Table of Contents
The meta has not changed much with the OTA; Surtur and Doctor Doom 2099 are still running wild. Some counter strategies have started to emerged, though, which might limit their dominance heading into the second part of the season.
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Good Cards Control 0.7 Cube Rate / 60% Win Rate / 110 Games |
| Tier 1 | 10 Power 0.6 Cube Rate / 63% Win Rate / 200 Games |
| Tier 1 | High Evo Toxic 0.45 Cube Rate / 59% Win Rate / 820 Games |
| Tier 1 | Ongoing Doom 0.5 Cube Rate / 59% Win Rate / 170 Games |
| Tier 1 | Arishem 0.45 Cube Rate / 58.5% Win Rate / 280 Games |
| Tier 2 | Scream Doom 0.3 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 430 Games |
| Tier 2 | Bullseye Discard 0.3 Cube Rate / 56.5% Win Rate / 710 Games |
| Tier 2 | Hela Discard 0.35 Cube Rate / 54% Win Rate / 250 Games |
| Tier 2 | Small Good Cards 0.25 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 350 Games |
| Tier 3 | Mill 0.3 Cube Rate / 54% Win Rate / 280 Games |
| Tier 3 | Mister Negative 0.3 Cube Rate / 52% Win Rate / 280 Games |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| Deck | Performance |
| Hela Discard | 0.9 Cube Rate / 61.5% Win Rate / 150 Games |
| Bullseye Discard | 0.9 Cube Rate / 61% Win Rate / 130 Games |
| Small Good Cards | 0.9 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 120 Games |
| Ongoing Doom | 0.8 Cube Rate / 64% Win Rate / 180 Games |
| 10 Power | 0.8 Cube Rate / 62% Win Rate / 220 Games |
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.
Marvel Snap Meta Overview
A few emerging decks in an ocean of well known contenders is the best way to describe the meta following the recent OTA.
Among the three nerfed cards, only Wiccan seems to be missing from the meta (although the card is used in some builds of Good Cards Control). As for Surtur and Doctor Doom 2099, it feels like nothing has changed so far. Regarding the buffs, High Evo Toxic is making good use of the new [2/3] Scorpion, while Adam Warlock managed to sneak into a few lists—but only Small Good Cards has it in its top performing deck. Still, the rankings tell me that the nerfed cards probably could have been hit a little more.
I decided to dig a little deeper, and here are a few interactions I found that are worth noting:
- Scream is gaining a lot of momentum as a counter to Sam Wilson captain America. The card solely cancels the points given by Cap's Shield.
- Mobius M. Mobius remains a popular counter card because it limits both Bullseye Discard and Mister Negative. It doesn’t seem to bother 10 Power too much, but maybe that deck would be dominating even more without Mobius around.
- The Toxic synergy appears to be the best way to disrupt the 10 Power deck, which explains its current great results.
Apart from these specific patterns, the current meta rewards proactive development and closing the door on your opponent’s comeback. The trickiest part is timing your Snap; you want to make sure it’s early enough to keep your opponent in the game while making sure that you’re in a safe enough position to prevent a comeback.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Trending
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Rate / 60% Win Rate / 110 Games
Flexible standalone cards with simple synergies won’t ever produce the same fireworks as 12 cards that all work together to achieve a combo. However, they also won’t ever give you totally unplayable games. That is precisely the idea of this deck: produce points and derail the opponent’s game plan, or play from behind.
If you enjoy flexible strategies, this is the deck to test.
Potential Additions
Adam Warlock, Sam Wilson captain America, and Red Guardian also match the concept of this build if you want to swap some cards.
Tier 1
10 Power
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Rate / 63% Win Rate / 200 Games
Even though it was recently nerfed, 10 Power is looking good as new. It seems like it will take more than just a slap on Surtur‘s wrist to make the 10 Power archetype go away. Toxic is gaining momentum as a way to limit the archetype, and I’ve been seeing more of Silver Sable in other archetypes, too. At least the community noticed there was a need to target this deck.
Potential Additions
Aero and Thaddeus Ross are part of another top performing list for the 10 Power archetype, replacing Iron Patriot and Ares (in case you’re missing either of those).
High Evo Toxic
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Rate / 59% Win Rate / 820 Games
Operating in the shadows for a bit as a counter to the 10 Power archetype, the buff to Scorpion finally gave the Toxic synergy a reason to gain a lot of popularity.
So far, the archetype is at its best with explosive play patterns taking care of the points, which gives Toxic some unpredictability and more than its default disruptive play style plus Ajax. However, Mobius M. Mobius‘s popularity could prompt Miles Morales and Abomination to be replaced in the future.
