Kitty Pryde Jim Lee

Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List: July 17, 2023 – Kitty Pryde Rules Marvel Snap Now

How has the Marvel Snap metagame adapted to the patch? Check out the top decks for ranked ladder this week!

Since High Evolutionary joined the game in late May, the Marvel Snap metagame has been a battle between Kitty Pryde and the latest Big Bad. Then for most of June, the battle went back and forth, with Bounce keeping Lockjaw in check, but Lockdown playing as a spoiler against Bounce in return. However, as July got its first balance patch last week, it seems like we have a winner, decided by the developer’s decision: Kitty Pryde.

Indeed, with High Evolutionary suffering two nerfs, to Evolved Wasp and Evolved Hulk, all of its archetype took a bit of a step back this week. Nothing too harsh, as all three are still ranked in the game’s top 10, and probably still solid decks to pick up and run on the ladder. Still, except for Lockjaw, it could still reclaim a spot in Tier 1 when it finds the right build to run. Pure Evolutionary and Lockdown clearly looked more like decent Tier 2 decks rather than likely contenders for Tier 1. This distinction could go to Silver Surfer though, which probably gained the most in the past week, alongside being one of the most played deck in the metagame. Already, the deck was looking good, and seeing less of Lockjaw can only be good news for the deck. However, gaining two new cards to experiment around, in Nakia and Jean Grey, has pushed Silver Surfer‘s popularity a lot this week. As such, once the deck will settle on the perfect list for the current environment, it could become a serious threat.

Regarding the other archetypes, not much happened, unfortunately, except for Discard Dracula gaining its usual slight boost thanks to a chaotic environment. Thanos did make sort of a comeback if we believe social media, but the overall popularity is still miles away from the usual suspects. Our best bet is Thanos Control, a Silent Performer this week, which could come in and play spoiler if it manages to keep the same performance over a much larger sample size.

Overall, I would say this week should be looked at as the start of a new metagame, with hints of who might be the future performers. Yet, until we find the deck to completely overall the current dynamic, or Second Dinner steps in and does it for us, it feels like Kitty Pryde stands tall in the current Marvel Snap metagame.

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. Even with a small sample size, I would encourage anyone with a knack for playing off-meta, or unpopular decks to check this section, as you should find solid decks, with the ability to surprise their opponent in the current metagame.

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 Ranked Meta Tier List

TierDeckGuide
Tier 1BounceGuide
Tier 1Sera ControlGuide
Tier 2Evolved Lockjaw 🔽Guide
Tier 2Silver Surfer 🔽Guide
Tier 2Iron PatriotGuide
Tier 2Pure EvolutionaryGuide
Tier 2Evolved Lockdown 🔽Guide
Tier 2Dracula Discard 🔼Guide
Tier 3DestroyGuide
Tier 3Devil Darkhawk 🔼Guide
Tier 3Cerebro 2 🆕Guide
Tier 3Thanos Zoo 🆕Guide
Tier 3Shuri Sauron 🔽Guide
Tier 4Mister Negative 🔽Guide
Tier 4Big Hands
Tier 4Galactus 🆕Guide
Tier 4Electro RampGuide
Tier 4Hela Discard 🔽Guide
Silent PerformerGood Cards StatureGuide
Silent PerformerThanos Control 🆕
BudgetOngoing KazooGuide
BudgetDevil Dinosaur Destroy
BudgetSwarm Discard Aggro
BudgetOngoing Two Locations
BudgetOn Reveal ControlGuide
BudgetBig Cards

Tier Explanation

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 metagame, 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 > 0.40

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 > 0.25

Tier 3: This tier is made of decks that have a pervasive issue compared to Tier One or Two decks. Usually, Tier 3 will be a mix of decks on the rise which don’t have much data about themselves, 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 > 0.15

Tier 4: Off-meta decks that have fallen off in recent times, or counter picks relying on specific match-ups to stay afloat competitively.
Cube Average > 0.05

Budget: Decks that consist only cards in Pool 1 and 2 but 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

Bounce

Bounce
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
3x 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)
1.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
1.4
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
As expected from a deck which didn’t suffer anything in the previous while its biggest competition got nerfed, Bounce logically took the top spot this week. It is trailed by Sera Control, which seems to be the closest deck when it comes to reliably countering Bounce, even if the other matchups are enough to maintain an insanely high cube average for the deck.

