Table of Contents
This Meta Tier List report is dedicated to the Ranked mode and lists the current best decks heading into, and once in the Infinite Rank. Looking to figure out the impact of a newly released card or the latest balance changes? This is the place to be!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Lockdown 130 Games 57.5% Win Rate 0.6 Cube Average |
| Tier 1 | Mill 58% Win Rate 0.5 Cube Average |
| Tier 1 | Mister Negative 55.5% Win Rate 0.5 Cube Average |
| Tier 1 | Bounce Move 60% Win Rate 0.4 Cube Average |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Wiccan 58% Win Rate 0.4 Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | Small Good Cards 58% Win Rate 0.35 Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | Ongoing Iron Hand 54% Win Rate 0.35 Cube Average |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula 57% Win Rate 0.3 Cube Average |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| Deck | Performance |
|---|---|
| Arishem Good Cards | 64.5% Win Rate 0.65 Cube Average |
| Good Cards Wiccan | 63.5% Win Rate 0.65 Cube Average |
| KaZoo | 60% Win Rate 0.55 Cube Average |
| Discard Dracula | 60% Win Rate 0.55 Cube Average |
| Toxic | 59% Win Rate 0.5 Cube Average |
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
OTA Balance Updates brought a bit more diversity in terms of popular archetypes, but it actually reduced the number of decks that posted great results. Indeed, the deck with the most games since the OTA compared to before is Hela, but that deck is quite far from meeting the requirements to be included in the report. Even if there was a Tier 3, Hela still wouldn’t have made it with its 0.1 Cube Average and 50% Win Rate (and that is with the best performing build).
For the boldest players, here is a Hela list I found on Untapped with solid results but very few games to back it up.
I tested this deck because I was curious, and it was the only deck with good results among an avalanche of terribly performing Hela decks. Honestly, it has some gas.
There was another deck that was heavily impacted by the OTA—Iron Hand—but that one existed before the update. Still, the deck has been significantly impacted; its best list is now Ongoing based and featuring Mister Fantastic and Onslaught. Also, it feels important to mention that there are a ton of Iron Hand lists around, so the archetype might benefit from opponents who are not expecting certain play patterns.
When it comes to the most improved deck, Mill easily took the title (although the OTA didn’t directly impact it).
Otherwise, the meta is the same as it’s been for most of the last season, except Wiccan replaced Galacta as the best 4-Cost card. The former Season Pass card and Doctor Doom 2099 remain building blocks for several decks, though. Against this flurry of flexible builds, Mister Negative and Bounce Move seem to be doing the best, as there are so few of their immediate counters around. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Mobius M. Mobius, and Shadow King lost a lot of popularity after Agent Venom‘s nerf. Last, Red Guardian (Madame Web‘s counter) has had to compete with more 3-Costs lately, such as Rocket and Groot, the returning Mister Fantastic, and Rogue.
Overall, the meta feels very focused on points. Flexible builds use those points for priority to control the last few turns of the match, while synergistic decks will just beat you the good ol’ fashioned way if you can’t derail their plan. Looking at the numbers, neither one is particularly better than the other. Instead, make your choice depending on whether you want to focus on winning more games (flexible builds) or more cubes per win (synergistic decks).
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Trending
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate over 130 Games
With the nerf to U.S. Agent and the emphasis on proactive synergies based around Wiccan, Doctor Doom 2099 has had more room to exist, which pushed Lockdown to make a comeback. The deck isn’t popular at the moment, but we already knew it was strong. The question is whether the meta will adapt against it one more time, or if Lockdown will be able to thrive.
Tier 1
Mill
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
With Arishem almost entirely absent from the higher ranks, Mill rarely has to face its worst match up. This meta also features quite a lot of 1-Cost cards between Ongoing Big Hand playing three of them and Quicksilver being played alongside Wiccan a ton. This gives Killmonger plenty of targets to discount Death, and Lady Deathstrike can also find plenty of targets against the top decks.
Potential Additions
The Destroy synergy is difficult to touch without changing up the entire list, which leaves Iron Patriot as the sole flexible card in the deck. Utility 1-Costs that you don’t mind losing (such as Spider-Ham) can be fine replacements, or you could try Grand Master considering the amount of On Reveal cards the deck packs.
