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
Even though Arishem remains an influential force—multiple archetypes still run Darkhawk in their best performing lists—Gwenpool managed to bring some diversity to the meta. Notably, Silver Surfer is making the most of the new Season Pass card by leveraging its buffs on Brood, Absorbing Man, and Sebastian Shaw.
Another deck worth mentioning is Iron Patriot, an archetype we haven’t seen in a while in these reports. The deck is far from Silver Surfer in terms of performance, but it at least shows that Gwenpool is able to impact more than just one archetype (although the cards you want to buff are basically the same plus Mysterio).
It might just be a couple of returning archetypes, but Gwenpool was enough to change the meta from “Arishem and his counters” to more of a triangle with decks able to develop enough points now competing in the mix. This might be just an afterthought; it could be quickly explained by the fact that proactive decks are perfect for farming bots on the way to the Infinite rank. Yet, Silver Surfer managed to snag the top spot in the rankings, so you should see this as more than Gwenpool reminding everyone there are other decks you can play.
It is too early to say which deck is the absolute best, but I’ll take the three way race at the top of the meta over the best deck against counter picks that we had last week, especially when each archetype features a different way to play the game.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Ravonna |
| Tier 1 | Arishem Loki |
| Tier 1 | Loki |
| Tier 2 | Phoenix Force |
| Tier 2 | Junk Move |
| Tier 2 | Iron Patriot |
| Tier 2 | On Reveal |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 3 | Destroy |
| Tier 3 | Shuri Gwenpool |
| Tier 3 | Kazoo |
| 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 Cube Average 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. They won’t have their own dedicated write up here, but they may be transferred to the main Tier List section. 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 Tiers 1 and 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 & 60% Win Rate
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 & 55% Win Rate
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 & 53% Win Rate
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.
Tier 1
Silver Surfer
den
It is pretty simple to dismiss a great Cube Average early in a season since a lot of the cubes can be gained by tricking bots into losing eight cube matches. However, it isn’t as simple to fake the second-best Win Rate in the game in addition to the best Cube Average. The answer to the question Is Gwenpool excellent in Silver Surfer seems to be a resounding yes, as long as you have the right cards alongside it.
Brood, Absorbing Man, and Sebastian Shaw are obvious great targets, but the secret weapon seems to be Makkari. Out of all the Silver Surfer lists I could find, the best ones were running Makkari. Indeed, Gwenpool is only good if you can play the buffed cards, so a free card that will play itself is perfect for making sure you don’t waste those extra points.
Potential Additions
Mysterio and Mockingbird could replace Nova and Killmonger for even more explosive power at the cost of a little less stability. Mister Sinister could also be considered as a Gwenpool synergy. Phastos and Mobius M. Mobius are always good standalone Silver Surfer cards.
Good Cards Ravonna
den
With a list still focused around beating Arishem with the Darkhawk package, Good Cards Ravonna posted the highest Win Rate in the game this week at 65.8%.
With Gwenpool pushing other synergies, one would logically think there would be less of Arishem around, thus making targeted strategies not as rewarding. But, even if Arishem wasn’t as popular compared to last week, Good Cards remained a well-rounded strategy that was able to beat most decks through its great balance of points and disruption.
Sure, you might do better against non-Arishem decks if you had strong standalone inclusions instead of Korg, Rockslide, and Darkhawk in your deck. Still, this trio contributes to the disruptive side of the deck, and it makes Mystique a great inclusion for Ravonna Renslayer to have another card to discount.
Potential Additions
The Mysterio, Mockingbird, and Sasquatch package, or a strong standalone card like Mobius M. Mobius, Hope Summers, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, or Red Guardian could replace the Darkhawk cards if you don’t feel like they’re worth it in the deck.
Arishem Loki
den
The undisputed best deck to come out from last season is now part of the elite few at the top of the rankings, but it’s far from the tyrant it looked like in the first few days after Arishem released. The most interesting part about this deck is that it is still built for the mirror match and playing all the specific counter cards (Darkhawk, Rogue, Mystique, and even Echo).
It seems to be working pretty well, as you can see from the 61.5% Win Rate, but I think we’re slowly drifting towards a more diversified meta. Indeed, Silver Surfer and Good Cards Ravonna were almost as popular as Arishem since the start of the season. As such, Arishem aficionados might have to start tinkering with more all-around lists for the future, unless you really fancy that match up specific, Snap-oriented approach.
Potential Additions
Here’s a list with a weaker Cube Average but a slightly higher Win Rate:
den
Loki
Even though Arishem Loki managed to post a 1% higher Win Rate, the Classic Loki deck has been gaining plenty of momentum in this new season. That’s quite a reassuring sign after the difficult period it’s had over the past couple of seasons. Just like Good Cards Ravonna and Arishem Loki, you can see Darkhawk is part of the mix. This once again shows how Arishem remains an impactful force in the meta and is still a worthy target to boost your Cube Average and Win Rate.
The other deck Loki is pretty strong against is Silver Surfer thanks to naturally playing lots of 3-Cost cards (with Cosmo being among of them). When you can steal the right cards with Loki, you essentially become a Silver Surfer deck with discounted cards.
Overall, with two positive match ups among the Big 3 of this new season, Loki is looking very good.
Potential Additions
Devil Dinosaur can be any card you would deem necessary for a specific opponent, or Thena if you’d rather develop points with a cheaper card.