The biggest risk during this week was going back to a list without Iron Man. Indeed, Silver Surfer gained a lot of momentum with Jean Grey releasing and Nakia buffed, which logically lead to more Rogue in the metagame, probably the best card against Iron Man overall. Fear not, the lists with Iron Man are still very strong, we are nitpicking for a few extra points of cube average here.

As for Spider-Ham not being included, the list with The Hood and Iceman was a tad better, although it doesn’t seem to impact the archetype’s performance as much as Iron Man being countered. Overall, it’s three cards for two slots, basically.

How to Play:
Bounce relies on replaying cheap cards several times through the use of BeastKitty 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 plus Hit Monkey will provide enough points, while we can simply slam America Chavez on turn six when limited to one card only.

Potential Additions:
Iron Man often replaces Falcon if you don’t mind Rogue being quite popular lately. Spider-Ham is a popular inclusion over The Collector or The Hood. Last, Shang-Chi or Jeff the Baby Land Shark round up the deck if you want a tech card for the mirror or the Lockjaw matchup.

Sera Control

Sera Control
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
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:
Similarly to Bounce, Sera Control had no reason to lose any of its momentum in the latest patch. So much so that both Kitty Pryde decks are comfortably sitting atop the metagame, alone in Tier 1. Even if Bounce took the top spot, the gap with the other archetypes is much wider after Sera Control this week, as the two archetype were the only ones above the 0.4 Cube Average.

Nakia has been extensively tested in Sera after her buff. Yet, the card did not appear too much in the popular decks after a few days, the player base apparently going back to the traditional list, with two cards seemingly flexible. First, we have Rogue or Enchantress, which are played for the reason, but might have slightly different targets. Rogue makes more sense against Bounce or Lockjaw, as they only have one Ongoing card in their deck, while it also costs less. Enchantress will do more work against Thanos Zoo or Patriot, where you might want to remove several Ongoing abilities at the same time. Rogue seemed to do better overall, but it mostly is based on your popular opponents.

Scarlet Witch is the most popular, and best performing 2-Cost card in the deck. However, Jeff the Baby Land Shark can occasionally help the deck in specific situations, or against Lockdown strategies.

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 PrydeMysterio, 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 KillmongerShang-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:
Enchantress can replace Rogue for mass removal of Ongoing abilities. Otherwise, Bast sometimes replaces Nova and Scarlet Witch is the flexible 2-Cost card.

Tier 2

Evolved Lockjaw

Evolved Lockjaw
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
1x Collection Level 1-14
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x 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
3.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
5.3
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
As the ladder is much more focused on replicating the same plan over and over, combined with the ability to enforce it on a variety of opponent, the High Evolutionary build remained the best for Lockjaw this week. Nevertheless, the archetype did lose a bit of momentum compared to before the patch, hence its positioning in Tier 2 now. Don’t rule out a comeback next week though, as Lockjaw still is a great deck to punish Silver Surfer, one of the most popular archetype lately.

If we look at specific lists, such as the one featured here, Lockjaw still appears to be able to compete with any other archetype in the game, posting one of the best Cube Average in the game. However, outside some precise builds of Lockjaw, there are a variety of list which are looking much more average, when they would previously post much better numbers. As such, it appears the archetype was a little all over the place this week, with several ways to build being tested, which naturally tempered with the overall performance.

If the community agreed on the best list, and play this particular one to create bigger sample sizes. I have no doubt Lockjaw could remain a Tier 1 decks, easily.

