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
Both the October and November Season Pass cards got nerfed in the recent OTA, leaving me wondering which archetype would emerge on top next.
After a couple of days, it seems like Surtur has taken the biggest hit of the two, as the card’s signature archetype, 10 Power, is sitting at the bottom of Tier 3. It isn’t all bad for the card, though, as the Double Up archetype made it into the Silent Performers section. I would be careful with that one, as it was in that same spot a couple of weeks ago before crumbling down once it got a little famous.
Life for Agent Venom isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; the card lost two of its three usual archetypes (Bounce and Good Cards). The first one just completely disappeared from the data after the OTA, with only a handful of games played. The other turned to Wiccan as another way to play good cards on curve.
However, even though Surtur has disappeared from the top of the rankings, Agent Venom can still count on its third archetype, Sera Control, to hold down the fort. It managed to take first place in the ranking this week.
Moving on to the decks that filled the space left open by the nerfs, you can see a lot of familiar faces. Arishem, Move, Toxic, and Discard are leading the way, all of which were around before the OTA. The real change comes from Thanos, as the recently buffed Mad Titan managed to sneak two decks into the rankings. The first was an unexpected collaboration with Arishem in Tier 1, a success I would attribute more to the 7-Cost than Thanos after testing. However, Thanos Destroy is a pure product of the Mad Titan that I think definitively signals the comeback of the Big Bad to the meta.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Double Up |
| Tier 1 | Sera Control |
| Tier 1 | Arishem Thanos |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 2 | Pure Move |
| Tier 2 | Thanos Destroy |
| Tier 2 | Toxic Affliction |
| Tier 3 | Scream Move |
| Tier 3 | Good Cards Wiccan |
| Tier 3 | 10 Power |
| 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 or 0.4 & 60% win rate
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 > 0.3
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 > 0.15
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
Double Up
den
Certain decks are simply stronger when they fly under the radar; this Double Up list is a perfect example of that. Indeed, most of its strengths lie in your opponent being clueless about your true potential heading into the game’s last turn (as well as Mobius M. Mobius not being a popular card).
Whenever either criterion isn’t met, you are either only getting one cube for your Snaps or getting dunked on once your She-Hulk becomes a dead card. The last time the deck got popular, it immediately became average at best. This week, the 0.45 Cube Average and 57% Win Rate are once again promising. Let’s see if Double Up can maintain that success this time.
Tier 1
Sera Control
den
Sera Control’s numbers might make you believe Agent Venom didn’t get hit that hard, as a 0.55 Cube Average and 59% Win Rate are crazy good right after one of your key cards got changed for the worst.
I think this is likely due to the meta rewarding the ability to counter your opponent more than develop points. Indeed, with Surtur losing a lot of momentum, you don’t have to be able to beat 25 points on a lane to win the game.
Potential Additions
Rogue could be Mobius M. Mobius depending on who you want to counter most.
Arishem Thanos
den
With 21 extra cards in your deck (which basically puts you above an average Hearthstone deck by the way), it can be hard to foresee this deck being anywhere close to reliable. Honestly, it isn’t, and you will have to improvise in most of your games. However, because there is always something good available to do, Arishem Thanos can always find a way to develop the board where other decks might stumble if they don’t draw the right card at the right moment.
This deck is reliably unreliable, but always competitive. It might make no sense, but the 61.5% Win Rate is all you need to know about this deck’s ability to perform.
Potential Additions
A lot of cards can be considered in the deck, especially when it comes to the cheaper options. Quinjet, Cable, Cassandra Nova, Phastos, and Okoye are some examples. Basically, just play cards you’ve seen in either Thanos or Arishem in the past.
Tier 2
Discard Dracula
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Discard was among the few decks that could compete on points with both Surtur and Agent Venom before their nerfs, so it is no surprise to see it continue to do well at the moment. With a 0.3 Cube Average and 57% Win Rate, the deck is leading the group of solid-but-not-quite-elite decks. Arguably, the reason for Discard being in the second tier is its struggle to gain a lot of cubes. Even with Malekith, there is virtually no mystery around the archetype.
