Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List: July 10, 2023 – A Dire Need for Change

A lot of the player base associates the beginning of a season with some changes in the metagame. Either through the new Season Pass card or with the help of a balance patch during the first week, we typically enjoy some shake ups to start fresh.

Unfortunately, those expected changes have not happened yet, and The Phoenix Force is struggling to make its presence felt as a competitive option. As such, the metagame still feels similar to last season, with Bounce and Lockjaw as the decks to beat that push other decks to include the popular tech cards.

This is not necessarily a problem from a balance standpoint since we know exactly how to counter these two by now. As a matter of fact, neither Bounce nor Lockjaw took the top spot this week. Instead, Sera Control took advantage of being completely left out of the conversation while playing all the counter cards to beat these two. Similarly, Lockdown posted one of its better weeks since High Evolutionary released, finally breaking through and seemingly finding the right way to build the deck while benefiting from naturally annoying both Lockjaw and Bounce.

The concern is the lack of new puzzles to solve. Indeed, now that we know how to counter Bounce and Lockjaw if we wish to (and which decks are next in line if these two are targeted), what is left to discover in the current environment? The answer should be how to build around The Phoenix Force, but it seems like a large part of the community quickly gave up on the card. Also, with Second Dinner taking a well deserved break this week, we didn’t get the expected OTA last Thursday, further reinforcing this stalled situation.

Do not fear, though, as the monthly patch is just around the corner. It should help with finding new goals and decks to refine. Until then, the Marvel Snap metagame remains pretty deep, even if we know most of its corners by now.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

In order to be featured here, a deck needs to represent at least 1% of the current environment and have a positive cube average using data from our Marvel Snap Tracker. If a deck showed great performances with a very limited presence in the metagame, you can find it in the new “Silent Performers” section. There, I will highlight decks with an excellent cube per game ratio 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 or 4 in our chart and won’t have their own dedicated write up here but may be transferred to the main Tier List section. See those builds as decks that are good to know about, as you should face those when playing Marvel Snap. However, unless the metagame changes or a new variation of the build emerges, these decks are a notch below the dominant ones in Tier 1 and 2.

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

Tier Explanation

Tier 1

Sera Control

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Benefiting from Wave being almost totally absent from the current metagame, Sera Control sneaked past Bounce and Lockjaw while they were trying to adapt to the many counters thrown at them. Right now, it seems like the deck found the perfect list for the current metagame since it has an answer to basically any opponent. In addition, as Sera hasn’t been considered a major threat lately, the deck can leverage Snaps the opponent should never accept, boosting the deck’s cube average in the process.

This week, Sera Control flirted with the 0.5 cube average, something very few decks have done in the past. Even Bounce and Lockjaw haven’t achieved this recently.

How to play:
This archetype relies on giving up priority going into the last turn, so it can punish the opponent with reactive cards like Shang-Chi and Killmonger. Ever since Hit Monkey joined the deck, it also unlocked a proactive pattern on Turn 6 with the monkey assassin able to challenge a lane with points rather than looking to counter what the opponent did.

Sera is at the core of this strategy as she allows reducing the cost of cards in your hand, strengthening your Turn 6 potential and making it worth to purposefully give the lead to your opponent. Note that losing priority doesn’t mean losing the game – we can be in the lead on a location and close on the other two. Since Sera only has four power, your opponent will typically have a stronger Turn 5 than you do and take back priority. This way, we don’t need to have an incredible Turn 6 or perfectly guess our opponent’s plays to win every game. Most of this deck’s strength relies on its ability to be able to stay as close as possible while not having priority, so our reactive cards are at their best.

Against an opponent you expect to play Wave, it is completely fine to skip Sera and go off on Turn 5. Kitty Pryde, Mysterio, and Hit Monkey will provide enough points, and then we can simply play Enchantress or Shang-Chi on the following turn.

Invisible Woman is gaining traction in the deck, allowing you to play reactive cards on curve and opening more energy for Turn 6. The deck can hide Killmonger, Shang-Chi, and/or Hit Monkey behind her for their ability to trigger on Turn 6. Also, it can serve as a way to not get Kitty Pryde back in hand on Turn 5.

