Table of Contents
I really want to be positive and make these reports a way to promote the game as well as inform players on the meta, but this season is making it really hard to do so. Indeed, the OTA had little to no impact on the meta, except for Discard Dracula replacing Bullseye in the Discard synergy.
From afar, you might notice there are five decks with Negasonic Teenage Warhead, which makes that change the most impactful of the last balance update. It is true that the meta has evolved towards a more disruptive style, which could be considered a big change. However, I don’t consider this a meaningful twist because the reason we went from 1 to 5 Negasonic Teenage Warhead was due to the flexible decks including it.
The way to build a winning deck has not changed: use energy cheating cards early to build towards super explosive patterns later on. That is the foundation of Silver Surfer, Good Cards, and Iron Hand, all in the top three this week. Arguably, Merlin Clog and Wiccan Control followed that same recipe with different ingredients. Werewolf By Night on Turn 3 easily beats a 6-Cost in raw power, while Wiccan gives you energy instead of discounting your cards.
Mixing that concept with disruption allows creating safer Snap opportunities than if you just clicked the cube whenever you draw well early on. Indeed, since everyone in the higher ranks is using that same formula, games with no disruption just turn into a contest of who cheated the most energy or scored the most points. Through that added disruption there are two ways to win because you can rely on your proactive synergies, or on the opponent not executing theirs.
Overall, the amount of competitive decks is more than enough. To be fair, I am having fun playing Nimrod Destroy. But it feels like most players have figured out the winning recipe for Marvel Snap, and the only choices we have are the cosmetics we dress it with. Just look at the #1 and #2 ranked decks. They share seven common cards, and it could easily make it to eight or nine if it wasn’t for one playing Copycat when the other uses Killmonger.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Nimrod Destroy 0.5 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate / 150 Games |
| Trending | Supergiant Control 0.65 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate / 140 Games |
| Tier 1 | Disruptive Silver Surfer 0.65 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Good Disruptive Cards 0.65 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Iron Hand 0.55 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Merlin Clog 0.55 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Wiccan Control 0.45 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula 0.35 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Double Up 0.35 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | End Turn Fantasticar 0.25 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Big Move 0.25 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Ramp 0.3 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| High Evo Fantasticar | 0.45 Cube Average & 64.5% Win Rate |
| Scream Move | 0.6 Cube Average & 60.5% Win Rate |
| Points Surfer | 0.6 Cube Average & 60% Win Rate |
| Merlin Clog | 0.6 Cube Average & 60% Win Rate |
| Bullseye | 0.8 Cube Average & 58.5% 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
Nimrod Destroy
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate / 150 Games
This is sort of a more reliable Mister Negative if you will. You definitely don’t have as many points to work with, but you should beat most of the flexible decks when you find Nimrod or Black Panther in time (and can build around them safely). And you will more often than you find Mister Negative.
The other key element for this deck is the popularity of the Fenris Wolf, Gladiator,
Supergiant Control
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate / 140 Games
This is a very sneaky deck aimed at Snapping whenever there is an opportunity to derail the opponent’s plan. The hardest part is to seize priority heading into the second portion of the match, as that makes Cosmo, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Alioth much stronger. If you can do this reliably, you should be in control of most games.
Tier 1
Disruptive Surfer
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate
Except for Killmonger (and even though the card is great against Fantasticar and Iron Hand), there is nothing you can contest about this deck.
You have the two of the best early cards to cheat energy, a battle tested disruptive package, and three of the strongest 4-Cost cards that exist in Marvel Snap. It is called a Silver Surfer deck, but Brood and Silver Surfer might actually be some of the worst cards in the deck.
Potential Additions
Mobius M. Mobius instead of Killmonger would target different match ups.
Disruptive Good Cards
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
First, it looks like Good Cards didn’t even blink at Zabu becoming a [1/1]. I have even seen players report it as a positive thing, as Mister Fantastic First Steps can now be protected against Red Guardian. The deck just did what it does best: take some of the best packages in the game and include them alongside Zabu and 4-Cost cards.
