Table of Contents
I didn’t expect to have enough data to look with an OTA three days ago, but there were enough games played to look at the Infinite ranks only. However, this is our usual slightly different tier list compared to the other weeks as I looked at the whole Infinite Rank. Typically, I try to filter to the top half only, to target the players looking to climb and cut those playing for fun now that the Infinite goal is achieved.
In that context, the numbers of most decks still look pretty close to what I could observe if I included the 90s ranks, with bots still in the mix.
Among the unlikely contenders, we find Ongoing, End of Turn, Discard Dracula mostly, all three ranked in the top 7 when they struggled to even make it onto the report last season. It is possible the new season cards plus the OTA have everyone excited to play with new synergies, and forgot certain decks are fantastic if you let them develop freely. Otherwise, this is our usual week 1 bubble, which will burst on its own, and give us a clearer picture of the top contenders.
If I had to venture a guess, I would say Iron Hand and Disruptive Move are staying at the top, or at least fighting for it. Chamber Ramp looks pretty good for a new deck, able to develop a solid amount of points with a bit of disruption as well. Low-Power Good Cards is another one to keep an eye on, as the deck was already decent before the OTA, and the change to Spider-Man Noir improved it drastically.
On Reveal Rocks is the last one I would keep on my radar, especially if the metagame keeps moving towards more synergistic decks. However, the one failed to rise during last season’s final week, so it is possible the early buff is helping this one more than the others I mentioned.
As for the others on the list, I have a feeling they will lose momentum as the best decks gain popularity, and disruptive cards are figured out for this new season.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Iron Hand 0.85 Cube Average / 61.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 1 | Disruptive Move 0.8 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Ongoing 0.65 Cube Average / 61.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 1 | Chamber Ramp 0.6 Cube Average / 61.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | End of Turn 0.7 Cube Average / 60.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | Low-Power Good Cards 0.7 Cube Average / 60% Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula 0.60 Cube Average / 60.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | On Reveal Rocks 0.7 Cube Average / 59.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 3 | Wiccan Created Cards 0.45 Cube Average / 57.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 3 | Man-Spider Combo 0.55 Cube Average / 56.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 3 | Energy Overload 0.6 Cube Average / 56.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 3 | Weapon X Destroy 0.45 Cube Average / 56.5% Cube Average |
| Tier 3 | Deadpool Destroy 0.55 Cube Average / 55.5% Cube Average |
Tier 1
Iron Hand
Performance: 0.85 Cube Average / 61.5% Cube Average
The best deck at the end of last season, Iron Hand could have earned that spot due to Move being targeted. Early in this new season, there isn’t much of Mercury around, so that excuse is gone. As such, there is little left to say except Iron Hand is the best Marvel Snap archetype until proven otherwise, featuring both a solid points potential, and multiple flexible slots for counter cards.
Potential Additions
Quake is the flexible card in the build. Rogue and Shadow King are also non-essentiel pieces, but make sense against multiple archetypes at the moment.
Armor makes sense due to Destroy theme of the season pass, Mobius M. Mobius, Gorgon and such cards able to disrupt popular archetype are good considerations as well.
Disruptive Move
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
With Human Torch nerfed, the amount of Mercury has reduced a ton, only remaining a staple in Disruptive move, a deck happy to run cards able to move to beef up Kraven or Batroc the Leaper.
With its best match-up gone, but much fewer counters around, Disruptive Move has become a proactive build with extreme flexibility when it comes to positioning. Indeed, except for Killmonger to remove Batroc the Leaper, landing a Shadow King against this deck requires knowing where the target will be, on top of holding priority to dodge Cosmo and Juggernaut.
Potential Additions
Juggernaut and Cosmo serve as protective and disruptive pieces. There aren’t that many cards able to serve both purposes, leaving Mercury as the most flexible cards in the deck.
Hellion could be Heimdall for those missing the card.
Ongoing
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 61.5% Cube Average
This one is the biggest surprise of the report, as the Ongoing archetype had been very discreet for a long time. Plus, we can see Rogue in Iron Hand, and Enchantress in Chamber Ramp to directly counter this deck.
I guess this is one of those week one anomalies that happen every month. Maybe Ongoing dodged all those counter cards, or perhaps they only appeared recently, limiting their impact against this deck so far. No matter the reason, I’ll believe this ranking if I see this deck repeat next week.
Potential Additions
Many Ongoing cards can fit this deck’s strategy, such as Mobius M. Mobius, U.S. Agent, Gorgon… It depends if you want to edge towards points or disruption more.
Chamber Ramp
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 61.5% Cube Average
The nerf to War Machine didn’t impact the other Ramp deck that much, considering the now 5-cost can still follow-up on Electro. However, we could still see a lot less of that deck as there is a new Ramp deck in town.
This one relies heavily on drawing a 3-cost to skip directly to five energies, which can lead to a certain amount of 1-cube retreats. Otherwise, Chamber features a lot of a metagame contender’s trait.
We have a ton of unpredictability through creating cards, combined with energy cheats through Eson summoning said cards, or Blink swapping Electro for a high-cost replacement. There are two disruptive cards, on top of Vision changing our points spread if needed. Last, although the play patterns aren’t flexible, especially if Electro is in play, plenty of points can be developed.
This is a snap and retreat type of deck which likely will lose some win rate in the near future. Yet, the early reviews are great for Chamber Ramp.
