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How good does it feel to have a lot of Marvel Snap decks again, and not enough cards to counter all of them with one deck only! I didn’t mind the Thanos meta that much, but I enjoy chaotic metagame environment way more, simply because there are many more things we can do as players. Of course, there are still top performers and struggling archetypes. Yet, the current metagame rewards finding synergies left unchecked, and the right balance amongst the dozens of seemingly playable cards rather than learning a very specific deck or play patterns.
With this first Meta Tier List of the new season, we can take a peek at those top performers, but let’s keep in mind bots are still part of the equation, and certain archetypes are still being refined as I write these lines. Then, it isn’t that surprising to see Discard Dracula and Mister Negative at the top. Both decks are excellent bot farmers, refined archetypes, and benefit from not so much of Red Guardian or Mobius M. Mobius around. Arishem Thanos is a bit more surprising in that group, but even if the deck is highly unreliable at times, it also packs a ton of strong cards, so can reliably snap whenever the draws align.
Tier 2 decks are where the magic happens, with Merlin being part of most decks and slowly finding the right balance. At the moment, the best performers are decks we already know about with Merlin included. Indeed, there isn’t much to discuss about Small Good Cards “11 cards from last month’s 12 plus Merlin” or Good Cards, although that one is a little more exotic with Kahhori in the mix.
However, being refined in the shadows is what I call Proactive Clog, a build combining Good Cards elements with Sentry and Annihilus. These two have been doing great alongside Merlin, and are slowly finding their grove in the metagame. I don’t think the deck is there yet, but it has only been a few days, so there is plenty of room for improvement. In the near future, I expect more decks like this one to emerge, and really give the metagame a real fresh feeling.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Discard Surfer 0.9 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Trending | Big Move 0.55 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Arishem Thanos 0.9 Cube Average / 68% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Negative Destroy 1 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Discard Dracula 0.8 Cube Average / 67% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Small Good Cards 0.65 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Sauron 10 Power 0.6 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards Merlin 0.6 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Bullseye Discard 0.8 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Proactive Clog 0.6 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Destroy 0.4 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Toxic 0.45 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Mill 0.4 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Scream 0.45 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
We’re only in the first week of the season, so the rankings reflect the environment in the ranks 80 up to Infinite players. Pre-Infinite decks will return next week, when we have enough data to split both categories again.
Trending
Discard Surfer
den
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
A weird looking Silver Surfer build might save the archetype from its current struggles. Indeed, while there isn’t a precise threat to be afraid of, Silver Surfer has been struggling in recent weeks, at least when it comes to the well-known builds.
With this disruption focused list, the deck accepts that its points total might not be on par with the current metagame, and tries to take the match to another field. The results are great at the moment, although 60% win rate during the first, bot filled week of the season isn’t that impressive. I am curious to see where the Cube Average will be once the surprise wears off.
Big Move
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
Honestly, I don’t think Big Move is the type of deck able to be more than an under-the-radar synergy. Indeed, once you recognize it, the deck should never get away with a big win. On the other end, the synergies are too volatile to snap early and hope all goes according to plan.
It is good enough to be played if one enjoys the deck, however, don’t expect to post Tier 1 type of results, simply due to Big Move being too simple to retreat against.
Tier 1
Arishem Thanos
Performance: 0.9 Cube Average / 68% Win Rate
The highest win rate on this report, although Arishem Thanos has many lists running around, the deck doesn’t seem to suffer too much from the randomness considering the fantastic win rate. Same for the cube average, if one can snap the right hands, and abandon a cube for the wrong one, Arishem Thanos might be the Mad Titan’s way to remain a force in Marvel Snap.
Potential Additions
Quinjet, Enchantress, and Man-Thing are popular cards in the archetypes if you needed a replacement.
Negative Destroy
den
Performance: 1 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
The highest cube rate on the report goes to the card every one should expect at the start of the season, or right after an OTA. Both happened not so long ago, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see Mister Negative rank close to the top.
If there was something to be curious about, it is why is the Destroy list doing better than the regular one. Not by much really, as both decks are 0.5% away in terms of win rate, but 0.2 when it comes to Cube rate. To be fair, I’m not so sure, except for the surprise factor, with most opponent expecting other cards to come down. Another reason could be this deck being a little better at winning when Mister Negative doesn’t show up in time.
Either way, Mister Negative is in a good place at the moment.
Potential Additions
The regular list with Rogue as the tech card is a great pick as well.
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 1 Cube Average / 67% Win Rate
Many bots and little of Red Guardian – although the card is coming back to stop Gorgon and Surge – is the perfect environment for Discard Dracula to put up a stellar performance. Indeed, although Merlin adds a lot of flexibility, there is still very little way to beat Dracula once you see Apocalypse fly out of your opponent’s hand a couple of times.
The list a peculiar, with no Colleen Wing, Swarm or Scorn, but the goal is simply to maximize Malekith, and sort of high roll Corvus Glaive‘s discards on turn three. It looks risky, but the numbers tell us it is very effective.
