Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List: November 6, 2023 – A Lot of Strong Decks… and a Dominant One

Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Tier List for the Ranked Ladder mode! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap metagame. Then we bring you the decklists, and we provide an in-depth report about them. This report contains information like how their ranks are justified, how to play the decks, and how to build the deck with alternate cards to accommodate different collections.

Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Overview

After everything that’s happened in the metagame over the last ten days, I expected this Tier List to have a few surprises in it.

For example, I knew Werewolf By Night would appear in a few archetypes considering the card has been a routine double-digit threat all week long (and touted as an incredible card by many). I also knew Loki Collector would be among the best decks, if not the best deck, in Marvel Snap after the patch simply because I’ve faced it more than any other deck when playing the game.

However, there were also a ton of aspects that I was eager to figure out about the current metagame. Is Loki Collector the best deck because of its strength, or because it allows playing against any other deck in a metagame with a lot of diversity? What about the performance of very synergistic decks such as Discard, High Evolutionary, and Destroy, all of which are considered solid against Loki? Have new combos or disruptive cards emerged with Mobius M. Mobius and Wave out of the way?

The Conquest report a few days ago already gave a few answers to these questions, but the amount of data available for Ranked play is much larger and leads to an easier time seeing the big trends. And because this is probably why you are reading this report, here are the big headlines of the week:

• Loki Collector is probably the best deck in Marvel Snap, and the most influential when it comes to the ranking of other archetypes. However, InSheNaut is extremely close when it comes to both Win Rate and Cube Rate.
  
• Shuri Sauron doesn’t seem to ever be a bad archetype, no matter the metagame.
  
• Highly synergistic decks dominate Tier 2 while more flexible, “Good Cards”-oriented archetypes appear to be a notch below.
  
• There are quite a lot of solid decks being played in the current metagame, but the threshold to be considered very good is extremely difficult to reach right now.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

Marvel Snap Ranked 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 using data from our Marvel Snap Tracker. If a deck showed great performances with a very limited presence in the metagame, you can find it in the Silent Performers section. There, I will highlight decks with an excellent Cube Ratio 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 or 4 in our chart, and 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 metagame changes or a new variation of the build emerges, these decks are a notch below the dominant ones in Tiers 1 and 2.

Tier 1

Loki Collector

Loki Collector

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
While Loki Collector is undeniably one of the elite decks in Marvel Snap, its rank in first place this week wasn’t as easy to get as many are claiming on social media. Yes, it is one of the most popular decks, and yes, it is also able to maintain an impressive performance despite the target on its back. However, in order to play with the best deck in the game, you either need to draw The Collector and Loki every game, or adapt to the barrage of information constantly thrown at you when playing the deck.

Generated cards, the opponent’s deck and game plan, Nico Minoru‘s spells changing every turn, card placement to optimize Elsa Bloodstone… There is a lot going on during a Loki game, and you might have even more to think about if you are playing with Werewolf By Night as well.

Then, in the hands of an experienced pilot, I completely understand why Loki deserves to be called the best deck in the game; it deserves its 60% Win Rate and 0.5 Cube Rate. However, the deck can also be one of the most difficult to play in the entire game, especially if you just took a list online and thought it would be a walk in the park, playing carelessly.

How to Play:
Centered around its two signature cards (with support from Quinjet), Loki Collector aims to build a lot of points on two lanes while keeping as many options as possible open for later on. Indeed, if you commit too hard, you might lack the space required for the cards Loki generates, or you might let your opponent know too much about your potential. Speaking of potential, the deck creates many cards during the match, so its biggest strength is keeping the opponent in the dark as to what they should expect. It can also rely on Elsa Bloodstone and Kitty Pryde to build points and mitigate the space used to play low-power cards.

Early on in the match, the deck will set up its anchors, Elsa Bloodstone and The Collector. As direct support to these two, you have all the cards at three energy or less that will generate cards or simply grow thanks to Elsa Bloodstone. Jeff the Baby Land Shark and Nico Minoru represent your flexible tools, while the rest of the cards are a little bit more committal.

