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
The meta had some more time to develop, and, as expected, the synergistic, self-centered decks have started to lose some momentum. Sure, both Hela Tribunal and Hela Corvus are still among the top five decks in this report, but only one made it into Tier 1, and I would argue it was largely thanks to Super-Skrull helping against the other Ongoing based archetypes.
Speaking of the Ongoing synergy, it’s been doing great lately with the stock Ongoing archetype regaining its spot in Tier 1 and both Cerebro 3 and Patriot featured in this report. This building momentum has two main causes. First, Leech is incredible at limiting how impactful the On Reveal synergy can be, which pushed the Good Cards archetype to take the top spot in our ranking this week. Ongoing decks, on the other hand, only see a [4/2] that barely impacts their ability to play (except for Cerebro 3, which is a little weaker against the card). Second, Ongoing decks have the big upside of being simple to pick up and play at a reasonable skill level. I’ve seen a lot of people share their frustration with the meta lately, so decks that you can quickly get results with have a sort of reassuring quality—Patriot in particular.
Overall, it is hard to say which of the three powers in place is the best right now. Leech and Blink are posting amazing performances together, especially in the Good Cards build, and they deserve to be placed on top. But the Ongoing synergy has multiple decks it can rely on, and that gives it lots of potential to adapt and stay relevant from one week to another. Finally, Hela feels like it’s on the decline since Leech hitting the Goddess of Death is dramatic, and the Ongoing decks can run the Jean Grey + Cosmo synergy. Even in this environment, Hela keeps posting great results and mitigating the lower Win Rate with one of the highest Cube Averages in the game.
We have entered a more complex phase in this second week. There’s a huge need to adapt to your popular opponents and control your Snaps and Retreats in order to climb more. Hopefully, this report can shed some light on how to do so and give you some ideas on your journey to Infinite.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Pixie Hammer |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Blink 🆕 |
| Tier 1 | Ongoing |
| Tier 1 | Hela Tribunal 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Phoenix Force 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Hela Corvus 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | Cerebro 3 🆕 |
| Tier 2 | DeathJunk 🔽 |
| Tier 2 | Loki |
| Tier 3 | Junk 🔽 |
| Tier 3 | Patriot 🔽 |
| Tier 3 | Destroy 🆕 |
| 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
den
Pixie isn’t so popular in the Junk archetype anymore, so she took her services to help the Hammer synergy instead by replacing Lockjaw. Blink serves as a second way to cheat energy; you can use the 5-Cost on either Mjolnir or Stormbreaker to find a big card left in your deck on Turn 6.
It can feel weird to see an On Reveal heavy deck make it into the Silent Performers while the rest of the meta is adapting to Leech. Decks that rely on gaining four to eight cubes while losing just one seem to do well, even inside an On Reveal synergy, despite the meta being against them. Indeed, even if Leech will cost you a few games, your game plan was never to get a 60% Win Rate with this deck. Instead, you want to create simple situations where you can confidently Snap, which Pixie and Jane Foster Mighty Thor will provide for you.
Tier 1
Good Cards Blink
There were a lot of lists around the Good Cards concept this week after the archetype established itself as the best home to run the Leech + Jubilee + Blink trio. On top of those, you can see plenty of solid cards that are able to contribute on their own, which is the signature trait of a Good Cards build.
At first, I was worried the deck wouldn’t be able to develop enough points. Without Klaw, you really only have your two big cards to score. But with Quake and Nocturne, you have a great control over locations, and Red Guardian helps shut down cards that Leech can’t get to.
This new iteration of the Good Cards concept seems perfectly on par with what its ancestors were doing: covering all bases while disrupting the opponent’s strategy in the process. This is only the first week it has been on the report, but the 61% Win Rate and 0.55 Cubes Average are already incredible numbers.