As long as flexible cards and energy cheats dominate Marvel Snap, the Good Cards concept will find a way to be near the top of the competitive mountain.
Potential Additions
Mercury and Cannonball could become Surge and Legion if you want more standalone cards. Otherwise, Copycat and Juggernaut are flexible if you want to include different disruptive cards.
Iron Hand
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
Mirage was not part of the best Iron Hand build last week, so one power did help the card. That is about the only thing to report about this archetype, which has continued to post strong results ever since it appeared. There is much less of Enchantress around, so if you can dodge Fenris Wolf and friends, Iron Hand should be a great pick.
Potential Additions
The Ancient One and Moonstone battle for the same slot in the deck. Valentina could be Hawkeye Kate Bishop, depending on your preference and hand management. Infinity Ultron is used for some highroll potential, but Moon Girl can also fit that role.
Merlin Clog
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
This deck managed to survive the new season and still post great results even though new shiny toys have released. Plus, Destroy decks seem to have disappeared, which helps the Clog synergy to thrive. For those who decided to skip July cards or simply have to wait for Mister Fantastic First Steps to be obtainable with tokens next month, this and Iron Hand are perfect.
Potential Additions
King Eitri synergizes well with Agamotto. Otherwise, you could run Sersi or Legion instead of that 5-Cost.
Tier 2
Wiccan Control
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
The deck disappeared a bit after rising in the second half of the previous season. I don’t know if the change to Negasonic Teenage Warhead changed that much, or if reactive decks simply could not abuse bots as well as synergistic ones. Still, this is probably the best way to include the dominant Fenris Wolf, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Gladiator trio in a deck without needing cards from this season.
Potential Additions
Shang-Chi could replace Cannonball while Mercury would be a flexible slot if you lacked either of those two cards.
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
I have a hard time believing the deck has surpassed Bullseye just because that card lost one power in the previous OTA, especially considering Bullseye has not lost a step in the ranks before Infinite. Red Guardian isn’t a popular inclusion in most of the flexible decks at the moment, so Dracula can synergize with Apocalypse in peace.
Potential Additions
Gambit is the flexible card in the deck. Grand Master or Moon Knight probably make the most sense as replacements, but removing Surge or Mister Fantastic First Steps early is great.
Tier 3
In Tier 3, you’ll find mostly gimmicks with good enough potential to see play but typically too rigid to catch anyone off guard. These decks need to Snap early to keep the opponent in a high stakes match, but considering the power of the top tier it is really difficult to pull the trigger before checking if they have their key early cards or not.
Fantasticar is the odd deck of the bunch, as it was posting top tier results up until the OTA. Rest assured, the High Evolutionary decks will return once the Doctor Doom 2099 experiment is over. Below the Infinite rank, where players tend to focus on climbing more than testing new ideas, the High Evo Fantasticar deck sports a 0.45 Cube Average with a 62.5% Win Rate over 750 games if you mix both top performing lists for a large sample size.
Double Up
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate
End Turn Fantasticar
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
Big Move
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
Galactus Ramp
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 52% 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.
Cube Average > 0.5
Tier 2: Tier 2 are very good decks but with a weakness holding them back – either not being as reliable in its draws as Tier 1 decks, countered by another popular deck, or still being a work in progress as you read this. A good pilot could probably take these and have the same results as with a Tier 1 deck, but their play patterns are more difficult to enact compared to the tier above.
Cube Average > 0.35
Tier 3: This tier is made of decks that have a pervasive issue compared to Tier 1 or Tier 2 decks. Usually, Tier 3 will be a mix of decks on the rise that don’t have much data, old archetypes on the decline, decks that require substantial experience and/or knowledge to pilot properly, powerful decks that aren’t well positioned, or niche decks.
Cube Average > 0.20
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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