The space you anticipate will need after playing Loki, and the timing at which you plan on playing your signature card, will largely impact how much you want to invest in terms of space early on.

Depending on your opponent, the timing of your Loki will vary. If their deck is expensive or runs a lot of counters to your primary plan, you might want to switch early on and create a new game plan with their cards. Otherwise, Loki can be played on Turn 5 to grow The Collector and open a very flexible Turn 6, especially with Quinjet in play.

One of the biggest upsides of this deck is its ability to always find new options and play patterns. As such, it is really important to set your mind early on whether you are looking to play with the cards in your deck or trying to generate a new way to achieve victory. Since the nerf to Elsa Bloodstone, Loki Collector is much more reliant on the signature duo to dominate at least one lane on points. Then, the second one can be challenged with buffed cheap cards, or whatever you get from your opponent’s deck.

Potential Additions:
There are a lot of lists going around the Loki archetype. Some focus around Werewolf By Night, others invest into disruptive cards such as Rogue, Cosmo, and Shang-Chi, and the featured one is more of the “simple and effective” type. This contributes to Loki being the best deck in the game right now. You can adapt it to your play style and the match ups you want to have an edge in. For example, Armor is part of the best performing list this week because Destroy has been very popular lately.

High Evolutionary (InSheNaut)

InSheNaut

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
With a popularity rate far from that of Destroy, Loki Collector, and Discard, InSheNaut has quietly built back its case as one of the best decks in Marvel Snap once again. Maybe it is exactly that low play rate that is the cause for the deck doing so well, with only experienced players actually playing it. Or we could consider that a 0.45 Cube Average and a 58% Win Rate is just the sign of an excellent deck (as long as we have a few thousand games as a sample size).

I would attribute the deck’s success to finding the perfect mix of points and disruption in the current environment, which happened to be the natural way to build the deck. Indeed, with Destroy being among the most popular decks alongside Loki, the combination of the High Evolutionary synergy with Armor makes a ton of sense. Plus, the recent change to Mobius M. Mobius also brought Mister Negative and other On Reveal based decks to gain popularity, which is convenient for a deck with Cosmo included.

In the midst of the perfect storm, InSheNaut has all the tools to succeed and enough points to compete when disruption won’t do the trick.

How to Play:
The goal with this deck is to make the game about points – a battle you are more than suited to win. Ideally, the deck wants to play Magik on Turn 3, Leech on Turn 5, and profit from passing Turn 6 with Sunspot and Misty Knight before dropping two high power cards on Turn 7. However, there are many more play patterns in the deck to achieve victory:

• With Armor, Cosmo, and Leech, the deck has quite a formidable disruptive ability against many different decks, in addition to the ability to protect it’s own important cards.
• If Shocker hits The Infinaut, it unlocks a pattern where you pass on Turn 4, play The Infinaut on Turn 5, and then play Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. When reducing either of your 6-Cost cards, you can pass on Turn 5 and play the reduced one plus She-Hulk.
• Without Magik, you can try passing Turn 3 or 4 to play She-Hulk early and follow with a big Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. With Limbo and no Leech, you could also pass on Turn 5 to do the same “The Infinaut into Evolved Hulk” kind of pattern.
• With a hot start through the 1-Costs giving you a nice lead, you might not want to create Limbo and give your opponent more time to mount a potential comeback.
• Last, Cosmo and Leech provide a solid way to disrupt several archetypes in their game plan.

Playing InSheNaut the right way often comes down to identifying which patterns are available and then evaluating how many points you need to win.

Potential Additions:
I was very surprised to see Jeff the Baby Land Shark replace Leech in the best performing list this week, but flexibility must be particularly important right now.

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Although it is far from its peak when it comes to popularity, I’m kind of amazed at how resilient Shuri Sauron can be. The deck has been a part of the Marvel Snap metagame for the past six months, and I can’t recall a time when it didn’t make sense to play it. I guess being able to slam 30 points on two different lanes is just a good strategy in Marvel Snap no matter the environment.