Tier 2
Phoenix Force
den
The “always reliable if you have a strong, disciplined Snap game” deck Phoenix Force posted a nice performance to open the season with a 55.5% Win Rate. Obviously, the deck won’t be as good as those in Tier 1 that are currently dominating the meta, but it has the upside of being much simpler to pilot. In a game that rewards flexibility and adaptability first, Phoenix Force is a great option for the gimmick enjoyers who are looking to focus on themselves more than navigate complex situations to find the ideal play patterns.
Potential Additions
Gwenpool could be an interesting card to test in the deck.
Junk Move
den
After a convincing first week in our last report where Junk Move looked like a deck that was able to to challenge the elite archetypes, the deck lost a bit of momentum. The Win Rate remains great (although 58% doesn’t get you in the Tier 1 club), but the Cube Average is mediocre for this early in the season, which indicates the deck might struggle to get value from its Snaps.
Was Junk Move just a nice way to bring some surprise into the Junk archetype that quickly faded, or can the archetype bounce back? I guess we’ll know once we take a look at the Infinite ranks in the next report.
Potential Additions
You could remove the Move package to play a more focused Junk deck with the Annihilus trio, or you could just try strong standalone cards like Nebula, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, Nocturne, or Sage.
Iron Patriot
den
It’s been a while since Iron Patriot was included in a Tier List, but Gwenpool helped the deck find some competitive fire once again. With Mister Sinister, Mysterio, Brood, and Absorbing Man as potential great targets, the new Season Pass card has plenty of allies to help the deck’s points total.
Fortunately, there are very few Ongoing hate cards around, which allows Iron Patriot to develop and play a simple strategy: spread points on every location and see if your opponent can beat you. So far, it kind of looks like a worse Silver Surfer if I’m honest, but there is a bigger opportunity to catch your opponent off guard. It might be a good fit for a player with a great sense for Snapping clueless opponents.
Potential Additions
Phastos feels like the flexible card in the deck, with Doctor Doom, Blue Marvel, or maybe Alioth as potential replacements.
On Reveal
den
On Reveal was a top five archetype in terms of Win Rate this week at 63.8%. Unfortunately, it was unable to transform that Win Rate into a large Cube Average. Just like every other week, the deck features the exact same twelve cards, and it looks like an overall reliable option. Gwenpool pushes for a similar kind of game play that is focused on points and maximizing your potential, so that might push On Reveal towards the door a bit in the near future.
Potential Additions
You could replace Echo or a Move card with a match up specific tech card.
Discard Dracula
den
It is no secret that, after several seasons, the Discard synergy is pretty good when it comes to scamming bots on the way to Infinite. Plus, it has some pretty straight forward game play that allows most players to pick up the deck rapidly. That makes Discard Dracula a solid archetype for ranking up in the first week of a new season.
With this in mind, it isn’t so surprising to see the deck post better results than it used to over the past few reports. However, even if the 56% Win Rate is promising, let’s keep in mind that this is often the best time to play Discard Dracula, so the performance will likely go down from here.
Gwenpool is a fun little experiment here, especially if you manage to hit Swarm. Extra power on Dracula is also totally fine.
Potential Additions
Gambit, Miek, and other cheap cards allow you to manage your hand for Apocalypse or Gwenpool to make sense in the deck.
Tier 3
Although Destroy is kind of expected in this lower tier, the other two decks are worth discussing. First, there’s a deck centered around buffing cards with Shuri and Gwenpool that tries to scam a huge amount of points. Unfortunately, the deck doesn’t look reliable enough, and it needs to Snap very early and hope the opponent won’t leave as soon as they see what you are cooking.
The other problem with the deck is its lack of flexibility (apart from Nimrod who can be re-positioned with Destroyer. Otherwise, the deck feels very rigid and predictable from an opposing point of view. As such, the 53.5% Win Rate is a decent start, but it should only go down once the deck becomes a known thing around the community.
The other deck worth discussing (for the the complete opposite reason) is Kazoo. The archetype really couldn’t adapt once Arishem became the new proactive deck around. This week, Kazoo only managed to post a 53% Win Rate. That’s quite far from the performances it had a month ago when the deck was considered a Top 3 archetype in the game.
On top of Arishem already being a problem, Gwenpool brought Silver Surfer back, which means more Killmonger. Sure, the deck is running Caiera, but you still have to adapt the way you play a little. All in all, this feels like a tough environment for Kazoo.
Destroy
den
Shuri Gwenpool
Kazoo
den
Closing Words
The start of a season shouldn’t be taken too seriously, as bots play a huge factor in everyone’s performance and completely blur the real Cube Average each archetype is worth. However, the first week of a new season has one big upside: it is often pretty diverse. Indeed, not only do we get multiple* new cards, we can also count on bots to regain the cubes we lost exploring weird ideas. As such, even if the results can’t be looked at the same way you would in other weeks, you can at least separate the ideas that are worth a shot from those that couldn’t even function after regularly getting free cubes.
Silver Surfer and Iron Patriot aren’t exactly exotic ideas in Marvel Snap; both archetypes have been around for ages already. But just seeing how there is suddenly room for new archetypes in a meta that Arishem had completely taken hostage a week ago is great for Marvel Snap’s general balance. It only takes one card (or one balance change) to completely alter the complexity of the meta.
*What do you mean, two cards? Who? ? Never heard of that guy…
To reach out with questions about this piece or coaching inquiries, 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.
More Content