Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List: July 24, 2023 – Old Staples and New Contenders Clash in a Revamped Metagame!

The early trend after the massive OTA Card Balance Updates we had on Thursday seems to be confirmed: Marvel Snap’s metagame is all over the place right now. Just looking in the two highest tiers, you’ll find both reactive and proactive strategies. You can also find Ongoing decks, On Reveal decks, explosive combo decks, Control decks, and more linear strategies. There is no telling what the perfect recipe to dominate is right now, and I love it!

A lot of decks putting up solid performances doesn’t mean some aren’t doing better than the others. For this first week in the new metagame, it looks like the Lockdown strategy was at its very best with both Thanos Control and Evolved Lockdown posting impressive results. This makes a lot of sense if we think about it – locking down the opponent’s space is a strategy that works against a large variety of opponents, and is therefore great for an erratic environment.

Also, it is worth noting that Professor X is one of the biggest counters to The Phoenix Force in the game, a card that has been very popular after its recent buff. You will notice The Phoenix Force isn’t part of the Tier List this week; its performance does not meet the positive Cube Average requirement. Still, it is undeniable how much the deck has improved, so it might be just a case of a difficult environment for the Season Pass card.

In addition, Combo decks, such as Hela Discard and The Living Tribunal, also rose in popularity, and they, too, show some weaknesses against an opponent able to prevent the free use of their space (especially their Invisible Woman lane). This further improved the performance of Lockdown-based decks this week.

Behind the two Professor X decks, though, the metagame looks wide open. There are eight decks featured in Tier 2 this week that range from the evergreen Sera Control to the very new Hela Tribunal. Time will probably be the judge of which decks are solid enough to stay competitive in the long run. In the meantime, it really feels like every kind of player can find a deck for their play style, and their results will be based on their ability to adapt to the various opponents they will meet on the way. In particular, I would recommend having a short list of decks against which you want to Snap, and another for those you should be careful when facing. It might go a long way into making sense of an environment that can pair you against very different strategies from one match to another.

The last topic to cover is our Silent Performers of the week – Stature put up great results this week! The deck would have been in contention for Tier 1 if it wasn’t for its very low sample size. Easily the sleeper archetype this week, probably in part because the Move package helps derail synergies that rely on Invisible Woman hiding cards.

Our second sleeper deck is the previous king of the metagame, which saw its popularity crumble after the several nerfs it received. Bounce would still have ranked in the middle of Tier 2 this week, showing it is far from dead. But, if you have played a lot of Bounce in the past, you might be biased to think the deck is terrible since it naturally lost a bit of its power ceiling with the balance changes.

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 “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. Do not sleep on these decks though, as they could be powerful sleeper picks!

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

Tier Explanation

Tier 1

Thanos Control

Thanos Control

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Already on the rise before the balance updates, Thanos capitalized on its extreme flexibility and its ability to lock up locations to rack up Cubes. Compared to many other archetypes this week, it probably helped a ton to see more of this deck before the patch. The best performing list was also the most popular for the archetype, naturally boosting the overall performance of Thanos Control. At a solid 0.42 Cube Average, there were other archetypes with better performing lists this week. However, no other archetype had such a strong showing over the same sample size as Thanos Control, showing the deck is a little more advanced regarding its adaptation to the current environment.

Compared to other archetypes, Thanos Control probably lacks a bit of power. Still, it makes up for this with its disruptive tools, especially the ability to get Professor X out on Turn 4 thanks to the Time Stone or Psylocke. Once this deck has a lane under control, it is extremely hard for the opponent to properly navigate how to win the other two, considering just how many reactive cards Thanos Control can pack.

How to Play:
The goal with Thanos Control is to quickly figure out where we want to compete and which location we can use to dump our utility cards. These utility cards do not mean we are abandoning that lane, though, as we can use Professor X, Blue Marvel, or Spider-Man to steal it later on. The goal is to make it look like the lane isn’t a threat and just use it to manage space. This way, if the opponent does not challenge it, we can easily lock it down later on.

