Table of Contents
If we look at the metagame before the Infinite Rank, Star-Lord, Master of the Sun is by far the most impactful card in the game. However, without the bots to gift 8 cubes, or players staying for the sake of playing it out, the metrics are much fairer if we look at the Infinite ranks.
The problem is the amount of games available this close to the start of the season. Indeed, although I believe removing the bots gives us a better picture of the real Marvel Snap, a deck with fewer games will have an easier time posting incredible metrics.
As such, I feel like we should mostly consider this first report as a good way to look at trends, and there is quite a lot to talk about already:
- The metagame is an all-out brawl among decks able to put up a ton of points. There is a bit of disruption, such as Cosmo in multiple decks, or the Supergiant build, to counter the new season pass card. However, among the six top performers, only two feature real disruptive play patterns, while the other 4 are focused on points.
- Galactus could be considered another way to disrupt decks designed to pop off on game’s end. Hela, Star-Lord, Master of the Sun and such strategies tend to be quite passive early on, meaning Galactus often has the opportunity to reveal safely.
- Shou-Lao the Undying is nowhere to be seen. Part of it is due to its recent nerf, but the card remained strong enough to be played. As a result, the current decks plus Cosmo probably make for a terrible environment for the former season pass.
- Win Rates are high due to fewer games to look in the Infinite Ranks early in the season. However, the cube averages tell me a lot of snapping is going on, which makes sense considering most of the decks on our list will snap based on their draws. I hope you enjoy high stakes matches.
Even if I did my best to look at Infinite games, the first week of the season is always chaotic, mixing those who found a great build, those testing in hope to get to theirs, and the established archetypes which make sense in this environment.
As such, even if this is a better picture than the Marvel Snap with bots, I fully expect the metagame to look different in our next report.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Discard Dracula 0.85 Cube Average / 65% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Flexible Move 0.65 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | High Evo Energy 0.75 Cube Average / 62,5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Hela Discard 0.75 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Galactus Ramp 0.75 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Star-Lord Ramp 0.6 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Supergiant Control 0.6 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | KazooTriot 0.8 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Wiccan Ramp 0.7 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Ongoing 0.65 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Doom 2099 Ramp 0.45 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Aurora Soup 0.25 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Nimrolactus 0.45 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Arishem 0.4 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
Tier 1
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.85 Cube Average / 65% Win Rate
Discard Dracula is notorious for being able to drop a ton of points if left unchecked. Plus, the deck has two upsides against ramp decks at the moment.
First, Dracula is particularly good against Fin Fan Foom, a staple in all ramp decks. Then, Gambit can take out Star-Lord, Master of the Sun before the opponent is able to copy the ability. Those decks typically don’t play many cards early on, so Gambit is quite accurate.
For all those upsides, we know Discard Dracula isn’t the best archetype in the game. Instead, it profits from an environment rewarding a lot of points, preferably without giving Fin Fang Foom an opportunity to copy them.
Potential Additions
den
Flexible Move
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate
Negasonic Teenage Warhead joins Juggernaut in its duty to secure a location on the last turn of play. Just like Dracula, this is another 4-cost perfectly suited to take on Fin Fang Foom, but also able to take out Star-Lord, Master of the Sun with priority.
The other upside to the deck is Cosmo, the best disruptive card at the moment, considering most of the top performing decks are On Reveal based.
I doubt Move has enough points to compete at the moment, but the extra layer of disruption seems to overcome that issue.
Potential Additions
Negasonic Teenage Warhead is the flexible card. Swap it if you have a better idea to answer the current metagame.
High Evo Energy
den
Performance: 0.75 Cube Average / 62,5% Win Rate
The best Star-Lord, Master of the Sun deck according to the numbers, although High Evolutionary typically can’t rival Ramp or Hela when it comes to sheer amount of points.
I definitely believe the builds with Grand Master and Absorbing Man have more potential, but it seems that reliability nets better results at the moment.
Potential Additions
Scorpion and Abomination could become Grand Master and Absorbing Man, or one plus another card you deem useful in the deck. Rogue, Cosmo, Shang-Chi or Shadow King are always good disruptive tools to consider.
Hela Discard
den
Performance: 0.75 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
A metagame with the ability to develop points as the primary emphasis was always going to feature Hela somewhere among the strong decks. There is a lot of Cosmo already, and Stardust remains a staple in some archetypes, so I wouldn’t call this a safe pick. Plus, Galactus is picking up momentum, which is another card to worry about.
