Table of Contents
Last week, the Good Cards concept returned thanks to Aurora giving them a new ability to build around. This week, Fantomex also represented a chance for new decks to emerge, but failed to push the Discard and Destroy synergy to become anything relevant.
With nothing new to play from a competitive standpoint, the metagame remained fairly the same as it was last week. Good On Reveal Cards still sits at the top, Move remains a solid pick, Aurora has multiple lists and War Machine Ramp is somewhere in the mix. Lower in the rankings, we can spot the usual various Destroy archetypes hanging out in Tier 3. Last, we have a few Trending decks posting decent numbers without looking like serious threats. Small On Reveal had many games and a great cube average, but sits 8% below Good On Reveal, so it definitely is more of a different way rather than a better one.
Overall, this season has been pretty calm, with multiple cards failing to impact the metagame much and no balance updates in the second half. This last week is the quietest of them all, setting up the perfect environment for January to kick off with a bang when Second Dinner returns with a new season plus card updates.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Zombie On Reveal Destroy 0.25 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| Trending | Zombie Galacti 0.1 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Good On Reveal Cards 0.65 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Flexible Move 0.65 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Ongoing Buff Surfer 0.55 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Small On Reveal 0.5 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | War Machine Ramp 0.35 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards Aurora 0.3 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Destroy Zoo 0.3 Cube Average / 53.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Dormammu Destroy 0.3 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Nimrod Combo 0.3 Cube Average / 51.5% Win Rate |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| Discard Dracula | 0.5 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Flexible Move | 0.45 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Hela Discard | 0.4 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| War Machine Ramp | 0.35 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| High Evolutionary | 0.3 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
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.
Trending
Zombie On Reveal
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate
This archetype has been start and stop for a while now, posting a good result one week and disappearing the next one. However, it is always with a touch of the Zombie Horde, so we can at least assume this is the best direction for it.
Although there is only The Hunger to feed Zombie Giant-Man, playing the 5-cost on turn four can be enough to destroy it, revive it, and grow our score quite a bit.
Likely, this archetype still relies on being exotic, and opponents often misjudging its ability to develop points. Plus, Shang-Chi is another way to steal a game from time to time. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of Arishem for Cassandra Nova to carry on her own.
Zombie Galacti
den
Performance: 0.1 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
Maverick helped this archetype a ton, as buffing the 3-cost means we can pass that power onto Zombie Galacti later on. The 58.5% win rate shows how much this deck improved recently, as it failed hard back when the 7-cost released.
Unfortunately, Zombie Galacti is too telegraphed to translate that ratio into a lot of cubes, which probably will keep limiting its ability to be a contender in the future.
A great deck for short periods of time, when the environment doesn’t feature a ton of points of opponent seems to stay in games they have no business playing anymore.
Tier 1
Good On Reveal Cards
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate
Werewolf By Night on turn three is one of the safest snaps in the game, especially if Merlin was played the turn prior. If the deck’s signature duo decided to not show up, Iron Patriot will represent another way to snap early in a match. Lastly, Mobius M. Mobius and Mercury combined to shut down a good amount of decks, while Quake denies opposing Iron Patriot.
This season, the metagame evolved towards more synergies and fewer flexible archetypes at the top. Yet, when the environment fails to change for a long period of time, the best disruptive cards inevitably make their way into a deck able to develop without needing 10 or 11 cards all geared towards the same goal.
Potential Additions
Mobius M. Mobius and Quake are the most flexible cards in the deck. Shadow King, Rogue, Juggernaut make sense depending which decks you play against the most.
Nico Minoru, Sersi or Prowler synergize with differents pieces.
Flexible Move
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
Move is not just a solid synergy when it comes to developing points, it can also include disruptive cards way better than Destroy or Discard ever could. Indeed, Juggernaut synergizes with Kraven or Batroc the Leaper, while Cosmo is cheap enough to be played alongside Hydra Stomper on turn 6.