Potential Additions
Nebula synergizes well with Rocket and Groot. Otherwise, Sam Wilson captain America and Miles Morales go together, same for High Evolutionary and Abomination. If you’re missing one, you would have to replace both cards.
Malekith, U.S. Agent, Luke Cage and Anti-Venom, Iron Patriot, Zabu… There are tons of cards you can use to replace a missing card.
Ongoing Doom
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Rate / 59% Win Rate / 170 Games
Another deck unphased by the OTA, the Ongoing archetype kept doing its best work with Doctor Doom 2099 included in the mix. When the card hits the board on Turn 3 or 4 and is followed by Blue Marvel and either the other Doctor Doom or Spectrum, the points produced across all three lanes are hard to match. This deck feels reminiscent of Patriot back in the day when that deck could slam points on every location and let opponents find a way to deal with them.
Potential Additions
Super-Skrull, Cosmo, Ebony Maw, and Madame Web are all solid Ongoing cards you can use to replace a missing card.
Arishem
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Rate / 58.5% Win Rate / 280 Games
Just like the previous entry, Arishem is still posting its best results with Doctor Doom 2099 in the list. As such, the OTA basically had no impact on Arishem; however, the return of Toxic, a deck using Cassandra Nova, might.
Potential Additions
Magneto, Quinjet, Lady Deathstrike, Juggernaut, and Red Guardian exist in other good Arishem builds.
Tier 2
Scream Doom
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 430 Games
Continuing our tour of the “Doctor Doom 2099 is still good” exhibit, here’s Scream Move! This is a great deck in a meta with a lot of Sam Wilson captain America around. This archetype also has a version that mixes in the 10 Power archetype, which shows that the Scream package is nice to buildaround at the moment. Still, while the hybrid versions are very popular at the top ranks, it seems that the more straight forward 10 Power or Ongoing Doom decks do better outside the top 1000.
Potential Additions
There is a 10 Power version with Hydra Bob, Surtur, Ares, Cull Obsidian, and Heimdall replacing Nebula, Rocket and Groot, Sandman, and both Dooms.
Bullseye Discard
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Rate / 56.5% Win Rate / 710 Games
Hela is slowly catching up to Bullseye in the race for the best Discard build; it even posted a slightly better Cube Rate after the OTA. This is about the only thing worth discussing for the Bullseye Discard deck, though. It has been basically the same for almost a month at this point.
Potential Additions
Frigga can replace Grand Master, but you could play both if you remove Gambit or Scorn.
Hela Discard
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Rate / 54% Win Rate / 250 Games
Thaddeus Ross isn’t part of the best performing list for any archetype except Hela, which could be enough for those who got the card. Points wise, Hela has always been good enough to contend—its the reliability and predictability that holds the deck back. It probably won’t ever be possible to build a surprising Hela deck, but the new 2-Cost helped the reliability aspect.
Potential Additions
Blink can replace Aero or Iron Man as another way to find Hela (in case you often find her at the bottom of your deck).
Small Good Cards
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 350 Games
I was hopeful that Adam Warlock would shake things up since the new ability seemed very promising. So far, the card only made it into Agent Venom decks; the competition at the 2-Cost slot is just too fierce. It’s only been two days, though, so maybe the card just needs more time to find its groove like it did in the Small Good Cards deck. Or maybe Iron Patriot and Sam Wilson captain America are untouchable at the moment.
Potential Additions
Havok, U.S. Agent, and Cosmo are common inclusions in the archetype. Valkyrie could also make sense, especially if you see a lot of 10 Power.
Tier 3
Mill
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Rate / 54% Win Rate / 280 Games
The 10 Power deck limits the Destroy synergy, and Mobius M. Mobius locks you out Death even if you do destroy things. At the moment, Mill really only shines when you dismantle the opponent’s deck or steal their key cards early on. It simply isn’t the right meta for the deck, but that could change if 10 Power loses some momentum in the future.
Potential Additions
Red Guardian is the common replacement for Lady Deathstrike.
Mister Negative
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Rate / 52% Win Rate / 280 Games
Mobius M. Mobius shuts you down completely, and Snapping early still exposes you to an unlucky Cosmo countering Mister Negative. Just like Mill, this isn’t a great meta for Mister Negative since the archetype which requires perfect Snap and Retreat mastery to post solid results.
Potential Additions
Super-Skrull basically kills Ongoing decks, while Ironheart can replace a missing Cassandra Nova or Sage.
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 >0.4 & 58% Win Rate
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 or > 0.2 & 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 > 0.20 & Win Rate < 58%
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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