Table of Contents
It is a bit early to get some data about Ikari, although the card looks to be a solid fit in the High Evo Afflicts archetype. We do have data about Punisher War Machine however, and it looks much better than anticipated. Indeed, although the new 2-cost is far from a widely used card, and overall isn’t impacting the metagame a ton, the card is part of the 12 statistically best cards in the infinite rank : War Machine Ramp.
That deck is far from new, better known as Lockdown Ramp back when we could play Storm, War Machine and Legion one after the other. The possibility to lockdown the game for our opponent is gone, but we can still use War Machine to play Ebony Maw and The Infinaut.
In this metagame built around developing a ton of early early, and keeping our foot on the gas pedal except for a few disruptive cards, the deck makes a lot of sense. Indeed, it is more than capable to fight on points, while the ability to play anywhere is a pretty good one at the moment. With no Professor X or Legion in the deck, it might not look that good. Yet, winning one location for cheap against 10 Power or such High Power deck means you can invest all your bigger cards in one spot, while the opponent can’t afford that luxury.
It is a pretty simple metagame from a strategy standpoint, meaning any way to gain a bit of flexibility or disruption without hurting your points total can translate into a good amount of cubes.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | War Machine Ramp 0.55 Cube Average / 64.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Virused High Power Rocks 0.6 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Virused 10 Power 0.45 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Disruptive Move 0.5 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | High Evo Afflicts 0.4 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Disruptive Aurora 0.5 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | End of Turn 2099 0.45 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Wiccan On Reveal 0.45 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | End of Turn 0.45 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Zombie Galacti 0.65 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | High Power Summons 0.45 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Fantomex 0.3 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Dracula Discard 0.2 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate |
Tier 1
War Machine Ramp
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 64.5% Win Rate
This metagame is focused on developing a lot of points, but the synergistic kings in the regard, such as Mister Negative or Man-Spider, aren’t doing well. Instead, the way to go seems to be cards with a lot of power, since Shang-Chi is nowhere to be seen. In that context, this archetype makes a lot of sense. It will fall behind early on, but Ebony Max plus The Infinaut on turn 6 should turn around a lot of situations.
Potential Additions
Red Hulk could replace Giganto. CGR or Legion make sense in the 5-cost slot. Jennifer Kale can replace the new Punisher War Machine.
Virused High Power Rocks
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 62.5% Win Rate
The best of the high power decks is the most flexible one it appears, with abilities being preferred to sheer power. I would attribute a lot of the merit to Shang-Chi, granting the deck some ability to turn a location around.
Without the 4-cost, I fear this deck wouldn’t develop as much as the other high power decks, on top of requiring to draw specific packages of card to function properly.
Potential Additions
Iron Patriot makes sense instead of Askani'son or Shadowlands Daredevil. Cosmo and Shang-Chi are obviously flexible, depending on your popular opponents. En Sabah Nur, Drax, Avatar of Life, Mobius M. Mobius… plenty of cards make sense in those slots.
You also ditch the Rock synergy to play a straightforward Virus High Power, with King Eitri and Adam Warlock to support Shadowlands Daredevil.
Virused 10 Power
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 60.5% Win Rate
There is a good amount of Mobius M. Mobius in decks with the Techno-Organic Virus, which hurts this deck a ton. However, when it comes to sheer power, it is very difficult to rival this deck.
Weirdly enough, there aren’t that many cards with 10 power in the best performing build, which can make it difficult when Sasquatch doesn’t show up, or we don’t play enough cards to reduce its cost. When we do, and make Wilson Fisk a 10 power with the virus, this deck has access to a very explosive high power last turn.
Potential Additions
Enchantress can be used as a counter card if you face Ongoing synergies. Otherwise, look for 10 power cards, such as Ares or Typhoid Mary.
Disruptive Move
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
Move can’t fight on points early on, but is certainly able to grow Kraven or Batroc the Leaper to high enough totals to compete with the high power decks down the line. In addition, the deck is also flexible enough to pack some disruption, making Move the most complete archetype. As long as the draw align early in the match, obviously.
