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
This is probably one of the most stacked Meta Tier List report ever in terms of deck density when it comes to good results. We have 15 decks listed, and I could use the higher thresholds for each tier. Then, not only do we have a lot of decks, they all are able to put up a solid performance. To give you some perspective, the last ranked deck, Bounce, posted a 0.3 Cube average alongside a 55% win rate. This could have ranked in Tier 2 if done earlier in the season.
Then, more than ever, it feels like the metagame rewards those who find their pet deck, understands its intricacies, and know how to get the most out of their Snaps and Retreats. This part should feel obvious at this point. The game is named Marvel Snap, every content creator or top players keeps repeating it when asked what is the most important thing to focus on to climb: Good Snaps, Disciplined Retreats. In this kind of environment, it is even more critical.
Let’s take a look at the Junk archetype, for example, ranked last in Tier 2 and tenth overall in the list. Junk has the third best win rate this week, with 60.7%, usually a score that would get you in Tier 1. Yet, Junk also has a 0.33 Cube average, barely enough to be in Tier 2 contention, saved by its incredible win ratio. You might tell me that the game is more about winning Cubes than it is winning games, but the only two decks beating Junk in the win rate metric are ranked #1 (Ravonna Lockdown) and #2 (On Reveal), so it must have an impact.
In my opinion, the problem is the way Junk operates, which requires Snapping extremely early in a match, or your opponent isn’t ever staying when you snap. Plus, Junk also has some very difficult matchups, such as Destroy, or any deck with Killmonger really. With this in mind, a great win rate can’t salvage a predictable game plan and certain almost impossible matchups to overcome.
This metagame isn’t only about finding the best archetype. You also need to master it well enough, and it needs to be flexible, or unpredictable enough, that your Snaps mean more Cubes, not more retreats. This is a tough metagame for sure, but also one of the best we’ve had in a while.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Hammer Control |
| Tier 1 | Ravonna Lockdown |
| Tier 1 | On Reveal 🔼 |
| Tier 1 | SkaMora 🆕 |
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards Blink 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Loki Bounce 🔼 |
| Tier 2 | Phoenix Tribunal 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Hela Corvus |
| Tier 2 | Hela Tribunal 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Pixie Junk 🔽 |
| Tier 3 | Destroy 🔽 |
| Tier 3 | Ongoing 🔽 |
| Tier 3 | Patriot |
| Tier 3 | Bounce |
| 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 > 0.5
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.
Silent Performers
Hammer Control
Typically, very diverse environment aren’t best for reactive decks, who would rather focus on countering certain super popular builds. Yet, since the Hammer synergy was included in the mix, the Control archetype gained the ability to develop more points, bolstering its ability to play against a larger field.
In addition to more points, we can also see the disruptive cards have become more generic. Quake, Red Guardian, Mobius M. Mobius, those don’t have a specific target in mind, rather a game mechanic they should be effective against.
Overall, even the reactive decks are becoming more global, less focused on beating one specific opponent, instead attacking the game’s core concepts, to make sure they can face a wider field.
Tier 1
Ravonna Lockdown
The new-look Lockdown archetype has lost a bit of momentum in Conquest, but remains a force in the Ranked mode. There, with the best win rate in the game at 62.5%, about 2% more than the next one, the deck just seems to play the game the right way.
There are points, Energy cheats, space limiting cards, and even lane winner with Cannonball. It just looks like the complete package of all the strong things you might want to do in Marvel Snap currently.
Potential Additions
U.S. Agent works well with the deck’s many low cost cards. Elsa Bloodstone, or other low cost, high potential cards are what you would be looking for here.
On Reveal
den
Since the OTA when Leech was nerfed, the On Reveal synergy has done nothing but progress in Marvel Snap, up to becoming a real force for anyone no packing adequate disruption. Indeed, the deck can seemingly develop points anyway you can think of, so unless you turn off the main engine, there is no preventing it from scoring.
Namora is a big buff to a lane with only one card against a Professor X, while Jeff the Baby Land Shark can also come in support. White Tiger, Ironheart and the move cards can help reach difficult, or limiting locations. Since it found Echo to protect from Cosmo, it isn’t so simple to stop the On Reveal synergy, and the 60.5% win rate alongside a 0.55 Cube average are there to prove it.
Potential Additions
Other move cards such as Nightcrawler and Captain Marvel or Doctor Doom are the other cards you could consider in the deck.
SkaMora
The big surprise of the week, as I didn’t even know how to name this one when I stumbled upon it. At first, I thought it was a booster farming deck, or just a few people having fun with a brew based around Skaar and Namora. Yet, even when I filtered the data, looking for only game in the higher parts of the infinite rank, this deck was still around.
Then, with 0.5 Cube average and 57% win rate over almost 900 games, I have little else to say other than give it try and see for yourself. I didn’t enjoy it personally, but there aren’t too many Shang-Chi around and Enchantress can definitely win a few games.
Potential Additions
It is hard to recommend changes to an emerging deck. Try overall good cards if you need to replace anything. Nightcrawler and Jeff make sense for Namora, Sasquatch or Doctor Octopus can be 10 Power 5-Cost cards for Skaar.
Silver Surfer
den
Another surprise entry on the list, especially so high, as Silver Surfer had not been ranked this good in many months as I remember it. Yet, due to a decent point potential and several 3-Cost cards being really strong in the current environment, it seems like this simple, Good Cards based list did great.
There weren’t any other Silver Surfer lists worthy of even being in the report, but this one had enough games to back up its performance. Then, I guess the big takeaway is that there is a lot of quality amongst 3-Cost cards, enough to push a deck to post a 0.5 Cube average, alongside a 55% win rate.
