Marvel Snap Metagame Tier List, October 4th, 2022: Is It Time For Sera To Go?

It is crazy how much can change in just a week! Last week, we looked at the rising decks after patch 6.9, and which archetypes benefited the most from the numerous buffs that happened.

This week, the metagame has started to stabilize a bit. We are seeing some archetypes back on our list while other early frontrunners have fallen back. Some notable changes are Mister Negative being back on the list, with similar results to what we could see previous to patch 6.9 – although much of this could be due to The Peak being the Featured Location for two days out of the last week. On the downfall, though, is the Handsize archetype, a surprise performer last week that has fallen off as people catch on to the tricks it has.

The Discard mechanic also had a tough week, as both Dracula Discard and Hela Discard have been struggling
A list that combines Hela and Sandman has been tossed around, with a guide written by Nasir on Reddit, but I will give it a bit of time to develop before including it in our rankings. We’ve tentatively included it in Tier 4 until more data can be gathered.

Finally, there is Sera, in my opinion the single best card in the game. As you will see in this week’s ranking, wherever Sera goes, wins follow. With global release looming on the horizon, and Season 5 just getting started, it might be the right time to give Sera a bit of a nerf before we welcome the biggest amount of new players to date to Marvel Snap.

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Tier 1

Negative Seratonin

Negative Seratonin

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: One more week has passed and Sera and Mister Negative still are dominating the game. Although counters have started to be more popular, it feels like the deck will be the best in the game until it is nerfed to the ground. However, it should be noted that some of this deck’s high winrates are due to The Peak being the featured location recently. This makes it difficult to tell exactly how good it is, but we suspect it remains at the top.

Currently, the deck is shaping the metagame, especially Sera, as many control decks are built with the intent of limiting the card’s efficiency.

How To Play: The deck aims to play Mister Negative on turn four and Sera on five. Once in that position, you can be flexible with your options based on how you want to spread your points. The dream is being able to follow this up with Mystique copying Sera’s ability and Magik for the extra turn, or using Mystique to copy Iron Man to win two lanes overwhelmingly.

Note that Mystique can also copy Blue Marvel’s ability and be absolutely fine with it.

Before turn four, you will usually be fairly passive. Bishop is a good turn three play, and Angela can also be slammed on two, even though she is also fine staying in hand if you have a Sera and want more information before deploying her.

Rogue feels like the flex spot for now, but she seems great in a metagame where Sera is expected to be a in a lot of decks, alongside other popular Ongoing abilities.

Tier 2

Magik Destroy

Magik Destroy

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

2

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Sera has become the dominant card of the game after the patch, and the Ongoing Synergy as a whole also feels much improved.

Already built with a reactive shell including Enchantress, Magik Destroy was a reasonable deck before the patch that gained some popularity in the past week.
With a little more time under its belt, this deck finally decided that playing Sera was the way to go, and doing so entered tier 1 contention with the “Skience” archetype, although we’re featuring a more traditional build.

How To Play: The deck is built around a reactive game plan first. The Killmonger, Enchantress, Shang-Chi and Magik shell makes up the core. This places the emphasis on answering what the opponent does.

With that in mind, the rest of the build includes proactive plays in order to not passively wait for the opponent to make a move. Angela, The Hood, Debrii, Sera or even Red Skull should help get some points and be able to challenge at least one location without the need for a tech card.

Carnage is the spice in the deck, found by Torikun, and helps clean our side of the board, dealing with cards like the Goblins, which are quite popular lately. It will also eat our unnecessary units like The Hood, Nova, Rocks from Debrii and Squirrels from various locations.

A very complete guide to the archetype can be found on Reddit, written by Torikun: click here.

Sera Miracle

Sera Miracle

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

6x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: While Sera and Mister Negative are stronger together, Sera alone is worthy of being one of the best decks in the game.
With this archetype scoring a high cube rate despite a relatively weak win rate on Snap.fan’s Meta Tracker, all three dominant decks in the game are running Sera at this moment.

How To Play: Apart from playing Sera on turn five, this deck doesn’t have any specific play pattern that it is forced to follow. The important part is to know where we are going and how we are going to manipulate our hand in order to get there.

The deck could play Okoye on two, Bishop on three, Strong Guy on four and look like a proactive build playing on curve. It could also pass its turns and play the whole hand on turn six, maximizing the surprise factor.

