Table of Contents
Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Meta Tier List! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap ladder meta.
This report is dedicated to the Ranked mode and lists the current best decks heading into and once in the Infinite Rank. We also provide a Conquest report, available every weekend, that highlights the best archetypes for that mode. Looking to figure out the impact of the newly released card or the latest balance changes? This is the place to be!
If you are looking for more information about a deck in particular, check out our Archetypes pages, with detailed information about each of the household names in Marvel Snap.
Marvel Snap Meta Overview
Although the trend that started with the release of Doctor Doom 2099 where all decks rely on a strong early game to set up for a quick Snap is still real, this last week of Ranked play featured much more diversity. Basically, all the archetypes that we have grown accustomed to since the September season can (and do) exist at the moment—baring the ones that got heavily nerfed. Apart from Surtur, which slowly disappeared over the course of the season, or Mill, which is always on the fence in terms of popularity, only the constantly struggling archetypes like Cerebro, KaZoo, and Galactus are missing.
There are two things we can learn from this environment. First, Marvel Snap has managed to build quite a nice sense of balance over time, as even cards that were considered broken at first have found their match. For example, Doctor Doom 2099 is being kept in check by U.S. Agent. It seems like the best way to play the game is also out of the bag, even if many already knew it: get set during the first three turns so you can control the stakes of the match, then choose whether you want to keep developing points or start disrupting your opponent.
As usual, I separated all the decks into three tiers, but, honestly, all of them can get some climbing done if you understand the formula above. As such, make your pick based on your own strengths as a pilot and the deck you have the best understanding of. It might not be the most fun experience to play for early Snaps or be forced to leave early, but this is the way to play Marvel Snap until a new deck manages to break that mold.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | High Evolutionary |
| Tier 1 | Toxic |
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards |
| Tier 2 | Scream Move |
| Tier 2 | Clog |
| Tier 2 | Arishem |
| Tier 2 | Thanos Wiccan |
| Tier 2 | Destroy |
| Tier 3 | Bounce |
| Tier 3 | Lockdown |
| Tier 3 | Mister Negative |
| Tier 3 | Move |
| Tier 3 | Discard Dracula |
| Budget | Ongoing KaZoo |
| Budget | Devil Dinosaur Destroy |
| Budget | Swarm Discard Aggro |
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
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 > 0.25
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.
Silent Performers
den
Bruce Banner has been almost a non-factor during its release weak, easily taking the title of worst card of the season. However, the card managed to make High Evolutionary popular again, and the deck can apparently still get some results in the right hands. This would have just been a low Tier 2 deck on this stacked report, but just the fact that High Evolutionary was able to hang in there felt deserving of a spot as a Silent Performer.
Tier 1
Toxic
Ever since Doctor Doom 2099 released and became a force in the meta, the Toxic archetype has been its biggest counter. This last week followed that same logic, as the new 4-Cost card is still very popular. This means that Toxic was once again able to rack up the cubes, which resulted in a 0.55 Cube Average and 62.5% Win Rate.
Now the question is whether Toxic can keep this up if the new season brings a new dynamic and different opponents.
Potential Additions
Silver Surfer
den
Silver Surfer did what it does best this season, which is be ignored due to not being new at all only to come back thanks to the amazing 3-Cost card pool.
You could point out that Galacta was a big reinforcement to that deck, but then why did it take two weeks for Silver Surfer to emerge as a top tier deck? One possible explanation is that the top players aren’t playing it so it takes a bit of time for the deck to show up in the high rank data. The other possibility is that Silver Surfer starts each season as a boring pick, but once the new cards of the season have been tested it is always a great deck to fall back on.
Either way, a 0.5 Cube Average and 60% Win Rate are the marks of a great deck.
Potential Additions
Phastos and Absorbing Man are two cards in the rotation among the Silver Surfer lists I saw. Nova and Killmonger are also an iconic duo in this archetype.
Tier 2
Good Cards
den
Likely the best archetype this season if raw power was the only criteria, Good Cards was met by U.S. Agent during the last two weeks of the season to contain its power. For this last report, you can see that Luke Cage made it into the best performing list, replacing Red Guardian and Copycat. This hasn’t propelled the deck back to the top of the list, but it did allow it to remain a very competitive option with a strong 0.4 Cube Average and 56.5% Win Rate.
Potential Additions
With Peni Parker in the deck, Hydra Bob could become Agony for another way to cheat energy on Turn 3 to get Galacta or Doctor Doom 2099 out a turn early.
Scream Move
den
After a short stint with both Dooms to improve its points potential, Scream turned to the newest card, Rocket and Groot, to create quite a peculiar deck. Indeed, Iron Man and Heimdall have never been part of a Scream deck in the past, but the 60% Win Rate speaks for their overall contribution.
