Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List, June 6th, 2023: Kitty Pryde Back on Top While High Evolutionary Finds its Best Archetypes

As we move onto the next season, the metagame seems to have stabilized a little. Indeed, with the last week of Guardians’ Greatest hits not featuring a super impactful card (sorry The Living Tribunal) or a balance patch, the environment was much easier to read.

I don’t expect it to stay this way, of course, as Ghost-Spider might already bring Move back into the discussion (even ignoring the power level, Season Pass cards tend to be extremely popular on day one). Nevertheless, even if the Move archetype were to make a comeback, I doubt it would impact the metagame enough for these rankings to become obsolete. A few archetypes seem to be on an uphill trajectory while not showing any particular weaknesses against Move, which leads me to think there is no reason for those to post a worse performance next week.

Among those archetypes are the two High Evolutionary builds, Lockdown and Lockjaw, which both post much better results than the pure High Evo archetype while eating up its popularity in the process. Lockdown, in particular, seems to be a strong overall archetype, and as a bonus it benefits from Galactus‘s high popularity to feed its cube rate in the process.

For the first time ever, the Lockdown archetype is listed as a Tier 1 build. And deservedly so as the deck passed the 0.35 cube average this week, the mark of the greats in Marvel Snap. Lockjaw almost joined that club as well, but it fell a little short of the 0.3 cube average. An important note here is how discussed the archetype is in the tournament community, which probably pushed its popularity this week to about 5% – a number Lockjaw had not reached since the glory days of Thanos Lockjaw.

It was still not enough to take the top spot from Sera Control, though, as Kitty Pryde remains High Evolutionary‘s best counter in the metagame right now. As such, even if Lockdown did gain a lot of cubes from Galactus representing almost 10% of the environment, it is nothing compared to the pure High Evolutionary build at 17% (with Lockdown adding another 9% to that total as well).

Wave is still the least popular of the three dominant cards in Marvel Snap, leading to Kitty Pryde keeping the crown earned last week. Still, Bounce did slightly worse than last week due to Killmonger making a comeback, so it’s not the perfect environment to abuse a 1-Cost card. Evolved Lockjaw, Sera Control, and Sera Surfer are still decks that can limit how effective an all-in Kitty Pryde deck can be. In addition to those decks including Killmonger, the Destroy synergy kept its momentum going, with Deadpool, Knull, and Death gaining almost 2% popularity in total. The archetype is not up there when it comes to pure strength, but we have seen several players share how they finished the climb to Infinite with Destroy.

With no huge shake-ups (but a lot of little changes), the metagame in Marvel Snap might feel like it stabilized. Still, there are a lot of intricacies to figure out and advantages to gain over the competition.

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 here but may be transferred to the main Tier List section. 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.

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

Silent Performers of the Week

Although they managed to reach the popularity threshold before High Evolutionary joined the game, She-Hulk and Moon Girl are back to being the best unpopular deck in Marvel Snap. If ranked, it would be somewhere in the middle of Tier 2 alongside the likes of Sera Surfer and Iron Patriot.

Cerebro 2 had a really nice week, one I expected we would have seen closer to High Evolutionary‘s release. With the global popularity of the card remaining far above the 20% mark, an archetype able to play Luke Cage without the need to adapt anything deserves some acknowledgement. If I had to give it a spot in the list, Cerebro 2 would fall at the bottom of Tier 2. Unfortunately, the deck doesn’t seem to have the necessary points potential to compete with the likes of Sera Control, Bounce, and other powerhouses that it doesn’t have the cards to counter. As such, Cerebro is limited to making the most out of a favorable metagame to be a consideration.

Tier Explanation

Tier 1

Sera Control

Sera Control

0

6x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Considering not much has changed and High Evolutionary retained a large chunk of its popularity, Kitty Pryde and Sera had no reason to relinquish the top spot in the metagame. Compared to Bounce, Sera was also much more flexible regarding the growing play rate of Lockjaw thanks to Shang-Chi being an easy inclusion in the build to answer Evolved Hulk or The Infinaut.

Wave often sees play in the Evolved Lockjaw build, which is a potential source of concern for Sera. However, Pure High Evolutionary and Lockdown represent 25% of the metagame while Lockjaw is barely at 5%. It is going to take a much bigger shift for Sera and company to feel threatened.

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, Enchantress, 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.

Potential additions:
Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Sentinel are popular inclusions in the 2-Cost slot. Doctor Doom could also serve as a Wave safety net.