This first part of our game plan is crucial to the success of the deck, as it is quite rare for Thanos Control to win a points shootout on two different lanes. When only one remains to dominate, Devil Dinosaur, Thanos, and Shang-Chi can prove exceptional tools to win the points battle.

The other big strength of Thanos Control is its flexibility. It’s able to do a bit of everything during the last three turns of the match, and this flexibility is exactly what we are looking to leverage – especially if we are already in the lead. Here are some examples:

• Professor X or Spider-Man can lock a lane that we are ahead on.
• Blue Marvel and Klaw can impact multiple lanes at once.
• Devil Dinosaur, Shang-Chi, and Thanos help win over a single lane with points.

Depending on the situation and the opponent, you might want to take a different route in order to push your opponent towards a game plan they should struggle with. Finally, the timing of your Snaps is crucial, and most of the time necessary before you enter that second part of the game and commit to the card that will reveal your strategy. Indeed, considering we are looking to lock the game (which creates a situation that is easy to predict on Turn 6), not many opponents will stay to play it out if you established a strong lead.

Potential Additions:
Spider-Ham and Valkyrie are two cards to consider in the archetype, and they can replace Luke Cage and Shang-Chi depending on the match ups you are targeting. Cosmo is also a popular inclusion instead of Armor, depending on whether you want to protect your stones from Killmonger or have another disruption card for On Reveal decks.

Super-Skrull can give you an edge against other Ongoing decks (like the mirror match).

Evolved Lockdown 

Evolved Lockdown

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Similar to Thanos Control, the Evolved Lockdown archetype found a lot of opponents looking to do their own thing and obliged to punish them with its space-limiting strategy. Considering the deck barely changed a thing from the week before, the explanation for its solid performance lies in the metagame being perfect for the deck.

In the previous metagame, Lockdown was also off to a very hot start, but it lost some momentum once more difficult match ups started rising in popularity. For now, the strength of Professor X against Destroy, The Phoenix Force, and Hela is carrying the deck to be among the very best. But Evolved Lockdown does not possess the same deckbuilding flexibility as Thanos Control, so it could be much more affected by metagame shifts in the coming weeks.

For example, if decks such as Patriot and Silver Surfer were to rise, it could be much more difficult to rely on Storm to lock a lane early on, or to guarantee Professor X and Spider-Man would really win us the lane they are played on.

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 represent the core of the deck, limiting the opponent’s possibilities while pushing our agenda. Also, thanks to Doctor Doom, only Professor X needs to be played on a lane with the lead.

Apart from Evolved Hulk being able to win a lane almost on its own (at least if it spent enough turns growing in your hand), Lockdown usually relies on pairing a points card with a Lockdown card:

• Storm on Turn 3 is great on Nebula‘s lane or with Evolved Cyclops. Also, you can plan to add four points later on with Doctor Doom.
• Professor X receives help from Daredevil and Jeff the Baby Land Shark, alongside being able to lock a lane we are already ahead on.
• Spider-Man is usually at its best when another lane was already impacted, thinning the opponent’s choices to only one lane. Also, since the lane is still playable for us, Spider-Man can be played on a losing lane that we can then drop Evolved Hulk on or impact with Doctor Doom.

Once in control going into Turn 6, the only choice left is whether you want to attack one lane in particular with Evolved Hulk or spread your points across multiple with Doctor Doom.

Potential Additions:
Evolved The Thing can replace Iron Lad if you like stability rather than a bit of high roll. Maybe Evolved Wasp can be replaced by Evolved The Thing as well. Otherwise, the deck seems pretty set in stone, apart from very specific tech cards to gain an edge in specific match ups.

Tier 2

Sera Control

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

0

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Still loyal to Hit Monkey and Mysterio, Sera Control is limited by Lockdown synergies being very popular. Indeed, those decks tend to punish the rather weak Turn 5 Sera while also impairing the flexibility of the deck on Turn 6. On the other end, Scarlet Witch is a great card to play – especially with Magik being very popular lately since you can remove Limbo on Turn 6 to end the game.

