Table of Contents
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 OTA that was supposed to solve the Arishem problem happened, and Marvel Snap has gained more diversity in the process. The former meta tyrant is still around; it’s part of the top tier decks at a 0.45 Cube Average and 57% Win Rate. Arguably, the archetype remains a strong contender in this new, still forming meta, but it does not deserve to be hard targeted like it was during most of July. Plus, Cassandra Nova is now available, and that’s enough to anchor a lane for anyone against an Arishem deck.
This is probably a big reason why the deck managed to stay afloat and remain a solid archetype. Several decks have switched to Sandman or Shadow King to account for Good Cards Move, the expected new meta king, instead of Darkhawk and Cassandra Nova.
But this is where things gets interesting! The performance of several archetypes was impacted by the fact that they were expected and adapted against (or not). A new deck, called Midrange Sandman for lack of a better name, posted an impressive 65% Win Rate on the back of consistently beating Good Cards Move. Fortunately for the Good Cards archetype, its great flexibility allowed it to still post a great performance with the Darkhawk build (partly because it’s also able to profit from people still playing Arishem Loki).
You can already see the typical triangle of archetypes adapting against each other, depending on which is the most popular at the time.
Alongside them are the decks that can compete on points, which gives them a fighting chance depending on their draw. Silver Surfer, Kazoolgamesh, Discard, and Patriot highlight the synergies with less card slots available to adapt, but they’re still able to run one, sometimes two disruptive cards. The basic proactive synergy is good enough to make those decks good Tier 2 or Tier 3 contenders, and they have the potential to reach higher tiers when their limited disruption makes sense in the meta.
Overall, the meta is already more diverse than it was for most of the season. There aren’t a lot more decks yet, and Arishem Loki is still a fairly popular deck that you’ll encounter, but more cards make sense to play. Also, the best archetype is yet to be figured out, as these early rankings reflect the ability to beat a popular strategy more than the sheer potential of a deck.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Midrange Sandman |
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Thena |
| Tier 2 | Arishem Loki |
| Tier 2 | Kazoolgamesh |
| Tier 2 | Patriot |
| Tier 2 | Darkhawk Stature |
| Tier 3 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 3 | Toxic Surfer |
| 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.
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 > 0.3
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.
Tier 1
Midrange Sandman
After an OTA, you typically want to take your deckbuilding in two possible directions: build around established synergies, or just get the best standalone cards together to play on curve. Midrange Sandman took the second road, and it is having amazing success so far. It posted a 0.6 Cube Average and 65% Win Rate, which are the best in this report for both metrics.
The deck is already a natural counter to all the decks that are looking to pull off specific combos thanks to Sandman shutting them off on Turn 6. Plus, Copycat sometimes steal a key card, or Spider-Ham transforms one, which are more shots at a free Snap. More importantly, this deck is pretty simple to pilot. You want to play on curve unless a better option shows up, and either attack two lanes if you have Red Hulk or all three with Sandman into Ultron.
We’ll see if the deck can keep this level of performance going forward. Until then, this is the clear winner of the first few days after the OTA.
Potential Additions
White Widow, Jessica Jones, and Doctor Doom are cards I’ve seen in various versions of this deck.
Silver Surfer
den
Are you unsure of what to play and don’t feel comfortable adapting to the meta already? Silver Surfer is probably the archetype you are looking for. Indeed, even if the deck can take on a reactive role with Red Guardian or Killmonger, it is at its best when playing for points early with Brood, Absorbing Man, and Gwenpool.
Patriot and Silver Surfer have always had a battle for which one was best since both decks share multiple similarities. With Sandman atop the Tier List, you might think Patriot is the better option (and it might be against Midrange Sandman specifically). But overall, Silver Surfer was the better deck, rocking a 58% Win Rate and 0.5 Cube Average.
Potential Additions
Spider-Ham and Copycat are a great duo if you want disruption rather than points. Otherwise, Red Guardian could be another strong 3-Cost like Cassandra Nova, Mobius M. Mobius, or Rogue.
Good Cards Thena
Expected to rule Marvel Snap once Arishem was heavily nerfed, this list posted a solid but somewhat disappointing performance (at least compared to the expectations).
At a 57% Win Rate and 0.45 Cube Average, this deck is definitely in the conversation for the top decks. But with the Move, Darkhawk, and this more disruptive build using Red Guardian and Alioth, Good Cards has shown that it can adapt, but it hasn’t shown that it can dominate quite yet.
The common part of all those decks is the Thena, Kitty Pryde, Angela, Hope Summers core, which gives the deck cheap cards to use while guaranteeing points and flexibility. The thing is, with Arishem nerfed, the other archetypes have more leeway to run Shadow King or Sandman, both of which are able to attack the core of Good Cards. In this context, Good Cards feels basically the same as before the OTA, except it is now the prey rather than the hunter.
Potential Additions
Korg, Rockslide, and Darkhawk help against Arishem, and you could run plenty of strong standalones such as Cosmo or Juggernaut in place of Red Guardian or Copycat.
Tier 2
Arishem Loki
den
With a 0.4 Cube Average, you could say Arishem Loki is now a good deck, but not a particularly dominant one. However, the 60% Win Rate is only second to the rising Midrange Sandman. It beat out all the other archetypes that the community expected would take over after the OTA. With this in mind, I have a few questions to ask:
- Is Arishem Loki still the best deck in the game? Probably not, but it is still in the discussion.
