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
If you’ve been playing Marvel Snap lately, you’ve probably witnessed the same thing as everyone else: a meta filled with a ton of similar shells, with Darkhawk in most of them. This is only normal, as Arishem continues to be the focal point of the game and drawing everyone’s attention.
I can already hear you saying here we go again, another Ranked report with den telling us the same things about the meta…
But wait! There is one notable difference this time around. Arishem is only the third best deck performance wise! It still holds the best Win Rate overall, but it only has the fourth best Cube Average. This is its worst ranking since Arishem released at the end of last season. I know this is due to the entire meta building to counter it, but it is reassuring to know that it is possible to limit how well the deck can perform.
We have to thank the new Deadpool’s Diner mode for this. The first few days of the game mode were a big Arishem party; many players quickly unlocked Cassandra Nova using Arishem Loki, which influenced others to do the same and get the new card. Pretty soon, Arishem was about the only you would face in Deadpool’s Diner, making it a better gamble to try countering the card rather than playing it yourself.
Obviously, those who unlocked Cassandra Nova already didn’t wait long before slotting the card into their decks. The new 3-Cost card isn’t part of this report due to a lack of popularity, but most of the reviews about it have been stellar (which is logical as long as Arishem is on top).
This is where the switch started happening. With Cassandra Nova and Darkhawk available for some, players figured out that it was better to play a counter to Arishem. Soon, social media started to talk about how farming Bubs on the back of Arishem was the better plan, and the amount of counter decks only grew from there—even for those without Cassandra Nova available.
Overall, Arishem remains the most influential deck in Marvel Snap, and the meta is still almost entirely built around its dominant presence. However, its reign of terror might come to an end (or at least be less tyrannical than expected) before the inevitable second wave of nerfs that it should receive next week.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Skarmora |
| Tier 1 | Mister Negative |
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 1 | Arishem Loki |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Move |
| Tier 2 | Bounce |
| Tier 2 | Darkhawk Stature |
| Tier 2 | Junk |
| Tier 3 | On Reveal |
| Tier 3 | Destroy |
| Tier 3 | Arishem High Evo |
| Tier 3 | Lockjaw Hammer |
| 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 > 0.45
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 > 0.3
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.
Silent Performers
den
Skarmora made an appearance on this report a little after Namora released, before the On Reveal archetype became its signature home. With a 0.3 Cube Average and 54% Win Rate, the deck would have landed around the bottom of Tier 2 with more games under its belt. However, in this very competitive meta where only Arishem and its immediate counters seem to be able to thrive, one can wonder if more games wouldn’t be a detriment for the deck. Indeed, it would probably limit its ability to surprise the opponent, which was likely a factor in the deck’s success this week.
Tier 1
Mister Negative
den
With only a 55.5% Win Rate, Mister Negative is far from the best performer in that regard, which is typical for an archetype known for its explosiveness more than its stability. Speaking of explosiveness, Mister Negative‘s 0.7 Cube Average is by far the best in the game this week. It topped the competition by a margin of 0.2!
Obviously, this should be taken with a grain of salt. The deck was able to perfectly navigate the current meta largely because Arishem demanded all the attention. In this context, Mister Negative has a very simple Snap and Retreat game plan, in addition to easily playing Darkhawk to counter Arishem as well.
Be careful with Cosmo, a card that is starting to gain momentum in Darkhawk lists to protect it from Shang-Chi and Rogue. Other than that, this deck is good to go.
Potential Additions
Thena, Kitty Pryde, and Hope Summers bring the deck some alternate game play in case you don’t find Mister Negative. If you wanted to go all in, you could include cards such as Ironheart, Shang-Chi, Wong, or Knull.
Silver Surfer
den
Silver Surfer started the season as a deck on a mission. It looked like the potential solution to the Arishem stalemate we were in, but then it quickly disappeared. This week, the deck returned and posted a 0.5 Cube Average alongside the second best Win Rate, 59%. This has repositioned the archetype in the elite discussion.
The list looks very similar to what we saw perform at the start of the season, except Red Guardian is now in the mix for disruption. Outside this inclusion, the rest of the deck is very centered around developing points. This seems reasonable with Darkhawk as the current big win condition since Silver Surfer isn’t particularly weak to it. However, be careful to the current surge of Cosmo, which is used to protect Darkhawk in several archetypes.
Potential Additions
Nova goes with Killmonger if you wanted to play another 1-Cost, and Forge remains the best way to develop points with Brood. As such, the flexible card looks to be Red Guardian, which is replaceable with another disruptive 3-Cost like Rogue or Mobius M. Mobius. Cassandra Nova also makes sense to gain an edge against Arishem. You could also try the Darkhawk list for that purpose:
Arishem Loki
den
Although the most influential force in Marvel Snap still holds the best Win Rate with 60%, Arishem Loki is starting to be surrounded by Darkhawk and Cassandra Nova as more players grab the card in Deadpool’s Diner.
Arguably, this still makes Arishem Loki the best deck in the game; you can’t deny that it would be atop the list if it wasn’t for the entire meta adapting to beat it. Still, it is good to see that the Marvel Snap community can fight back against such a strong deck and make it look like a terrifying-but-still-beatable opponent.
Potential Additions
Caiera has been in the mix lately to protect Blob and Mockingbird from Shang-Chi. Darkhawk or Cassandra Nova can also be added to gain an edge in the mirror match.
Good Cards Move
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The Good Cards shell is built around Thena, Angela, Kitty Pryde, Hope Summers, and the two best Move cards in the game, Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Nocturne. There are, however, plenty of different ways to surround those six cards to create tons of solid, unique decks. Lately, the two best decks were either using Ravonna Renslayer plus Sage, Iron Man, and other zero power cards, or Mockingbird, Mysterio, and Sasquatch.