Overall, Sera Control is still true to its old recipe, which seems to be good enough for a solid deck currently. However, if Lockdown keeps on dominating, Sera will probably need to adapt in some way, as the very combo oriented build tends to struggle a lot in those match ups.

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.

While the basic ideology of Sera Control remains the same from one build to another, this is one of the most flexible archetypes in Marvel Snap. As such, some builds will look to focus on reacting to the opponent, while others might have more of a proactive development in mind by answering one lane and developing points on another. Make sure to understand the goal of your build and how your deck aims to win over two lanes by game’s end.

Potential Additions:
Hit Monkey and Mysterio don’t feel mandatory to run in the deck anymore, but they do need to be replaced with cards that are able to generate similar points. In the past, Maximus and Polaris were pretty popular in the deck. You could also try the Darkhawk package for a more proactive approach, which also benefits from Thanos being popular.

Sera Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
A fan favorite before the update, Silver Surfer lost a large chunk of its popularity with the update since Hela, The Living Tribunal, and The Phoenix Force looked more appealing for many. Still, Silver Surfer remained a solid deck this week, with the only change being an embrace of its Lockdown side. Which is a logical choice when we see how good the full Lockdown decks have been doing.

The Sera Surfer builds have also been doing pretty well, although they are a notch below the Spider-Man version this week. I would expect the reason to be that locking the Invisible Woman of many decks is very strong this week, pushing Spider-Man to be better than Sera overall. Goose has also regained a lot of momentum this week, preventing the big cards from being played behind Invisible Woman in the The Living Tribunal and Hela decks.

Overall, Surfer was part of the already established decks that might have been a comfort pick for many going into a new environment. Magik has seen a lot of play in the archetype, but it does not seem to add much to the deck. Also, a lot of decks are playing that card right now, so the deck probably used Storm on Limbo more than it tried to create Limbo.

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, focus on spending your energy efficiently, and advance 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.

If you are running tech cards like Rogue, Killmonger, or Shadow King, you will be looking to keep those for Turn 6 in order to get the most out of them. As such, you need to play the more proactive cards during the early turns. Usually, Nova is better played on Turn 4 with more information available rather than on Turn 1. It also disguises our archetype from the opponent better.

On Turn 5, the deck is typically running a card dedicated to this turn – either Sera or Spider-Man. While these are the go-to plays most of the time, a 3-Cost plus Goose can annoy a lot of opponents as well, especially those relying on a big card on Turn 6. In that scenario, Goose is basically a cheaper Spider-Man.

Turn 6 will almost always have Silver Surfer included, plus another 3-Cost (or two with Sera on board). While Silver Surfer is a big buff to all of our lanes, it is usually correct to focus on two lanes for the end of the game, especially if we kept a Shadow King or other such card that is able to flip one in our favor on its own.

Potential Additions:
Sera can replace Spider-Man. Among 3-Cost cards, Cosmo is probably the next in line to be included in the deck.

Iron Patriot

Iron Patriot

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
On the rise before the balance patch, Patriot continues to post solid results; however, Enchantress is a bit more of a threat considering The Living Tribunal got a lot of attention. Nevertheless, Iron Patriot joins Sera Control and Silver Surfer as the decks that just kept going after the update, barely changing their lists or their results.

Once again, the wonder of the deck is how to balance the tech cards. Super-Skrull has joined Killmonger and Shang-Chi in the rotation because the card puts in work against Thanos and The Living Tribunal.

Thanos Control, in particular, is a deck Patriot wants to see more of, as it is rather simple to adapt against with Super-Skrull. Expect Patriot to rise if the environment remains similar.

How to Play:
Without a 1-Cost card, 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 Super-Skrull, 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 Super-Skrull 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:
Onslaught and Iron Man are popular inclusions in the build, but they make the deck very greedy as a result. Shang-Chi remains a valid tech card instead of Killmonger or Shang-Chi.

