Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List: May 8, 2024 – A Blink in Time Week 1 & Balance Updates Leak

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 first few days of a new Marvel Snap Season are always the most chaotic ones. Not only you can’t trust anyone on social media, as their results will be largely impacted by bots feeding them eight-Cube wins on their way to Infinite, the metagame itself is also hard to decipher. This is because certain decks emerge just because they are simple to play over long period of time, exactly the type of deck you want to grind with.

Then, the presence of Discard Dracula is one to take with a grain of salt, as the deck did nothing significant in the second half of last Season, but suddenly appears in Tier 2 once again. Same for Patriot, which looks like a solid deck, but also represent a great way to farm bots.

The interesting decks to look at would be Loki, which was gaining momentum lately, but took a bit of a dive, as the more proactive, synergistic metagame of the early days doesn’t seem so good for the Trickster God. The Ongoing deck, manages to remain a great archetype, even when the metagame is all over the place. Lastly, Annihilus appears to do great in this report, while the trio he forms with The Hood and Sentry was on the decline due to Professor X, Loki and other disruptive decks being very popular.

Overall, these early Season reports are important to look at, as they show how much the environment can impact the performance of a synergy, and how quick things can change. Yet, it is equally important to keep in mind this is a temporary situation. Right now, the goal isn’t to play the best overall deck – rather, a lot of players are looking for the build to take them back to the Infinite rank as fast as possible.

Finally, we already know the metagame may change in a couple of days with the (unconfirmed) OTA Card Balance Updates leak going around. If these changes are indeed true, I don’t expect those updates to drastically impact the current metagame, but the Leech change alone could make Blink a very strong card.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

Marvel Snap Meta Tier List

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 Performers

Cerebro 3

Cerebro 3

Created by den

, updated 12 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Climbing back to the Infinite rank can be done two different ways, you either grind with a high win rate, or manage to consistently win four to eight Cubes. Apparently, Cerebro 3 has been doing both so far, rocking an incredible 0.7 Cube average and 60% win rate, although it was on a limited amount of games.

Here, the key cards are the disruptive ones, Quake, U.S. Agent or Valkyrie. These aren’t necessarily popular, so they will allow catching your opponent off guard for those matches they thought they had in the bag. In case these wouldn’t be suited for the current matchup, you can always rely on a decent point potential, as Iron Man comes in as support to win the contested lane.

Move (Feat. Nocturne)

Move

Created by den

, updated 12 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Move has been struggling in April, much more than I would have expected, but the archetype just couldn’t find a way to deal with Junk and Professor X strategies, which were dominant during that time.

With the early season being much more chaotic overall, Move managed to bounce back, and be a great pick to climb the ladder, relying on its signature flexibility once again. With Nocturne included, the deck gained a new flexible card to include in the mix, as the new 3-cost works perfectly in the deck, while providing some location control as well.

Hela Corvus (Feat. Blink)

Hela Corvus

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Season Pass

4.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

7.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

I expected to find Electro Ramp in this spot, but it seems like that archetype hasn’t done anything significant so far with Blink. Instead, Hela Corvus seems to enjoy the new Season Pass card, and added Jubilee as well in the process.

Due to this build not being very popular, I had to include it in the Silent Performers. Yet, I don’t think it will stay here for long, as Hela Corvus has been popular for two months already, so it is just a matter of spreading the word.

Here, Blink helps with finding Hela more consistently, as you can swap Jubilee on turn five to get Sandman or a 6-Cost card, or try your luck at a 1-cost plus Blink on turn six if Hela is still in the deck.

Tier 1

Good Cards Bounce

Good Cards bounce

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

3

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Both the Bounce archetype and the Darkhawk synergy were flying under the radar for a very long time. Yet, this deck has been popping early in the season, posting a 57% win rate and 0.5 Cube average over 400 hundred games.

The deck is reminiscent of the old Good Cards builds, which simply merged the best synergies available in the metagame. Here, we have the Annihilus trio, the Darkhawk trio and the Angela trio with Beast, Nico Minoru and Shang-Chi sprinkled on top, textbook Good Cards building.

We’ll see how this deck fares in the future, but if you don’t know what to expect early in your climb, this is a great option, as you don’t really depend on your opponent at all.

Potential Additions

Shang-Chi looks like the flexible card here, and could be replaced with another strong standalone inclusion.

Junk

Junk

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

6x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Although the early season mostly features proactive archetypes, and you could argue Pixie Junk is the most proactive build for Junk, disruption isn’t entirely gone. Right now, I would say this deck is kind of the police in the metagame, heavily limiting certain synergies which though they could just run free.

Nocturne and Blink in particular, both dislike Professor X, as the card annoys Move and Hela in their development. Otherwise, Pixie just makes sense early on in the season, as it allows to blur your play-patterns, and have more flexibility in how you play your cards, perfect to confuse bots, or players who just try to enforce their strategy without packing flexible cards. Ongoing is the only annoying opponent, as they play Mobius M. Mobius, and don’t need that much space to function.

Amongst the Tier 1 decks in this report, this is one I’m confident should remain a force going forward, as it proved its worth in the previous weeks as well.

Potential Additions

Jeff the Baby Land Shark can replace Beast if you don’t feel like need for a back up plan when you wouldn’t find Pixie.

DeathJunk

DeathJunk

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

DeathJunk keeps being refined as time passes, and the results keep getting better as well. I expected the deck to struggle with Mobius M. Mobius making a return at the end of last season due to Loki being very popular. Also, there were a lot of talks around Electro Ramp being ideal for Blink, a deck with Sandman included. However, it doesn’t seem to be a problem so far, at least when looking at the 0.5 cube average and 55% win rate.