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.

Most of the time, that second lane will be challenge by Thor, or where we expect to play a big Evolved Hulk on turn six, for example. On the other end, Evolved Wasp, Spider-Ham and Mjölnir are perfect to play behind Lockjaw, in order to get high points cards for cheap. As the game progresses, we should be able to track where we are at on the different lanes. For example, if Lockjaw summoned America Chavez plus Magneto by turn four, it might not be necessary to keep focusing on that lane anymore. Similarly, if you already have Jane Foster Mighty Thor in hand, you can already expect Thor to be a 10 power card, which is a solid anchor for your lane.

The first two turns of the game can be very quiet for a Lockjaw deck, as we aren’t looking to do much (which feeds Evolved Hulk when in hand). On Turn three, we will either look to have Lockjaw paired with Wasp, or Thor to shuffle Mjölnir into the deck. Turn four will be Jubilee or the card we didn’t play on turn three, if we had both Lockjaw and Thor available.

Usually, it is good to assess the situation at the end of turn four to know where the match is headed. 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 to challenge the second lane.

Potential Additions:
Killmonger or Wave can replace Spider-Ham for a different tech card in this particular build. Otherwise, some players dropped High Evolutionary and Evolved Hulk for The Infinaut and a flexible card.

Silver Surfer

Sera Surfer
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
2.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Similarly to Lockjaw, Silver Surfer has gone through a hectic week, as the archetype had a lot to figure out. Jean Grey and Nakia both appeared to be great additions to the deck, and often see play instead of Polaris and Rogue, although the later duo had better results so far. The same way as the previous deck in the rankings, testing the different cards probably dragged Silver Surfer overall performance down a bit. If we looked at the best performing 12 cards, this particular build was posting good enough numbers to contend with Bounce or Sera Surfer in Tier 1.

Also, another battle was going on amongst 2-Cost cards, with Invisible Woman and Jeff the Baby Land Shark trying to steal Goose‘s spot. Unfortunately, if we trust our data, it seems like running Goose as a solo act in the deck is the best way to go right now. I don’t think it means other 2-Cost cards cannot be included, rather that there are many 3-Cost cards which are too good to pass currently.

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 gameplan. Apart from the StormJuggernaut 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.

Particularly if you are running tech cards, such as Rogue, Killmonger, or Shadow King, you will be looking to keep those for turn six, in order to get the best out of them. As such, you need to play the more proactive cards during the early turns. 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:
Jean Grey, Nakia, are the two most used 3-Cost cards outside the featured list. In the 2-Cost slot, we routinely see Invisible Woman or Jeff the Baby Land Shark.

Iron Patriot

Iron Patriot
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
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:
Not powerful enough to compete with the decks ranked higher this week, Iron Patriot leverages Killmonger and Shang-Chi to be a great archetype in the current metagame. As it seems, the previously super greedy builds with Iron Man and Onslaught, relying on timing your Snaps perfectly, have fallen out of flavor for a couple of weeks. My guess is that the surprise effect is not there anymore, leading to those decks not racking up enough cubes with their great hands to make up for the bad ones.

On the other hand, Killmonger and Shang-Chi aren’t necessarily something the opponent expects, meaning they will tend to stay in games where they believe they are winning the points battle, while it wasn’t one in the first place. Especially with Invisible Woman, now a core card in the archetype, Iron Patriot needs to keep that very important surprise element to remain a contender in the current metagame.

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 PatriotIron LadMystiqueUltron, 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:
Many cards can be played in Iron Patriot, hence why it can be difficult to find the right balance with the deck. Wasp, Iron Man, Misty Knight, Debrii are the often included as the synergistic cards. Super-Skrull is the tech card for other Ongoing synergies.

Pure Evolutionary

Pure Evolutionary
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
5x Starter Card
3.2
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
As expected with both Evolved Wasp and Evolved Hulk taking a hit, High Evolutionary lost a bit of ground as well. However, it didn’t lose as much as I anticipated, probably thanks to its flexibility regarding tech cards.