Potential additions:
Scarlet Witch is the only card in the build that seems to be replaceable. Or maybe Rogue if you aren’t facing lots of Ongoing decks? Even then, stealing an Iron Man or Hulk from Bounce and Lockjaw might be good enough to run the card.

Typically, one would run Magik (Wave protection) or another solid 2-Cost card, such as Sentinel, Lizard, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, or Luke Cage.

Bounce

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
This would be the best deck in the game if everyone minded their own business. Unfortunately, Bounce is the main target of Killmonger currently. With a lot of archetypes running Invisible Woman as well as Killmonger easily slotting into a variety of decks, the card is slowly joining Shang-Chi as a must-play in the current environment.

Nevertheless, Bounce still posted a 0.4 cube average and a solid 55% win rate, showing that no tech card will stop Kitty Pryde and Beast from performing like a Tier 1 deck.

How to play:
Bounce relies on replaying cheap cards several times through the use of Beast, Kitty Pryde, and Falcon, leading to several benefits:

• Their abilities can be great, such as Iceman or Spider-Ham.
• They serve to buff cards like Angela or Bishop as they grow when you play more cards.
• It gives you an easy way to plan ahead of time because you don’t necessarily depend on your draw to use your energy. You can reuse cards already in play.
• You are much more flexible with your available space because you can remove cards and play others instead.
• Bounced cards are usually quite cheap, leading to very flexible turns down the line.

With Hit Monkey in the deck, Bounce also looks to keep those cheap cards in hand to have an explosive Turn 6 play. Through the Bounce mechanic, we are able to both play cards to buff Angela and Bishop during the game and also have them available to play alongside Hit Monkey.

Strategy wise, the deck wants to be as flexible as possible and only commit to lanes on Turns 5 and 6 in order to withhold as much information as possible from the opponent. Until this last turn, the deck will use Beast and Falcon to manage its hand and locations. The idea should be to abuse the abilities of our cards to disrupt the opponent while building the best hand possible going into the final turns. Depending on the situation, you will typically use Beast on Turn 4 or 5. Then, with a very cheap hand at your disposal, you can build two very strong turns and spread your power as you see fit.

Against an opponent you expect to play Wave, it is completely fine to go off on Turn 5. A 1-Cost Mysterio plsu Hit Monkey will provide enough points, and we can keep a strong standalone card to play on Turn 6.

Potential Additions:
Even if the Falcon-less build did better this week (probably because Killmonger is not as big of a problem for it), the other way to build the archetype that relies on a much more synergistic approach also posted great numbers.

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Evolved Lockjaw

Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
A little further back compared to both Kitty Pryde decks, Lockjaw remains a deck to plan for when queuing a game. Still, with Shang-Chi now seemingly an auto-include in every single deck in Marvel Snap, Lockjaw has a target on its back, which limits how dominant it can be.

One thing the archetype has going for it, though, is the ability to adapt to the metagame. Indeed, Lockjaw can be built around Dracula and high power cards, or it could be built to focus more on synergy around the On Reveal mechanic. Right now, it seems like the big cards are the best solution on Ladder since you can leverage your Snaps and Retreats easily. In Conquest, the other list did better this week.

How to play:
Based on its signature card, the deck aims to use cheap, weak cards behind Lockjaw in order to summon much stronger ones without paying the required energy. In that sense, Lockjaw’s lane is often very strong, and it is important to keep in mind how to win another one and not get caught up in abusing Lockjaw.

Without Lockjaw, Jubilee and Dracula will serve a similar purpose and try to cheat points for less than the usual amount of energy. We’ll usually throw the cheap cards behind Lockjaw in the last two turns, so Dracula isn’t so difficult to abuse in the deck. Make sure to play Jubilee before doing so if you have both cards available.

The first two turns of the game can be very quiet for a Lockjaw deck, as we aren’t looking to do much (which now feeds Evolved Hulk). On Turn 3, we will either look to have Lockjaw paired with Wasp, or Thor to shuffle Mjölnir into the deck. Turn 4 will typically be Jubilee or Dracula; Jubilee will be stronger behind Lockjaw while Dracula is good to set up on the board with Evolved Hulk or The Infinaut in hand already.