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

2

3x 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)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Early on in a metagame where most players are trying out the new combos provided by the changes, Shuri Sauron capitalized on being very straight forward with its ability to develop lots of points. Also, Enchantress and Vision made their way back in the deck. The former helps against The Living Tribunal, one of the few match ups that can beat Shuri on points, while the latter is great to play around Storm or Spider-Man in Lockdown.

This is Shuri Sauron‘s best ranking in quite some time, which I would attribute a lot to post update chaos. If the deck were to become really dominant, Thanos Control probably shuts it down with Valkyrie as a tech card. As such, it feels like Shuri is at her best when unexpected, which gives the deck much higher chances to get away with its Snaps.

How to Play:
Shuri Sauron is based around the idea of cancelling negative Ongoing abilities with Sauron and abusing Shuri to create a big amount of points. In that regard, the deck is very rigid in the mid game since Turns 3, 4, and 5 are almost always the same: Sauron → Shuri → any card worth doubling the power. Often times, Turn 2 will also be dedicated to Armor as a way to prevent an opposing Shang-Chi from ruining our plans. Speaking of Shang-Chi, Vision is another way to play around it, as hitting a moving target isn’t so simple.

This leaves only Turn 1 and Turn 6 to be truly flexible, with Nebula ideally taking up the 1-Cost slot and Taskmaster usually being the default Turn 6 play alongside Ebony Maw.

If this very straightforward approach can lead to a ton of points on two lanes, it also often doesn’t equate to a lot of cubes. Indeed, unless you are Snapping aggressively, the opponent can see the points coming and will rarely stay in the game once you show Shuri (and they can’t handle it). This creates two important factors to take into consideration when playing Shuri Sauron:

• You have to accept Snaps early in the game, especially when Sauron and Shuri show up.
• You need to find lines of play even when you don’t have the best play pattern with the deck, especially when the opponent does not Snap. Even without Shuri, the deck can develop a solid amount of points, and Enchantress is able to steal a few wins.

The last important point to cover is positioning, especially when you don’t draw into Sauron or Shuri. Indeed, while both cards will dictate a lot of your strategies, there are other pairings to know about:

• Nebula and Armor is nice against Killmonger, and you could even follow it up with Ebony Maw if you don’t expect Sauron to show up.
• Enchantress can cancel the ability of Lizard, Typhoid Mary, and Red Skull.
• Taskmaster into an unprotected card is better to play with priority. On the contrary, if the target can’t be destroyed, playing without priority protects Taskmaster. Position your cards in order to gain or lose priority depending on the situation.

Potential Additions:
Titania can replace Nebula. Sunspot and She-Hulk are another popular duo in the deck, although they posted worse results this week.

High Evolutionary

High Evolutionary

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
While Lockdown rose to be one of the best decks of the first week, the other High Evolutionary decks didn’t perform as well. In previous weeks, we already mentioned how the deck needed to nail the right tech cards in order to perform. In this new environment, it was certainly more difficult to figure out which tech cards were suited to help the deck perform, naturally leading to a worse overall performance for the archetype as a result.

High Evolutionary still had two decks perform very well, though: the one featured above, and the other in the potential additions. The second one is very close to what the deck was running in the past, and the featured deck is a new take on the archetype that tries to take advantage of Magik to give more room for Leech to be effective. Once the game is just a battle of points, High Evolutionary tends to be quite effective.

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 on Turn 4.

The last turns of the game are much more flexible, especially as many games will go to Turn 7 with Magik. In this particular build, the goal is to play Leech on Turn 5, pass on Turn 6, and play She-Hulk plus Evolved Hulk or The Infinaut on Turn 7.

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:
Here is a more typical High Evolutionary build if the Magik + Leech deck isn’t to your liking.

High Evolutionary

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x 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+

4.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hela Tribunal

Hela Tribunal

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Starter Card

4.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
One of the new decks to keep an eye on, Hela Discard has gone through quite a makeover with the OTA balance patch. It is also worth noting that even though the archetype as a whole did not perform like a Tier 1 deck, this particular list is one of the best performers in Marvel Snap according to our data. The sample size wasn’t very big, but the Cube Average was through the roof at 0.8. If the list keeps posting such an impressive result next week, we might have a new contender for Tier 1 on our hands.

