Table of Contents
A couple of decks are posting a much better win rate than the rest, while Mister Negative dominates the cube average competition. Still, this is one of the most balanced Marvel Snap metagame in a while, with no synergy being clearly better to play at the moment.
If we look at all three archetypes at the top, they all have their dedicated counter card. Ghost is a snap against the End of Turn 2099 deck. Cosmo or Stardust will help against Shou-Lao and Scarlet Spider, or you could go for Super Adaptoid to also target Maverick. Last, Mobius M. Mobius will shut down Mister Negative.
With that in mind, the better performers aren’t necessarily the best decks. Rather, those who require a specific disruptive card only a few are using, because the metagame is too diverse to go after a specific opponent. It is reasonable to do so if you would rather focus on snap and retreats rather than being competitive in most games. However, it is also frustrating to have a card do nothing in a good majority of your matches.
This is a grindy environment, suited for disciplined players, able to limit their loss to 1 cube, and win big when the opportunity arises. Those who want to play for higher stakes can always pick a synergy, build against it, and snap on sight.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | End of Turn 2099 0.45 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Small Shou-Lao 0.4 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Negative Destroy 0.55 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | High-Power Summons 0.4 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | ThanAurora 0.35 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Iron Hand 0.35 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Supergiant Disrupt 0.25 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Pixie Power 0.35 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | War Machine Ramp 0.25 Cube Average / 53.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Wiccan Creates 0.25 Cube Average / 52.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Arishem 0.1 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
| High Evo Control | 0.55 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate |
| End of Turn 2099 | 0.45 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate |
| Hammer Time | 0.45 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| End of Turn | 0.5 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| ThanAurora | 0.4 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
Here is my usual annoying advice because I’m a coach and I like to think this helps people: Focus on controlling the stakes of each game and building trust in both your deck and your decision making abilities. Once you feel confident, feel free to take more risks. Reaching Infinite is all about understanding the process of grinding cubes. Also, constantly changing your deck limits your ability to learn the game fundamentals, as you are always focused on learning how to pilot the new deck.
Tier 1
End of Turn
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 61% Win Rate
The All-In End of Turn deck is a bit too predictable, and vulnerable to Ghost following the OTA. However, a touch of End of Turn, support with a Cosmo or Sandman to disrupt the opponent seems to work wonders in the current metagame.
The cube average is quite low for a 61% win rate, which is logical considering very few games will go the distance. Thus, the way to thrive with this deck is to optimize early snaps and win 2 as often as possible.
Potential Additions
Drax, Avatar of Life and Isca the Unbeaten aren’t core to the deck, but benefit from Invisible Woman First Steps. Mercury plus Cannonball, or a couple of strong standalone cards (CGR, Copycat, Legion…) could also do the trick.
Small Shou-Lao
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
Shou-Lao remains a very strong card to build around, although cheap cards are now being hunted by Gambit Horseman of Death. Combined with Cosmo, also a popular card in most proactive decks, it is logical to see this deck not bring that many cubes. Indeed, even if you most win games, it can be tough when you can’t snap early due to certain cards possibly shutting off even you best draws.
Potential Additions
Armor seems play instead of Jeff in another list, which helps against Negative Destroy or Gambit Horseman of Death.
Negative Destroy
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 53% Win Rate
Mobius M. Mobius remains a no show in the current metagame, meaning Mister Negative is safe once you are certain Cosmo can’t ruin the party.
Armor is gaining some momentum as a flexible inclusion in some archetypes, which could be another concern, but the 2-cost is far from enough to stop Mister Negative followed by Jane Foster. Same for Thanos and its Reality Stone to counter Magik.
Overall, this deck’s worst enemy is variance, as it is almost certain to win when everything goes according to plan, as proved by sporting the best cube average on this report. Unfortunately, the win rate shows some fragility, meaning good snaps are key for Mister Negative to thrive.
Potential Additions
There isn’t a lot of room in this build due to Shang-Chi and Killmonger already taking the flexible spot to help feed Knull.
Psylocke can replace Magik if Limbo is constantly getting changed.
Tier 2
High Power Summons
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
A new deck on the block, which rose following the OTA. I doubt an extra power to Debrii and En Sabah Nur was the missing ingredient for this list to click, but it sure put their synergy in the spotlight.
There is very little of Shang-Chi except in the Negative deck currently, so summoning high power cards early on is not much of a risk. Same for Dracula, which is safe as long as play it behind Quicksilver and The Ten Rings.
The 0.4 cube average is on par with the 60% archetypes in the tier above, but I would attribute it to opponents staying a bit too much due to this deck still being quite new.
Potential Additions
Domino could replace Shang-Chi if you don’t mind playing with one 3-cost only.
Same for CGR, which can become a Red Skull or Blink if you don’t feel the need for disruption.
ThanAurora
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
The buff to En Sabah Nur has tilted the balance in favour of Thanos when it comes to the most popular Aurora deck. Yet, the numbers aren’t particularly great, meaning it is likely the disruptive list remains the best option at the moment.
More than anything, this deck struggle to be reliable in high stakes matches. Either you cash in Lockjaw and En Sabah Nur early on to know their pulls, but you risk the opponent not staying in the match. Or you keep them until the last turn, and risk losing 4 cubes on a bad swap.
Potential Additions
Spider-Ham, Hydra Bob and such cheap cards able to receive Aurora’s buff are good options in this deck. Otherwise, Isca the Unbeaten or Lockjaw could be disruption if a specific card (Armor, Stardus, Ghost…) looked necessary.
Iron Hand
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 54.5% Win Rate
The most logical landing spot for Gambit Horseman of Death, Iron Hand has failed to return to her glory days so far. With a natural disruptive card now in the mix, the deck progressed enough to be a decent competitor, but still lacks quite a lot in the points department to compete with most archetypes. Ironically, its biggest problem are opposite Gambit Horseman of Death, who target most key cards for this deck.
Arguably, specific disruption will be required to progres any further, as Iron Hand cannot win through its proactive patterns only.
Potential Additions
Cheap cards help with hand management, but can quickly clog the board.
Deafening Chord is a good in between, while Merlin can provide help to evolve those low power on reveal cards.
Supergiant Disrupt
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate
Supergiant won the Golden Gauntler qualifier recently, which gave it an influx in popularity. However, it is clear this archetype is much stronger once it knows what it is up against, and can pinpoint how to use its disruptive cards. On the ladder, the blind encounter is much harder, especially when you can’t seize priority early, which greatly limits the impact of Cosmo or Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
Potential Additions
Ghost recently entered the build to help against the End of Turn synergy. If you didn’t see much of Invisible Woman First Steps powered decks, feel free to consider another card.
Similarly, Elektra can be Spider-Ham or Iceman, depending which disruption you are looking for.
Tier 3
Tier 3 is pretty close to Tier 2 this week, with every deck being either close in both metrics, or equal in either win or cube rate. The most intriguing in this list is Arishem, sporting a fine win rate at 55.5%, but a catastrophic cube average at 0.1. Either the deck forgot snaps existed, or it loses most of its high stakes matches, meaning its ceiling is lower than other decks in the metagame.
The other three are more straightforward in how they operate, typically aware of their potential early in a match. Plus their metric are closer to each, so it is probable this is a fair spot for Pixie, Wiccan and War Machine Ramp.
Pixie Power
den
Performance: 0.35 Cube Average / 52% Win Rate
War Machine Ramp
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 53.5% Win Rate
Wiccan Creates
den
Performance: 0.25 Cube Average / 52.5% Win Rate
Arishem
den
Performance: 0.1 Cube Average / 55.5% 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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