Once in the final two turns of the match, the goal is to think about our best outcomes and how we can high roll enough to win the game. If ahead, a simple Doctor Doom or Evolved Hulk could be enough to secure the win. If behind, it is important to know the chances of winning Lockjaw‘s lane based on what is left in our deck, while counting how big we can get Thor and Dracula to challenge the second lane.

Potential Additions:

Lockjaw bis

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Evolved Lockdown

Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
After a difficult time falling off the rankings, Lockdown seems to have picked up some momentum and posted numbers really close to Lockjaw this week.

To explain this change, I see two possible reasons:

• The deck dropped Sunspot or Evolved Misty Knight completely, instead running both Daredevil and Jeff the Baby Land Shark. This made the deck stronger against Killmonger, a popular inclusion in many decks.
• Professor X is the game’s best counter to The Phoenix Force (which was naturally a popular card during its release week), boosting Lockdown’s number a bit.

How to play:
The whole point of the deck is to get a lane under control before Turn 6; then, Evolved Hulk can come in and take the necessary second lane. In that regard, Storm, Spider-Man, and Professor X work the same way they did in the previous Lockdown builds by reducing the space our opponent has available to play.

The new High Evolutionary package does push the deck towards a different play pattern, though, as several cards need some unspent energy. Indeed, in order to grow Evolved Hulk and Sunspot, as well as abuse Evolved Cyclops, the deck is looking to delay certain cards to end up with one energy left at the end of each turn.

Depending on your hand, whether you lean towards the more traditional Lockdown plan, or if you try to abuse Evolved Cyclops and Evolved Hulk, your play patterns should adapt.

Potential Additions:
The battle between Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Daredevil eventually ended up in a tie, with a 1-Cost suffering the consequences. One could still try to include Sunspot or Evolved Misty Knight, but this particular list posted great numbers compared to the other ones. It’s probably that naturally dodging Killmonger helped a bit in that regard.

Sera Surfer

Sera Surfer

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
A bit behind the other decks in Tier 1, Sera Surfer was still ahead enough compared to Tier 2 decks to justify this ranking. However, if the top four this week really posted strong performances across the board, Silver Surfer needs to nail its tech cards in order to look like a Tier 1 archetype. Also, Lockjaw losing a bit of popularity due to facing Shang-Chi every single game probably helped Silver Surfer a bit because this is one of the toughest match ups for the deck to overcome.

This means that one has to be much more careful about the surrounding environment and willing to adapt their list in order to stay on top of future opponents. Otherwise, this deck can quickly feel like it doesn’t deserve its ranking and needs to high roll in order to put up results worthy of a top five deck.

How to play:
The deck follows a pretty simple play pattern that culminates into an explosive Turn 6 and hopefully catches the opponent off guard.

On Turns 2, 3, and 4, you will usually just play a card and focus on spending your energy efficiently and advancing your game plan. Apart from the Storm–Juggernaut duo on Turns 3 and 4, there aren’t many synergies going on. Look to play cards you won’t be able to fit in on Turns 5 and 6 but still need to have in play. Usually, Nova is better to be played on Turn 4 with more information available rather than on Turn 1. It also disguises our archetype from the opponent better.

Turn 5 will usually be a Sera play, if you can. If you don’t have Sera, it can be a 3-Cost plus a 2-Cost (Goose can lock a location from a big card being played by our opponent while barely impacting us). On the last turn of play, the deck has many play patterns. The general game plan is dumping two 3-Cost cards followed by Silver Surfer in order to surprise the opponent with power.

Potential Additions:
Cosmo, Rogue, and Luke Cage remain the three cards one might want to include in the archetype in order to adapt to various matchups.

Tier 2

Pure Evolution

Pure Evo

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

5x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
If Luke Cage wasn’t played as much as it is, Pure Evolution would easily crack Tier 1. However, High Evolutionary as a card represents 15% of the metagame, making Luke Cage one of the most prolific cards to run in a deck with space for an extra 2-Cost card.