Mister Negative
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
Whenever Mister Negative crosses the 55% Win Rate threshold, you know the deck is in a great position. Indeed, most decks would require a 58% Win Rate to hope for such a good Cube Average, but Mister Negative is so good at Snapping that it has always been better at winning cubes than matches (which is more important in this game anyway).
Potential Additions
Cassandra Nova can replace Ironheart or Sage if you’re seeing a lot of Arishem. Also, Super-Skrull can be an effective card for the mirror match and the Ongoing build of the Iron Hand deck. Black Panther and Arnim Zola are also a possible duo you could include in the deck.
Bounce Move
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
With the highest Win Rate in the game at the moment (at least in the top Infinite ranks), Bounce Move looks like the most reliable synergy to play at the moment. However, the deck loses a bit of its Cube Average due to being recognizable as soon as it plays a card. Also, hitting your Madame Web with Red Guardian is often a great Snap for opponents.
The addition of Iron Patriot to combine with Frigga is great for bringing some unpredictability to the deck, though.
Potential Additions
Toxin and Falcon battle for the second bounce card alongside Beast. Toxin can represent more points, but Falcon can bounce cards from other locations and allows for more flexible positioning. Iron Patriot joined the deck recently (it was U.S. Agent or Cloak in the past), but Nico Minoru could be an option too.
Classic Move is also playable if you don’t like the Bounce package. Remove Beast, Toxin, Iron Patriot, Doctor Strange, and Frigga for Kraven, Cloak, Heimdall, Cosmo, and Alioth.
Good Cards Wiccan
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
There are a ton of Wiccan builds around right now; the card pushes both the Victoria Hand deck and the Good Cards archetype. Both of those are doing great, but the more generic build looks to be more reliable overall since it almost never bricks.
Potential Additions
Fenris Wolf, Gladiator, and Shang-Chi could become Shadow King and two other strong standalone cards (try Red Guardian, Copycat, or Galacta). Since the nerf to Hydra Bob, Quicksilver has gained momentum as the sole 1-Cost instead of Zabu and a couple others.
Tier 2
Small Good Cards
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
Small Good Cards lost quite a bit of popularity to the Iron Hand archetype, which plays a similar game based around cheap cards and buff mechanisms. The nerf to U.S. Agent probably didn’t help, either. The deck is still good, but there are shinier toys to play with at the moment.
Potential Additions
Rogue makes sense in the current meta and is a good Agent Venom target as well. Mister Fantastic is an interesting prospect with its buff, too. For cheaper cards, Spider-Ham is the best option after The Hood when it comes to power buffs.
Ongoing Iron Hand
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 54% Win Rate
The new kid on the block after the OTA, Ongoing Iron Hand beat all the other Iron Hand decks when it comes to Cube Average. It could work on its Win Rate a bit—54% is among the lowest on this report. Plus, there is another Wiccan deck in Tier 1, so, even though Ongoing Iron Hand might be good, it has a few obstacles to overcome before it’s considered a meta staple.
Potential Additions
Rogue could be a lot of other cards. Speed, Punisher, and other cheap Ongoing cards that synergize with Moonstone are good, but so are Cosmo, Red Guardian, and other protective or disruptive options.
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate
Less of Red Guardian means Dracula and Morbius have an easier time, although the latter has to worry about Rogue‘s recent comeback. Otherwise, Discard is pretty good at knowing early on if it can compete or not from a great opening hand or a good shot from Gambit or Moon Knight. This has positively impacted the Win Rate, but it also lowered the Cube Average since opponents typically concede when either scenario happens.
Potential Additions
Fenris Wolf, Moon Knight, and Swarm can be Malekith, Strong Guy, and Grand Master. More points but less disruption.
Closing Words
Overall, the OTA caused most decks to focus on themselves even more than before the patch, with Wiccan acting as the catalyst for many of them. Naturally, there isn’t much diversity due to the changed decks being the focus at the time, and one of the most popular (Hela) wasn’t good enough to be featured.
As a player, you can either join the movement and look for a synergy that you feel good with, or try to break the mold and look for a way to disrupt Wiccan decks. Mill appears to be that mold breaker at the moment, but it has struggled to maintain a high level of performance over time in the past.
To reach out about an article or book some coaching, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or shoot me a message @den_ccg on Discord.
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 & Win Rate > 58%
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 > 0.35
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
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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