However, Cosmo and Enchantress have gained some momentum as the week progressed, so the true test might still be to come for Hela Tribunal. I’m curious to see if the deck can hold its own if Spider-Ham returned to popularity.

How to Play:
This deck looks to merge two synergies in the hopes that one makes it through and scores a lot of points. Here is what we are looking to accomplish:

• Discard our hand with MODOK and bring everything back with Hela to summon a ton of points at random.
• Have Iron Man and Onslaught together on the same lane with The Living Tribunal in play. Make sure to maximize points on the Iron Man lane.

For one of these two play patterns to happen, we need to use our support cards to maximize our chances of pulling it off:

• Invisible Woman can hide MODOK, which will only reveal on Turn 6 and before the Hela that we also played behind Invisible Woman. The card can also serve as protection from Enchantress for our Ongoing combo.
• Electro allows us to play MODOK on Turn 4 if we haven’t drawn Hela yet, giving us two more turns to find our second combo piece. Otherwise, the card enables the Iron Man → Onslaught → The Living Tribunal pattern on Turns 4, 5, and 6.
• Magik gives us an extra turn, which functions similar to Electro. We get one more draw for Hela or the energy needed for the Ongoing combo.
• Jubilee can pull a piece of the Ongoing combo or give us a shot at Hela if she’s still in the deck. Iron Lad serves the same purpose, albeit with a slightly different ability.

Potential Additions:
Crystal has been spotted instead of Jubilee in some lists. Otherwise, only Giganto and The Infinaut look like flexible cards. Magneto and Death could be good inclusions. The former has a strong ability, but the latter can serve as Spider-Ham protection for our other 6-Cost cards.

Negative Surfer

Negative Surfer

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

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

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
It feels weird to include a second Silver Surfer archetype in the rankings, as the other build ranks higher on our list. But, considering the traditional Silver Surfer deck is building more around disruption lately, we should consider the Mister Negative variant as the more proactive build. Also, this deck really benefited a lot from Magik‘s buff, a card that is already out of the traditional Silver Surfer archetype.

Overall, I would consider this build over the other Surfer build when: 1) you need some more points; 2) the disruption isn’t cutting it; or 3) you feel your classic Surfer is being countered. For example, Lockjaw is a match up where Negative Surfer would do better than Silver Surfer currently.

How to Play:
Just like other Mister Negative decks, our goal is to play our signature card as early as possible so we can draw as many negatived cards as we can. To make that happen, we have Zabu to get it down a turn earlier and Magik to give us an extra draw. At times, Bast can be enough to have a fighting chance, but it is considered a backup plan more than anything else.

Past that step, the deck functions just like a Surfer deck, looking to develop points by the end of the game. Ideally, we are able to keep our negatived cards in hand until the last possible moment in order to prevent the opponent from knowing how much they have to beat. However, don’t hold onto your cards if you suspect a Professor X, Wave, or other such limiting card from your opponent.

Here are our two main synergies to develop points on several lanes:

• Wong into Ironheart, Wolfsbane, and Silver Surfer on the same lane.
• Iron Man copied by Mystique on two separate lanes.
  

Potential Additions:
Absorbing Man can copy some nice On Reveal abilities. Otherwise, it seems like most 3-Cost cards with less power than their cost are already in the build.

Evolved Lockjaw

Evolved Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

0

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:
Nerfed for a second time with Spider-Ham now being a [2|2], Lockjaw is posting its worst overall performance in a long time. Ironically, the best list remains one with Spider-Ham included. It only seems logical when looking at the current metagame as the card barely has any bad targets.

One thing to note, though, is that Lockjaw seems to not be the best deck when it comes to developing points. First, Magik barely helps the deck, which is built to be extremely explosive and maximize its use of six turns. As such, decks like Hela Tribunal and Negative Surfer can abuse the extra turn to beat Lockjaw at its own game. This only makes Spider-Ham more important in the deck.

