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
Other decks also have made an early impact, such as Sera Control. Yet, the metagame since the OTA has been a lot about “Kazoolgamesh”, the evergreen archetype labelled after this month’s season pass card. Stronger of two buffs, to Shanna and Gilgamesh, alongside most of the stronger decks having to rebuild their balance following up some big nerfs, the deck just seems to develop too much for many to match. The weakness of that deck is kind of obvious: there are no reactive cards. Then, if another deck with more potential would emerge, there is a good chance Kazoolgamesh wouldn’t be able to retain the top spot. Until that happens though, and barring that new deck not being too simple to counter, it seems like we have a new king following up the OTA.
As for the rest of the metagame, there isn’t so much to say to be honest, as all of the popular deck right now have well known archetypes in Marvel Snap. Hela is still around, Silver Surfer, Mister Negative or Bounce are back in the discussion. As for the decks losing momentum, all three dominant decks of the previous metagame are struggling right now. On Reveal and Junk are still in the report, but in Tier 3, while Ravonna Lockdown didn’t have a good enough performance to be ranked. Are those decks done, or do they just need a little rebuilding to come back as strong as they were ? It is a little early to answer this one, but we can still look at the decks doing good enough to be considered until we have more data.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Phoenix Force |
| Silent Performer | Good Cards Discard |
| Tier 1 | Kazoolgamesh |
| Tier 1 | Sera Control |
| Tier 2 | Mister Negative |
| Tier 2 | Hela Corvus |
| Tier 2 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 2 | Loki |
| Tier 3 | Junk |
| Tier 3 | Bounce |
| Tier 3 | On Reveal |
| 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 > 0.25
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 > 0.10
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
Phoenix Force
A new environment means a lot of people are testing different things, and counter cards aren’t established yet. As such, if you have a deck able to create very safe snaps, you should be able to climb with a disciplined strategy. Phoenix Force is perfect in that role, and also has a solid win rate, around the 57% mark. Then, even if the amount of games wasn’t very high since the OTA, it seems like the deck is a great one to explore for anyone looking for a straight forward, self-centered strategy.
Good Cards Discard
den
Hela had many more games to back up its performance, hence why it is in the bulk of the report, while Good Cards Discard isn’t. Yet, if you believe in small sample sizes, this was the best deck around the discard synergy since the OTA.
I wouldn’t look at it as a finished product, especially as we can see a couple of duos which aren’t part of the core synergy. Indeed, Shadow King is played to punish Angela, Thena and such power growing cards, which makes Valentina an interesting prospect, potentially able to generate another card with enough power to discount Skaar. On the other hand, Luke Cage is a protection to said Shadow King, which now reduced the Ebony Blade’s power back to 0. Just like Valentina, we see U.S Agent benefiting from the situation to find a spot in the deck.
With a 0.4 cube average and 52 % win rate, the deck already looks solid as it is. Yet, I believe there is some room to grow, and adapt Good Cards Discard to the metagame.
Tier 1
Kazoolgamesh
den
After a rough start to the season, with Thena completely outshining Gilgamesh when it came to performance, the season pass card finally looks like a real Marvel Superhero. Indeed, at a base [5/9], Gilgamesh routinely becomes a 5/15 or more in the Kazoo deck, enough to consider it to turn a location around on the last turn of play.
So far, the deck is unarguably the best in the game, sporting both the best win rate (62%) and cube rate (0.65) with this build. There were plenty of others in the data I could look at, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was also the most popular archetype since the OTA as well.
Potential Additions
Nocturne, Shadow King, Cull Obsidian, Rogue, Red Guardian… There are plenty of cards you could think of in this deck once Squirrel Girl, Ka-Zar, Blue Marvel, Gilgamesh, Mockingbird, Ant Man and Shanna are included. In the featured one above, I would guess nebula is the most flexible one.
Sera Control
Control decks typically don’t do so well right after an OTA, especially one so impactful. Yet, with Kazoolgamesh being very popular, a deck with Killmonger could only do well, at the bare minimum. Indeed, while the points potential isn’t there compared to a lot of other decks, shutting down Mockingbird with Mobius M. Mobius and the 1-cost with Killmonger is enough to feed Sera Control’s cube average.
Kazoolgamesh took the first place with a bit of a gap, but the 0.5 cube average and 55% remains a stellar performance for this evergreen archetype.
Potential Additions
Shang-Chi is the flexible card. You could play Enchantress, Legion, or a card to have more points available as well.