Still, Pure Evolution remains one of the most flexible decks in the game; three of its slots can be a lot of different cards depending on the environment. Right now, Shang-Chi is needed for Lockjaw, Armor to protect the 1-Cost cards from Killmonger, and Wave has just been around forever in this deck (but it also helps against Sera Control and Bounce).

Depending on the balance patch on Tuesday, this is one of the decks that will have the easiest time adapting to the new metagame. If High Evolutionary itself doesn’t get nerfed, obviously.

How to play:
High Evolutionary seems to push a proactive play style and tries to play cards while keeping unspent energy in the process. Ideally, the deck will be able to build a very strong lane in the first few turns on the back of Sunspot and Evolved Misty Knight, building our points total early on. Then, Wave can shut down any potential comeback when played on Turn 5 while Evolved Hulk dominates any lane on Turn 6.

Due to of its off-curve play style that typically looks to keep one unspent energy to trigger Evolved Misty Knight, Evolved Cyclops, and Evolved Hulk, the deck can be a bit awkward at first. Keep in mind that each point of unspent energy can be worth up to six total points if all your cards trigger their abilities. Here is a normal play pattern with the deck:

• Pass on Turn 1.
• Sunspot on Turn 2.
• Evolved Misty Knight or a 2-Cost on Turn 3.
• Evolved Cyclops or Evolved The Thing on Turn 4. If you get a shot at discounting Evolved Abomination enough with Evolved Wasp, you should take it.
• Wave plus Evolved Abomination (or Evolved Misty Knight if still in hand). Play Evolved Wasp now if still in hand, otherwise Wave will make it unplayable.
• Evolved Hulk or Doctor Doom on Turn 6.

Although this looks suboptimal for many decks, the various synergies in the deck will make such out of sync play patterns worth it in the end.

Note that this kind of pattern is only worth going for if you have several cards that gain something from unspent energy.

Potential Additions:
It is a little weird to play both Armor and Shang-Chi in the same deck, but both cards seem mandatory in the deck right now. One could remove Shang-Chi for Rogue, or try to play without Armor and just accept that Killmonger will be a problem card.

Iron Patriot

Iron Patriot

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Going from a solid ranking to being a silent performer from one week to the next, Iron Patriot remains a pretty quiet deck in the metagame – except for the weekend missions boosting its popularity. It could be the fear of Enchantress looming over the deck, or simply the player base liking other archetypes more.

Still, there aren’t many reasons for the deck to be so discreet from a competitive standpoint; it is largely able to hold its own in the current metagame. Similar to Pure Evolution, the deck has a well known core with Patriot, Ultron, Blue Marvel, and other such cards, and it retains a good capacity to adapt and include the popular tech cards when necessary.

This can create some confusion when facing a Patriot deck, as you could be up against a build just looking to develop a ton of points or a build with the intent to disrupt your strategy.

How to play:
Without a 1-Cost, this Patriot build is more passive than the traditional one. The idea is that the late game will be crazy enough to not need to invest early on, especially if we intend to use Ultron. With Invisible Woman joining the deck, we now have a way to protect Patriot as well as hide our deck a little, since one could simply play on one lane and let Ultron fill the other two on game’s end. In addition, we can also hide some important tech cards, such as Killmonger or Shang-Chi, to keep our opponent in the game while they’ve already lost it.

The biggest choice you have to make with this deck is which route you are looking to take: the proactive one, or the disruptive one. If you think you can beat your opponent in a points contest, and they can’t punish you for it, it is completely reasonable to plan based solely on how many points you can develop. Then, you will be looking to build around Patriot, Iron Lad, Mystique, Ultron, and Blue Marvel. This is particularly effective now that Invisible Woman can help hide some of our key cards, preventing the opponent from counting how many points they have to beat.

On the other hand, you can also plan for a more disruptive approach and use Killmonger and Shang-Chi to counter your opponent’s plan. Then, you would be looking to play Patriot in the mid game (typically either Turn 3 or Turn 5) and finish with Ultron behind Invisible Woman. This way, you still have a lot of energy on Turns 4 and 5 to use your counter cards. Just make sure to have Killmonger reveal before Ultron so you have a decent amount of points to contest the lanes where you’ve left the opponent impaired.

