expect to play Wave, it is completely fine to skip Sera and go off on Turn 5. Kitty Pryde, Mysterio, and Hit Monkey will provide enough points, and then we can simply play Enchantress or Shang-Chi on the following turn.

Invisible Woman is gaining traction in the deck, allowing you to play reactive cards on curve and opening more energy for Turn 6. The deck can hide Killmonger, Shang-Chi, and/or Hit Monkey behind her for their ability to trigger on Turn 6. Also, it can serve as a way to not get Kitty Pryde back in hand on Turn 5.

Potential Additions:
Spider-Ham was included in a particularly well performing list this week, replacing Invisible Woman. However, there wasn’t a big enough sample size to make it into the featured list. Sentinel and Jeff the Baby Land Shark are also great considerations over Invisible Woman.

Evolved Lockjaw

Evolved Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
What could be considered the best deck of the month, this deck has been cruising ever since High Evolutionary joined the game, and it only just posted its worst week of the season. Right now, Lockjaw is closer to Pure Evolution at the top of Tier 2 than Sera Control above it in the rankings.

Still, this is not a testimony to the deck regressing in strength or suddenly being a bad idea to play if you enjoy it. I would rather see this as what happens when everyone gangs up against a deck, either by playing Bounce or having Shang-Chi in their deck. As time passed, more people have jumped on one of these wagons, slowly limiting what Lockjaw is able to do and reducing its performance to around 0.3 cube average — just on the brink of joining Tier 2.

However, with a new season starting soon and players typically experimenting during this time, Lockjaw might have another great week if too many people forget to keep their counter cards in their decks.

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.

Without Lockjaw, Jubilee and Dracula will serve a similar purpose and try to cheat points for less than the usual amount of energy. 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. Make sure to play Jubilee before doing so if you have both cards available.

The first two turns of the game can be very quiet for a Lockjaw deck, as we aren’t looking to do much (which now feeds Evolved Hulk). On Turn 3, we will either look to have Lockjaw paired with Wasp, or Thor to shuffle Mjölnir into the deck. Turn 4 will typically be Jubilee or Dracula; Jubilee will be stronger behind Lockjaw while Dracula is good to set up on the board with Evolved Hulk or The Infinaut in hand already.

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 Doctor Doom or Evolved Hulk 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:
Odin and Doctor Doom are a popular duo that can dodge Shang-Chi. They will typically be played in such a build:

Lockjaw bis

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 2

Pure Evolution

Pure Evolution

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

5x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
With one of the highest win rates in the game, Pure Evolution seems to be able to play against any match up. This archetype also never really managed a breakthrough in the cube average department this month, often falling prey to an easy to predict game plan.

As such, Pure Evolution feels like the perfect deck for card game players who don’t really want to play the Snap and Retreat game. They get a very reliable, high win rate deck they will rarely have a reason to Retreat with; however, they will also just as rarely have a clear opportunity to leverage a Snap — unless one of the deck’s tech cards dismantles the opponent’s strategy.

Still, it is important to note the deck started the month as the worst of the three High Evolutionary decks as the only one in Tier 2. Now, the deck is solidly anchored as a top 5 deck in Marvel Snap, and it still forces many to run Luke Cage in their decks.

How to play:
High Evolutionary seems to push a proactive play style and tries to play cards while keeping unspent energy in the process. Ideally, the deck will be able to build a very strong lane in the first few turns on the back of Sunspot and Evolved Misty Knight, building our points total early on. Then, Wave can shut down any potential comeback when played on Turn 5 while Evolved Hulk dominates any lane on Turn 6.

Due to of its off-curve play style that typically looks to keep one unspent energy to trigger Evolved Misty Knight, Evolved Cyclops, and Evolved Hulk, the deck can be a bit awkward at first. Keep in mind that each point of unspent energy can be worth up to six total points if all your cards trigger their abilities. Here is a normal play pattern with the deck:

• Pass on Turn 1.
• Sunspot on Turn 2.
• Evolved Misty Knight or a 2-Cost on Turn 3.
• Evolved Cyclops or Evolved The Thing on Turn 4. If you get a shot at discounting Evolved Abomination enough with Evolved Wasp, you should take it.
• Wave plus Evolved Abomination (or Evolved Misty Knight if still in hand). Play Evolved Wasp now if still in hand, otherwise Wave will make it unplayable.
• Evolved Hulk or Doctor Doom on Turn 6.

Although this looks suboptimal for many decks, the various synergies in the deck will make such out of sync play patterns worth it in the end.

Note that this kind of pattern is only worth going for if you have several cards that gain something from unspent energy. Otherwise, you should not purposefully waste resources for cards you are not guaranteed to get a return from.

Potential Additions:
A very different list aimed at beating Bounce also had solid success this week:

Pure Evolution

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

6x Starter Card

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Evolved Lockdown

Evolved Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3x Starter Card

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
This is still a strong consideration thanks to being favorable against Bounce, even though it had kind of a weird month. The archetype started off incredibly hot, even competing for the top spot at some point in the season. But once Lockjaw started stomping on the competition, the deck lost some ground and stabilized around a 0.25, sometimes 0.3, cube average.

