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The first week of a Marvel Snap season doesn’t have anything competitive about it honestly. Most players climbing back to infinite could do it on the back of playing it safe against human opponents, while they milk bots for 8 cubes.
The past two seasons were particularly great in that regard, with strategies designed to hide their points total until the very last turn. In June, the season was focused around buffs, allowing to stack all our points on one location until the bot snaps, and we just take a second location with beefed up cards on the last turn of play. In July, the Move synergy allows very similar patterns, leading to similar results.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of the metagame would recognize those archetype by turn three, but bots don’t, so week 1 data doesn’t tell us much, except for two things:
- Which decks are popular early in the season.
- Which decks have the best ability to perform explosive play patterns late in a match.
With that information, we can picture the best disruptive cards to pack in our deck once we’ll have to beat human opponents to climb. Looking at the rankings, it seems like Move did not gain a ton of popularity so far. Indeed, Scream is nowhere to be seen, while Mercury isn’t part of the best performing list for any archetype, meaning Shadow King probably remains the best option.
To be fair, the best option probably is to know the ceiling of the current top performers, while playing one ourselves. Marvel Snap has heavily invested in proactive and synergistic strategies lately, turning the metagame into a battle for points more than a game with lots of interactions with your opponent.
Disruptive cards remains a fantastic way to snap, as they have the ability to turn a location around, or punish an opponent certain they would win a battle for points. However, not every deck has the flexibility to welcome those cards, while they are enough ways to produce points to find one able to dodge the popular counters.
Learn the ceiling of the popular decks. Play it safe against humans. Steal as many cubes as you can from bots. This is the recipe for a boring, yet highly effective climb to the Infinite rank. The rankings below just tell you which decks do it best early in this new season.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Buffed Zombies 1.1 Cube Average / 66% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Lockdown Move 0.8 Cube Average / 64.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Zombie Galacti 1.3 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Nimrolactus 1.3 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | End of Turn 2099 0.9 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula 0.9 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | High Evo Control 0.9 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Iron Hand 0.75 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Disruptive Aurora 0.8 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Buffed 1-Costs 0.9 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | War Machine Ramp 0.65 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | High Power Summons 0.7 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Pure Move 0.7 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Fantomex 0.8 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Buffed Surfer 0.9 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Supergiant Rocks 0.65 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
Tier 1
Buffed Zombies
den
Performance: 1.1 Cube Average / 66% Win Rate
Last week, Buffed Zombies weren’t doing so well. Now, they sit atop the rankings with a win rate about 2% above the other archetypes.
To be fair, Move decks are not using Shadow King much, a key card to limit this deck’s ability to produce a ton of points, so Buffed Zombies might benefit from the new season.
However, the cube average remains way too high for a deck this obvious in how it plays. If Shadow King doesn’t come back, which I doubt, the Zombie synergy should remain a strong one. Yet, expect the cube average to drop once it only faces human players able to plan how big Zombie Giant-Man will be.
Potential Additions
Nightcrawler and Jeff the Baby Dolphin?! synergize well with Zombie Scarlet Witch, but aren’t very useful when we draw Kitty Pryde, or miss our key 3-cost.
If you want to run a disruptive or protective card, one of these two would be the swap.
Lockdown move
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 64.5% Win Rate
Existing great deck meets new strong new cards, no surprise to see Lockdown Move near the top of the rankings.
We’ll see how dominant this deck needs to become before specific counters start becoming more popular. For now, it is just a tree in a forest of strong performers. However, this archetype proved it was great even when bots disappear.
Potential Additions
Viv Vision or Mercury can replace Rocket and Groot.
If you swap Galactus First Steps or Professor X for Vision, Aunt May becomes a solid card to consider.
Zombie Galacti
den
Performance: 1.3 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate
Zombie Galacti has been a solid performer for a while, at least when it comes to the win rate metric. Unfortunately, its obvious nature always limited its ability to post a fantastic cube average, typically keeping it limited to being a Tier 3, sometimes Tier 2 performer.
With bots roaming the ladder, that limit is off for the time being, but let’s see if Zombie Galacti can keep it up in the following weeks. It couldn’t in previous seasons.
Potential Additions
If you saw a lot of Nocturne in move decks, Luna Snow or Hope Summers might be more reliable than Magik.
Nimrolactus
den
Performance: 1.3 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate
Another archetype typically good enough to be mentioned but way too obvious to be a top tier contender, Nimrolactus gets to shine during the first week of the season.
Not everyone will respect Nimrod, leading to a few 4 or 8 cube wins from time to time as the opponent didn’t guess the amount of points this deck could develop precisely. However, Black Panther into Arnim Zola is Marvel Snap 101, while Galactus has not being a surprise in this deck for at least two months.
Potential Additions
Gwenpool or Galacta aren’t as powerful as Shuri, but don’t tip our opponent as to where our 5-cost will be played.
Tier 2
End of Turn 2099
den
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 63.5% Win Rate
This archetype disappeared from the competitive metagame somewhere during June, although it still packs enough points to compete. Plus, this is one of the few archetypes with built in disruption, although CGR and Sandman are as effective as Shadow King currently.
We’ll see if it sticks around in July.