Potential Additions
War Machine, Ebony Maw and The Infinaut see play in this archetype, but the results of that build aren’t as good as the featured build.
Galactus First Steps and Vision leave in that logic, with Ebony Maw replacing Enchantress most of the time.
Tier 2
End of Turn
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 60.5% Cube Average
End of Turn stayed in the metagame after the multiple nerfs it suffered, but failed to be a contender in recent times. As such, it is a surprise to see the archetype post such fantastic numbers to kick off the season, especially as there were enough games to targets players in the Infinite Rank only.
The list has not changed one bit, so the reason isn’t some sort of innovation. Then, either you believe the environment is much better for the End of Turn synergy, or maybe there is a bit of Week 1 magic involved here.
Potential Additions
Bruce Banner and Adam Warlock trade the 12th spot in the list, depending on if you are looking for more points or stability.
Low-Power Good Cards
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 60% Cube Average
As soon as the OTA went live, everyone knew this deck was going to be popular, as the perfect home to test the new and improved Spider-Man Noir. The list is very close to what we knew when the 4-cost first released, the main change being Silver Sable and Superior Spider-Man replacing Pixie and Nico Minoru.
To be fair, I’m not exactly sure why we need the extra energy looking at the deck’s average cost. Plus, we are not running Mystique so playing Iron Man or Gorr a turn earlier does nothing but expose them to an Enchantress or Rogue.
Overall, I feel like this deck still requires work, but is a great building block to determine whether Spider-Man Noir is now worth building a deck around. The results seem to point towards a yes, although the deck did worse than Ongoing or End of Turn, two decks out of the competitive talk most of last season.
I’ll need more from this archetype to be convinced.
Potential Additions
Superior Spider-Man and Silver Sable are the two cards I would at if I wanted to include something else. Mystique, Esme Cuckoo, Ravonna Renslayer all make sense to consider, while Nico Minoru typically takes the third 1-cost spot.
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.60 Cube Average / 60.5% Cube Average
Discard beating Destroy during the first week of its featured season is ironic to say the least. Even more so as Armor didn’t become a popular inclusion in any deck, while Deafening Chord of CosmicGhostRider remains among popular disruption inclusions.
This is another archetype known for its ability to reach infinite and fairly simple strategy to understand. However, Discard Dracula is also famous for posting strong Week 1 numbers and then disappear for most of the season.
Potential Additions
Colonel America competes with Lady Sif for that slot, while the Collector and Colleen Wing also make sense in the deck.
On Reveal Rocks
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 59.5% Cube Average
This is an interesting development for the Werewolf By Night – Merlin pair, now flanked by Prowler, as it is the first time we see their best deck not be a Zombie Horde build.
In a diverse metagame, the rock synergy makes sense to disrupt any sort of opponent, while Sentry and Annihilus have been used as support disruption as well in the past. However, the deck still has to prove it isn’t just a patchwork of On Reveal synergies, and actually a cohesive unit. Werewolf by Night ties the entire thing together, but I wonder if the deck can compete when that particular 3-cost does not show up on time.
- Are there enough points early for Terrax the Tamer to feed Darkhawk enough?
- Do we have time to play Prowler’s tools when they cost 1?
- Is Deafening Chord enough disruption against the archetypes with a higher celling?
Looking at some decks ranked above, it is clear a solid points potential will get you far in this week 1 metagame. However, Human Torch’s nerf almost kicked Mercury out of the metagame, a great opportunity for Werewolf By Night to thrive once again. If this is the best the 3-cost can achieve, it is a worrisome going forward.
Potential Additions
Sentry and Annihilus are one package, while Korg, Cassandra Nova, Terrax the Tamer and Darkhawk are another. Grand Master is also flexible, depending on how many targets are in the deck.
Depending on how many other cards you want to fit, you could touch any of those areas.
As for possible replacements, there is a long list including Mercury and Cannonball, the Undead Horde synergy around Zombie Scarlet Witch or synergistic standalone cards such as Hawkeye Kate Bishop, Spider-Punk plus Ghost Spider…
Tier 3
The main information we can get from this Tier 3 is the fact Weapon X Wolverine failed to make Destroy a dominant synergy, while Deadpool Destroy was doing much better at the end of last season, compared to the start of this one.
Currently, the Destroy synergy as a whole is among the most popular ones in the game, and its relatively bad showing might explain why so many other decks are doing well : They are beating Destroy.
Shadow King must be a big reason, as the 3-cost was already great against Deadpool and Venom, now joined by the new season pass card.
Another big one is the fact Weapon X Wolverine plays very similarly to Deadpool : If you don’t see it early, you know your opponent isn’t having their best draw. Then, no matter the type of Destroy you are up against, you basically know their ceiling by turn two or three, which helps a ton to snap and retreat optimally.
Wiccan, Man-Spider and the Energy Overload deck suffer from the same problem : They are fairly easy to figure out once you know what you are up against. In a metagame mostly focused on developing points, being predictable means your opponent gets to snap safely, and cut their losses when they understand you have all your key pieces.
Wiccan Created Cards
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 57.5% Cube Average
Man-Spider Combo
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 56.5% Cube Average
Energy Overload
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 56.5% Cube Average
Weapon X Destroy
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 56.5% Cube Average
Deadpool Destroy
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 55.5% Cube Average
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.
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.
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.
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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