In order to perform, you really have to be flexible based on what your opponent is playing, the locations on the board and the cards in your hand.

Mister Negative

Mister Negative

Created by den

, updated 11 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: I would suspect the featured location, The Peak to be responsible for the deck’s comeback to such a high rank. Yet, it is undeniable that once the negative psychological impact the nerf had on the card was gone, the deck saw a quick rise to a similar power level as before.

Of course, it is slightly weaker, but building the deck to be a highroll combo deck and using the Snap and Retreat mechanics to your advantage will largely make up for the three power points Mister Negative lost.

How to play: Much more all-in than the deck has been in the past, it now looks to go for Mister Negative as soon as possible. Simply put, most of our cards are bad if we don’t draw Mister Negative, so until another take on the deck is popular, I would consider the build to be a Snap-and-Retreat kind of deck.
Once we found it, though, a new world of possibilities open before our eyes, and we become a well-oiled high roll machine.

Jane Foster is the card I am the most skeptical about in the current popular builds. However, it is hard to deny the power of drawing half the deck on turn five if you used Mister Negative on turn four. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Wong in her place for a different kind of highroll potential.

Patriot

Patriot

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Already in a decent position before the patch, Patriot improved with the patch, as Onslaught saw a buff to seven power and Blue Marvel reduced to a 5-Cost card.
This change was actually so impactful that lists looking to go wide have emerged, built around the Patriot shell with Blue Marvel and Ka-Zar.

How To Play: The deck can be divided into two parts: the units we are looking to buff, and the buffers.

Category One: Wasp, Misty Knight, Squirrel Girl, Shocker, Debrii and Brood. Ideally, we want to use these cards to fill two locations. These are the locations we will try to compete for.

Category Two: Mystique, Patriot, Blue Marvel and Onslaught. These cards are the ones that buff our lanes. Note that copying Onslaught with Mystique is the strongest way to do the combo.

Lastly, Magik is in the deck to give us an extra draw and turn, which helps in setting our combo up.

Destroyer

Destroyer

Created by den

, updated 1 year ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Destroyer feels right at home at the end of Tier 2. The deck may never be a Tier 1 contender, but it also never feels bad to play, and has a decent shot in most games. This makes it a nice, balanced pick if you aren’t much of a Snap/Retreat kind of player. For this second week of play, the deck has progressed in terms of win rate, but still lacks the surprise element of other, more powerful archetypes.

Spider-Man is also being tested in the deck, looking to edge towards more disruption.

How To Play: The deck basically only cares about two locations, the third one being empty in order to activate Warpath.
This doesn’t mean we can’t play onto the third location, as Destroyer will clean it up with its effect, but we should anticipate the need to win the two locations we are playing onto.

On one location, we will usually try to play Armor and the card we don’t want to see destroyed, Warpath and Demon being the two best ones usually . On the other location, we should be playing Bucky Barnes 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 3

Ongoing KaZoo

Ongoing Kazoo

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

6

3x Collection Level 1-14

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: Considered the best budget option for a significant part of the summer, KaZoo comes back into our Tier List thanks to Blue Marvel‘s buff, enabling new play patterns and helping the deck compete against Pool 3 intensive decks.

Perfect for anyone not familiar with all the intricacies of the more complicated decks, or simply missing cards, Kazoo looks to have solidified a nice position in the ocean of Pool 3 decks.

The Ongoing package feels like an obvious inclusion from now on, with Iron Man, Blue Marvel, Ka-Zar and Onslaught looking like logical inclusions. The last card is still up in the air, with Captain America, The Punisher or Mojo competing for the Mister Fantastic slot. Debrii is another card I have seen included, as she can be annoying for the opponent while we have Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel to buff the Rocks.

How To Play: This is the go-to budget proactive archetype, looking to spend energy in a very effective way, from turn one to turn six.

While Angela, Bishop and either 5-Cost card are our go-to plays when available, the deck can be flexible during the other turns. A big consideration in order to know which route to take is whether Onslaught is in hand. If he is, we are pushed further towards the Ongoing synergy plan.

The one drops should be played when we have the energy to do so, and prioritized based on how annoying they are for the opponent. Korg and Iceman are good to play anytime, the earlier, the better. Ant-Man is flexible and Iron Fist and Nightcrawler are at their best with Angela, and can be used to reach otherwise unplayable locations.