Potential Additions
Cosmo and Mobius M. Mobius are two other disruptive cards you could consider in the deck.
Tier 2
Good Cards Blink
After a week away following the OTA, it seems like those saying the deck is still good were right. Indeed, with a 59.5% win rate, the fourth overall in the report, and a 0.45 Cube average, Good Cards Blink is close to the Tier 1 decks than it is to the others in Tier 2.
The list looks almost exactly the same as it was before the OTA, with strong standalones cards, and the Jubilee, Leech and Blink trio. We already saw On Reveal and Silver Surfer ranked higher in this tier list, so I guess even a [5/5] Leech can have its upsides.
Potential Additions
The Discard oriented build is also doing pretty well. It would have ranked in Tier 2 as well, but probably a little lower on the list.
den
Loki Bounce
den
Loki is diversifying its assets lately, as we are seeing less of the traditional build, replaced by more hybrid ideas. The best one in this regard this week was the Bounce hybrid, which managed to post a 0.45 Cube average alongside a 54% win rate.
Typically, this kind of win rate would be closer to 0.3 in terms of Cubes per games, but the element of surprise must have played a role. This is precisely what Loki, which has been a part of every single metagame for the last 9 months, needed to bolster its ability to rack up cubes, some unpredictability.
There are other ideas to explore, but hybrid Loki seems to be the way to go right now.
Potential Additions
A control variant of Loki has also emerged. With the Bounce deck, they were both Loki’s most successful lists this week in Ranked.
Phoenix Tribunal
den
Here, the goal is just to get either synergy on the board, while making sure the opponent can’t do much about it. Plus, we get Cosmo as a disruptive card, which can serve against quite a lot of opponents, opponent a different snap than just “I got a good hand”.
Potential Additions
If you aren’t a fan of this build, you can try the list with Shuri and Nimrod instead. However, both lists had a 4.5% win rate gap between the two of them, which is quite significant.
Hela Corvus
den
Typically, open environments tend to be in Hela‘s favor, but the deck is just part of the meta right now. The numbers are great, with a 0.4 Cube average and 57% win rate, but these are numbers a lot of deck managed to beat this week. The win ratio, in particular, is very high for such a deck, usually already considered good around the 55% mark.
Then, it might be that Hela is being taken more seriously at all levels, and is getting more 1 cube retreats than multiple Cube wins at this point. The other explanation could be that those playing Hela are Snapping less, but why would you do this with Hela?
Potential Additions
Giganto and Skaar are often regarded as the flexible cards in the deck. Black Cat, Red Hulk, Ghost Rider could be considered.
Hela Tribunal
den
Compared to Hela Corvus, the win rate is much, much worse, at only 49%. However, both decks share the same Cube average, showing how big of a difference snapping the right way can make. Outside this great capacity to rack up Cubes even with a losing record, Hela Tribunal has been the same the entire season, so there isn’t much to talk about here.
Potential Additions
Apart from Crystal and Red Hulk, it is hard to replace anything else. You could consider Jubilee, Magneto, or another big card in those slots. Maybe a protective card could be an idea, such as Echo.
Pixie Junk
Junk probably lost the most momentum this week, as it would usually compete with the other decks in Tier 1. If we looked at its win rate, it still should be able to, as Junk posted the third best win rate of the week, at 60.5%, just a little behind On Reveal.
When it comes to the Cubes gained per match however, the deck is 0.2 behind the other decks at 60% win rate or more, almost 40% less. We can see Pixie is in the best performing list, which probably helps blurring the lines from your opponent’s perspective. However, the best thing to do if you are playing Junk right now: Snap early.
Potential Additions
Titania and Daredevil are two cards you could consider in the deck. Otherwise, you could run Debrii and Green Goblin if you removed Pixie and Mobius M. Mobius, but that build did significantly worse lately.
Tier 3
Tier 3 this week has four decks we know pretty well in Marvel Snap, as they represent iconic archetypes across the game’s history. Basically, the important takeaway from this tier is the fact even super synergistic decks can compete, although they won’t benefit from the same flexibility, or ability to surprise their opponent, as the others.
Destroy, Patriot and Bounce could be expected at those ranks. Destroy has been doing fairly well over the past few weeks, but with the average performance being better, the deck just went back to being a solid Tier 3. As for Patriot and Bounce, this is pretty much where they were in the previous report, although Bounce has been mixed with other archetypes, so could be considered much better than just its namesake list.
Ongoing on the other hand, is the more intriguing guest here, as the archetype was fighting for a tier 1 spot not so long ago. Now, it seems like it was relegated to a counter role with Armor, Cosmo and such. More importantly, the return of Bounce type decks, with a low curve and a ton of flexibility really doesn’t fit Ongoing a all.
Destroy
Ongoing
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Patriot
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Bounce
Closing Words
I think it is safe to say the metagame is a bit of mess, but a good one, as it rewards the right kind of attitude. It’s been a while since we were able to play a little bit of everything, and your ability to snap was the biggest tiebreaker.
We can pinpoint what is good to do currently, such as playing a deck able to compete on all locations, and possibly adaptable towards how it uses space, and the cost of its cards. Unless you are a Professor X deck yourself, there is a good chance you’ll have to go against it eventually. Also, we see the Move synergy is very popular right now, another sign flexibility is important to many decks.
If you are a bit lost, It is kind of normal honestly. There are a lot of parameters to account for right now, and the best thing probably is to do it the way the Control archetype did. Detach yourself from the decks, and simply attack the game’s biggest concepts. At least, you know those won’t even go away.
To reach out, 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.
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