Table of Contents
Last week, we could say Fenris Wolf was the obvious candidate to take over after the OTA, and its dominance was due to counter decks not being refined yet. This week, that doubt is gone. There are plenty of good decks we can play in Marvel Snap, but none managed to climb the Fenris Wolf wall at the moment. The combination of disruption plus points brought by the Disruptive Destroy package is simply too strong, able to disrupt synergies, or beat flexible decks on points. Plus, those decks typically control the snaps and retreats, as destroying a key card for the opponent typically results in an immediate 1 cube gain, while opponents are scared to snap early for that same reason.
Plenty of decks are strong, hence the large trending section, but the strongest ones all run the same synergy. Plenty of decks are popular, hence the six archetypes in Tier 3, but the most popular ones run the same synergy. Very few are strong and popular, and most of them run that same synergy.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Cerebro 2 1 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate / 130 Games |
| Trending | Good Cards Buff 0.7 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate / 170 Games |
| Trending | Small End of Turn 0.6 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate / 180 Games |
| Trending | Hela Discard 0.6 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate / 100 Games |
| Trending | Scream Move 0.55 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate / 110 Games |
| Trending | Disruptive Surfer 0.5 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate / 140 Games |
| Tier 1 | Fenris Destroy 0.55 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Wiccan Control 0.45 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Mill 0.35 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Ongoing 0.4 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Toxic 0.35 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Thanos Destroy 0.4 Cube Average / 50% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Deadpool Destroy 0.25 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Iron Hand 0.3 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Bullseye Discard 0.25 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Nimrod Destroy 0.2 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Priority Rocks 0.15 Cube Average / 52.5% Win Rate |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| Small End of Turn | 0.65 Cube Average / 67% Win Rate |
| High Evo Control | 0.55 Cube Average / 66% Win Rate |
| Nimrod Destroy | 0.85 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Clog | 0.7 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate |
| Toxic | 0.6 Cube Average / 61.5% 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
There are a lot of great decks in this section, probably the most important one on this report for anyone looking to play something different. The main question we need to answer is whether we have so many fantastic performances with low sample sizes due to a great diversity, or because most archetypes can’t keep up the good results over more games.
All six archetypes here have been in Tier 1 in the past, so I am not questioning any of those decks’ ability to put on a great performance. Yet, it is weird to have so many decks with such great numbers attached to them, without any actually breaking through as a metagame defining deck.
The simplest explanation is that all those decks rely on specific cards or patterns to excel, and post great results as long as they can rely on those. The more games they play, and the more they face the likes of Gladiator, Red Guardian, Negasonic Teenage Warhead… cards able to derail their plan, and make them look like average performers. Then, those results are either due to a few players able to navigate the Disruptive Destroy match-ups, especially when it comes to snaps and retreats. Or the potential of those decks when they don’t face the dominant synergy too much.
Cerebro 2
den
Performance: 1 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate / 130 Games
Good Cards Buff
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate / 170 Games
Small End of Turn
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate / 180 Games
Hela Discard
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate / 100 Games
Scream Move
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate / 110 Games
Disruptive Surfer
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate / 140 Games
Tier 1
Fenris Destroy
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
At this point, I think we just need to accept that Fenris Wolf, Gladiator, Shang-Chi and whatever destroy oriented card will lead to a strong deck. Then, with that package being dominant at the moment, building against itself might be the way to go.
Death will often be discounted by both players, while she beats Gladiator. Lady Deathstrike removes the opposite Fenris Wolf, and The Hood plus Misery are a destroy oriented duo to create points.
Luna Snow doesn’t really ramp towards anything but Lady Deathstrike, but she helps discount Death. All the other cards are just strong standalone inclusions.
Fenris Wolf isn’t a support package to another synergy anymore. It is the foundation of the deck, just like Good Cards became its own thing at some point.
Potential Additions
Shadow King and Juggernaut are the most flexible cards in the deck, but add late disruptive potential if your destroy cards were not enough up until that point. Iron Patriot is just quite simple to trigger with Luna Snow, Juggernaut, and Gladiator in the deck.
Wiccan Control
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
This report has a ton of decks with low sample sizes filling our Trending section, and they probably have Wiccan Control to thank for it. Indeed, with 1,400 games recorded, this archetype easily wins the popularity contest.
When you factor in its 60% win rate over so many games, it suddenly becomes clear why no other deck or synergy manages to break through : You have to beat Fenris Wolf and Wiccan to be more than a niche archetype at the moment.
60% win rate over 1400 games tells me most decks are not beating it.
Potential Additions
Red Guardian and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are the flexible cards in the 3-cost slot. Galactus First Steps can become Alioth if you run high power cards as your 3-costs.
Tier 2
Mill
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
Mill is one of the strongest archetypes in the game currently, due to mixing multiple disruptive synergy while still developing a decent amount of points for a deck focused on annoying its opponent first and foremost.
Yet, Mill suffers from everyone running away against a snap, as stealing a key card early from their deck often equals the opponent not having a great hand. Snapping very early in a match is proably the way to play Mill at the moment.
Potential Additions
Death, Killmonger, Lady Deathstrike and Firehair are a flexible package. Mercury plus Cannonball, Grandmaster, Nico Minoru, Merlin… The deck is quite flexible in terms of playable cards.
Ongoing
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
Since it won the first qualifier of the Golden Gauntlet tournament, the Ongoing synergy gained some popularity, and managed to remain a popular pick. With End of Turn not a dominant archetype anymore, Ongoing is not built to beat any deck in particular anymore, but still benefits from Cosmo, Gorgon or Mercury to pack some generic disruptive options.
At the moment, it is one of the few archetypes with both the numbers and enough games under its belt to make a real claim at being an alternative to Fenris Wolf.
Potential Additions
Astral Projection is the wild card here. It could be a Rogue, Mister Fantastic, Stardust, Armor… This slot depends what you want to edge the deck against.
Toxic
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate
Toxic looks like a deck from the trending section which kept playing and inevitably ended up hurting its numbers. 0.35 cubes per match and 57.5% Win Rate is quite good, but a notch below decks built around the disruptive destroy package, most sitting at 59% win rate.
A lot of decks feel like Toxic right now. Strong enough to represent a fine competitive option, but forced to aknowledge there is another, stronger synergy available.
Potential Additions
Speed is the flexible card in the deck, if you wanted a more flexible card rather than a lots of points. Yet, having those 8 or 9 points really helps when you can’t afflict your opponent’s cards enough to win with a relatively low score.
Tier 3
Not only are these archetype posting a worse win rate than the synergies we discussed already, they also lack the surprise factor required to keep opponents in a match when the stakes are about to grow.
Fenris Wolf decks aren’t catching anyone off guard anymore, but you can always hope they have not drawn into Cannonball, or have a shot at winning if they place their cards a certain way on turn six.
Against Discard, Destroy, or Iron Hand, you know everything before turn six, as you saw Deadpool grow, Daken and Bullseye are on the board, and Victoria was copied by Frigga at some point in the match.
Not only they are winning less, the way they execute their game plan already brings fewer cubes per win.
Thanos Destroy
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 50% Win Rate
Deadpool Destroy
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate
Iron Hand
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate
Bullseye Discard
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate
Nimrod Destroy
den
Performance: 0.2 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate
Priority Rocks
den
Performance: 0.15 Cube Average / 52.5% 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 or Win Rate > 60%
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 lacking some surprise factor, 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 > 0.15
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.
More Content