Evolved Lockdown 🔼

High Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 4 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4x Starter Card

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Easily the biggest progression of the week, Lockdown posted impressive numbers in both cube ratio and play rate. At almost 10% popularity, the archetype is second only to the pure High Evolutionary build (and it seems like it already took a large chunk of its player base). If the trend keeps going, Lockdown will be the default High Evolutionary deck by next week. Performance wise, the deck posted its best cube rate ever, with the featured list breaking the 0.4 cube average alongside a 58% win rate. These are not rookie numbers when shown across several thousands of games; we are in Shuri Zero territory here, even if it is just for one week and one particular list of the archetype.

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:
Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Daredevil are battling for the 2-Cost slot. Enchantress or Shang-Chi could also make a claim for The Thing‘s spot in the deck.

Good Cards Wave 🔼

Good Cards Wave

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
With both Bounce and Sera Control gaining popularity now that the community decided they were solid decks against High Evolutionary, Wave stopped its downward spiral and posted a much better performance compared to last week – enough to climb back to Tier 1.

Nevertheless, High Evolutionary still remains an extremely popular card, meaning Evolved Hulk is available for a lot of opponents. As such, playing Wave often leads to the opponent slamming a card we cannot match one on one. Also, Galactus continues to be a very popular archetype, and the most common builds of Good Cards Wave do not pack any counters to it. See the potential additions for a solution to this problem.

How to play:
This archetype relies on the power of Darkhawk, Nebula, Iron Lad, and Wave. With these four cards, we are able to disrupt the opponent with Rocks, push them to play on Nebula‘s location, get some high rolls with Iron Lad, and limit their ability to play with Wave. With that in mind, our first four turns should be geared towards developing points and solidifying our lead going into the final two. There, we can play Wave plus a cheap card on Turn 5 and follow that with Leader or Doctor Doom on Turn 6 to seal the deal.

The deck is built to focus on its development (except for one 4-Cost tech card), so it should be played with a proactive mindset and look to build the biggest lead before playing Wave. It is only on Turn 5 that we start to consider actively countering our opponent’s game plan, either with Wave or our tech card.

Potential Additions:
Enchantress can easily replace Shang-Chi, depending on which opponents you face more frequently.

A variant of the build took a page from Lockdown’s book in order to perform better against Galactus. Also, Spider-Man helps in more match ups than Shang-Chi or Enchantress as it can be a nice Turn 5 play. It doesn’t auto win certain lanes, though, like the other two are able to.

Good Cards Wave Bis

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 2

Bounce

Bounce

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
With pure High Evolutionary not being as popular as it was last week (replaced with Lockjaw including Wave), and Lockdown limiting the playing field, Bounce naturally did a little worse overall. Still, it remained one of the better decks in Marvel Snap. If only it could include some reactive tools like Sera Control does, the archetype would probably break that glass ceiling preventing it from being a Tier 1 contender.

Even in a slightly more complex environment, the archetype was able to post a 0.29 cube average, just a hair short of a Tier 1 performance. With the focus shifting towards Move next week, Bounce might have a little more space, and it could be just enough to finally earn that top tier ranking.

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 and The Hood.
• 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 simply play America Chavez on Turn 6.

Potential additions:
After a tournament win with QuineeEquinox at the helm, this list has been widely discussed in the community as one doing much better against Wave. It does sacrifice a little of its explosiveness in return, though, with Falcon missing.

Invisible bounce

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Evolved Lockjaw

Evolved Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 3 months ago

4

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x 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)

1x Starter Card

4.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
This was the most discussed archetype in the tournament community this week. Lockjaw also gained a nice bit of play rate on ladder, and it should keep progressing unless Move eats up all the popularity. Also, it seems undeniable that the Thanos version is significantly worse compared to the Thor variant after two weeks. This week, the traditional Lockjaw build saw many of its lists above a 0.2 cube rate, with the featured one posting a solid 0.28 ratio overall. On the other hand, the Thanos variant sees most of its builds below 0.1 cube rate, with only a few (listed with less than a thousand games) able to rival the classic Lockjaw performance.

The biggest strength of the deck is its ability to combine an absurd points potential with enough flexibility to adapt to its environment. Wave seems to be the default tech card right now if you had to play one, but players have also included Killmonger, Leech, and Magneto this week. As such, whenever you feel like Dracula and The Infinaut are not performing enough, especially as Shang-Chi is making a comeback, you can adapt the deck and include some disruption instead.