However, when you know Hela will reveal, there are little decks you can’t snap against.
Potential Additions
Lady Sif can be added as another discard. Among high-cost cards, Iron Man and Legion are occasional inclusions to replace a missing high-cost card.
Skaar can serve as a worst Fin Fang Foom.
Galactus Ramp
den
Performance: 0.75 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate
To see Galactus in the top performing Ramp list tells us War Machine, The Infinaut and Ebony Maw are not enough in terms of points at the moment. Or at least, they don’t represent a snap as safe as Galactus with Alioth in hand, or just more energy to work with compared to your opponent.
I wonder if the cube average will plummet once the word is out about Galactus. Until then, it looks to be a very strong concept.
Potential Additions
Vision looks to be the flexible inclusion. Legion, Ghost Rider”] and such high impact 5-cost make sense to consider in that slot.
Star-Lord Ramp
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
One of the most popular decks at the moment, this Ramp build probably inspired many of the other decks in this first tier when it came to their strategy.
Indeed, Fin Fang Foom and Star-Lord, Master of the Sun are a deadly duo currently, able to basically skip the first three turns but still represent a menace heading into the second portion of the match.
Considering a large part of the metagame is built to beat this deck, or at least its core cards, the performance is nothing short of extraordinary.
Potential Additions
Legion and Alioth are flexible, while Red Hulk grows a lot against other decks built around Star-Lord, Master of the Sun.
Odin, Cosmic ghost Rider or Sunspot as also part of some lists, if you were missing something.
Supergiant Control
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate
A well known archetype on the rise thanks to Supergiant blocking Star-Lord, Master of the Sun on turn five, this deck preys on the archetypes designed to follow a specific game plan.
Arguably, the amount of points this deck can develop is nowhere near what the others in this first tier are capable of. However, Supergiant Control makes up for that issue with very safe snaps when a disruptive piece hit the right opposing card.
Potential Additions
Copycat could be Cosmo, Stardust or another card able to trigger a snap, but there are many incredible copies at the moment.
As such, I probably would remove Iceman or Gorgon if I really wanted to add something to the mix.
Tier 2
Kazootriot
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
A basic archetype typically good early in the season due to bots, but quickly out of the picture in the other weeks. The thing is, I looked at the infinite ranks, meaning Kazootriot must have won against real players to achieve those metrics.
Part of that success must go to Goose into Cosmo, a great duo at the moment, able to block every location with Mystique added on top. In a metagame filled with On Reveal decks, this must bring home a good amount of cubes.
Potential Additions
Dazzler is the flexible card in the deck. Gorgon, Armor, , and such good 2-cost cards for certain match-up make sense.
Wiccan Ramp
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
One of the weaker Ramp decks, Wiccan has the privilege to run disruptive cards to make up for the weaker ceiling.
The win rate is a bit lower than most other decks, but the cube average is great, meaning the disruptive cards are doing their part to make Wiccan a relevant foundation.
Potential Additions
Negasonic Teenage Warhead or Legion make sense as strong standalone, while Absorbing Man and Silver Surfer First Steps are synergistic options.
Ongoing
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
Another deck leveraging Cosmo to make up for a lower points ceiling, at least on the location Iron Man or Captain Carter aren’t helping at.
Overall, the environment is good for the Ongoing synergy. it might lack some points compared to Ramp, but Cosmo is a fantastic card while Enchantress or Rogue are nowhere to be seen.
Potential Additions
Goose is a solid complement to Cosmo currently.
Doom 2099 Ramp
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
Definitely the worst kind of Ramp at the moment, mostly because Doctor Doom 2099 can’t compete with Star-Lord, Master of the Sun when both decks draw as intended.
The other limitation are the snaps, which must come early to hope for more than one cube, but unfortunately represents a big risk in this metagame.
At least, this is a decent option for those not getting the season pass card.
Potential Additions
Jubilee or Iron Lad have multiple strong high rolls in this deck.
Tier 3
In this last tier, we find decks able to run the best disruptive tools, Cosmo or Galactus, to make up for their lack of points against the current top performers.
Aurora uses Cosmo, Stardust and Jean Grey to achieve a solid win rate, while Nimrod and Arishem called Galactus for help, in order to offer some more snap opportunities.
Aurora Soup
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
Nimrolactus
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
Arishem
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
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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