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
Following an eventful OTA, many players wonder which decks would rise and bring that long awaited diversity in a Marvel Snap meta that has featured the same strategies for far too long. With the change to Arishem, it was clear that the archetype would lose most of its momentum. Honestly, it is quite surprising to even see it make it as a Silent Performer; it would have been ranked in Tier 2 if more games were played.
In the void left by Arishem, there aren’t many new faces to find. None, in fact, unless you consider Lockjaw and Hela to be exotic builds. If you do, you’ll have to wait and see how they survive the test of time, as they are both starting pretty low on the Tier List already.
As for those at the top, there aren’t any decks you didn’t already know. Discard Dracula, Pure Move, and a flurry of Good Cards builds of all kinds—which look to have grabbed most of the space left by Arishem—made up the Top 3 this week.
The meta looks to be a battle between the remaining strong decks with a few old faces peeking out of the woodwork. It is still pretty early after the OTA, though, so the lead that Discard built might not mean much. It was the only archetype to beat all the Good Cards lists, as well as the sole list with a Win Rate above 60%. Maybe that was due to being the easiest deck to pilot among the Tier 1 contenders, or maybe it really is the best deck following the OTA. Let’s find out!
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Mill |
| Silent Performer | Arishem |
| Tier 1 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards |
| Tier 1 | Pure Move |
| Tier 2 | Thanos 10 Power |
| Tier 2 | Mister Negative |
| Tier 2 | Small Good Cards |
| Tier 2 | Lockjaw On Reveal Hammer |
| Tier 2 | Stature Darkhawk |
| Tier 3 | Hela Discard |
| Tier 3 | Galactus Destroy |
| 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 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 > 0.3 & 58% Win Rate
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 > 0.2
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.
Silent Performers
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Tier 1
Discard Dracula
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After an impactful balance update, there is always a synergistic, ready-to-go kind of deck that puts up incredible numbers. Looking the previous season, Discard was a prime candidate for the role, and it did not disappoint. Quite the opposite, actually; it overperformed this week. Indeed, with a 0.8 Cube Average and 62.5% Win Rate over 250 games, this deck could have ranked first back in the old Shuri days.
It is almost too good to be true!
Potential Additions
Malekith and Strong Guy were a popular duo last season, but Swarm and Fenris Wolf appear to have taken over in December.
Good Cards
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There are a ton of lists for the Good Cards archetype at the moment. None were particularly better than the rest, but all were worthy of the Tier 1 distinction. The featured list, which was also the best performer in Conquest, held a 0.7 Cube Average with a 56% Win Rate.
The Wiccan-based lists tended to win more games, but none of them even came close to such a high Cube Average. If you need to gain some momentum or complete win based missions, those could make sense. Otherwise, winning more cubes is still the best way to gauge the power of a deck.
Potential Additions
Here’s an example of a Wiccan list.
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Pure Move
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Pure Move might be the most reliable archetype in the game since it was pushed during the September season. Since then, the archetype has constantly been a top ten archetype (routinely in the top five, even), and it was often one of the few decks able to rival the Agent Venom, Surtur, and other past juggernauts. At a 58% Win Rate and 0.55 Cube Average, Pure Move is once again a very strong deck to consider.
This time, the deck came back to its low curve list with some Bounce elements, also including Peni Parker and a recently buffed Frigga in the mix. This list tends to be even harder to pilot compared to the Heimdall Move list, but, considering the track record of Move over the past three months, investing some time into the synergy would hardly be wasted.
Potential Additions
Cloak and defensive cards such as Cosmo and Juggernaut typically do well in these lists.
Tier 2
Thanos 10 Power
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Thanos has been a secondary way to build around Wiccan for the past few weeks, and it still is. The 10 Power deck, however, doesn’t have a default list anymore (at least not one that appeared in the data and was worth discussing), so Thanos ended up being the best way to build that synergy. It might look like I’m just trying to fit an exotic Thanos into the Tier List, but the 59% Win Rate is in top three on this list. Plus, this deck might very well have the highest points potential among decks that are not based around a gimmicky synergy.
It has to sacrifice the typical disruptive slots to fit Caiera and Marvel Boy, but in return it gains more resistance against flexible decks thanks to a higher points ceiling.
Potential Additions
This alternate version of Thanos also did well this week.
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Mister Negative
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Mister Negative is basically the same deck in Conquest and Ranked. It has a solid points output, but it’s weak to Mobius M. Mobius or Alioth (and in deep trouble against Mill).
At a 55% Win Rate, Mister Negative can produce a big Cube Average, around 0.4 or 0.5 if you get your Snaps right. On the other hand, the Win Rate isn’t high enough to guarantee anything if you decide if you risk staying in games with Mobius M. Mobius or without an early Mister Negative.
Potential Additions
Super-Skrull can replace Wong for the mirror match or for decks with Gorr.
Small Good Cards
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Ever since it was changed, Agent Venom has not been a meta menace anymore; it’s barely even been featured in the competitive environment. Still, the card remains powerful enough to push a deck around it if you really want.
Other decks could have been in this spot, such as Scream Move or War Machine Ramp, but those didn’t have enough games recorded (or a good enough track record to be listed as Silent Performers). At a 58.5% Win Rate, Small Good Cards was good enough to be shared on this report, but only just.
Potential Additions
Cards with a low power and cost but a strong ability definitely fit this deck’s mold.
Tier 3
Lockjaw Hammers
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After their recent buffs, Lockjaw and Beta Ray Bill didn’t look much different, except they got more popular. Indeed, at a 0.2 Cube Average and 52.5% Win Rate, Lockjaw was good enough to climb the Ladder, but it definitely was not the fastest or the most reliably choice.
Stature Darkhawk
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Black Widow lost a power and this deck’s best match up (Arishem) lost almost all its popularity in the latest OTA. From this angle, it is almost remarkable that Stature Darkhawk managed to be on this list with a 54% Win Rate.
The Cube Average was way down compared to before the OTA at 0.2 for the best list, which is a naturally consequence of losing the Arishem match up. It used to be an easy Snap for Stature Darkhawk.
Hela Discard
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Although it is very far from its prime, Hela still holds a special place in the hearts of some players, some of which will go back to the deck whenever in doubt. At a 0.15 Cube Average and 51% Win Rate, it is difficult to say they are right, but testing is part of figuring out a new meta.
Galactus Destroy
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After showing up in the Conquest Tier List, I wanted to see how this deck fared in Ranked to assess if it had any chance of staying relevant in the future. The 52% Win Rate isn’t so bad, but the Cube Average is very low at around 0.1. If this deck can’t rely on the surprise factor, I doubt it has a shot at going anywhere.
Closing Words
So far, the meta hasn’t really shown a reason why Arishem suffered a nerf while the other strong decks didn’t. The frustrations discussed in the patch notes explained why the developers decided to target this specific archetype, but the immediate consequences have only been limiting the very good archetypes in the game to one less than before the OTA.
I’m rooting for something different to emerge, but all the buffs (except for Frigga in the Pure Move list) have failed to make a difference as of yet.
To reach out, 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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