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:
The non-High Evolutionary build also posts similar results:

Evolved Lockjaw Bis

3

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+

6.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Galactus

Galactus

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
If we’re being honest, this precise build of Galactus could be ranked in Tier 1 – its 0.38 cube average is largely deserving of that ranking. However, most of the other lists are posting a 0.2 cube average, leading to the archetype’s global ranking not being as good as it could be. The big difference between this featured build and the other ones is Iron Lad, which seems to be the card elevating Galactus to new heights.

The other reason Galactus has been climbing the rankings recently (with sixth in the game being one of its best rankings ever) is the very little amount of counter cards running around. Cosmo, Polaris, Goose, and other annoying tools for Galactus are not being played in the most popular archetypes right now, opening those to be hard punished by the Devourer of Worlds.

I’m very curious if Galactus could be ruining the Move party Second Dinner has planned for us next season.

How to play:
At its core, a Galactus deck starts every game with the same goal: play Galactus as safely as possible. Once this critical step is completed, your deck should be built to crush a one lane battle using Death, Knull, Shuri, and other such cards to punish any opponent crazy enough to stay in the game.

In order to so, we have to look at three important components:

• We need an empty lane, maybe even two, if we want to keep the opponent guessing where Galactus could be played. The opponent’s side can have cards on it, that is not a problem.
• We need six energy, and we would like this to happen before Turn 6 so we can play points the turn after Galactus.
• We need Galactus to reveal and resolve.

The first two conditions are not so hard to fulfill as they mostly depend on us. Electro and Wave should take care of allowing Galactus to be played before Turn 6. As for the empty lane, it is important to pick the location we intend to play Galactus on as early as possible. Most of the time, the choice should happen on Turn 3 at the latest. Also, if you see a great location reveal first or second, feel free to play onto unrevealed locations. Even if they are punishing, you intend to destroy them anyway.

The last one is the deciding factor, and the difference between a win and loss. Indeed, Galactus is starting to be a well known card in Marvel Snap, and there are many ways for the opponent to disrupt our perfect setup on the turn we play Galactus. Here are some cards to keep in mind:

• Polaris, Debrii, Green Goblin, Titania, or Viper can get a card to the Galactus lane before it reveals.
• Juggernaut and Aero can move Galactus to a lane that would not be empty.
• Cosmo and Goose can deny the ability to play Galactus on a lane, or most of our cards afterward.
• Professor X locks the lane and wins the one on one against Galactus.

Potential additions:
The only flexible spots seem to be Cloak, Daredevil, and Wolverine in the 2-Cost slot. Iron Lad can be replaced if you are missing the card, but it seems to be important to the deck’s success.

Iron Patriot 🔽

Patriot Lad

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
More of Sera Control seems to be a problem for Patriot since it also means more of Enchantress. Rogue also gained some popularity last week in High Evolutionary builds in order to steal the opponent’s Luke Cage in mirror matches. In addition, Killmonger seeing more play might have also impacted the archetype’s performance, as it nullifies the impact of Debrii and Ultron.

As usual for Patriot, the archetype does great when the name of the game is developing points. It can quickly be an uphill battle whenever Marvel Snap becomes a game of counter cards. Still, Patriot does have Debrii in that role, which feeds the deck a nice cube rate against the ever popular Galactus.

How to play:
Without a 1-Cost, this Patriot build is more passive than the traditional one. The idea is that the late game will be crazy enough to not need to invest early on, especially if we intend to use Ultron. With Invisible Woman joining the deck, we now have a way to protect Patriot as well as hide our deck a little, since one could simply play on one lane and let Ultron fill the other two on game’s end.

The biggest choice you have to make with this deck is which route you are looking to take: the proactive one, or the disruptive one. If you think you can beat your opponent in a points contest and they can’t punish you for it, it is completely reasonable to reason based solely on how many points you can develop. Then, you will be looking to build around Patriot, Iron Lad, Iron Man, Onslaught, and other such high potential cards. This is particularly effective now that Invisible Woman can help hide some of our key cards.

On the other hand, you could also be looking to derail your opponent’s game plan with Debrii and Wave. In that case, look to only develop what’s necessary to have priority, and then focus on how to break your opponent’s play patterns. You can then build your proactive turns around this game plan.

Because of the many high rolls this deck can pull, it is important to be fearless about your Snaps and Retreats, even with Enchantress representing a scary prospect.

Potential additions:
Super-Skrull replacing either Doctor Doom or Ultron seems to be the biggest talking point lately. Other cards to consider are Brood and Squirrel Girl, providing different ways to generate Vanilla cards.

Sera Surfer

Sera Surfer

0