Table of Contents
While the same archetypes from the last season are still standing strong, there are a few new and returning faces in this week’s Tier List. Also, even though neither of the new cards had the community particularly excited, both Sam Wilson Captain America and Joaquin Torres falcon II found their way into the meta.
The new Season Pass card in particular is having a strong early showing, appearing in several of the top ranked decks such as Scream Move and the new Ongoing Doom deck. It is fair to say that Iron Patriot remains the superior 2-Cost (and Season Pass card) at the moment, but both cards appeared in two of the top four decks so there was barely a gap this week.
The other notable change in the meta is the performance of the synergistic builds, Bullseye Discard and Mister Negative in particular. Both decks posted average performances when bots should have helped boost their numbers, dragging down Mill with them in the process. Compared to the rankings at the end of last season, only 10 Power and Arishem managed to keep their spots. This shows that flexibility and disruption might be the way to go early in this new season.
We will know the true power of each deck once bots aren’t factored into the results. Still, this early race is dominated by decks that share some common traits: lots of points with a solid start, the ability to control their points spread, and some disruption once they build their lead.
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | 10 Power 0.75 Cube Rate / 62% Win Rate / 460 Games |
| Tier 1 | Scream Move 0.6 Cube Rate / 61.5% Win Rate / 700 Games |
| Tier 1 | Arishem 0.55 Cube Rate / 60.5% Win Rate / 250 Games |
| Tier 2 | Bullseye Discard 0.65 Cube Rate / 57% Win Rate / 1100 Games |
| Tier 2 | Ongoing Doom 0.55 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 430 Games |
| Tier 2 | Bounce 0.6 Cube Rate / 57% Win Rate / 300 Games |
| Tier 3 | Mister Negative 1.0 Cube Rate / 52% Win Rate / 250 Games |
| Tier 3 | Good Cards Control 0.35 Cube Rate / 55% Win Rate / 400 Games |
| Tier 3 | Mill 0.3 Cube Rate / 54% Win Rate / 420 Games |
We are in the first week of the season, so the 90s ranks are included in the rankings above. The decks featured in the main chart are the same ones you should use if you’re struggling to get going early in the season. Our Pre-Infinite decks will be back next week!
Tier 1
10 Power
den
Performance: 0.75 Cube Rate / 62% Win rate / 460 Games
This deck is simple to play, great for seizing early priority, and has enough power to challenge almost any deck on that front. All in all, the 10 Power archetype is a great pick to climb. Its only downside is that it bullies the bots so much that you need to Snap super early in the hopes that you can keep them in the game. Fortunately, the Win Rate is high enough to climb even if you don’t win many cubes in every match.
Potential Additions
Iron Patriot is the flexible card in the build, which you would typically replace with another strong 2-Cost or Juggernaut for extra disruption.
Scream Move
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Rate / 61.5% Win Rate / 700 Games
Reinvigorated by the addition of Sam Wilson Captain America, Scream Move was one of the top contenders so far in this season. Its ability to steal power from the opponent’s cards is great against 10 Power, and Sandman can be a real pain for all the flexible decks.
Potential Additions
Red Guardian could replace Rocket and Groot if you’re missing it. Alioth could also be a consideration instead of Magneto to give you an edge against super synergistic decks like Mister Negative.
Arishem
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Rate / 60.5% Win Rate / 250 Games
Just like 10 Power, Arishem didn’t care much about the new cards, and it doesn’t seem to be affected by the other decks using them either.
One thing to note is that the deck has been running more control cards lately. Mobius M. Mobius, Shang-Chi, and Enchantress were all part of the best performing build. This could indicate that Arishem is struggling to dominate through points and needs to rely on disruption a bit more at the moment.
Potential Additions
Mobius M. Mobius can be plenty of different 3-Costs (Red Guardian, Juggernaut, Copycat…), and the Doctor Doom duo can be replaced with Magneto and Lady Deathstrike if you really want to emphasize on disruption.
