Table of Contents
The metagame took a detour after the High power decks were nerfed on June 11, but we are back to developing a lot of power to win the game. However, we aren’t doing it early in a match to develop Wilson Fisk anymore. Now, we use high-cost cards we cheat out or ramp towards.
The method is different, but the results seem to be the same, especially with most archetypes preferring Shadow King to Shang-Chi in order to counter Venus decks.
Overall, the situation is quite simple. There are two kinds of archetypes aimed at building a ton of power. One is often met with its counter card Shadow King, while the other can enjoy an environment with barely anything to punish a Giganto or The Infinaut being summoned early in a match.
To change that situation, we will likely have to turn to the flexible archetypes, and see if one is able to beat both types of power decks. Two archetypes are pretty close in Supergiant Rocks and Disruptive Aurora. Indeed, these two are Tier 1 material with enough flexible slots to adapt when necessary.
However, these two are also well-known synergies by now, meaning they won’t catch many opponents off guard. Plus, even if they have multiple flexible slots, they also need to develop enough power to win one location through points. It might be difficult to achieve if they have to run both Shadow King and Shang-Chi, especially Aurora who also has to respect a certain balance of abilities.
it is a simple problem, but the solution is more difficult than it seems.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Blind Power 0.4 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | War Machine Ramp 0.7 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Supergiant Rocks 0.55 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | High Power Summons 0.6 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Buffed Disruptive Aurora 0.45 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Lockdown Move 0.35 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Buffed Surfer 0.5 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Iron Hand 0.5 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | End of Turn 0.5 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Fantomex 0.4 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Small Buffs 0.25 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Buffed 1-costs 0.2 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Dormammu Destroy 0.2 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Virused High Power 0.2 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate |
Trending
Blind Power
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
High Power decks slowly lost all their momentum following the OTA with nerfs to both Martyr and Techno-Organic Virus. Yet, even if they can’t dominate through sheer amount of points, there is still enough to build a strong foundation we can then surround with niche synergies or disruptive cards.
In this one, the peculiar inclusion is Strange Supreme, who feed from the summons of Squirrel Girl and Debrii. The deck needs more than just two cards to make Venus worth.
Potential Additions
Maybe En Sabah Nur would be good as it pairs well with the Doctor Strange package, and is only 1 less power than Crossbones once evolved.
Tier 1
War Machine Ramp
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate
The High Power decks aren’t dominant anymore, but building a ton of power remains a simple yet very effective way to win Marvel Snap matches. The main upside of this deck is its ability to challenge Venus decks on sheer amount of points, while dodging the popular Shadow King to counter those same Venus decks.
Both the win rate and cube average are the best on this report, so there is no doubt War Machine ramp is the top deck of the week. Yet, we’ll see if it can keep that position if counters start to emerge, such as Stardust or Shang-Chi.
Potential Additions
Debrii and En Sabah Nur are a fine duo if you were lacking some other cards. Magneto is a fine 6-cost high power card able to disrupt the positioning of many of the current popular decks.
Supergiant Rocks
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
There is a good amount of Killmonger around with Surfer decks able to run it as a disruptive tool. Still, Supergiant Rocks has improved a ton with the High Power decks gone.
Priority is easier to grab heading into the second half of the match, while Askani’son and Iron Patriot win their location a lot more often. Add Shadow King being a great card in the deck and the perfect way to derail the popular buff decks to get the full picture.
Potential Additions
This other way to build around Supergiant is posting similar results:
den
High Power Summons
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
This almost feels like a weaker War Machine Ramp build with the energy cheat route not available, but more than enough to prove high power cards remain quite strong at the moment.
Until Stardust or Shang-Chi come back as popular, it will most likely be the case.
Potential Additions
Hulk could become another 6-cost able to provide some disruption or possible grow to more than 14 power. Some decks also like to run Dracule instead of Caliban.
