Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List: April 6, 2024 — Thunderbolts Week 1 & Post-OTA

Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Meta Tier List! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap Ladder meta.

This report is dedicated to the Ranked mode and lists the current best decks heading into and once in the Infinite Rank. We also provide a Conquest report, available every weekend, that highlights the best archetypes for that mode. Looking to figure out the impact of the newly released card or the latest balance changes? This is the place to be!

If you are looking for more information about a deck in particular, check out our Archetypes pages, with detailed information about each of the household names in Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap Meta Overview

The start of a new season is often the place where the best proactive decks battle to get back to Infinite as fast as possible. It isn’t a rare occurrence to have plenty of “self-centered” archetypes at the top of the rankings. However, this week is a little different compared to our typical early season; you would have to really dig deep to find a reactive or disruptive build in this ocean of points-driven strategies.

Last season saw three titans of the meta dominate — Thanos, Discard, and Destroy — all of which mostly focused on their own agenda. With the early season pushing for decks able to enforce their game plan (and the recent OTA reverting a big nerf to Angela), many more of those proactive decks joined in on the fun.

Move and Bounce are the most improved archetypes with Angela back at full force. Both decks put on a clinic early after the OTA. They ranked really high in this first Tier List of the season, even beating the usual powerhouses. But, of course, we know to take these early rankings with a grain of salt. Indeed, there are a lot of decks on this list that I suspect will look very different once things have stabilized a bit. Hela, for example, is typically a great performer early in the season and tends to lose momentum as the season progresses. The same could be said for Ongoing Tribunal or Patriot, even if those already rank further down the list.

I don’t think there is a lot to discuss about these decks with a high points potential since the environment rewards their play style currently. Instead, let’s take a look at the decks we did not expect to see perform after the OTA.

Obviously, Thanos still being part of the top archetypes is a big talking point. The list has changed a bit with Red Hulk joining the Mad Titan to return to a build around Skaar. Discard in Tier 2 is another odd occurrence in this report because the archetype was a routine top performer for the entire March season. Finally, we also have to discuss the newcomers: both Red Hulk and Baron Zemo found their way into this report by helping various archetypes emerge or stay afloat.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

Tier	Deck
Tier 1	Move 🔙
Tier 1	Thanos
Tier 1	Bounce 🔙
Tier 1	Destroy
Tier 1	Hela 🔼
Tier 2	Lockdown 🔽
Tier 2	Loki
Tier 2	Discard 🔽
Tier 2	Zemo Mill 🆕
Tier 2	Toxic Surfer 🆕
Tier 3	Negative Tribunal 🔙
Tier 3	Patriot 🔽
Tier 3	Phoenix Force 🔽
Budget	Ongoing Kazoo
Budget	Devil Dinosaur Destroy
Budget	Swarm Discard Aggro

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 Cube Average 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. They won’t have their own dedicated write up here, but they may be transferred to the main Tier List section. 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 Tiers 1 and 2.

For each deck, you will also get a write-up about their performance in the Conquest mode. In that section, we’ll discuss how the deck is doing and which differences, if any, exist when compared to the Ladder performance. In the chart above, you will also be notified of a strong archetype in Conquest with a Conquest flag next to their name.

Tier 1

Move

I’ll admit, I have my doubts about Move’s ability to retain the top spot going forward. The deck is much improved with Angela returning to her old self, and it remains one of the most flexible archetypes in Marvel Snap. As such, I can easily picture Move staying in the picture with other contenders. I think it will be, at the very least, a competitive deck, and probably one of the good ones too.

However, even with a 10 power Angela whenever she gets played on Turn 2, Move still lacks that unpredictability factor that allows you to dominate your opponent. The points are there, but you tend to let your opponent know exactly what to expect very early in the match. Indeed, if you don’t play Angela on Turn 2, this is the same deck that has been struggling over the last few months.

I’m happy the archetype is back at full force. The excellent performance (63% Win Rate, 0.8 Cube Average) means we’ll have to respect Move going forward. Still, I have a hard time believing just Angela and Red Hulk were enough to make this deck the best in the game.

Only time will tell.

Potential Additions

Miles Morales feels like the most flexible card in the deck if you want to include Nightcrawler, Captain Marvel, or some other Move card. Otherwise, Shang-Chi takes the disruptive slot, but it could be Enchantress or another card that you think would win you more games.

