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The Marvel Snap meta is still limited by the power of certain cards, which is a shame considering the amount of playable synergies we have in Marvel Snap right now. The unfortunate reality is that anyone looking to give their climb the best chance of success has no reason play a deck that doesn’t run Sam Wilson Captain America.
The former Season Pass card is simply too good, as it combines a great amount of power with great flexibility on top of synergizing with some Ongoing cards. Why would someone use Discard, Destroy, or another themed deck when they can achieve the same amount of points without the rigid play patterns?
There are 7 decks in Tier 3 this week, and all of them are synergies that suffer from the comparison to all the strong, super flexible cards we have in the game. Several of them had their moment recently, with Bullseye routinely rising to be a strong contender and Clog emerging as a decent Thanos counter. Still, their lack of flexibility eventually lead to them finding early Retreats since opponents know exactly what to expect—or worse, have a counter card to deplete their competitive potential.
Flexibility always comes out on top eventually, as there are just more things you can do with strong standalone cards than with super synergistic options. This meta has been the same for a while now, so it is no surprise to see the same cards dominate. I think it’s time for some balance updates in order to shake things up.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Thanos Destroy 0.35 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer 0.7 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Thanos Control 0.75 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | High Evo Toxic 0.7 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Thanos Ongoing 0.55 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Small Good Cards 0.5 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards Miracle 0.5 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Mister Negative 0.45 Cube Average / 53.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Scream Move 0.35 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Clog 0.25 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Mill 0.25 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Bounce Move 0.25 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Sauron 0.15 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Discard Dracula 0.15 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Destroy 0.2 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Bullseye 0.15 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| Bullseye | 0.95 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate |
| Mister Negative | 0.9 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate |
| Discard Dracula | 0.7 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate |
| Thanos Ongoing | 0.7 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| High Evo Toxic | 0.65 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
Here is my usual annoying advice because I’m a coach and I like to think this helps people: Focus on controlling the stakes of each game and building trust in both your deck and your decision making abilities. Once you feel confident, feel free to take more risks. Reaching Infinite is all about understanding the process of grinding cubes. Also, constantly changing your deck limits your ability to learn the game fundamentals, as you are always focused on learning how to pilot the new deck.
Trending
Thanos Destroy
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
The Destroy synergy has been on the rise lately with Thanos constantly gaining more momentum (and Clog emerging as well). This deck simply takes the best of both worlds by combining Thanos, a great card currently, and the Destroy synergy, which is well suited for the current environment.
This is more difficult to pilot than the Thanos Ongoing build, but it’s also much more difficult to play against for your opponents. You could get away with a few Snaps until this deck becomes more popular.
Tier 1
Silver Surfer
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate
With a counter card for basically any deck of the current meta, this Silver Surfer build focuses more on disrupting the opponent rather than the sheer amount of points it can develop.
This is actually a strength in this meta since the Retreat button is often quickly pressed. Indeed, the opponent will likely assume they can beat your points potential, but little do they know you’re after theirs instead of looking to develop your own.
Potential Additions
Rogue, Rocket and Groot, Juggernaut, and other such cards that are able to disrupt your opponent fit well in this deck.
Thanos Control
den
Performance: 0.75 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
The Ongoing synergy probably grew tired of getting countered too often, but Thanos didn’t really need it to be a great card to build around. This deck takes us back in time to when Blob was able to dominate a lane on its own. Just to be clear, it can’t anymore, but you can count on all the other great cards in this deck to serve as stellar backups. Basically, this deck is just assembling 12 of the best cards in the game in a proactive strategy.
Potential Additions
There are no specific synergies in this deck other than playing strong standalone cards that are at their best when you have priority. If you’re missing a card, replace it with something that is able to fill a similar role.
High Evo Toxic
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
Unless your opponent is running Luke Cage (and is good at hiding it), the Toxic synergy is sort of a better version of Destroy in this meta. Indeed, instead of removing your opponent’s cards, you clog their space with low or negative power while your Ajax grows to crazy amounts. Plus, this High Evo build packs some great explosive potential in the later turns, which allows the deck to adapt wherever it wants to invest power.
The deck is a little unreliable due to playing few cards in the first two turns, but it has insane potential when you get Silver Sable into Scorpion or Sam Wilson Captain America early on.
Potential Additions
The other build of Toxic is doing well at the moment, if you prefer that one.
den
Thanos Ongoing
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
Although this was not the best Thanos build this week, the Ongoing synergy remains a great one in this meta—even with Enchantress roaming around. The secret is to keep your best Ongoing abilities hidden as long as possible, and just give your opponent a decent but not great Enchantress target on Turn 4 or 5. Then, with the help of a free Mockingbird or some extra energy from Wiccan, Enchantress won’t be enough for your opponent to compete on Turn 6.
Potential Additions
Cosmo, Mobius M. Mobius, Dazzler, and other strong Ongoing abilities fit the deck’s theme. If you face a lot of Ongoing decks yourself, Rogue and Super-Skrull are great picks.
Small Good Cards
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate
This is the only deck in Tier 1 not playing Sam Wilson Captain America (although you can replace Havok with him, it works). Small Good Cards is great in the right hands, but it feels challenging to play otherwise.
Indeed, a Turn 2 Agent Venom isn’t an obvious Snap anymore; instead, it’s basically a necessity to compete with a lot of the current decks. And the return of the Destroy synergy isn’t a good thing for this deck.
For a pilot who is able to escape those traps and recognize where to place the majority of their points, Small Good Cards packs plenty of great proactive and disruptive cards. However, don’t expect Cassandra Nova, Sage, or Thena to carry you to victory like they once could.
You could consider this the best deck from the previous meta that is still strong enough to compete right now, but it’s more intricate than the current options.