Buffed Disruptive Aurora
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
The most consistent archetype in Marvel Snap at the moment, Disruptive Aurora welcomed Venus this season but otherwise didn’t change a thing. After all, why would you change a deck able to be a Tier 1 contender for multiple seasons in a row.
There are way to annoy this deck, such as Ghost to remove End of Turn abilities, or Red Guardian, CGR to remove any ability. Yet, because Disruptive Aurora never reached a problematic level, it will likely remain a strong archetype we don’t see a point in targeting.
Potential Additions
Cosmo is the flexible slot in the deck, but needs to be replaced with another Ongoing card. Mobius M. Mobius and Stardust are the best candidates depending on the decks you want to beat.
Tier 2
Lockdown Move
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate
Move keeps being an excellent synergy in Marvel Snap, but lacks that surprise factor in order to keep opponents in the dark as to what will happen in the second half of the game. Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Professor X are a good twist, but a little too famous after being the default way to play this deck for over a month. Plus, War Machine completely ignores the 5-cost card’s ability.
Potential Additions
With fewer High Power decks around, Drax, Avatar of Life might not grow and move around that much? If you wanted to run another move card, or a disruptive tool, this would be the slot.
Buffed Surfer
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
If it wasn’t for Shadow King being a very popular card, this would probably be a Tier 1 archetype. Indeed, even if Silver Surfer is a very predictable archetype, there are so many strong cards in this deck you don’t always need your signature card to win.
Killmonger is a solid disruptive card, Mother Askani remains a great card even as a [4/3] and Sera is scary enough to have opponents retreat on the last turn.
Potential Additions
The only thing this deck lacks is a way to disrupt the likes of War Machine Ramp or High Power Summons. Cosmo probably would be the best way to do so in this archetype, although this deck is not designed to grab priority early on. Most likely, Nova would have to become a 1-cost able to help in that regard.
Iron Hand
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate
There is another list of Iron Hand with a 57% win rate, but a 0.25 cube average. As a result, it is safe to say building for disruption is probably the way to go with this deck. The points will come from Mother Askani or Moon Girl duplication Victoria Hand, Sasquatch or the card we created and discounted with Iron Patriot.
Potential Additions
Shadow King could be in Mobius M. Mobius slot while Majestic Wingbeat and Elektra are flexible as well. Spider-Ham and Techno-Organic Virus make sense as other low cost cards with a possible high impact.
End of Turn
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate
The win rate isn’t great, while End of Turn has not been a menace in the Marvel Snap metagame for quite some time. Yet the 0.5 cube average indicates this deck should be respected when the draws align.
This is a Zombie Galacti type of deck, a surprise absent from this report. There is absolutely no surprise about it, but it will punish overconfident opponents.
Potential Additions
Black Cat could be Bruce Banner for more points but a higher chance of missing a turn 1 play.
Fantomex
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate
Another 56% win rate archetype with a solid cube average, although it is slightly worse than Iron Hand or End of Turn. Most likely, those decks have a similar power level, but vary in performance due their ability to adapt to the metagame, or surprise their opponent.
Iron hand clearly is the more flexible of the three, while End of Turn isn’t considered a serious threat. Unfortunately for Fantomex, it is both rigid in how it plays, and seems to be retreated against more often when it draws perfectly.
Potential Additions
Killmonger has a good amount of targets in the current metagame and could replace Fastball Special as a result.
Tier 3
All four decks in this last tier are valid contenders, but also have glaring weaknesses in the current metagame. The buff oriented decks have to worry about Shadow King already, but those building around Clea and Sub-Mariner also have to keep Killmonger in mind.
The other two, Dormammu Destroy and Virused High-Power are both predictable and well-known, limiting their ability to develop their full potential. If at least they were certain to win when the draws align.
Buffed 1-costs
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate
Buffed 1-costs
den
Performance: 0.2 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate
Dormammu Destroy
den
Performance: 0.2 Cube Average / 55% Win Rate
Virused High Power
den
Performance: 0.2 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate
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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