Thanos

Thanos could have been sitting at the top of the meta once again after the OTA, but the inconsistencies from one list to another lead me to give the nod to Move. However, even if the deck isn’t ranked at #1, this particular list shows that we probably shouldn’t rule it out — even after what looked like a huge hit to its consistency. It did earn the best Win Rate since the OTA with 64%, so who knows? Maybe even starting with Thanos in your opening hand isn’t enough.

There are a lot of familiar faces in the list, such as Mockingbird and Cull Obsidian, that are still in charge of developing points. This time, though, they are joined by most of the biggest cards you could think of. Thanos has ditched Shang-Chi and Mobius M. Mobius to focus on developing as much as possible instead.

So far, this Skaar-led deck seems to work really well. Pairing these huge cards with Caiera is still working like a charm it seems.

Potential Additions

I’m curious whether you could fit the recently buffed Crossbones in this deck.

Bounce

Bounce had fallen off of most players’ radar because it was unable to develop enough points to challenge the likes of Discard and Destroy. With Angela returning to her former glory as a great anchor for a location, Bounce has returned to its original form with (apparently) enough points available to compete.

Just like a lot of other decks, Bounce focused almost entirely on its development early after the OTA, although it does have Nico Minoru and Snowguard to interact with the various locations during the match. There have been a lot of combo oriented decks using Magik lately, particularly Silver Surfer, so that might explain why Bounce did so well in addition to reuniting with its beloved Angela.

Potential Additions

Elsa Bloodstone is a card I’d love to include in this deck, and there are plenty of other cards that are typically strong alongside Bast (like Iron Man). Loki is another card you could consider since you should be able to have a full hand at most times and the Trickster God represents an opportunity for a Plan B. Also, you can always consider a disruptive option like Shang-Chi or Enchantress if you deem it necessary.

Destroy

I expected Destroy to rise after the OTA because the archetype was already gaining tons of momentum heading into this new season. For some reason, Deadpool was pretty discreet. It is probably because the OTA pushed other synergies that the community felt like exploring. Otherwise, there isn’t much to say about Destroy, except that it has not started to run Sabretooth even with the extra power it gained.

Even if it only ranked fourth for this first report of the season, it feels important to note that Destroy is first among decks not included in the last OTA. This means you can have a bit more trust in where it stands compared to Move or Thanos.

Potential Additions

Alioth remains the flexible card in the deck, with Shang-Chi, Arnim Zola, Enchantress, or another disruptive card that fits to your environment able to replace it.

Hela

Clearly the inferior Discard build for the entirety of last season, Hela looked great early in April by using Red Hulk as another big boy for points. The new 6-Cost isn’t game-breaking, but it brings another option to get a lot of points (which is basically all Hela is about). Plus, if you fetch it early with Lockjaw, you get a chance at getting some extra power if your opponent doesn’t use all their energy.

For anyone who is not a fan of flexible archetypes and wants to quickly grind the ranks, Hela positions itself as a nice alternative to Destroy.

Potential Additions

Zabu could be worth testing with three 4-Cost cards included. Otherwise, Black Cat looks like the flexible card in the build. If you want to include some disruption, maybe try Sandman?

Tier 2

Lockdown

Lockdown regained some strength with the OTA where the Guardians of the Galaxy were buffed, but it has since stopped using those cards. Currently, the archetype is back to its staple list that has been the go-to for most of 2024.

It is hard to figure out why this list is the best performing one for Lockdown after it struggled for a long period of time during the Black Order and Avengers vs. X-Men seasons.

Currently, the numbers are good for Lockdown, and that is also a bit odd when you look at the decks in Tier 1. Indeed, Move barely cares about Storm, and Hela can reach unplayable locations fairly easily. My best guess is that Nebula and Storm are pretty good at forcing opponents to play outside of their Angela lane. That alone could be a big upside considering how popular the card has been since the OTA.

Potential Additions

Shang-Chi is flexible if you want another type of disruption in your deck. Also, Medusa tends to be the 2-Cost you can swap out if you want to include another cheap card.

Loki

Adding Angela into the mix like many others, Loki boosted their points total, which was a much-needed part of their strategy that had the deck struggling lately. The results aren’t as impressive as Move or Bounce, but Loki did not reach the top of Tier 2 very often last season. It’s safe to say Angela definitely had a positive impact on this archetype.