These decks are still posting nice results; the Ravonna Renslayer build was also worthy of Tier 1 while the Mockingbird deck would have landed somewhere in Tier 2. However, the best performer for the archetype was built around flexibility. It focused on the Move synergy with Captain Marvel, Vision, and Nightcrawler included. This deck will arguably develop fewer points than the other two on average, but its ability to reposition its cards and react to the opponent seems to be more important (that’s what the 0.45 Cube Average lets me believe, at least).
Potential Additions
Juggernaut and Mobius M. Mobius are the flexible card in the deck and are replaceable with other disruptive tools depending on the opponents you want to beat. Also, the Ravonna Deck did pretty well if you want to play that one instead:
den
Tier 2
Bounce
Bounce will look great for a week and then disappear from everyone’s radar the next, until it comes back and looks able to compete with the best (and the cycle continues). Since the OTA, Bounce has been playing the exact same list, and this week it has looked better than ever before with a 0.35 Cube Average alongside a 54% Win Rate.
It’s very likely that the meta focusing almost entirely on beating Arishem is an opportunity for decks with a good points output, such as Bounce, to thrive. Indeed, apart from Mobius M. Mobius stopping Sasquatch from being cheap, very few cards in the meta are a problem for this deck. Then, with most decks running cards to counter other opponents, Bounce is in a position to easily develop its synergies, and it looks to be getting away with it often.
Potential Additions
Kitty Pryde only feels valuable with Angela, and you already have Beast and Falcon to get your cards back. Mysterio or a disruptive card could have more merit in that slot.
Stature Darkhawk
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The surprise newcomer after the OTA didn’t keep its elite status for long, and it now just looks like another deck in the meta with good tools against Arishem.
The play patterns are there. On Turn 6, you can play Stature with Darkhawk or alongside Miles Morales and either Shang-Chi or Enchantress. Still, outside this explosive play pattern, the deck does what everyone else is also doing—except the other turns are often not as strong, which means the last one has to be fantastic.
When the surprise element was still playing in the deck’s favor, this situation was enough to rack up more than 0.4 cubes per game and make Darkhawk Stature a potential sleeper pick. Now that the community knows about it, the deck has already lost about 0.1 Cube Average, which it probably won’t get back unless it finds another trick to pull.
Potential Additions
Silver Samurai is a good way to discard Blob from an Arishem opponent.
Junk
Another report and another list for the Junk archetype, which is still looking for its perfect list (and apparently struggling to find it). This time around, the archetype has been capitalizing on developing a ton of points through Mockingbird, Sasquatch, and even Skaar. To make room for these three cards and Mysterio, the deck removed the Annihilus synergy, which naturally limited its ability to clog the opponent’s space. Viper can still donate a fake Mysterio or a Rock, but otherwise the deck relies on Doctor Octopus and its ability to outscore opponents to win games.
With only a 54% Win Rate, this build isn’t the highest in that category for Junk. Some lists posted up to 58%. However, all the other Junk decks only had a 0.2 Cube Average when this one had 0.3, so maybe the key for Junk is to change it up and not be so predictable.
Potential Additions
Titania, Red Hulk, and Green Goblin are cards you would typically consider in a Junk deck.
Tier 3
On Reveal
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The On Reveal archetype is showing some great longevity for a deck based around Namora; the card was considered a gimmick upon release. With a 53.4% Win Rate and a 0.2 Cube Average, the deck is far from its glory days back when it was fighting for Tier 1. Still, the points potential remains decent enough for a disciplined player to get some climbing done.
Destroy
Destroy is typically able to find a way to perform quite well in environments where no one cares about it. This time, however, it seems like the competition is just too fierce, so Destroy was only able to post a 0.2 Cube Average alongside a 52.5% Win Rate. It’s decent, but far from enough to be considered a menace.
Arishem High Evo
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Even if it copied a lot from Arishem Loki with Leech, Doctor Octopus, Shang-Chi, and Rogue now in the mix, the High Evolutionary build doesn’t function as well as the traditional version of Arishem. Indeed, with only a 52.5% Win Rate alongside a 0.2 Cube Average, the deck doesn’t even begin to compare to its Loki counterpart.
Simply put, the High Evolutionary synergy doesn’t fit Arishem very well because most of the cards are timing based and that doesn’t work with a 24 card deck. Playing standalone strong cards is just the better way to go.
Lockjaw Hammer
Continuing its streak of being a competitive deck since Lockjaw was buffed, the Lockjaw Hammer archetype isn’t progressing much in the rankings. The deck started a little better than where it is now, but the 52% Win Rate and 0.2 Cube Average feels fair for a deck that is seemingly only able to develop points.
Closing Words
After a month of dominance, Arishem Loki has annoyed enough people to push the entire meta to build against it. If you compare the efforts made by all the other archetypes to the results Arishem Loki is able to post, it is hard not to give the win to Arishem. Still, there is at least something else to play if you don’t enjoy that playstyle or the mirror match. Plus, knowing Arishem is uber popular allowed many players to grind a lot of Bubs thanks to facing that same good match up on repeat.
Even if the counters emerged, there is little doubt that Arishem has a nerf coming next week, either in the patch or the OTA. Speaking of, this will be the first week ever where we have both types of updates so close to each other, so I’m expecting a big shake up in the near future. It shouldn’t be too hard to create a complete mess; just nerfing Arishem basically impact all the best performing decks currently, except for maybe Silver Surfer.
As usual, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord to discuss this report. You can also follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
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