The nerfs to Human Torch killed that way to play Move, but this build has been posting solid results all season long.
Potential Additions
Ghost-Spider and Araña can be swapped based on preferences while The Thing First Steps is the more flexible card in the build, if you wanted to include another high cost card.
Tier 2
Ongoing Buff Surfer
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate
Silver Surfer has been looking for ways to surprise or disrupt its opponent lately, as the deck is typically too simple to identify, resulting in a lot of cubes lost to retreats by educated opponents. With this Ongoing mix, the deck clearly does not look like a Silver Surfer deck, except if Brood is played early.
Otherwise, all the other cards, maybe Mercury aside, could be in an Ongoing deck, and trick the opponent into misjudging the points spread of the deck.
Potential Additions
Agony is mostly played to buff Maverick or Captain Carter. Nico Minoru wouldn’t buff as much but offer other abilities, while America Chavez picks a target at random, but you don’t tell your opponent which location those points are going.
Surge could also be swapped, if you wanted to play another 3-cost or a counter card.
Small On Reveal
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
Agent Venom is done playing with Iron Man, Mystique and Gorr the God Butcher it seems, to instead pair with a sort of Bounce deck built around the Werewolf By Night and Merlin pair. Obviously, this one is more flexible, and less high-roll based than the Ongoing build. However, it is likely more fragile against decks able to develop a ton of points, as we don’t have cards able to win a location almost on their own like Gorr.
The current metagame rewards early swaps, which this deck does much better than the Ongoing build. However, this one will also require more finesse when being played, as Werewolf By Night, Toxin, Sage or Shadow King can clash and make certain play-patterns awkward.
Potential Additions
Shadow King could be any disruptive card you like : Rogue, Mobius M. Mobius… while you could even remove Hit-Monkey to run a second one if you feel like points isn’t the best way to win with this deck.
War Machine Ramp
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate
One big downside of Ramp decks is their inflexibility. Either they are strong, or they are quickly out of the metagame. Since Chamber released, the Ramp archetype has been a part of the competitive environment at all times. If only it was possible to be a little more flexible with deck building, it could even compete for the top spots.
Unfortunately, for as good as War Machine Ramp is, the deck simply fails to win many cubes as everyone knows to be careful when Chamber or Electro come down, and this archetype can’t throw the occasional curveball.
Potential Additions
Ebony Maw and The Infinaut can replace Eson and Nick Fury.
Good Cards Aurora
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate
There are still a good variety of decks with Aurora, but they all follow the same goal : build flexibly using a good mix of keywords across strong and disruptive cards. As such, it didn’t feel relevant to include all the decks, but only to showcase the best performer.
Looking at the many disruptive cards included (Spider-Ham, Cosmo, Mobius M. Mobius, Juggernaut), it seems clear those decks can’t compete on points alone. Instead, they need to annoy their opponent to lower their points potential, and then use Aurora to have a decent total on each location.
Potential Additions
Aurora can also be used alongside Wiccan, but the list isn’t as flexible then. With this one, you could basically include any strong card able to impact a game with On Reveal, Ongoing, End of Turn or Activate on it : Hydra Bob, Sam Wilson Captain America, H.E.R.B.I.E, Kate Bishop, Copycat, Stardust…
Tier 3
Tier 3 has been the land of Destroy decks all season long, with Destroy Zoo and Dormammu Destroy seeing a good amount of play as the best landing spots for Weapon X Wolverine. This week, Nimrod tags along as another destroy deck the opponent will be quick to recognize and know most about immediately.
For each of those decks, the cube average is quite good considering the win rate, which might indicate opponents feel like they can beat it more often than not. This shows Destroy remains one of the best synergies in the game when it comes to developing points. It is sad the best hands will often result in one cube wins as only someone with a counter will accept to play against those.
Destroy Zoo
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 53.5% Win Rate
Dormammu Destroy
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate
Nimrod Combo
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 51.5% 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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