Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List, October 11th, 2022: Completely Reshuffling The Deck

Hot on the heels of Patch 6.9, the good folks at Second Dinner announced further balance changes with Patch 7.6. In this patch, Mister Negative was once again toned down in terms of power, along with his cohort Bishop. Most importantly, Magik saw a change that will provoke one of the biggest shake-ups to date in any Marvel Snap metagame.

In Patch 7.6, Magik was made unable to be played on turn six, greatly limiting her power, and causing the downfall of several of the best decks at the time. The Negative Seratonin deck was significantly weakened, as was the rising Magik Destroy archetype.

As a result, Marvel Snap is currently much more open, with dozens of archetypes receiving a second shot at being competitive. One week isn’t enough to grasp the full picture of how colossal Patch 7.6 has been. Yet, we are already seeing some decks rise and others struggle to keep up with the pack.

We haven’t seen one deck completely dominate the playing field, and it seems like the gap from one deck’s performance to another is much smaller compared to the previous patches. As a result, decks could very well flow from tier to tier when we revisit this list a week from now.

Until then, here is our first Tier List for Patch 7.6.

Thanks to all the sources of information I used to create this Tier List:

• https://snap.fan/
• Snap.fan Community Server on Discord
• https://twitter.com/SnapDecks
• https://marvelsnap.io/
• All the players offering their insight and time to chat

💡 You can always go to our Tier List section and view the latest updates, and more! Check out our new collection tracker, add your cards, and see what decks you can build or find a deck in our database!

Tier 1

Sera Miracle

Sera Miracle 7.9

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

2

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: The overall best deck that wasn’t playing Magik or Mister Negative before Patch 7.6. What else could logically stand atop the rankings for the first week of the new meta?

With a ton of returning archetypes, Sera Miracle is the perfect mix of a proven force and comfort pick. For now, it looks like the go-to deck for most players not sure about what they should play.

How To Play: As you might have guessed from the name, this deck is looking to capitalize on Sera’s ability to create a spectacular turn six.

While there are cards that can be played before Sera, such as Bishop, the deck is trying to be extremely flexible on turn six. This way, it can spread its points as efficiently as possible. This allows you to surprise the opponent, and gather a lot of information on their strategy as well.

Zero

Zero Destroy

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

4

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Both a rising archetype and one looking to develop a huge amount of points on the board, Zero fits the bill of decks that usually do well after a patch.

If unsure on how to approach a certain match-up, the sheer amount of power the deck is able to develop should help in playing with a proactive mindset.

The deck also includes some crucial counter plays like Enchantress against Ongoing decks, or Carnage to clean up a location filled with Rocks and Goblins.

How To Play: Built around negating the ability of Typhoid Mary and Red Skull, the deck mixes several synergies. The big ones are the ability to destroy cards (Carnage, Venom) and the ability to remove the negative impact of Typhoid Mary and Red Skull (Zero, Enchantress). The last card included in order to get the points without the downside from Red Skull is Taskmaster, which can be Arnim Zola in some lists.

As a result, the deck plays similarly to a destroy archetype until turn 4, looking to set up cards to eat later on like Nova, Bucky Barnes, Sabretooth or Mysterio clones. Once in the late game, we should plan around the big point-scorers, and look for play patterns that can maximize our points while minimizing the downsides of our big point-scorers.
While Zero needs to be played before Typhoid Mary or Red Skull, Enchantress, Venom and Taskmaster will come afterwards. This means we will usually plan to use those on turn six, as a surprise to our opponent.

Destroyer

Destroyer

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

3

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: I’m not a big fan of the Destroyer archetype, but it is hard to argue with the deck’s consistency ever since becoming a popular pick on ladder. Across the last few patches, the deck has always been a good deck, and logically represented a comfort pick for many while they figured out Patch 7.6.

I am a bit worried about the deck’s potential ceiling once other archetypes are refined, but for now, the deck feels worthy of being placed in Tier 1.

How To Play: With Warpath in the list, Destroyer is one of the few decks out there that will focus mostly on two locations. It can contest the third one through playing cards for its opponent with Green Goblin and Hobgoblin, although it does not have to.
With Destroyer’s effect, we can play cards onto the third location, we just shouldn’t expect them to contribute to the points total as they will be destroyed. This can be a useful juke with Warpath on the board.

For the locations we look to compete on, we will usually try to play Armor and any card we don’t want to see destroyed on one. Warpath and Demon usually are our highest point scorers we are looking to protect.

On the other location, we should be playing Bucky Barnes, Nova or the Goblins, as a way to have not only Destroyer contributing to the point total.