Because of the many high rolls this deck can pull, it is important to be fearless about your Snaps and Retreats, even with Enchantress representing a scary prospect.

Potential Additions:
There are more points focused lists that run Iron Man, Onslaught, and Wasp, but they tend to fall short against Bounce and Lockjaw. Also, there are a ton of 3-Cost cards to consider like Dazzler, Debrii, and Cosmo all representing valid cards to play. Finally, Super-Skrull is the tech card to beat the mirror match.

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
One of the few Tier 2 decks that competes based on points while the others rely on tech cards to gain an edge against the dominant builds. Shuri Sauron still suffers from Shang-Chi being the most popular tech card, while also standing barely any chance when Shuri doesn’t show up against the likes of Lockjaw and Bounce.

This is kind of this deck’s blessing and curse at the same time. Whenever you Snap early (or just on Turn 4), your opponent should immediately consider whether they want to play it out or not based on the assumption you have Shuri. But the opposite also stands: an opposing Snap without Shuri in hand immediately feels like a forced Retreat.

How to play:
Shuri Sauron is looking to beat its opponents in the simplest way possible in Marvel Snap: points. Indeed, even with Red Skull giving some to the opponent, there aren’t many decks able to rival the infamous Shuri → Red Skull → Taskmaster pattern that creates 28 points on two separate lanes. When this happens, the opponent’s only way to victory is to find a way to disrupt the pattern with a counter card.

If you want to dodge a Shang-Chi on your Red Skull, the deck can also skip Turn 5 and go for She-Hulk plus Taskmaster on Turn 6. With Shuri, this only develops 36 points (20 points fewer than Red Skull), but it prevents the opponent from having a turn to mess with your big card.

Another pattern exists with Kitty Pryde where the idea is to delay Shuri until Turn 5, allowing you to grow Kitty Pryde on Turn 4. On Turn 5, play Kitty Pryde before Shuri, so you can play Kitty Pryde behind Shuri and copy her power with Taskmaster on Turn 6.

Outside this very straight forward way of playing Marvel Snap, Shuri Sauron also packs a bit of flexibility thanks to its high power 1-Cost cards and Invisible Woman. The former can serve to gain priority early, and they can also be paired with Taskmaster on Turn 6 to get five to seven points on another lane (in addition to copying our big 5-Cost from the previous turn).

Invisible Woman, if you decide to run it, allows for some unpredictability, alongside a spicy Taskmaster play pattern. Play Shuri on Turn 4, then hide Taskmaster behind Invisible Woman (it needs to be the first card hidden there, though). The game doesn’t see that you played a card on Turn 5, so Shuri can still double the card you play on Turn 6 and Taskmaster will copy it upon revealing on game’s end.

Potential Additions:
Kitty Pryde, America Chavez, and She-Hulk are the cards you could replace, although they seem to have earned their spot over the weeks. Considering Kitty Pryde and America Chavez kind of synergize together, it seems like She-Hulk is the cut for a tech card (or Invisible Woman).

Stature

Stature

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
After climbing up in the rankings over the last few weeks, Stature and Darkhawk seem to have stabilized at the bottom of Tier 2. While this might seem low, the deck is anchored as the best “Darkhawk plus something” kind of deck, as Good Cards Wave is nowhere to be seen.

It feels like the deck’s development was stopped when Spider-Ham released, as the card is a pain for the Black Bolt and Stature duo. Some players have even started shying away from them and including cards like Iron Man, Iron Lad, or Aero for the later turns instead.

How to play:
Good Cards Stature is a very tempo oriented build looking to use its energy while staying flexible on where it can invest in the future. Ideally, one would be looking to stay flexible for a large part of the game, before committing to lanes in the last two turns.

The Move package with Polaris, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, and Miles Morales gained Silk, making it very reliable. It represents a great backup plan if we don’t find Zabu for our many 4-Costs. Lastly, the deck packs Shang-Chi and Enchantress as counter cards that also benefit from Zabu being in the deck.