There is a slight change in how Shuri Sauron operates compared to the past since Loki, Elsa Bloodstone, and other high potential cards joined the game over the last two months. Lately, disruptive cards (mainly Alioth) have been much more important to the deck’s success, showing that the points-slam strategy might not be enough to guarantee Shuri a spot among the elite decks anymore.

It seems like Shuri Sauron has the right mix of points and disruptive cards. Armor helps against Destroy, and Enchantress helps against Darkhawk and Thanos. Against any environment, Shuri Sauron remains a very good Marvel Snap archetype.

How to Play:
Shuri Sauron is based around the idea of cancelling negative Ongoing abilities with Sauron and abusing Shuri to create a huge amount of points. In that regard, the deck is very rigid in the mid-game since Turns 3, 4, and 5 are almost always the same: Sauron → Shuri → any card worth doubling the power.

Often times, Turn 2 will also be dedicated to Armor as a way to prevent an opposing Shang-Chi from ruining your plans. Speaking of Shang-Chi, Vision is another way to play around it, as hitting a moving target isn’t so simple.

This leaves only Turn 1 and Turn 6 to be truly flexible, with Nebula or Zero taking up the 1-Cost slot and Taskmaster usually being the default Turn 6 play alongside Ebony Maw.

If this very straightforward approach can lead to a ton of points on two lanes, it also often doesn’t equate to a lot of cubes. Indeed, unless you are Snapping aggressively, the opponent can see the points coming and will rarely stay in the game once you show Shuri (and they can’t handle it). This creates two important factors to take into consideration when playing Shuri Sauron:

• You have to accept Snaps early in the game, especially when Sauron and Shuri show up.
• You need to find lines of play even when you don’t have the best play pattern with the deck, especially when the opponent does not Snap. Even without Shuri, the deck can develop a solid amount of points, and Alioth is able to steal a few wins.

Potential Additions:
America Chavez and Nebula are the cards often slotted instead of Alioth and Enchantress.

Tier 2

Deadpool Destroy

Deadpool Destroy

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Very close to being a Tier 1 deck, Destroy benefits a lot from Loki being the center of attention right now since it can develop its synergies in relative peace. However, we could see that all three decks in Tier 1, or at least their featured list this week, were running Armor, meaning Destroy has had a big impact on the current metagame.

Fortunately enough, neither Shuri nor InSheNaut are particularly popular, leaving only Loki as the real threat for Deadpool and company, both because of the potential disruptive cards and the possibility of getting your Death or Knull stolen. Against the other decks, you might still have a few cards to keep in mind, such as Shadow King, Shang-Chi, or Professor X, but you at least know tht you should win the points battle if you manage to get going.

This is probably the best Destroy has looked since it received help over the summer.

How to Play:
If you find Deadpool in your opening hand, buffing it with Forge or Nico Minoru and destroying it over and over again until Turn 6 is the main concept with this deck. But there are other ways to score lots of points.

First, it is important to understand the role of X-23: to give you energy on specific turns so you can break the expected timing your opponent has for your cards. For example, going for Deadpool plus Taskmaster on Turn 5 can throw an opponent off, and it opens a Knull play on the following turn. Similarly, if you destroy X-23 on Turn 5, you can play both Deadpool plus Knull, or Arnim Zola on Turn 6.

Since you are playing a deck that is easily recognizable and well known in the community, finding those unusual ways of developing your play patterns will open avenues to catch your opponent off guard.

Once you understand the key concepts around your 1-Costs, the rest of the deck is really about dodging the opponent’s traps. Death needs to be played as soon as possible if you suspect your opponent is playing Mobius M. Mobius. Killmonger can be used to destroy opposing cards, not just your Deadpool. Last, Arnim Zola can also be used on Knull, Death or Venom, and create a lot of points this way as well.