Tier 2
Mister Negative
den
Mister Negative is the king of making a return after every eventful balance update, as it is a very simple deck to pilot when you draw the right stuff. Sure, Mobius M. Mobius can completely wreck your entire game plan. Yet, with a lot of decks focusing on doing their own thing following the OTA, at least until we can find a worthy target to adapt against, Mister Negative positions itself as one of the highest points potential around.
Typically, the deck loses quite a lot of momentum after the first week, so we’ll where the current 0.35 cube average and 54.5% win rate stands when we revisit this ranking.
Potential Additions
In this Silver Surfer build, you want cards able to synergize with both your win condition, which isn’t so simple. Red Guardian could be an idea, or Rogue.
You could also consider Psylocke, which synergizes with Wong, and allows playing Mister Negative a turn earlier.
Hela Corvus
den
The nerf to Hela was inevitable, but it didn’t hurt the archetype that much looking at the early results. 0.3 cube average is on the lower end of what we saw for Hela over the last couple of months, but still makes the archetype easily top 10 in the game, even after its change.
We’ll see how the archetype evolves with time, but historically, Hela has been at its best when it was not regarded as a menace, and it could snap its opponent, who stayed in a match they had already lost.
Potential Additions
Black Cat and Giganto are the two flexible cards in the deck if you want to include something else.
Silver Surfer
den
The toxic archetype was also part of the popular decks following the OTA, but the more traditional build of Silver Surfer had the best performance. The cube average isn’t stellar, only at 0.25, but the win rate is amongst the best ones on the report, at 58.5%.
Just like Sera Control, Killmonger and Mobius M. Mobius probably played a big role in making the deck this good, as both cards are excellent against Kazoolgamesh. Otherwise, Silver Surfer positions itself as a safe option when one is a bit lost after a big balance update, so we’ll see if it remains a popular pick once other decks have emerged.
Potential Additions
If you like the Toxic variant better. It seems to be more snap oriented, as the cube average is similar, but the win rate was worse.
den
Loki
One of the few archetypes which was completely left out of the OTA, I expected to find Loki much higher on the rankings, likely in Tier 1. Yet, with only a 0.25 cube average and 56% win rate, the Trickster God is an average deck right now.
It is hard to explain precisely why, as the metagame looks pretty chaotic, something Loki typically enjoys, plus, there is less of Hela around. One the flip side, Mister Negative isn’t really good to steal from, neither is
Potential Additions
Cable, Shang-Chi and Red Guardian are the three flexible cards, which you can replace with a plethora of different options.
Tier 3
Junk
The build is quite different from what we were used to before the OTA, which might be a reason why Junk is so far down the list. Yet, if we consider this deck is the best for the archetype, this speaks volume as to how much damage the loss of Professor X caused to Junk overall.
I wouldn’t be alarmed about Junk just yet, although the 0.2 cube rate is the lowest the archetype posted over the past several months. However, there is some serious rebuilding to be done if this deck has to climb all the way back to a dominant tier 1 staple.
Bounce
Bounce is always amongst the most difficult decks to analyse, as the list feels like it could include so many different cards, and everyone has its opinion on it. Then, the 0.2 cube average and 52% win rate could be a sign of Bounce being worth exploring in this new metagame, or already the mark of a struggling deck, starting week 1 in tier 3.
I’m a big fan of the Bounce archetype, so I want to believe it can progress, but only time will tell.
On Reveal
den
Another deck I didn’t expect to find so far down the rankings, as the list is the exact same as it was before the OTA, due to the balance changes not targeting On Reveal at all. However, the deck was pretty strong thanks to being one of the few able to consistency overtake a lane Professor X had previously blocked.
With less of Xavier around, it seems like On Reveal lost its special attribute in the metagame, and most of its momentum as well.
Closing Words
At first glance, it seems clear Kazoolgamesh has been the dominant deck since the OTA. Even considering the Silent Performers, the deck is the only one with an above 60% win rate, while also being the only one above 0.6 cube average.
Then it is only logical to believe the deck will be the foundation of this forming metagame. We can already see decks packing Killmonger do pretty well, with Sera Control and Silver Surfer both posting solid performance. The major bulk of the other decks are proactive archetypes, looking to score points more than anything else. It will be very interesting to see if Kazoolgamesh will become big enough to make the counter decks worthy to pick, or if more points driven decks will emerge and join it atop the rankings.
Until the situation develops more, only thing left to do is to wish you as much fun as possible in the new metagame. If your favorite, or best performing deck wouldn’t be on our list, come share it on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or through my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.
Good Game Everyone.
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