Potential Additions
I’ve seen plenty of cards included in various lists when doing research, so it is hard to recommend just a few ones. Look for packages you think have merit in the current meta, such as Ravonna Renslayer + Professor X + Cannonball or Angela + Kitty Pryde + Hope Summers.
You could also think of strong standalone cards like Doctor Doom, Enchantress, Killmonger, or Mobius M. Mobius.
Ongoing
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After it started losing some momentum during the first week of the season, the Ongoing deck went through a bit of a rebuilding phase. After ditching Spectrum it returned to Tier 1 once again.
The change for Onslaught instead of Spectrum helped the deck focus more on two lanes, which makes a lot of sense with Leech being very popular. Otherwise, you can see the Jean Grey and Cosmo duo to bully Hela. The rest of the deck just focuses on points.
Without Spectrum, you also have more room to play non-Ongoing cards, which gave the deck some flexibility by allowing cards like Nightcrawler, Jeff the Baby Land Shark, and Nocturne.
This is a new build, so the surprise factor could have played a role in the great performance. Still, with a 0.6 Cube Average and 56% Win Rate, this new iteration is definitely doing something right.
Potential Additions
Ms. Marvel is the card I’m skeptical about in the list. Man-Thing, Omega Red, and Iron Lad make sense to explore as different 4-Costs. Otherwise, you can look at previous Ongoing lists to get some ideas.
Hela Tribunal
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It is hard to say how much the inclusion of Super-Skrull is responsible for Hela Tribunal being so high in the rankings, but I believe the deck would be much, much lower without it.
Indeed, while you can always play Iron Man, Onslaught, and The Living Tribunal the good old fashioned way if your opponent played Leech (a big upside compared to Hela Corvus), the deck also has the ability to simply throw points on two lanes against disruptive decks.
Limbo feels like the riskiest part of the deck right now with Nocturne being quite popular across the meta. But, because you can see the card being played, you can adapt to it and maybe hold your Snap if you can’t compete with only six turns.
It is a bit of a weird feeling, but Hela Tribunal might be more flexible than Hela Corvus in this particular meta.
Potential Additions
If Hela game play isn’t for you, here’s the Mister Negative version of the Tribunal deck that you could try:
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Tier 2
Phoenix Force
When you can’t seem to figure out how to play around the current disruptive cards, and those cards mostly impact the second half of the game, Phoenix Force can be a great deck to explore. Indeed, no matter the environment, there aren’t many safer Snaps than a Turn 4
The Win Rate is the worst of the report at just 50%, which means you have to be really disciplined with your Snaps and Retreats when playing the deck. However, the 0.5 Cube Average could have landed the deck a Tier 1 spot if the reliability was a little bit better.
Potential Additions
Hulkbuster works pretty well with Taskmaster, or you could cut the 5-Cost for Ghost-Spider, Iron Lad, or maybe even Blink for consistency.
Hela Corvus
Leech being a menace right now naturally hurt this deck’s stock, enough where it lost its routine top rank. The numbers remain very solid (a 55% Win Rate and 0.4 Cube Average since the OTA), but you can’t Snap as aggressively as you could in the past now that you have to fear for your signature card getting deactivated.
Even then, Hela still remains a deck that is able to target two lanes with just high power cards if you anticipate your opponent could be playing Leech. Indeed, just a Corvus Glaive on Turn 3 or Jubilee on Turn 4 can be enough to have multiple big cards on the board, and there’s also Dracula.
Hela is surely on the decline, but it is far from dead.
Potential Additions
Black Knight, Sandman, Blink, Vision, or even Leech could be included. The deck is fairly flexible regarding its 4-Cost cards. You could also consider replacing Giganto for another card if you value flexibility over sheer amount of points, but beware of keeping enough targets for Dracula.
Cerebro 3
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The surprise performer of the week, Cerebro 3 had an absolutely nuts performance or a really good week depending which source you look at. In the biggest sample size, the deck managed to win 54% of its games while racking up and average of 0.4 cubes.