Potential Additions:
Lady Deathstrike sees play instead of Hulkbuster if you favor disruption to points output. Also, Taskmaster can be a poor man’s replacement for Arnim Zola. Some also like to include the Shuri and Nimrod duo in the deck.

Discard Dracula

Discard Dracula

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Similar to Deadpool Destroy, Discard Dracula enjoys being able to develop its strategy without being targeted by annoying counter cards. Cosmo is gaining some momentum, which could be a problem down the line, but, otherwise, Discard is looking pretty solid right now.

With a lot of disruptive cards going around in the metagame, Dracula keeps being one of the best cards to score a ton while dodging all of them. Then, the naturally high power of the cards in the deck (Colleen Wing, MODOK, Daken…) and Morbius should be enough to challenge most decks in the current metagame.

If it wasn’t for being pretty easy to predict from the opposing side, Discard Dracula could be consider an elite deck in the current environment.

How to Play:
Discard Dracula aims at developing as many points as possible while dodging cards like Shang-Chi (destroys a big Morbius), Cosmo (no more discards on that location), Mobius M. Mobius (resets Swarm to base cost), and other disruptive tools. Ideally, the deck will discard as often as possible, except when Morbius, Daken, or Dracula are at risk, as these three typically represent your largest points contributors. Then, if you have all three, you might want to split them, either with one on each lane, with Dracula alone (if you have Apocalypse), or with Morbius alone (If you anticipate a ton of discards during that match).

Your other cards can also contribute to quite a lot of points, so you should never have to rely on one card alone to win a location. Still, a 20+ power Dracula can do that fairly easily. Daken, in particular, will typically be an eight power card, which is great for a 3-Cost but often not enough to secure a location on its own.

Apart from Hellcow and MODOK, which will typically be used over the last two turns, all the other discards are targeted, meaning you can control their outcome and plan accordingly during the course of the match. With Mobius M. Mobius roaming in various decks, I would advise you to just play Swarm whenever the card is a 0-Cost, at least until you get more information about your opponent. This leads the deck to be very tempo oriented because it is looking to maximize the use of its available energy on every turn if possible, especially if it can discard safely.

Overall, Discard Dracula kind of plays itself when it comes to which cards make sense to use on each turn. The emphasis as a pilot should be on where to place your cards and what information you want to hide from your opponent, rather than just slamming points on the table.

Potential Additions:
Hellcow sees play instead of Silver Samurai in the 4-Cost slot, but it seems to impact the results quite a bit.

Move Surfer

Move Surfer

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
If Loki Collector is the best deck with Werewolf By Night, Move Surfer is probably the deck that gained the most from the new card. Indeed, the combination of the nerf to Mobius M. Mobius and a new card to move around to synergize with both Kraven and Silver Surfer skyrocketed the deck’s performance and made it the best based on the Move synergy right now.

Outside Werewolf By Night routinely being a [3/11] or so, the other upside of this deck is the disruption it has through moving the opponent’s cards. This is something we already saw in the past during the time after the Bounce archetype got nerfed and we didn’t really know what to play. Then, while every archetype was trying to leverage cards like Shadow King, Rogue, or Shang-Chi, Move managed to be almost as disruptive by changing the position of the opponent’s cards while playing for points and developing its strategy at the same time.

Time will tell if this archetype can solidify its position in the metagame, but this was already a very good first week.

How to Play:
Get some 3-cost cards on the board, play Sera on turn five, and develop some more 3-cost cards alongside Silver Surfer on the last turn of play. If this simple recipe could win you a few games against clueless opponents, Move Surfer is a little more complicated than this.

First, we have to consider Kraven being an integral part to winning a location at the end of the game, as the card can easily grow to be a six or eight power, great for a 2-cost. Then, we also have Werewolf by Night to grow, meaning we will typically play it as our first 3-cost card, except specific situations. The card should be able to grow to a nine or eleven power through the course of the match, representing your second anchor alongside Kraven.