Potential Additions
Malekith isn’t mandatory at all in the deck, but it seems to bring some reliability. Lady Sif, Miek, or another discard oriented card can replace it if you’re missing the card.
Pure Move
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The buff to Heimdall and nerf to Agent Venom naturally pushed Pure Move to come back to its default September build. The results aren’t stellar (0.35 Cube Average and 54% Win Rate), but at least having two popular decks means Pure Move can stay in the competitive conversation even when an OTA targets one of its support cards.
Potential Additions
Mobius M. Mobius can be another flexible card. You could try Juggernaut, Frigga, Rogue, Luke Cage, Beast… Synergy wise, Doctor Strange would be the pick.
Thanos Destroy
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The Win Rate for this list is the lowest in Tier 2 (53.5%), so Thanos Destroy still has to prove it can hang with the best decks once the surprise factor wears off. Even then, the rise of this deck proves that the OTA had some positive impact on the meta and brought some diversity back in the mix.
For a very long time, Destroy has been unable to develop due to Shadow King and Cosmo being too prevalent. Thanos Destroy uses another part of the destroy synergy compared to Deadpool Destroy, which makes this deck much less vulnerable to those counter cards.
Potential Additions
Nico Minoru and Carnage are two destroy cards that might make sense in the deck.
Toxic Affliction
den
Always in the pack but never at the forefront of the meta, the Toxic synergy had a lot of reasons to look good after the OTA with fewer points being developed in general. That makes Hazmat more likely to turn a lane around. With a 55% Win Rate and 0.3 Cube Average, Toxic didn’t really live up to the hype, but it did manage to stay where it was before the OTA: good, but nothing spectacular.
Potential Additions
Silver Sable, Scorpion, Red Guardian, and other affliction cards might make sense in the deck. Psylocke and Juggernaut are likely the easiest cards to replace.
Tier 3
Scream Move
den
It is very rare for an archetype with a 59% Win Rate to end up in Tier 3, but the 0.2 Cube Average shows how little agency Scream Move has. This looks like a typical deck that cannot control its Snaps. Even though it can have some good early Snaps, it wins one cube and loses four too often to make it to the higher tiers.
The lists have started to change, though, with the 6-Costs being replaced with more flexible options. Daredevil as an extra 2-Cost alongside Kraven and Scream makes Cosmo and Juggernaut much stronger, in addition to granting some extra information for both Aero and Cannonball. The horned hero could also open the way for Negasonic Teenage Warhead in the deck. Hydra Bob was played in a few lists, too.
Scream Move is experimenting at the moment, so let’s see what it comes up with.
Good Cards Wiccan
den
Many believed this deck would be the new home for Surtur, and they got half of it right. Indeed, Good Cards Wiccan is one of the most popular decks at the moment but the results clearly don’t show that it deserves the spotlight. At only a 0.2 Cube Average and 52% Win Rate, the deck needs to step up to deserve its current play rate.
10 Power
den
The 55% Win Rate is on par with the lower half of the archetypes on this report, but the 0.15 Cube Average is one that I typically wouldn’t include in these reports. I really just wanted to show the impact the OTA had on this deck, which doesn’t seem very competitive anymore. You probably want to fit Surtur and Skaar in Arishem or some other shell so you can play more flexibly from now on.
Closing Words
This report was made just 48 hours after the OTA, so the lack of any new and exotic brews might just be because players are testing old ideas that couldn’t perform in the Surtur / Agent Venom era. You can already see that the OTA had a real impact with Thanos coming back to the fray, as well as the destroy synergy following in its footsteps.
Second Dinner shared that the OTA would be the last balance update for November, so we’re gonna have to be creative in order to keep things fresh for the next two weeks. With that in mind, this rather slow start might be a great thing because it gives us more decks to discover in the future.
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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