Potential Additions
Luke Cage, Red Guardian, Rogue, and other low power, high impact cards are great in Small Good Cards.
Tier 2
Good Cards Miracle
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
With the pure Control version posting unreliable performances since the start of the season, other builds of Good Cards have started to emerge. One of the biggest limitations in Marvel Snap is when a deck is so well known that nobody is fooled by a Snap anymore. When that happens, the deck either needs to be flexible enough to include new cards or has to disappear for a bit with the hope that other decks will take the spotlight.
Good Cards Miracle follows that logic. It looks to focus on points rather than the Control cards that are typically played after Galacta or Gwenpool. Plus, this approach limits the necessity to guess the opponent’s moves on the last turn, which is quite difficult in a meta that is overrun by strong, flexible cards. This deck will lose pretty hard to Mobius M. Mobius, but otherwise it throws a much needed curve ball for the Good Cards archetype.
Potential Additions
Iron Patriot is often difficult to support since there aren’t any high power cards other than Mockingbird and Sasquatch. Gorgon, Hawkeye Kate Bishop, or another standalone 2-Cost could do just as well.
Mister Negative
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 53.5% Win Rate
Mister Negative is great at two specific moments in a meta. The first is early on when everyone is trying to figure out what to play and testing proactive synergies. There are typically fewer counter cards around during this time, and Mister Negative will dominate most points shootouts. The other time is at the end of the meta once most decks are set, once you know whether Mobius M. Mobius is popular or not. If it isn’t around much, you can once again dominate most matches based on sheer number of points.
Potential Additions
Ironheart and Super-Skrull are two cards to consider, either as replacements or to give you an edge against the Ongoing synergy.
Scream Move
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
This is quite a huge fall for Scream Move, which ranked first in all modes last week and had absolutely no reason to do worse considering the meta hasn’t changed much. This might just be one of those cases where a deck picks up a lot of popularity and those who are learning it make it look worse in the data.
The other possibility is opponents being more careful, either not Snapping against Scream Move or Retreating more often. This would severely limit the amount of cubes this deck is able to collect.
Potential Additions
The classic build is featuring a lower Win Rate but a slightly better Cube Average.
den
Tier 3
Bullseye is the odd deck out in this bunch, but all of these seven decks share the exact same trait: they are synergistic builds that are easy recognize within the first few turns.
With that said, these decks have completely lost the surprise factor and have gotten stuck in the “Lose 2 to 4 cubes, but win only 1 or 2” situation. That’s a terrible place to be if you want to climb (unless you have a fantastic Win Rate). Sauron 10 power does meet that requirement, but it likely loses even more cubes than the others due to Shang-Chi‘s ability to turn a full lane around and allow opponents to stay against your Snaps and punish you for them.
In order to separate these decks, you should probably should look at Conquest data. Knowing what your opponent is playing is part of the deal there, and you can’t just escape a bad match up. Both Discard decks are part of our Top 5 archetypes to climb, so their problem really is that they lose a ton of momentum once you face experienced players.
Clog
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
Bounce Move
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate
Mill
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate
Sauron 10 Power
den
Performance: 0.15 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.15 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate
Destroy
den
Performance: 0.2 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate
Bullseye
den
Performance: 0.15 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate
That’s it for this week! To reach out, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or shoot me a direct message (@den_ccg) for specific stuff or coaching.
Good Game Everyone.
Disclaimer and Tier Explanations
In order to be featured here, a deck needs to represent at least 1% of the current environment and have a positive Cube Average in the Ranked mode. Win Rate is also taken into consideration, and it can greatly impact the ranking of a deck, particularly when several archetypes (or different builds of the same deck) have a similar Cube Average but big Win Rate discrepancies. The Marvel Snap mechanics do, however, push players to maximize cubes gained rather than win every single game.
In order to create this chart, den is using data from our Marvel Snap Tracker, as well as other available data online and his own expertise and opinion of respected players. If a deck showed great performances with a very limited presence in the meta, you can find it in the Silent Performers section. That section highlights decks with an excellent Win Rate, 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 in our chart. See those builds as decks that are good to know about, as you should face them when playing Marvel Snap. However, unless the meta changes or a new variation of the build emerges, these decks are a notch below the dominant ones in Tier 1 and Tier 2.
Silent Performer: Decks with a very little presence in the meta that still showcase a Cube Average and Win Rate worthy of a Tier 2 deck (or better). Oftentimes, these can be archetypes with some nice game play that have been left unchecked in the current environment, or decks on the rise that found a few good match ups to abuse.
Tier 1: Tier 1 represents decks with all the upsides we would be looking for to rack up Cubes. They have good match ups in the current meta, offer different play patterns during a match, and often have the ability for explosive or surprising turns. These should be decks worth investing into in order to climb for the coming week.
Cube Average > 0.5
Tier 2: Tier 2 are very good decks but with a weakness holding them back – either not being as reliable in its draws as Tier 1 decks, countered by another popular deck, or still being a work in progress as you read this. A good pilot could probably take these and have the same results as with a Tier 1 deck, but their play patterns are more difficult to enact compared to the tier above.
Cube Average > 0.35
Tier 3: This tier is made of decks that have a pervasive issue compared to Tier 1 or Tier 2 decks. Usually, Tier 3 will be a mix of decks on the rise that don’t have much data, old archetypes on the decline, decks that require substantial experience and/or knowledge to pilot properly, powerful decks that aren’t well positioned, or niche decks.
Cube Average > 0.20
Budget: Decks that consist only of cards in Pool 1 and 2 that are still capable of competing with an experienced pilot in a similar Collection Level, Rank, and MMR range. See our matchmaking guide for more details.
Meta stats and analytics directly from our Marvel Snap Tracker can also be found here.
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