In particular, I can’t stress enough how good Quake and U.S. Agent are right now. Quake is great because a more confusing environment and more impactful locations give you something to rely on and plan around. U.S. Agent is great because Leech, Jubilee, and Blink are all high cost cards, which means you can dismantle their lane with a 2-Cost. On average, U.S. Agent is a [2/7] since its buff, and it’s a top tier card in the entire game if you can reliably make it a [2/11].
Potential Additions
Cosmo, Shang-Chi, and other three power cards that are able to win you a lane are worth exploring in this deck.
DeathJunk
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DeathJunk has earned its spot in the meta over the weeks, and even if it never reached the top of the competitive mountain it always posted good performances since becoming popular enough to be a part of the Tier List.
This week, the deck posted a 0.35 Cube Average alongside a 57% Win Rate, which is second only to Good Cards in that category. There is very little of Armor and Mobius M. Mobius currently, so this deck is in a nice spot overall. If you could find a way to bring more points to the table, the deck has the potential to progress even more.
Potential Additions
You could cut Sentry and Annihilus in the deck if you value another pair more. But these two work really well with the destroy synergy in addition to providing some form of disruption. Maybe Moon Girl and something else for more fireworks could work?
Loki
Hela already was a tough opponent for Loki, and Leech isn’t particularly good news either. The Trickster God typically likes a meta with the Good Cards archetype being very strong since those decks represent some of the best steals. Unfortunately, that deck isn’t running many high power cards lately; instead, it’s full of strong cards to play on curve, and that limits what Loki can do.
Apart from the Ongoing synergy (and you still have to dodge Cosmo in that one), Loki just struggles to find match ups to feed its cube income.
Potential Additions
Rogue, Cosmo, Gladiator, and Shang-Chi are routine inclusions in the deck, with Red Guardian or Nocturne feeling like the flexible slots.
Tier 3
Junk
Leech turning off Cannonball alongside many decks running Jeff the Baby Land Shark just makes Junk a little more difficult to play efficiently lately. The deck is still good against Hela and other slow-to-develop synergies, but otherwise it doesn’t seem like a great fit in the current environment.
Patriot
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After a great Conquest performance right after the OTA, it feels like Patriot struggled to keep the ball rolling. At a 0.3 Cube Average and 55% Win Rate, the deck still feels like a solid player in the current meta. However, you won’t catch as many people off guard anymore, so you might want to throw a couple of surprises in your deck.
On the way to Infinite, however, Patriot might be the best deck in the game. It’s averaging absolutely insane numbers.
Destroy
Similar to Patriot, Destroy is posting very solid numbers if you look at the ranks leading up to Infinite. However, once you enter Leech and Ongoing territory, the game is much tougher for Deadpool and company.
In that part of the Ladder, you are forced to Snap early to feed your Cube Average since no opponent will stay once you show them your great hand. Unfortunately, this also means Snapping without knowing if your opponent might be running Cosmo, Armor, Shang-Chi, or Mobius M. Mobius (to cancel Death‘s discount).
Closing Words
Overall, the meta is starting to feel more balanced, and disruption is returning to be what it was at the end of the Zeroes to Heroes season. Except now Leech is the star rather than Mill or Junk.
Just like most annoying new synergies, complaints about the card are rolling in if you look at social media. But we can already see a few decks worth testing to limit how much the 4-Cost can hurt you.
The Ongoing synergy is an easy candidate in that role, but even decks based on some On Reveal cards can function. Just make sure they can be played early in the match, or at least be very disciplined with your Snaps and Retreats. You want to focus on situations where the choice is as obvious as possible in the beginning of the game.
I’m sure the meta will continue to move, so adaptation is the key element to focus on right now. I completely understand how Leech can be frustrating, just like Hela was before. Yet, Marvel Snap never stays put for long, so focus on the puzzle you have to solve, not on a temporary, frustrating situation.
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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