Typically, decks with such a high cube rate tend to be closer to 60% in the win ratio category, but DeathJunk might still be able to catch a few opponents off guard. The inclusion of Black Bolt, Stature, Silver Samurai and Daken is new in the deck, so this might have helped.

Potential Additions

This is how the deck is typically played if you don’t enjoy the other list:

DeathJunk

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Ongoing

Ongoing

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Time passes and the Ongoing synergy keeps posting impressive results. Since it emerged following the OTA on April 25th, the deck has been a routine Tier 1 archetype, both for Ranked or Conquest.

The early season climb is a big test for a deck, as the metagame tends to be all over the place. This will force a deck to show its ability to win games when it can’t target specific opponents to feed its cube rate. With a 58% win rate, the highest amongst Tier 1 decks, and a 0.45 Cube average, the Ongoing synergy passed the test with flying colors.

Potential Additions

Another build, focused on punishing low cost cards, also did pretty well early in the season.

Toxic Ongoing

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Recruit Season

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 2

Patriot

Patriot

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Recruit Season

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Reminiscent of the DeathJunk build in the tier above, Patriot is also using Mockingbird to gain explosive potential, and make the deck much harder to predict. Plus, this type of decks tend to do great against Loki, which was very popular at the end of last season, as they can’t do too much with our cards.

The more synergistic nature of the deck naturally limits its ability to compete in every match. Patriot will have to give up a few 1 Cube games in order to find those big four or eight cube wins on the back of Valkyrie or a Mockingbird plus Patriot plus Mystique turn.

Potential Additions

Cosmo looks like the flexible card in the deck, used to protect our Ongoing cards while annoying the many On Reveal synergies roaming the ladder. Yet, you could think of something else if you had a more pressing need.

Loki

Loki

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Loki gained a ton of momentum towards the end of April, representing the best option to fight off the disruptive decks, dominant at the time. With the start of the new season, proactive decks came back, as they represent an easier option to climb back to the Infinite rank.

Naturally, this made Loki a little worse, as stealing synergistic cards doesn’t work as well as strong standalones. Plus, Blink pushed the Electro ramp deck to be very popular, and even if that one is only in tier 3, Loki doesn’t want to cross path with it.

Still a great deck, but a worse environment for Loki to leverage its synergies.

Potential Additions

Red Guardian and Mobius M. Mobius can be replaced with other disruptive cards, or Luke Cage.

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Last Season hasn’t been so kind on Discard Dracula, as Red Guardian joining the game, plus Lady Deathstrike being buffed hurt the deck a lot.

Early in the season, the deck managed to regroup a bit, both due to being great to farm bots, or simply because there is more diversity all around. Then, when you are a deck who simply pushes its gameplan against all opponents, a more chaotic environment can only help your stock.

Potential Additions

Lady Sif can replace another Discard ability.

Supergiant Control

Supergiant Control

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

5x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

This deck is a bit of an enigma to be honest, as it doesn’t seem like there is a clear strategy we are enforcing, outside of leveraging information to make good decisions.

Through Daredevil, we know what the opponent played on turn five, typically when Supergiant should conceal this information. Then, we can use Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Cosmo or Red Guardian to cancel what they tried to develop.

I won’t hide my doubts about this one, as it feels like a very specific play-patterns in order to leverage most of the cards in the deck. Plus, outside Maximus, we aren’t exactly able to seize priority in order to land any of our 3-cost disruptive card.

The Annihilus trio gives us some proactive potential, protected by Daredevil if the opponent would play Professor X on turn five.

The win rate is solid, around the 55% mark, and the 0.35 cube average indicates a good deck. Then, I can only recommend you test it for yourself, as it clearly is an oddball in the current metagame.

Potential Additions

Maximus and Ronan the Accuser can be replaced with Cable and Lady Deathstrike for more synergy, but you might lack a bit of points then.

Tier 3

Hammer Control

Hammer Control

Created by den

, updated 12 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Even if it can’t break through the higher tiers, Hammer Control managed to gain a lot of popularity lately, being the most played control deck in the data I looked at. Sure, being popular doesn’t make you a great deck, but maintaining a solid performance over thousands of matches is also a testimony of the deck’s strength.

Overall, Hammer Control replaced Sera Control in the game, except it dodges Mobius M. Mobius more efficiently. Keep in mind Sandman with Electro Ramp being popular this week. Otherwise, even if there isn’t a particular reason to play this deck, there also is nothing indicating it is a bad idea to run it.

Electro Ramp (Feat. Blink)

Electro Ramp

Created by den

, updated 11 days ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Season Pass

4.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Like many of you, I suppose, I though Electro Ramp would be much higher in the standings with Blink now in the mix. Yet, even if the deck’s win rate is on the rise, as 56% is pretty good for the archetype compared to its previous performances, the Cube rate remains pretty low. 0.25 isn’t bad, as just being featured on the report means this is a top 15 archetype in the game. Yet, it might show Electro Ramp can’t keep opponent in the match, revealing its game plan too early.

Then, I would advise accepting the need to Snap early in the match if you pick up this deck, turn three before Electro or Corvus Glaive probably is the right timing.

Closing Words

As said in the introduction, keep in mind these early season metagames are temporary, mostly representing a bubble that will explode once everyone is done farming bots and playing proactive, super synergistic decks that can ignore their opponent most of the time.

With this in mind, I’m curious to see what the metagame will look like once we figured the best deck around Blink and Nocturne, and disruptive decks return to shake things up.

To find out, joins me in the next Conquest and Ranked reports, coming out later this week ! To reach out, for a question about this article or coaching inquiries, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or use my Twitter page.

Good Game Everyone.