Tier 2
Bullseye Discard
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Rate / 57% Win Rate / 1100 Games
This is a great deck for farming bots since they are clueless against Bullseye ruining their board on the last turn of play. Discard is also pretty decent against the other decks in the meta as well. If you look at the top performers, you mostly see good targets for Bullseye (it ruins the 10 Power synergy, and Doctor Doom 2099 fills the board with targets) and very little of Red Guardian and Luke Cage.
Naturally, the deck isn’t catching anyone off guard anymore, which means it lost a lot of Snap power. But the rest is fine.
Potential Additions
Grand Master can replace Frigga; Gambit and Moon Knight also trade places for the last spot in the deck.
Ongoing Doom
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Rate / 58% Win Rate / 430 Games
This archetype didn’t exist before Sam Wilson Captain America released, and because of that it is still being refined as we speak. The numbers are already looking pretty good, although it is hard to gauge just how much the bots are impacting the stats.
Synergy wise, this deck combines two ways to fill the board with Ongoing cards. This allows Spectrum to come in and give basically your entire board extra power. In a sense, this plays very similar to a Patriot deck since it is looking to develop on all three lanes.
So far, the deck looks like it is struggling a bit against decks that are able to build two very big locations, such as the 10 Power deck. Still, Cosmo, Goose, and Madame Web help you be flexible and disruptive in those match ups.
Potential Additions
The 2-Cost cards (other than Sam Wilson Captain America) seem to be the most flexible in the deck. You can replace them with other cheap (1- to 3-Cost) Ongoing cards.
Bounce
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Rate / 57% Win Rate / 300 Games
I didn’t think Joaquin Torres falcon II would improve Bounce much, but the card was part of the best performing list and has made Bounce quite popular. The list is almost the same that it has been in the past other than the new card replacing the disruptive card (U.S. Agent or Shadow King) that the deck used to play.
There is quite a lot of Cosmo around, as well as some Sandmans and Alioths in a couple of lists, so it is hard to assess the power of Bounce going forward. For now, it looks to be quite good.
Potential Additions
The 1-Cost cards have to be On Reveal cards, so Iceman and Hawkeye could make sense. Otherwise, the cards you play depend on how “Bouncy” you want to be compared to doing other things. If you want to run a disruptive card, maybe Falcon or Toxin could be replaced.
Tier 3
Mister Negative
den
Performance: 1.0 Cube Rate / 52% Win Rate / 250 Games
Follow the trend we saw towards the end of last season, Mister Negative is back to its usual self: a moderate Win Rate and a great Cube Rate.
For this first week of the season, I give the Win Rate metric much more importance since the bots tend to mess with the Cube Rate quite a bit. However, if Mister Negative posts the same kind of numbers next week, it will definitely deserve a bump to a higher tier.
Potential Additions
Super-Skrull and Wong trade places depending on the match ups you want to gain an edge against.
Good Cards Control
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Rate / 55% Win Rate / 400 Games
This mix of Small Good Cards and Wiccan Control didn’t do particularly well this week, but neither of those two were much better on their own. I guess you could consider this the state of the Good Cards archetype at the moment; those decks tend to lose the points battle to the top tier archetypes a lot, and Arishem provides a solid option when it comes to flexible decks.
Potential Additions
Wiccan and Alioth replace Galacta and Gwenpool in the Wiccan Control build. However, this is a very flexible shell that is able to adapt to a lot of situations and collections.
Mill
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Rate / 54% Win Rate / 420 Games
Mill already started to lose some momentum with the return of 10 Power due to Armor, and now Arishem is becoming quite popular again. Things have not changed much with the new season, meaning Mill still has those uphill battles to overcome in order to perform at the moment.
Potential Additions
Maybe it is time to let the Destroy synergy go and find another form of support. Wiccan and Gorr form a good duo to top the curve, as do Magik and Red Hulk. Grand Master and a strong 3-Cost can also help early on. Even Joaquin Torres falcon II could synergize with the 1-Costs.
That’s it for this week! 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.
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.
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.
Win Rate > 55%
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.
Win Rate > 52% & Cube Rate > 0.3.
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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