With so many options, it is difficult to outline a specific play pattern outside Black Bolt on Turn 5 with Stature in hand. Ideally, we want to set up Turn 6 to be a 4-Cost plus Miles Morales, plus Stature. The rest of your game plan should be based on which package of cards you draw and your opponent. Try to assess early on which cards are fundamental to play and which turns make the most sense to play them; you can then use your other cards to fill the holes in your established pattern.

Potential Additions:
With Shang-Chi feeling like an absolute necessity in the current environment and High Evolutionary still being popular enough to include Luke Cage, the deck doesn’t have much flexibility to fit new cards. Nebula and Armor are included at times, either to counter Destroy or simply to have another 1-Cost to play.

Tier 3

I firmly believe that most decks in Tier 3 could be Tier 2 this week, as long as the list is built the right way. Indeed, all these decks have solid potential when it comes to points, and their drawback is that they’re much more predictable than the archetypes higher on the list. However, if one manages to fit a bit of a surprise element or have a smart Snap strategy to play with your opponent’s perspective, I fully believe these decks are able to perform well in the current environment.

We can also see the first ranking for the new card, The Phoenix Force, which seems like a respectable spot so far. It appears the deck needs a bit of help to be consistent, including Red Skull and Taskmaster in a deck that was already playing Shuri for more points. These cards are replacing the usual Move support cards Ghost-Spider and Doctor Strange. But, considering this deck appears to do worse than Shuri Sauron, I would expect this trio to not make much sense to run here for someone purely looking to win.

There is still some time to figure out the best way to build around the new season pass card.

Finally, we have Hela, Negative, and both Destroy decks bringing up the rear, all of which I think have the highest ceiling in this Tier; but, because they reveal a lot of their game plan early, they tend to draw a lot more Retreats than other decks when playing on Ladder. If this was a Conquest Tier List, though, I might be considering those decks to be valid picks to run the gauntlet.

Hyrbid Phoenix Force

Phoenix Force

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Galactus Destroy

Galactus Destroy

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Destroy

Destroy

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Mister Negative

Negative

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hela Discard

Hela discard

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

4.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

7.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 4

Tier 4 this week features decks that have a lot of different reviews in the community. Electro Ramp, in particular, is seen as a great deck by many, but the numbers simply are not there (for now). It might just be because some people are not playing the best possible list or not including the right tech cards for the current metagame. Still, Electro Ramp is struggling if we believe its overall cube average.

As for both Devil Dinosaur decks (either with Darkhawk or with more support cards), it seems the archetype is still not clicking completely. It is a bit weird to be honest; the deck is able to develop a large amount of points, and it can include cards like Cosmo and Shang-Chi as tech cards. Nevertheless, when looking at a large sample size, it seems like it’s really the tech cards that are doing the heavy lifting. Most builds without Shang-Chi are immediately struggling to stay at a positive cube average.

Last on our list is Move, which finally made it into the rankings. However, if the Move package solidified its spot in the Stature deck over time, the full-on Move deck is still not able to compete at that level.

Devil Darkhawk

Devil Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Starter Card

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Big Hands

BIg Hands

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Electro Ramp

Electro Ramp

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Move

Move

Created by den

, updated 10 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

The current metagame feels like it is in the right place. There isn’t a deck completely out of control, and all the dominant archetypes have an established counter that limits their power. However, all these interactions are well-known at this point, which makes the start of this new season feel much more boring than it really is.

We know which are the decks to beat – Bounce and Lockjaw – and we have the tools to do so at our disposal: Shang-Chi, Killmonger, a Lockdown strategy, or a gimmick deck that can develop more points. With that in mind, playing Marvel Snap right now feels a bit like going through the motions, but not really enjoying it or even thinking about it at times.

Nevertheless, we will get a patch very soon, which will hopefully create new interactions and novel puzzles to solve. Personally, I would love to see a Cerebro buff; the deck has always existed but never really broken through. Considering how flexible of an archetype it is, I think it could create a lot of new avenues to explore in the metagame.

As always, I hope this report was helpful for your understanding of the current metagame, and I’m curious to know what you expect from the upcoming monthly patch. To reach out, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or on my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.