Now the metagame seems to be better for Lockdown; Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Doctor Doom are seeing less play overall, and Lockjaw has to deal with Shang-Chi being everywhere. Still, it is hard to imagine the deck going back to its peak when Galactus was very popular (as that match up is almost impossible to lose with Lockdown).

How to play:
The whole point of the deck is to get a lane under control before Turn 6; then, Evolved Hulk can come in and take the necessary second lane. In that regard, Storm, Spider-Man, and Professor X work the same way they did in the previous Lockdown builds by reducing the space our opponent has available to play.

The new High Evolutionary package does push the deck towards a different play pattern, though, as several cards need some unspent energy. Indeed, in order to grow Evolved Hulk and Sunspot, as well as abuse Evolved Cyclops, the deck is looking to delay certain cards to end up with one energy left at the end of each turn.

Depending on your hand, whether you lean towards the more traditional Lockdown plan, or if you try to abuse Evolved Cyclops and Evolved Hulk, your play patterns should adapt.

Potential Additions:
Sunspot and Misty Knight are often included as the 1-Cost cards in the deck. Otherwise, Jeff the Baby Land Shark battles with Daredevil as the default 2-Cost.

Sera Surfer

Sera Surfer

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Probably the best of the quiet decks, Sera Surfer survived the entire season contending for a top 5 spot (largely on the back of its tech cards). Rogue, Killmonger, Cosmo, and Shadow King, to name a few, are the counter cards that the deck has access to, and the ones you choose to run will decide if you have a Tier 3 or a high Tier 2 deck in your hands.

As it stands, Killmonger and Shadow King seem to be the go-to duo to shut down Bounce. This leaves the deck quite vulnerable to Lockjaw, revealing Silver Surfer‘s biggest problem in the current metagame: It can never adapt to all the popular decks at the same time, constantly needing to accept at least one unfavorable match up in the game.

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. Usually, Nova is better to be played on Turn 4 with more information available rather than on Turn 1. It also disguises our archetype from the opponent better.

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:
Luke Cage, Cosmo, and Rogue are the big three cards one might want to include in the deck.

Good Cards Stature

Good Cards Stature

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: After a scary dive post-nerf for Stature and Black Bolt, Silk brought the archetype back to life around the middle of the season. Since then, Good Cards Wave mostly disappeared and left Bounce and Lockjaw in the driver’s seat, which gave Good Cards Stature much more room to leverage its incredible flexibility.

As it stands, the deck is kind of reminiscent of Sera Control, using counter cards in order to make up for the weaker points potential of the archetype. Nevertheless, with Shang-Chi, Enchantress, and Luke Cage in the same deck, Good Cards Stature seems to be able to go up against anybody and have a card ready to annoy them.

How to play:
Good Cards Stature is a very tempo oriented build looking to use its energy while staying flexible on where it can invest in the future. Ideally, one would be looking to stay flexible for a large part of the game, before committing to lanes in the last two turns.

The Move package with Polaris, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, and Miles Morales gained Silk, making it very reliable. It represents a great backup plan if we don’t find Zabu for our many 4-Costs. Lastly, the deck packs Shang-Chi and Enchantress as counter cards that also benefit from Zabu being in the deck.

With so many options, it is difficult to outline a specific play pattern outside Black Bolt on Turn 5 with Stature in hand. Ideally, we want to set up Turn 6 to be a 4-Cost plus Miles Morales, plus Stature. The rest of your game plan should be based on which package of cards you draw and your opponent. Try to assess early on which cards are fundamental to play and which turns make the most sense to play them; you can then use your other cards to fill the holes in your established pattern.

Potential Additions:
Nebula can serve as another 1-Cost card in the deck. Otherwise, Luke Cage and Enchantress are flexible tech cards that you can swap out to adapt to various match ups.

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: The comeback deck last week seems to have managed to stabilize at a high enough cube average to remain in Tier 2. Although it takes the last spot, Shuri Sauron still posted a solid 0.21 cube average this week — a performance to be proud of when arriving in a metagame where Shang-Chi is already everywhere.

Just like old times, the deck feels able to go up against almost anyone when it comes to sheer amount of points. However, compared to the best decks in our rankings, flexibility seems to be the bigger problem here. Indeed, this deck is forced to Snap super aggressively in order to keep people in games where you draw Shuri. You will win most of those games for sure, but you might be punished with a costly Snap back at times, naturally limiting how high the deck is able to go.

How to play:
Shuri Sauron is looking to beat its opponents in the simplest way possible in Marvel Snap: points. Indeed, even with Red Skull giving some to the opponent, there aren’t many decks able to rival the infamous Shuri → Red Skull → Taskmaster pattern that creates 30 points on two separate lanes. When this happens, the opponent’s only way to victory is to find a way to disrupt the pattern with a counter card.

If you want to dodge a Shang-Chi on your Red Skull, the deck can also skip Turn 5 and go for She-Hulk plus Taskmaster on Turn 6. With Shuri, this only develops 36 points (24 points fewer than Red Skull), but it prevents the opponent from having a turn to mess with your big card.

Outside this very straight forward way of playing Marvel Snap, Shuri