With turn two to Kraven, three to Werewolf by Night, and five typically to Sera, we don’t have so much flexibility available to ourselves when we draw the right stuff. Ideally we’d like to play a 1-cost plus a 3-cost on turn four, so we can move Werewolf by Night twice and just go off on turn six. However, we have plenty of disruption available, and back up play lines if we don’t draw exactly as intended.

First, we have the trio of Polaris, Spider-Man and Juggernaut, which help growing Kraven but also disrupt the opponent’s positioning. Speaking of disruption, both our 1-cost also help in that regard with Spider-Ham basically killing a card for our opponent, and Snowguard giving us a way to interact with the locations.

Last, Silk and Shadow King are the trickier card to fit into the game plan, and will often replace Sera when not drawn, or be played in an opportunistic way depending on the situation. Same for Killmonger, which is used to create space for Werewolf by Night, or destroy opposing valuable 1-cost cards.

Potential Additions:
Currently, the deck is very much focused around abusing Werewolf By Night, hence the inclusion of Spider-Ham and Shadow King. If you want to push another aspect of the deck, there is still a lot to explore around this archetype.

Tier 3

For the first time in this report, I can confidently say any of the decks in Tier 3 are good enough to develop into a deck of a higher tier in the near future. Indeed, although none of these decks posted a good enough performance to reach the required 0.3 Cube Average to be in Tier 2, these are all strong archetypes in Marvel Snap.

Thanos Control, Darkhawk, and Move were all doing well heading into the patch, and they rank much, much higher in our Conquest Tie List. Unfortunately, the prevalence of Loki seems to be very bad news for Good Cards archetypes since they tend to give their opponent too many usable resources to play over the last two turns. An experienced player on any of those archetypes will probably make any of these decks look much stronger than this ranking indicates – especially if they can find the right disruptive cards for their own metagame. Unfortunately, with other decks consistently putting up more points than Thanos, Darkhawk, and Move can, the margin for error is minimal.

As for Bounce, Ramp, and Sera Control, these three had a much smaller sample size to analyze, although none of them looked really out of their league. Sera suffered a lot from the OTA, probably much more than it benefited from the patch. Plus, as reactive archetype, it likely needs to find the right balance again to counter the popular decks.

Bounce and Ramp are on their way up and building momentum as they refine their perfect 12 card decks. Bounce is trying to leverage Werewolf By Night to complement Darkhawk as big points machines. It seems to be working pretty well so far, but it will likely take some time for the average player to be able to pilot such a technical deck well enough to propel it to the higher tiers. As for Ramp, the deck keeps being held back by its inflexibility (although it can be very disruptive when the draws align). However, the buff to Sandman clearly wasn’t enough to make it competitive if Ramp doesn’t get a strong start to the match.

Bounce

Bounce

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

2.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Ramp

Electro Ramp

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.9

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Thanos Control

Thanos Control

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

1x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Move

Move

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

5x 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+

Sera Control

Sera Control

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

2x 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)

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Darkhawk Affliction

Darkhawk Affliction

Created by den

, updated 6 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

Looking at the performance of each deck in this report, it feels clear that Loki is having a big impact on the current Marvel Snap metagame. Outside the deck itself, those who have managed to post impressive performances are mostly very synergistic decks that won’t give Loki too much to abuse (unless it steals a precise combination of cards).

Nevertheless, with Werewolf By Night in the mix and the card likely getting better as players learn how to position and maximize its potential, it seems like Loki is not going anywhere in the near future. Sure, there are other archetypes to keep an eye on with the new card, Bounce has progressed nicely, and Silver Surfer appears to be back with a vengeance as well. Time will tell if these two, plus the other decks showing great promise this week, will be able to make this metagame an interesting one to follow. At worst, we’ll always have future balance changes to shake things up, as the developers have shown they are not afraid to go big with the last two.

I hope you are having a good time with Marvel Snap. Feel free to share your own experience in the comment section below. You can also 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.