- Do we still need to build against Arishem Loki specifically? Maybe not as much as before the OTA, but forgetting about it definitely seems like a bad idea.
- Will Arishem Loki get even better in the future once the list is refined?
The last question is particularly important in my opinion. Indeed, even if the list is quite similar to what it was before the OTA, this deck was nerfed only a few days ago, so there must be room to improve—especially if the meta isn’t trying to counter Arishem Loki anymore.
My advice is to keep Cassandra Nova in your deck for now.
Potential Additions
The deck clearly is in rebuilding mode, so feel free to test any card combinations as long as you run strong standalone cards. For example, Leech and Blink work well together, but they also function on their own.
Kazoolgamesh
den
A simple game plan, enough points to compete with a good draw, and a couple of slots for counter cards is a great recipe after an OTA. Plus, with Shadow King representing a great tool against Good Cards, Kazoolgamesh had every reason to make a comeback. And it was quite a convincing one too, as the 0.35 Cube Average and 57.5% Win Rate are both much better than what the deck posted throughout the rest of the season. As such, if you consider that Silver Surfer and Good Cards we around already before the OTA, Kazoo takes the title of comeback king for this week.
Potential Additions
Echo, Alioth, Cosmo, or other disruptive cards that you can leverage when you have priority are great in Kazoo. Ultron could make sense if you expect to see a lot of Midrange Sandman decks as well.
Patriot
den
Patriot quickly rose as a simple yet effective way to beat the Midrange Sandman deck since your Ultron or Doctor Doom is much better than your opponent’s ones on Turn 6. However, even if Cassandra Nova into Absorbing Man is great into Arishem and allows the deck to cover enough archetypes in the meta to make it a solid pick, Patriot still has the predictability problem. The great Win Rate (58%) needs to be put in perspective, too. It didn’t bring that many cubes home due to Patriot‘s points total often being too simple for the opponent to figure out.
You are supposed to dominate right after a balance update, not show early signs of potential weaknesses—especially when Silver Surfer and Kazoolgamesh represent similar options with better results.
Potential Additions
Cassandra Nova is the flexible 3-Cost, and Sandman could be Iron Man if you want to focus on points.
Darkhawk Stature
Arishem is still a significant part of the post-OTA meta, which means building your deck around Darkhawk is still a viable strategy. Plus, the buff to Moon Knight seems to have finally found its home here; Proxima Midnight is a great target, and it’s the sole even-cost card in the deck. Basically, this duo replaced the Miles Morales package, which was also in charge of providing cheap points. This tilted the deck towards a more disruptive approach, with Spider-Ham and Copycat also making it into the deck.
At a 0.3 Cube Average and a 56% Win Rate, this makes Darkhawk Stature a solid pick overall for someone who is looking to disrupt the opponent as their primary game plan. Plus, Junk didn’t make it into the report, so there aren’t many disruptive archetypes to pick from right now.
Potential Additions
The Hood, Nico Minoru, and Viper are the flexible cards, but they fit the “odd cards only” theme while giving you more cards to play.
I think 2-Cost cards are fine to play in the deck since you can dump them early, or alongside Moon Knight on Turn 6. Otherwise, look for 2- or 3-card synergies that make sense in the deck.
Tier 3
Discard Dracula
den
I expected more from Discard Dracula after the OTA, especially because the deck already started to pick up some momentum last week. With a 0.25 Cube Average and a 54% Win Rate, the deck is decent, but it’s hard to vouch for when you could play Silver Surfer, Patriot, or Kazoolgamesh if you want a proactive archetype.
Toxic Surfer
den
I have been on team “regular Silver Surfer” forever. With Copycat now added to the mix, as well as Nocturne to turn off Limbo and Red Guardian for Wong, I’m already impressed that Toxic Surfer made it into this report.
The deck had a solid 0.3 Cube Average, which would have earned a Tier 2 ranking, but the 50.5% Win Rate is the worst on this report. You need a great Snap discipline for this one.
Closing Words
Unfortunately, I had to leave out plenty of archetypes that I had hoped would return with the OTA. Destroy posted a 48.5% Win Rate, Phoenix Force, Bounce, and Loki only had a 0.1 Cube Average, Lockjaw Hammers did poorly in both metrics. Other decks like Mill, Mister Negative, and On Reveal didn’t even appear in the data I could look at.
The diversity I talked about in the introduction is there, as all those decks I just mentioned had plenty more games under their belts compared before the OTA. However, being more popular can make you less competitive since the surprise factor can be the most important part of a deck with a weaker points potential or the inability to play certain counter cards.
Midrange Sandman is proof that there is room for innovation and deckbuilding. However, Marvel Snap didn’t become an open field where you can play whatever you want. Arishem is still around, as are Good Cards and Silver Surfer. Plus, there are already a few cards (mainly Nocturne and Copycat) that can be seen in basically any archetype, so keep those in mind as well.
In my opinion, the amount of strong disruptive cards we have available make highly synergistic decks that are looking to follow rigid play patterns a terrible idea right now. As long as those are available, the goal for a deck should be to have multiple play patterns it can follow and to keep a couple of slots available to play those disruptive cards themselves. This is exactly what the decks in Tier 1 are doing, and that plays to Arishem‘s strength of relying on strong standalone cards (which explains why it is still an elite archetype, even after two OTAs that targeted it).
Want to get in touch? 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.
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