Table of Contents
Typically, the first week of the season features many gimmicky decks making the most of everyone testing the new cards while barely runing any disruptive cards. However, this first week of Undead Horde is a bit different. Indeed, absolutely none of the new cards, except for Headpool which is a Destroy card with a Zombie look to it, had any impact so far. Actually, Zombie Scarlet Witch, Colonel America, Zombie Power Man and Zombie Giant Man are nowhere to be seen in this report.
Then, while we can spot some of the typical trends, such as a Tier 1 filled with proactive decks we would expect to see much lower in the rankings, this week one is much closer to a real metagame than the frenzy were have grown accustomed to.
Unfortunately, that means there aren’t any exotic decks to feature, or genius tech cards to discuss. Only the powerhouses from Visions of the Future such as Move, End of Turn, Destroy, or some decks able to fool bots such as On Reveal buffs or Discard Dracula.
The Zombie Horde synergy is far from complete, so there is no reason to panic. Still, except for the rank reset, it is almost like Undead Horde has not starter yet.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Pure Move 0.85 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | On Reveal Buff 0.7 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Ongoing 0.8 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | End of Turn 0.6 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Supergiant Rocks 0.55 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Cerebro 2 0.85 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula 0.6 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Arishem Thanos 0.6 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Deadpool Destroy 0.65 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Toxic Surfer 0.8 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Bounce Move 0.65 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Wiccan Curve 0.45 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate |
Tier 1
Pure Move
den
Performance: 0.85 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate
The early days of a season always reward proactive patterns much more than any other time in the season. Plus, with Move losing some momentum towards the end of September, there is very little targeted disruption at the moment.
This favourable environment, on top of clueless bots snapping because they are ahead on two locations makes move a great archetype to climb with early in October.
Potential Additions
Juggernaut is the flexible card, with any disruptive cards you feel necessary possible in that slot. I find Red Guardian to be a great at the moment.
On Reveal Buffs
den
Performance: 0.7 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
A deck typically closer to Tier 3 rather than the top of the rankings, On Reveal Buffs is a great deck to climb up early in a season. Indeed, while the deck is extremely fragile to disruption, be it Cosmo, Alioth, or simply removing Limbo, it is also a fantastic deck against opponents unable to anticipate what is coming next.
I’m not ready to believe this deck is a top contender yet, but bots and players focusing on themselves too much will definitely struggle to beat this one.
Potential Additions
Nova Frankie Raye can be Nightcrawler or another flexible card if you are missing that one in particular.
Ongoing
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
Stardust emerged as a solid counter to the Zombie Horder synergy, although we don’t really need to build against it at the moment. Otherwise, Ongoing is amongst those decks able to hide their points potential, and explode on the last turn, either with Iron Man plus Mystique if Ravonna Renslayer is in play, or Spectrum buffing all our cards.
Once again, an opponent not counting too precisely will easily get fooled by the points this deck can develop.
Potential Additions
Mobius M. Mobius and other strong standalone Ongoing cards will work great in this deck.
End of Turn
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
The hottest deck with Jocasta joining the game at the end of last season, End of Turn still is a great deck starting Undead Horde.
The best lists now are all build around many 1-costs and Marvel Boy, which is in line with the general intent of developing as many points as possible early on. With Pure Move, this is the other deck in Tier 1 I can confidently say is pretty close to its real power level once bots won’t be a part of the equation any more.
Potential Additions
Bruce Banner is the flexible card in the build if you wanted to include something else. Yet, it is hard to find something better than a [2/12].
Tier 2
Supergiant Rocks
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
Most of Tier 1 decks are geared towards developing points, but I expect most of them to lose a ton of momentum once in week 2. Typically, disruptive decks follow the opposite direction, improving over time as they get a better idea of what they are supposed to target.