Potential Additions
Mercury could replace one of the other 3-cost cards to target Move.
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate
Cosmo is a problem for the On Reveal card in the deck, but the rest of the disruptive cards have no impact on Dracula or Morbius currently, so discard’s points are safe if it gets going.
Obviously, the numbers are very much inflated compared to this evergreen synergy true potential. Yet, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Discard be a decent performer in a Move metagame.
Potential Additions
Except for replacing a discard ability you don’t own with another one from your collection, there isn’t much flexibility here.
High Evo Control
den
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate
Shadow King is though to play in this deck as it conflicts with many of our other abilities, so Shang-Chi and Enchantress remain strong options, while keeping this deck extremely budget friendly.
This season, I expect the Move synergy to be a terrible opponent for High Evo. Indeed, our opponent can simply dodge Cyclops for most of the game, and move to that location on the last turn of play.
Potential Additions
There is very little destroy decks so Armor is only good to protect our 1-cost cards from Killmonger in Fantomex, sometimes in Surfer. Polaris Horseman of Pestilence or Lady Bullseye are good 2-cost if you find Armor to not be very useful.
Iron Hand
den
Performance: 0.75 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate
Although it isn’t racking up as many cubes as most other decks early in the season, Iron Hand has a much better track record during the rest of the season. As such, even if it isn’t fantastic against bots, I expect Iron Hand to be among the competitive decks once we look at humans against humans matches only.
Plus, both Gambits are pretty good against Move decks, who typically use low cost cards.
Potential Additions
Mirage is the flexible card in the deck if you wanted to include something else. Maria Hill, Grand Master or a disruptive card are the most common replacements.
Disruptive Aurora
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate
No changes for Disruptive Aurora early in the season who is still going even with its signature card now a [6/5] for a few weeks.
The only card I’m worried about is Isca the Unbeaten, who might lose some value if Move become prevalent. That synergy is capable of avoiding the 4-cost’s location and only come back to it on the last turn of play.
Potential Additions
Mercury is a great Ongoing card to consider if you struggle against Move.
Buffed 1-Costs
den
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
Still around after receiving a ton of support last season, Buffed 1-costs is using Spider-Man Brand New Day early on instead of Sub-Mariner. Able to grant 2-buffs, the new season pass card makes sense alongside Venus and Clea while being a target for Marvel Boy as well.
Potential Additions
Shang-Chi isn’t as good as Shadow King in this metagame. Yet, you have to play a very specific way to run the 3-cost card, unless you are okay cancelling all the power one of your card gained over the match.
If you find yourself often having priority, Cosmo is also a good inclusion.
War Machine Ramp
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
The deck had a fantastic week around the middle of last season, and then disappeared from everyone’s radar. Currently, the best Move deck is the Lockdown build, which War Machine completely denies.
Otherwise, the cube average is already on the lower end of this report, so the deck might not stcik around on the long run.
High Power Summons
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 61.5% Win Rate
Stardust hasn’t been around for a while, and has no reason to come back with season themed around the Move synergy. The same should be true for Shang-Chi, although this 4-cost is a bit more popular due to certain decks not being able to run Shadow King in their synergy.
As a result, even if High Power Summons is a well-known archetype, it should remain a fine competitor until the amount of points it generates isn’t enough anymore.
Potential Additions
Mercury could replace Caliban Horseman of Pestilence if you faced a lot of Move decks.
Pure Move
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate
A more original take on the Move synergy using the new cards, this build is unfortunately behind the Lockdown list on both front, cube and win averages.
It takes time to refine a list, and there are a lot of different options among move cards currently, so this might not be the best 12 cards for this deck.
Potential Additions
There isn’t any disruption in the deck, while the deck relies on Kraven, Silk, Batroc and Sam Wilson first and foremost.
As such, this simply looks like an attempt at building different around those, but should be quite flexible when it comes to the cards you want to include in this mix.
Tier 3
Fantomex
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate
There is another list for Fantomex, using Jocasta, Air Walker and overall focusing on extracting more value out of the 4-cost card. However, this one had both a better win rate, about 0.5%, and a better cube average, around 0.2. As such, it seems like Fantomex is better built as a flexible, disruptive deck rather than maximize its points total.
Potential Additions
Bucky Barnes and The Hood are nothing but destroy targets. If you had another one in mind, these two are the more flexible cards in the deck.
Buffed Surfer
den
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
A fantastic cube average but a rather low Win Rate for a first week with over a dozen decks north of the 60% threshold. Still, there is no reason for Buffed Surfer to disappear, especially as most of the best disruptive cards in the current metagame cost 3.
Potential Additions
Mercury and Shadow King are the two obvious cards to consider if you struggled to win on points against Move or Buff decks.
Supergiant Rocks
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
I suspect Move decks to be a struggle for Supergiant. Indeed, they can pile their cards in front of Askani'son or Iron Patriot to stop their ability, while still moving those cards later on in order to position their points ideally.
Supergiant has proved her ability to come up with competitive decks times and times again in the past. However, this could be a difficult season if the metagame features decks able to develop a lot of points before turn 4, while still being flexible in the later turns.
Potential Additions
Mercury might be better than Cosmo if Move decks start to get very popular.
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.
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.
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.
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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