As for Rocket and Groot, the new card mostly just brought Nebula back in the mix, which was a good pairing considering Scream Move has been struggling to find a good 1-Cost alongside Kingpin. However, it seems that Mr. Fisk has been cut for Hydra Bob, which indicates that this deck is looking to develop points more than disrupt the opponent at the moment.
Potential Additions
This is a new build of Scream Move, so it is hard to make clear recommendations. Iron Man feels like the flexible card in there, and it could be Cannonball or another impactful 5-Cost.
Clog
den
This is kind of an odd inclusion when looking back at the season, but Clog showed flashes of brilliance in Conquest. I think it just makes a lot of sense at the moment. Indeed, this meta rewards a strong early setup so you can Snap before your opponent. Well, one of the strongest setups and/or scariest Snaps in the game is Clog locking a lane early.
The Cube Average isn’t great since it has an equally easy Retreat to take, but the 58.5% Win Rate in such a competitive environment is a sign that Clog is doing something right.
Potential Additions
Daredevil is the flexible card in the build. Magik and Red Hulk could be replaced by other Clog cards or points providers.
Arishem
den
With a 0.4 Cube Average and 57% Win Rate, there seems to be no way to get rid of Arishem, even after another big nerf this season. At the moment, the deck plays pretty much like a Good Cards build, except it doesn’t need to use cards to gain energy. This buys some space to include counter cards like Killmonger and Lady Deathstrike. In exchange for that, you have to deal with the random cards added to your deck that ruin your consistency. Still, if the pilot is a good Snapper, they should be able to mitigate that problem.
Potential Additions
Shang-Chi, Enchantress, and other strong standalone cards make sense in Arishem.
Thanos Wiccan
den
Thanos Wiccan really never managed to be anything but another way to play Good Cards Wiccan. But, now that Doctor Doom 2099 is eating most of the popularity in the Good Cards archetype, Wiccan is now mostly played in the Thanos deck.
At a 0.35 Cube Average and 55.5% Win Rate, the performance reflects the position of Thanos Wiccan in the meta. It’s nothing extraordinary, but it has too many strong cards to not be at least a decent deck.
Potential Additions
Nico Minoru, Enchantress, Copycat, or Legion all make sense. Basically any strong standalone card makes sense in this build.
Destroy
den
I didn’t expect Destroy, which had a very disappointing season up until this point, to make it into Tier 2 for this last report of the Marvel Rivals season. However, it does make sense if you think about it.
First, flexible decks are on the rise, so Killmonger has many more targets against the likes of Move, Bounce, and other decks running U.S. Agent. Then, with Toxic being a superstar and Clog making a comeback, destroying your own card looks pretty good. I think these two reasons explain the 59% Win Rate for Destroy, which was by far its best performance of the season.
Potential Additions
Hulkbuster can replace Agony, while Lady Deathstrike is typically a meta-based pick.
Tier 3
I don’t think I have ever seen such a stacked Tier 3. This shows that the current meta is both diverse and powerful in terms of available options. It might look like the five decks in this tier shouldn’t belong, but I believe their positions can be explained.
Bounce and Move are arguably the hardest decks to pilot. Sure, they have placed much higher in the past, but as we get further in the season, more players are included in the data. This could impact both of these decks’ overall performances.
Mister Negative and Discard more than likely suffered from the rigidity of their gameplay since they’re unable to surprise opponents and therefore forced to abuse early Snaps to gain more than one cube per good draw.
Finally, Lockdown is simply the target of several decks in the meta, in addition to being a popular pick (which naturally dilutes its performance). Keeping a 56% Win Rate in that context is pretty good if I’m honest.
Bounce
den
Lockdown
den
Mister Negative
den
Bounce Move
den
Discard Dracula
den
Closing Words
This meta is all about understanding the basic mechanic of Marvel Snap: you are trying to win cubes, not games.
In this environment, there are so many good decks and just as many ways to twist several of them to make them more disruptive or resilient. As such, it is hard to maintain a regular Win Rate, even if you end up with a great one after hundreds of games. At some point you are bound to meet a few decks in a row with an insane opening hand that you can’t do much against; it is your ability to give only one cube to those opponents that decides whether you are a good player or not. Similarly, it is that same ability to win more than one cube when you get that lucky streak of great draws that will allow you to climb.
The easiest way to do this is to play a deck that is based on a strong opening because those will quickly tell you which games you can stay in and which ones you should abandon. As you get more comfortable, you’ll be able to play more complex decks that require a better vision to figure out the good and bad early situations. Basically, the entire meta is made of decks that more or less follow this logic.
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.
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