Rogue is the needed one in order to go against Bounce, probably even more so than Wave currently, although running both might also make sense. Then, Armor is making its way back since Destroy keeps being amongst the most popular archetypes. The curious change to the deck is the return of She-Hulk instead of Doctor Doom. My guess is that the deck needs more power on the lane it covets rather than a flexible spread with the nerf, but it could also be a case of less Lockdown as well.

Even if it manages to keep a decent spot in Tier 2, Pure Evolutionary is also the first deck below the 0.3 Cube Average. While it isn’t so far from Iron Patriot, it marks the separation in Tier 2, with the bottom three decks could be considered weaker, if one were to draw the line amongst the six decks in the category.

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 KnightEvolved 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:

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:
This was another well performing build this week:

Pure Evo bis
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
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+

Evolved Lockdown

Evolved Lockdown
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
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:
While Jean Grey was considered a great card for the archetype, it hasn’t cracked the best lists for now. Quite the opposite, as it looks like it is the same exact same build as before the patch which is posting the best performance so far.

This could lead to two conclusions about the archetype:

  • Either the comfort developed on the base list lead to players having better results with it, and we need more time to see it evolve.
  • The archetype only got worse with the latest patch, receiving no new tools while having two cards nerfed.

Unfortunately for Lockdown, if the second hypothesis happens to be true, it probably means the archetype won’t go much higher in the future unless the surrounding environment changes for the better.

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, StormSpider-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:
Considering the list has not changed at all with two nerfed cards, it is hard to imagine replacing anything. Yet, if you would be missing Jeff, you probably can include Armor, Luke Cage or another 1-cost like Iceman or Spider-Ham.

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
3.1
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Spider-Ham remains quite a big problem for Discard Dracula, the deck being barely able to function without Apocalypse. Still, the buffs to both Gambit and Nakia seem to have helped the deck quite a bit, as the list with both card posted the best results this week.

Gambit is great against Lockjaw on turn three or four, sniping an important target for the opponent. While Nakia makes the Swarm game plan much stronger, giving the deck more flexibility going into the later turns, even if we don’t draw into Apocalypse.

Even with the changes though, It seems obvious we will have to wait until August, and the arrival of a few cards with some discard synergy, in order to see Dracula and Apocalypse rise past the bottom of Tier 2, its best ranking for the past few seasons now.

How to Play:
This archetype looks to leverage the various synergies around the discard mechanic, particularly Morbius and Dracula, our two best points scorer. Ideally, we are looking to plan around these two cards dominating, or at least challenging a lane almost on their own. Then, it gives us the flexibility to place our other discard tools as we wish, either supporting our two anchors, or challenging the third lane as well.

In the deck, Colleen Wing and Lady Sif are rather safe cards to play, the former being aimed at discarding Swarm, while the other targets Apocalypse. However, Gambit, Hell Cow and MODOK can be riskier to play, especially if we have not prepared our hand accordingly. As such, it is usually better to work with this kind of play pattern:

  • Turn 2: Morbius or The Collector. Play on the unrevealed location, as you are unable to challenge unplayable locations otherwise.
  • Turn 3: Lady Sif if you have Apocalypse already, or Nakia if your hand is worth buffing, with Swarm notably
  • Turn 4: Dracula if you already have Apocalypse. If you don’t, it’s about figuring out how to win the game, either through drawing Apocalypse next turn or finding another pattern.
  • Turn 5: This is the first turn where you can discard pretty safely, as the important cards are in play already, or won’t be a factor in the game anyway. Especially if you have Swarm, Apocalypse, you can go crazy.
  • Turn 6: America Chavez or keep discarding if it leads to more points in the end.

Potential Additions:
A 1-Cost card is likely to be worth if you don’t like either Gambit or Nakia. Spider-Ham, Sunspot and Nebula are the popular ones in Discard. Also, Wolverine can replace The Collector for a budget, second Swarm.