This change of scenery, with more points based decks after the balance update, lead to Lockjaw switching towards a more flexible list that also fares better against the Lockdown strategy.

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 challenged by Thor or a big Evolved Hulk. 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 4, 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 expect Thor to be a ten power card, which is a solid anchor for a 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 3, we will either look to have Lockjaw paired with Wasp, or Thor to shuffle Mjölnir into the deck. Turn 4 will often be Jubilee or the card we didn’t play on Turn 3 (if we had both Lockjaw and Thor available).

It is usually good to assess the situation at the end of Turn 4 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:
Doctor Doom and Odin can become The Infinaut and Dracula for more points at the cost of flexibility. Otherwise, Aero seems to do quite well against the current popular decks, dragging Professor X or cards the opponent hoped to play behind Invisible Woman.

Tier 3

Thanos Control and Lockdown are both quite annoying for Destroy synergies, limiting several of those decks to Tier 3. The only Destroy deck on the rise this week is Thanos Death, a deck that benefits from destroying the Infinity Stones to get a cheap Death early on. The other builds typically can’t get Death discounted fast enough and are unable to play it on Turn 5 to maybe steal the Professor X lane.

With other annoying cards being popular, such as Cosmo and Armor (or Enchantress for Knull), Destroy still is locked from entering Tier 2. It’s a victim of being too easily countered when it becomes popular. Alongside the various Destroy archetypes are Devil Darkhawk and Cerebro 2, both regulars in Tier 3 that don’t have many reasons to climb much higher. Several players have reported Magik to be great in the Cerebro deck for consistency. However, considering Enchantress is pretty popular because of The Living Tribunal deck, most Ongoing based archetypes are suffering a bit as a result.

Destroyer Ramp

Destroyer Ramp

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

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)

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Galactus

Galactus

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Devil Darkhawk

Devil Darkhawk

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Thanos Death

Thanos Death

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Destroy

Destroy

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Cerebro 2

Cerebro 2

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 4

While Hela is thriving, Discard Dracula had a pretty miserable week if we believe the data. I would attribute a lot of that to the deck not being able to keep up with the other synergistic decks that rose during the week. Also, Discard Dracula is long past the days when it was able to surprise anybody, meaning it can’t Snap as effectively as the newer decks we have this week.

There is some hope, though; Morbius and Dracula are both solid cards against Lockdown strategies, so let’s not dismiss the deck just yet. I mean, Hela was in this position not too long ago, and now it’s a top 10 archetype!

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Big Hands

Big Hands

Created by den

, updated 9 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Starter Card

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

It took me a while to sort the data for every deck and write this report, but it feels so great to go back to a metagame where it’s unclear which decks are safe to pick and which are nothing more than a nice gimmick. For this first week, it appears Lockdown strategies were at the top, probably because they were able to annoy a wide variety of decks. Thanos Control, in particular, rose as the top pick, also transferring this domination to tournament play where it became the go-to deck for a majority of players. Nonetheless, we are already witnessing some form of adaptation from the other decks. Super-Skrull in Patriot and Stature Darkhawk posting great results are a few hints that Thanos shouldn’t feel safe, as the counters might be on their way.

Outside the dominant decks, a lot of archetypes in Tier 2 have yet to be refined, and they will probably see their overall performance affected once the community agrees on the best build. High Evolutionary, Sera Control, and Lockjaw, to name a few, are the juggernauts from the previous metagame and are far from their peak currently. Who knows where they’ll be once they find a way to adapt to the new environment? On the other hand, we also don’t really know if Hela Tribunal, Negative Surfer, and Shuri Sauron made a legitimate comeback after the OTA, or just benefitted from a chaotic metagame to post an above average performance for their standards.

We will need a bit of time in order to answer these questions, starting with the next Conquest Tier List coming on Wednesday. There, we should have a better idea of the popular tech cards, as well as which decks are being targeted the most. Considering there will be no balance patch next week, we will have plenty of time to figure out exactly what this new metagame is made of and which decks are the real threats.

Until the next report, you can 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.