Supergiant Rocks isn’t really a target type of disruptive deck, since adding rocks to a deck will annoy about everyone. However, Terrax the Tamer and Iron Patriot do require you to be ahead in the points department to be at full force. The same goes for Alioth or Negasonic Teenage Warhead, which tend to be much stronger when one holds priority.
Then, Supergiant Rocks could improve even more once the metagame will be a bit more balanced.
Potential Additions
Shadow King is the flexible disruptive card, while Negasonic Teenage Warhead tends to be the easiest card to swap in the Supergiant package.
Quake synergizes with Iron Patriot, Grand Master with Korg, while the likes of Gorgon or Mercury can help against specific opponents.
Cerebro 2
den
Performance: 0.85 Cube Average / 58% Win Rate
Red Guardian regaining its strength was a blessing for Cerebro 2, who welcomed its best disruptive piece back in the mix. It was not enough to propel the deck to the top win rate wise. However, with one of the highest cube averages on this report, Cerebro 2 probably deserves to be retreated against a bit more than what opponents are current doing.
Potential Additions
Ravonna Renslayer only synergizes with Mystique and Cerebro so typically is the easiest card to cut from the build. Nightcrawler is a flexible replacement, while Echo or Spider-Ham will add some disruption to the deck.
Discard Dracula
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
A typical strong performer in the first week, Discard Dracula not using Colonel America and Zombie Power Man in its best performing list is the biggest takeaway about that deck.
Potential Additions
If you wanted to run Colonel America, make sure to run Swarm as duplicating the 2-cost is a great way to create cards to fill Colonel America’s location later in the match.
The best list using the new cards cuts Colleen Wing, Lady Sif and Proxima Midnight for Colonel America, Zombie Power Man and Swarm.
Arishem Thanos
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate
Kang and Agamotto aren’t in the deck any more, but Thanos and Arishem keep posting solid performances together, after coming back in September.
At its core, this deck is nothing but strong 5 and 6-cost cards alongside flexible cheaper ones to make sure we don’t fall too far behind until the extra energy kicks in. Mixed in with a good snap and retreat game, being cautious on bad starts and willing to raise the stakes when we draw the cards from our deck, Thanos Arishem might actually become a staple in this metagame.
Potential Additions
Merlin, Quake and Juggernaut feels like the most flexible cards in the deck, serving as flexible cards we can play at multiple points in a match.
Lady Deathstrike could also be considered as a 5-cost.
Deadpool Destroy
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate
I’m a bit shocked Moira X isn’t included in the best performing build of Deadpool Destroy, after the card emerged as the reason for Destroy to make a big comeback in September. Considering the only change to the deck has been the arrival of Headpool, it must mean the new 1-cost brings enough value to not need to dupplication our opening anymore.
I’m a bit doubtful, as creating more of Death or destroy abilities feels incredible, but we’ll see once the bots aren’t around anymore.
Potential Additions
Moira X replaces Headpool for those who don’t own the new Series 5.
Tier 3
Toxic Surfer tyically posts good results ahead of the Infinite Rank, but is rarely amongst the strong performers inside that rank only, with more flexible builds of Silver Surfer posting the best numbers.
Bounce Move and Wiccan Curve however, performed very well over the course of the previous season, making their bottom tier ranking a bit peculiar.
Actually, it is pretty simple to explain. Bounce Move suffers from being too obvious to play against, which makes the deck often win one, maybe two cubes when its draws the nut, but is forced to retreat a lot whenever the opponent snaps your bad start. Plus, Killmonger, Red Guardian and Shadow King are very popular, meaning the ideal draw doesn’t always equal a surefire win.
As for Wiccan Curve, the deck is simply not that great to farm bots since it plays proactively, while it has to rely on disruption in order to beat most of the other points decks. Then, the win rate is decent, but since the disruptive cards come on turn five, the opponent will give you two cubes because you snapped, and never four.
Toxic Surfer
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 57.5% Win Rate
Bounce Move
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 56.5% Win Rate
Wiccan Curve
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 56.5% 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.
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.
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