Plus, Loki typically loves a proactive meta with a lot of strong cards to copy like the one we have right now. Indeed, this means the Trickster God can be a menace with the opponent’s deck available. That was something hard to accomplish in the Discard- or Thanos-dominated meta of last season.

So far, Move and Silver Surfer were the most played archetypes, and both are much closer to what Loki wants to steal from in terms of cards.

Potential Additions

Hope Summers, Mobius M. Mobius, and Gladiator are some of the 3-Cost cards you could play instead of Cosmo or Shang-Chi.

Discard

Ranking Discard so low is a bit weird after the deck spent all of last season as one of the top archetypes in the game, but we already started to see a bit of a decline in the previous report when Lockdown managed to sneak past it for the #3 spot.

After the OTA, a lot of decks started focusing on themselves and tried to develop points through their signature synergy. This is typically an environment Discard can shine in since Dracula and Morbius are often the highest scorers for their cost. Still, with Angela boosting almost everyone’s potential but Discard, there is a chance the synergy isn’t able to dominate through sheer points right now. Plus, decks like Move, Destroy, and Bounce can reposition their points fairly easily, so they have the ability to react to the positioning of Dracula to challenge and/or abandon certain lanes.

It might be time to panic for Discard Dracula!

Potential Additions

Miek still sees play as a [1/0] while Daken or Gambit can also help the deck with its combo or disruptive potential.

Zemo Mill

I love the new Season Pass card, but I can’t argue with the fact that it hasn’t had too big of an impact on the meta so far. It’s biggest claim to fame is the emergence of this archetype, labelled “Zemo Mill”, that aims to completely cancel the opponent’s ability to play late in the game due to a lack of cards in deck or in hand.

So far, the most impressive thing about this deck is its popularity. It managed to amass enough games to skip the Silent Performers section to immediately make it into the report. Performance wise, it is solid for a deck that just appeared on the back of two new cards, especially because this kind of disruptive strategy typically takes a bit to be refined.

It’s worth keeping an eye on in the near future if you enjoy disruptive archetypes.

Potential Additions

It is always difficult to recommend swaps for a brand new deck because the list is probably not fully refined yet. Iceman would probably make sense to help Red Hulk gain power if you don’t have Spider-Ham.

Toxic Surfer

One of the hottest decks at the end of last season, Silver Surfer actually suffered the most from Thanos being nerfed because it leveraged its great match up against Thanos to build its Cube Average. With less of Thanos on the perimeter, Silver Surfer will now have to be a solid overall deck in order to keep a spot as a competitive archetype in the meta.

So far, the potential seems to be there, but the Win Rate isn’t very high compared to the other decks. Indeed, Silver Surfer holds the second worst Win Rate in this report at 53%. It’s only saved by Negative Tribunal at 51%.

This is another archetype to keep an eye on, but it could just be collateral damage of the OTA.

Potential Additions

If you feel like the meta is truly about who can cheat out the most points, you might want to go all in and play Negative Surfer:

Tier 3

Negative Tribunal

Patriot

Phoenix Force

Closing Words

There are always two very different analyses you can make of the early days in a Marvel Snap season. Either you believe the bots are too much of a factor and everyone’s inflated Win Rate and Cube Average mean absolutely nothing, or you consider that everyone is playing with bots and, even if the numbers are inflated, the deck putting up the best numbers must be doing something right.

For this first week of the Zeroes to Heroes season, I would be cautious about several decks on this list. In particular, those that just got Angela back and might have caught a couple of opponents off guard with their newfound points potential.

However, there is no reason to think Destroy, Discard, Lockdown, or even Hela would have done that differently without the bots around. I mean, these decks were already part of the discussion at the end of last season when we had access to a lot of data from post-Infinite players. The environment around them is different and we ought not jump to conclusions, but we at least know these are good. Then, if you accept that Destroy is a strong archetype, you need to give a little respect to the decks that managed to post better numbers like Move, Bounce, and Thanos, even if there are reasons to think they won’t keep this level of performance throughout the whole season.

I know it isn’t easy to find comfort in a constantly moving environment, and the early stages of the month are the most tumultuous times. Still, even incomplete data is something we can use to build some confidence and take on the grind.

I hope this report was helpful to your early season climb. If you had any question, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.