If we can’t find any of the cards we want to destroy, we can also use Cosmo as a way to deny Destroyer’s effect and just have him as a 16-point card.

Tier 2

Patriot

Patriot

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

44

Pool 3No AbilityMeta

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: I was expecting the Magik change to negatively impact Patriot, but it barely affected the deck.

Because turn six is saved to play Onslaught, Ultron or Patriot plus Mystique, the deck is absolutely fine playing Magik on turn five.

How To Play: The deck revolves around making the most out of our payoff cards, which buff our whole board.

Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel can serve as decent Patriot replacements, but the signature card for the deck always should be the go-to options if available. Supporting these Ongoing abilities are Onslaught and Mystique for duplication, and Magik and Adam Warlock for an extra draw if needed.

The rest of the deck is composed of cheap recipients for the buffs, and should be used to fill two locations before we focus on our combo in the last few turns, we need the third one for our payoffs. Ultron offers a different path to victory, as the card can fill two locations, making the deck extremely passive in the early game.

Sand Wave

Sand Wave

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Although its average cubes per game ratio is quite low compared to other decks in Tier 2, it feels criminal to rank this deck lower. Indeed, Sandwave appears to be the only deck to crack the 60% win rate barrier on the Snap.fan data.

If you are able to snap early in the game, rather than when playing your key cards, this deck should be able to represent a solid climbing option.

How To Play: SandWave has two very different play patterns it can follow. First, it can try to deny the opponent’s game plan with Sandman’s ability. Second, it can focus on abusing its big drops with Wave’s ability.

When we go the Sandman route, we want to focus on the deck’s ability to play into multiple lanes at once, bypassing Sandman‘s limitations in the process. The total amount of points won’t be high, but if we spread it correctly, the opponent shouldn’t be able to match it across the three locations.

In the Wave path, our goal is simply to play Wave into one of our big drops, preferably Odin in order to trigger Wave again and be able to play another 6-Cost card on the next turn. Another common Wave play pattern is to play Doctor Doom and then wait for turn six to trigger the card again with Odin. This sequence works quite well if we have a good play for turn five.

Lockjaw On Reveal

Lockjaw On reveal

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: While other combo decks were negatively impacted by Magik’s nerf, Lockjaw didn’t change a card. The deck still benefits from Thor being buffed in the previous patch.

As a result, the deck hasn’t moved much, either in terms of cards, or power level, which seems to be a good trait for this forming metagame in patch 7.6.

How To Play: Plan A is a very straightforward game plan of abusing Lockjaw with cheap cards in order to get the bigger ones. Plan B is to abuse the On Reveal synergy to try to compete even without Lockjaw.

Through Thor, Jubilee and Odin, it is still possible to develop a decent amount of points and not be forced to retreat whenever we aren’t drawing into Lockjaw. The deck will be weaker, but can still find some play patterns to compete, like using Psylocke in order to go Doctor Doom into Odin for example.

Negative Seratonin

Negative Seratonin

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

37

Pool 3ControlMeta

2x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: With Mister Negative and Magik taking a big hit in the patch, Negative Seratonin is difficult to assess for now. It seems quite obvious to me that it finally isn’t the best deck in the game anymore.

Nevertheless, even if its win rate has dipped, the deck still retains its surprise effect, and could very well steal a few cubes from an overconfident opponent.

How To Play: Functionally, this list plays the same as it always has. Magik could be a consideration to cut from the list, but that seems unlikely given how valuable cards drawn from Mister Negative are.

The big difference with the patch is the go-to curve, which was formerly Mister Negative on four, Sera on five and Magik on six. Now, Magik must be played on turn five and Sera needs to wait a turn if both are in hand.

Also, with Mister Negative now at minus one power, he isn’t an autoplay anymore now, especially if you have your best targets in hand, like Iron Man.

Kazoo

Kazoo disrupt

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

3

2x Collection Level 1-14

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Recruit Season

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Already a good deck after patch 6.9, Kazoo benefits from being a simple deck to play and having a similar gameplan against most opponents. It now adds a bit of disruption with Debrii and Green Goblin, making the deck much more flexible overall.

While the deck is a staple of Marvel Snap, and shouldn’t surprise any veteran opponents, it is a great starting point for any player without a firm grasp of the current environment.

How To Play: Kazoo is the textbook proactive deck, looking to make a smart use of its energy and play cards when possible.

The big emphasis when playing this deck should be on if you have the payoff cards, such as Angela, Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel.