Potential Additions
Moon Knight on turn three is very risky if you have either Dracula or Malekith in hand. Then, it is probably the flexible card in the deck, and can use cards such as Strong Guy instead.
Tier 2
Small Good Cards
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 64% Win Rate
The best of the Merlin decks is also the least original of the bunch. Indeed, the Small Good Cards archetype has been around for a very long time, although it took a detour to the Ongoing synergy last season with Esme Cuckoo.
Then, the question is whether it is actually the best one, or simply the easiest one to build shortly after Merlin‘s release. I guess we’ll find out next week, with more data available.
Potential Additions
Iron Man could be a disruptive card such as Cosmo, Mobius M. Mobius, or another synergistic option in the deck, like Havok or Kitty Pryde.
Sauron 10 Power
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate
Armor has been added to the mix due to some Destroy decks roaming around early and Shang-Chi being sort of popular. Except for that three way battle in the 2-cost slot with Surge and Lizard being the other two, there isn’t much to say about Sauron 10 Power.
Good deck if you like to develop tons of power, and don’t want to bother with flexible play patterns too much. Plus, there isn’t much of Mobius M. Mobius around.
Potential Additions
Surge and Lizard can replace Armor depending what you are aiming for.
Good Cards Merlin
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 62% Win Rate
There are quite a lot of builds with Merlin, and the Good Cards crew – Zabu, Surge, Galacta, Gwenpool – can fit in most of those. Then, it is no surprise to see a Good Cards Merlin deck post strong results.
The more interesting part are the cards joining Merlin on this trip. First, we have Kahhori, benefiting from both Zabu and the season pass card. Then, due to that synergy, Kate Bishop and Iron Patriot also make sense.
The odd inclusion could be Spider Ham, but there are so many good targets at the moment, the pig represents a snap opportunity whenever it takes out Surge, Merlin, Mister Negative…
Potential Additions
Copycat is flexible, replaceable with virtually any card you wish. As for the Kate Bishop, Iron Patriot, Kahhori package, they benefit from Merlin, but the proactive Clog list shows us there are other ways to build around Merlin.
Bullseye
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
Morgan Le Fay almost made Bullseye exciting this week, but the best performing build happens to leave the new card out. Then, this is just Bullseye as we have known it for months now. A solid, synergistic build, perfect to climb early in the season. This is even more true with Red Guardian and Mobius M. Mobius not that popular early on to ruin cancel Bullseye, or prevent Swarm from becoming a 0-cost card.
Potential Additions
Grand Master or Morgan Le Fay can replace Miek or Gambit. Grand Master had a better Cube average but lower win rate than Miek as its replacement. Morgan Le Fay looks weaker at the moment, but it might just be an adjustment thing.
Proactive Clog
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
A Good Cards type of deck with a Clog package really, this disruption based list represent the other way to build around Merlin at the moment, capitalizing on the Once and Future and Polymorph incantations.
While the deck packs Sersi and Annihilus, this one feels much more reliant on Merlin showing up early. Without the new 2-cost, this is basically the old Sentry, Annihilus synergy, which is often too predictable to capitalize on. Plus, giving those cards to the opponent requires them not having Merlin as well. This explains the presence of Gorgon in the deck, a card which gained a lot of momentum early this season.
Potential Additions
The deck is being refined at the moment, tilting towards more Clog or the Good Cards concept depending on the lists you look at. Kate Bishop and Kahhori make sense for more proactiveness. So do Nicholas Scratch, Agamotto and King Eitri.
As for extra clogging, Viper and Debrii are first in line in my opinion, except if you want to go with a full on Clog deck with Merlin included.
Tier 3
This last tier contains four familiar faces, but in here for different reasons:
- Destroy benefits from little of Armor and Cosmo, while Junk is on the rise thanks to Merlin. Then, Deadpool has a great field to simply enforce its synergies, while Shang-Chi helps in points shootouts.
- Toxic keeps losing momentum after Hazmat became a 3-cost, and now Merlin can polymorph or turn afflicted cards into energy. The deck remains strong overall, but the metagame isn’t one for Toxic.
- Mill has been struggling for a while. Morgan Le Fay seems to have helped a little, but it isn’t enough to make Mill a scary contender yet. In particular, the Mill synergy struggles to run the opponent out of ressources with Merlin feeding them cards.
- Scream simply faces much less of Move due to a different flavor of the moment. Just like Toxic, the synergy is solid, but need a better environment to shine. We could note the arrival of Mercury though, which synergizes nicely with Cannonball, the 2-cost guaranteeing the destruction as cards can’t move out of its location.
Destroy
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
Toxic
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate
Mill
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate
Scream
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 56% 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.
Cube Average > 0.8 & Win Rate > 60%
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 > 0.6 & Win Rate > 58%
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 > 0.4 & Win Rate > 56%
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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