SandWave

SandWave

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: On paper, this deck looks incredible in a metagame with Sera as the top card. Both Sandman and Wave look to be the best cards in order to completely deny an explosive turn six from your opponent. You can also play Leader in the deck instead of Arnim Zola to add one more way of making sure you never get less than what your opponent does.

To me, however, this kind of disruptive deck suffers a lot from the ability to retreat from a game, which nullifies an otherwise stellar win rate. Oftentimes, playing Sandman will only gain you a cube, while you will be playing for higher stakes with your worse hands.

I would advise snapping early whenever you recognize having a good hand.

How To Play: This decks looks to lock the opponent’s in hand options through Sandman and Wave while not affecting our ability to play cards.

There are two main play-patterns to the deck, the Wave route or the Sandman one.

Wave allows for more proactive plays as we get Ronan, Captain Marvel, Doctor Doom, Odin, and Magneto discounted. Ideally, we would play Odin after Wave and get her effect repeated for another turn, ideally playing another 6-Cost card.

Sandman, on the other hand, looks to disrupt the opponent more, and should allow for a good Ronan followed by a big 6-Cost card. Doctor Doom and Magneto are mostly played for points, while Odin could be synergized with Maximus to help grow Ronan the Accuser even more.

Our very own KanyeBest recently wrote an in-depth guide to his take on this deck.

Handsize

Handsize

Created by den

, updated 12 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification: While it was the surprise deck of last week, Handsize didn’t do so well lately. It feels like the deck is a decent pick if you enjoy the gameplay, but needs a very specific draw pattern in order to compete with the decks in higher tiers.

How To Play:

This deck capitalizes on The Collector and Devil Dinosaur as its win condition. During the game, we will be looking to grow these two as big as possible using all the support at our disposal.

The only flex slots in the deck are Beast and Arnim Zola, which we use as surprise elements in order to mix up our point distribution.

Beast allows us to clear up a location in order to buff The Collector and Devil Dinosaur instead. For example, if you know a location is lost, you can get some extra points on the other two using Beast’s ability.

Arnim Zola allows us to duplicate our Devil Dinosaur, and go from one big threat to two. If you managed to keep a very big hand, it shouldn’t be too difficult to have seven cards in hand going into the last turn. This will give you two 15-point Dinosaurs on the board.

Wongoing

Wongoing

Created by den

, updated 10 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: Sera is an Ongoing card, and draws most of the attention to her. Other decks built with similar concepts are suffering from seeing counter decks become more popular.
As Magik Destroy and/or Skience (depending on how you define the archetypes) becomes more prevalent, Wongoing probably should keep a low profile.

How To Play: This deck is one of the simplest to pilot currently, to which we attribute some of its popularity.

The whole point of the deck is 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.
As long as you do this sequence, the only thing left to do is to play as many Ongoing cards as possible in the early turns.

Lockjaw On Reveal

Lockjaw On Reveal

Created by den

, updated 12 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 we could excuse one subpar week, the second week hasn’t looked much better for Lockjaw.
The deck is still capable of pulling the usual high rolls with its signature card, but seems like it does so less reliably than other decks in the metagame.

How To Play: Play Lockjaw on turn 3 and then benefit from it as much as possible. We have America Chavez and Jubilee in the deck to increase our likelihood of finding the featured card.

If you don’t find Lockjaw, you can still try to go for some highrolls in the lategame or just take the one cube loss and Retreat. I have seen some people run Wave in the deck to be able to play the big boys early on. Since the deck already plays Doctor Doom and Odin, Wave could replace Green Goblin quite easily.

Closing Words

At this point in Marvel Snap’s history, I don’t think there is much doubt as to what will happen next. I expect Sera to continue dominating, and perhaps to do so to the point of deserving a nerf.

Although there are some decent counters, like Sandman or Wave, it feels that as time passes, players are siding with Sera rather than against her. Also, as Magik Destroy illustrates this week, decks can both play a reactive game plan and Sera.

I cannot see how we are getting out of the current situation without Sera being changed. Especially as the Mister Negative nerf showed that power isn’t as important as a strong ability, and players always find a way to abuse good cards, no matter what.

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,