The disruption gives this deck a different dimension, looking to limit what the opponent can do while we develop our side of the locations. Most of the time, our go-to curve in the late game will be Ka-Zar into Blue Marvel into Onslaught. Otherwise, we can be more flexible, but still focus on being energy efficient.

Wongoing

Wongoing

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

5

Pool 3OngoingMeta

2x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Recruit Season

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: As far as decks built around buffing specific types of cards, Wongoing has been largely in Patriot’s shadow in terms of performance.

The deck will usually see a retreat when you play Wong, while it will often be snapped when you don’t. This is a consequence of how well-known the archetype is.

How To Play: The deck aims to play Wong on turn four, Mystique to copy its ability on turn five, and Spectrum to buff our entire side of the board on turn six.

Apart from those key cards, the rest of the deck is filled with cheap Ongoing cards, ready to receive Spectrum’s blessing when she hits the board.

If this happens, and the opponent doesn’t recognize their incoming demise with a retreat, you should be almost guaranteed to get some cubes.

Bonus On Reveal List:

WongReveal

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 3

Dracula Discard

Dracula Discard

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: After slipping significantly in Patch 6.9, the whole discard synergy seems to be struggling. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong with the deck, but it seems like other, more reliable decks are getting the nod for now.

A tough issue for the deck is to figure out what to do with the Magik + Sera duo now, as both cards were included in the deck until this point. Magik sounds better to get an extra draw to find Apocalypse, but other cards could be tested in this spot.

How To Play: Most of the deck’s play patterns rely on whether we drew Dracula or not.

If we do, we want to play safe until we can drop Dracula, with Angela, Green Goblin and other non-discard effects. Then we can go crazy on the discard on turn five and six, in order to grow Apocalypse and make sure we only have that card in hand for Dracula to discard.

If we don’t draw into Dracula, the deck needs to play differently, as we can’t rely on one card winning a location for us. Depending on the hand, you can either just grow Apocalypse and play the card on turn six, try to disrupt the opponent’s win condition with Wong plus Moon Knight, or simply rely on other scorers like Angela and Morbius.

Deathpool

Deathpool

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

74

Pool 3DestroyMeta

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Largely in the shadow of the Destroyer archetype when it comes to the Destroy mechanic, Deathpool and DeathWave have come back to some relevancy with the latest changes.

Just like the Discard synergy, it seems that Ongoing and On Reveal decks are taking precedence for now, and posting better results overall.

How To Play: The deck is based around trying to destroy Deadpool as many times as possible to grow its power, reducing Death’s cost in the process. Then, you can copy Deadpool’s power with Taskmaster, alongside playing Death thanks to Wave’s ability. The deck has the nice upside of naturally playing around most board disruptions like Goblins or Rocks.

Outside these four key cards, the rest of the deck is solely cards that either help Deadpool grow (Carnage, Venom, Hulkbuster) or benefit from being destroyed themselves (Bucky Barnes, Nova, The Hood).

Venom is the flexible card in the deck, either being used as another destroy tool or as a big target for Taskmaster.

Control

Controlocation

Created by den

, updated 5 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: The control archetype is still looking for its best list, it seems. With Sandwave untouched in the patch, most players naturally flowed towards a deck that was already made for the start of the season.

Considering these kinds of archetype are based on answering what the opponent does, it will surely take another week or two before players can figure the best cards to counter the metagame. For now, the deck uses the Odin shell, which has proven to be strong alongside disruptive tools.

How To Play: Most of the deck’s gameplay is based around limiting the opponent’s use of locations, making Storm, Spider-Man and Debrii the deck’s bread and butter.

Alongside this core, we have other ways or looking to annoy our opponent, like Wave or Doctor Octopus, both looking to provide hand disruption. The latter is great alongside Daredevil, or to activate Mojo and make sure the card is worth eight points.

Several cards could be tested in this build, such as both Goblins, Scorpion, Captain Marvel, Professor X or Klaw. The Guardians of the Galaxy could also see play, as they should be activated quite easily thanks to limiting where the opponent can play.

Black Widow is the 12th card for now, forcing the opponent to waste another spot on a location, but could easily be something else.

Closing Words

Magik’s change and Mister Negative‘s second nerf have turned the game upside down. For now, we suspect that the player base has mostly gravitated towards archetypes that existed already, and begun to revisit decks they wished were competitive in the past.

Similarly to Handsize right after the last patch, I am very curious to follow how the Zero deck will evolve and fare against the other decks in the future. Hopefully, it will fare better against the test of time.

To comment or discuss this article with the team, feel free to join our community Discord. You can also find me directly on Twitter.

Good Game Everyone,