Potential Additions
Professor X could be Legion, The Thing First Steps or such card able to bring a different disruption, but a bit more than 2 points.
Tier 2
High Evo Afflicts
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
The affliction synergy is great against 10 power decks, as we basically never allow them to discount Skaar. Plus, Ajax, Abomination and Hulk are a solid trio when it comes to developing points of our own.
Overall, this archetype probably benefits from the current metagame, with several archetypes playing to the affliction synergy’s strengths. It could progress even more if Ikari proves to be a good addition. However, if the environment was to change, it could be a problem for High Evolutionary.
Potential Additions
The best list has not changed in quite some time, so swaps should occur to replace missing cards.
Nebula is a good early cost to group opposing units for Cyclops or Laufey, while Spider-Woman can be a cheap affliction cards.
End of Turn 2099
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
This archetype will likely remain a staple until nerfs, or enough powerful cards make us forget about it. Until then, even if the deck is so recognizable you won’t ever keep someone in the game unless they have a way to punish you, End of Turn 2099 will be a fine competitor.
Potential Additions
Sandman is countered by Mobius M. Mobius. If you see too much of the 3-cost, consider Legion or CGR in the slot.
Disruptive Aurora
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
Just like End of Turn 2099 above, we know this deck is good when the draws align, although it is past its prime, and lacks the ability to surprise an educated Marvel Snap player. However, Disruptive Aurora is a bit more explosive thanks to Anti-Venom, granting the deck some flexibility in the later turns.
Potential Additions
Spider-Ham isn’t great in this metagame with a lot of cards played for their power rather than the ability. Black Cat or another activate card could make sense.
End of Turn
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
There is that much of the 5-cost Rider to bully this deck, as many cards don’t have ability worth removing in this metagame. As a result, End of Turn has gained some momentum early on in this May season. Until the situation changes, this is probably a decent pick. However, don’t stay hooked on End of Turn if counter cards come back.
Potential Additions
Bruce Banner is the flexible card if you wanted to run something else. Cosmo is a good protective piece, while The Thing First Steps is a disruptive End of Turn ability.
Wiccan On Reveal
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
Another archetype able to compete when the draws align. Against high power decks, I struggle to picture this deck will manage to extract value from [“card name=”Silver Surfer First Steps”]. However, all the cards in the build are strong, so it is only fair to consider Wiccan On Reveal a decent pick at the very least.
Potential Additions
En Sabah Nur and Debrii are a flexible duo if you wanted to include something else. Same for the 5-cost cards, which can fit your vision, or match-up requirements. Enchantress, Legion, Vision…
Zombie Galacti
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate
Zombie Galacti remains the most predictable deck in the game, but I can see how this deck can turn locations around on the last turn of play, even against High Power decks with a 20 points lead on a location. If opponents are staying in matches, this looks like a great pick, but I don’t expect it to work in the higher ranks.
Potential Additions
Magik can become Crystal or another buff card if Limbo is too often changed.
High Power Summons
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 57% Win Rate
Just like the End of Turn synergy, Dracula is making the most of CGR not being in the High Power decks to be a reliable source of points. When this deck draws as intended, it will be among the highest scorers in the game. However, it clearly isn’t as reliable as the others, and will have to play from behind most of the time. As a result, you have to trust En Sabah Nur or Dracula to target the right card. The deck is built to win that gamble most of the time, but it still sucks when you lose 4 cubes because of it.
Potential Additions
Galactus First Steps is difficult to build with so many high power decks around. Drax, Avatar of Life is a good 3-cost alongside Debrii, while a second 5-cost can also help building reliability for that turn. Vision or The Thing First Steps make the most sense.
Tier 3
The discard synergy is among the highest scorers in Marvel Snap, but also one of the least flexible of them all. As such, I’m not surprised to see these two somewhere on the report, their ability to score when the draws align being on par with the current metagame.
However, when the other decks are flexible in how their operate, and capable of building play-patterns on the fly. Fantomex and Dracula Discard are more rigid in how they operate. This means our snaps won’t surprise anyone, while our bad draws are simple to recognize and punish.
Fantomex
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 56% Win Rate
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.2 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.
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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