Tier 3

Tier 3 decks saw a few surprises this week, with Thanos Zoo making a bit of a comeback thanks to Jean Grey, while Shuri took a bit of a dive, maybe for the same reason. Indeed, Jean Grey has been terrible news for Shuri, which gets badly countered if forced to play another lane than Shuri on turn five. Similarly, decks able to run to several disruptive cards, such as Thanos Zoo with Armor or Cosmo, can leverage Jean Grey to push the opponent to play onto say lanes.

As for the other three decks, they have been in a similar position for a while. Unfortunately, the balance patch has not impacted the metagame enough for these archetypes to push much further, it seems.

Destroy

Destroy
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
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)
2.9
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.1
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Devil Darkhawk

Devil Darkhawk
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
2x 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)
1x Starter Card
2.8
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
2.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Cerebro 2

Cerebro 2
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Recruit Season
2.6
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
2.2
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Thanos Zoo

Thanos Zoo
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
2x Collection Level 1-14
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
2x Recruit Season
3.7
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2.9
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 4

In this last tier are most of the gimmicky archetypes in the metagame, relying on a precise gameplan, leveraged by sound Snaps and Retreats.

While the consistency definitely isn’t there for most of these archetypes, which obviously hurts their performance over large sample sizes. I believe the real kicker for these decks is to read the environment properly. Indeed, each of the archetypes in this tier, maybe except for Big Hands, have the ability to beat popular decks ranked much highest in this report. Yet, there needs to be enough of those decks in the environment in order to leverage their popularity.

For example, Mister Negative or Hela Discard can beat Lockjaw in a point shootout. Galactus and Electro Ramp are able to shut down Sera Control pretty well thanks to Sandman or Wave.

Mister Negative

Mister Negative
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
4x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Recruit Season
1x Starter Card
3.1
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
1.6
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Big Hands

Big Hands
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Starter Card
2.3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
2.5
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Galactus

Galactus
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4.3
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
4
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Electro Ramp

Electro Ramp
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
1x Collection Level 1-14
2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)
4.1
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
3.5
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hela Discard

Hela discard
Created by den
, updated 9 months ago
1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)
2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)
8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)
1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)
4.4
Cost
0-
1
2
3
4
5+
7.8
Power
0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

Even if the balance patch had some impact on the metagame, especially to the High Evolutionary decks, the global environment has not changed so much, only the ranking of the decks at the top. Indeed, apart from Dracula Discard and Iron Patriot, the other six decks in Tier 1 or 2 can be split in two categories: The High Evolutionary archetypes, and the turn six archetypes, lead by Sera and Kitty Pryde.

There is more room for building and innovation, particularly as the buffs had much more impact than most expected, with Nakia and Gambit making it into various decks, at least to be tested there. The return of Thanos is also something to note in the metagame, even if the Mad Titan still isn’t anywhere close to the six decks mentioned above for now. Its most popular archetype, Thanos Zoo, actually didn’t post such great numbers, while its best performing, Thanos Control, needs to see more play to be a real consideration.

However, we have read about Glenn Jones saying Bounce couldn’t be in the last patch because of timing, but was high on the list of decks for the next OTA card balance updates. So who knows what might be in the works for next Thursday. It will be my pleasure to cover it and let you know all about those upcoming changes. Until then, I hope you’re having fun playing Marvel Snap!

To reach out, for questions or coaching inquiry, 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.

Captain Marvel Artgerm

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den
den

Den has been in love with strategy games for as long as he can remember, starting with the Heroes of Might and Magic series as a kid. Card games came around the middle school - Yu-Gi-Oh! and then Magic: The Gathering.

Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra has been his real breakthrough and he has been a coach, writer, and caster on the French scene for many years now. He now coaches aspiring pro players and writes various articles on these games.

Articles: 399