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
Agent Venom rules Marvel Snap in a giving way; he offers his services to a plethora of archetypes and allows them to be competitive on the spot. Good Cards, Sera Control, and Bounce were already on the Season Pass card’s list of clients, and Move recently joined them. With four archetypes under his control—two of them in Tier 1—Agent Venom is reminiscent of last year’s Season Pass card in October: Elsa Bloodstone.
In the way of this possible total domination stand a few archetypes, particularly Scream Move and Arishem. The first one can move cheap cards pretty efficiently while creating a solid amount of points, both huge upsides against the current meta that is focused on low cost cards. The second is flexible enough to constantly adapt, although it’s not powerful enough to return to the throne it once held for two (long) months.
Apart from these two groups there are plenty of solid decks, but they’re limited in what match ups they can cover, or they need to draw perfectly to have a fighting chance. We are still early in the season, so this isn’t a call to arms in order to get things nerfed. Plus, the recent OTA is only just showing its impact. Hela is gone from Ranked, at least in the Infinite rank according to deck trackers.
At this point in the season, we know what’s good and how strong things can be. Now begins the time to figure out if we can do anything about it.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Agent Sera Control |
| Silent Performer | High Evo Affliction |
| Tier 1 | Scream Move |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Agent Venom |
| Tier 1 | Pure Move |
| Tier 1 | Arishem |
| Tier 2 | Destroy |
| Tier 2 | Bounce |
| Tier 2 | Mister Negative |
| Tier 3 | KaZoo |
| Tier 3 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 3 | Lockdown Move |
| 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 & 58% 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 > 0.35
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.
Silent Performers
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Control decks aren’t very popular at the moment, mostly due to how strong Agent Venom is and the fact that Cosmo and Juggernaut can easily protect your cards.
With that said, Control archetypes can still perform pretty well when they’re built the right way, in addition to having the ability to run Agent Venom themselves to add points.
High Evo Affliction already found a way to make points last season through Ajax and Abomination. The deck has not evolved much since that point, but it still found a way to post high Win Rates consistently (although in reduced number of games). This week, the deck managed to post a 60% Win Rate, which is something I think is extremely difficult in this environment.
As for Sera Control, the archetype made its comeback this season by riding the Agent Venom train. It isn’t on par with Good Cards yet, but it has shown flashes of brilliance—especially when it can wrestle a lane with points instead of having to flip multiple lanes at the end of the game. This influx of proactive power is well reflected in its 57.5% Win Rate, showing that Sera can compete in more games than she could in the past.
Tier 1
Scream Move
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Although it isn’t her week anymore, Scream has continued to be a presence in the Marvel Snap meta. The popularity of the archetype is decreasing since the OTA put the spotlight on other synergies (and Agent Venom is still getting a lot of attention). Still, with a 0.6 Cube Average and 62% Win Rate, Scream Move deserves to be regarded as one of the game’s greats.
The deck’s game plan is pretty straight forward: you aim to lock a lane with cards that have had their power reduced so it can focus on winning another lane. You can usually win the other lane with power, but Cannonball and Juggernaut on Turn 6 can get the job done, too. Your main focus as a pilot should be on positioning your cards optimally and knowing when to Snap to grow your Cube Average each match.
Potential Additions
Silk is the flexible card here, but it beat Nebula, Silver Sable, and other cheap cards for the spot. The same goes for the Alioth against Magneto for the deck’s 6-Cost card.
Good Cards Agent Venom
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Although it isn’t sitting at the top of the rankings, Agent Venom is unarguably the most impactful card in Marvel Snap at the moment. The Season Pass card is featured in multiple decks in this report, most of which Snap on Turn 2 because of Agent Venom due to how good it is early.
We are starting to see certain synergies fight back; Mill, for example, can steal, destroy, or summon buffed cards (with Cable, Yondu, or Baron Zemo, respectively). Lockdown also posted a nice performance in Conquest on the back of locking the playing field early on. Still, even if other archetypes manage to snag the top spot for a week, Agent Venom is clearly going to be elite for the foreseeable future.
Potential Additions
A non-Darkhawk build also did very well if you fancy playing that more:
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Pure Move
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One of September’s best decks took some of October’s spice in order to remain a top performer. Once somebody realized that the core of the Move package has no card at four or more base power, including Agent Venom became a no-brainer—even if it costs you Alioth‘s slot in last month’s list.
The deck is still very similar to with what it wanted to accomplish in the past; you can use Cosmo to protect your biggest cards from Shang-Chi and Shadow King. Both the move synergy and the protective shell lost a bit of power, as Hercules, Heimdall, and Cloak are out. But the deck gained some flexibility with Havok and Sage giving you great late game cards that can contest another lane.
Obviously, those two cards want to be hit by Agent Venom, but who doesn’t in this meta?
Potential Additions
This is a new twist to the Move synergy, so it is hard to recommend a swap just yet. Havok and Sage are flexible if you can find other good targets for Agent Venom.
Arishem
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Arishem has turned to its control heavy build since it is too often unable to compete on points outside of Blob, which needs to dodge Cosmo and can still lose to a four power Iron Man. Whenever the opponent misses their early cards, Arishem might be the best deck in the game because gaining extra energy is still one of the strongest abilities in Marvel Snap. Unfortunately, if the opponent gets the right draws, the random cards will really hurt you.
With that said, Arishem remains a rare occurrence of an archetype that somehow still finds a way to be competitive week after week despite multiple nerfs.
Potential Additions
Loki and Cable battle for the last spot in the deck. Cable feels stronger in this Agent Venom meta, though.
Tier 2
Destroy
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Cosmo is very annoying to go against, but the other cards in the popular Agent Venom decks aren’t so bad. Indeed, with Lady Deathstrike in the mix, Destroy found a way to take care of Iron Man and the other low power cards. Plus, Killmonger is great for removing Kitty Pryde, Silver Sable, and other important 1-Costs.
Naturally, the fact that you are almost forced to Retreat against an early Agent Venom Snap (unless you also have a crazy good hand) has translated to a lower Win Rate than the Tier 1 decks. At a 56% Win Rate, Destroy is 2% behind the worst deck in Tier 1, Arishem. Its Cube Average, however, almost met the requirement to be in the higher tier. This archetype missed it by just 0.1 cubes per game.
Potential Additions
Arnim Zola and Lady Deathstrike are the flexible cards, but the latter seems to be a great pick in the current environment. Deathlok or Attuma could replace either one.
Bounce
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Bounce found a way to play against other Agent Venom decks by using Iceman and Spider-Ham to try hitting the opponent’s Agent Venom on Turn 1. This leaves the archetype with fewer spots to run synergistic cards like Falcon and Black Swan, but it seems to be the right direction looking at the deck’s Win Rate of 58%.
There are still a few other problems to solve, such as keeping your opponent in the game after a Snap or dodging Killmonger. Nevertheless, Bounce is finally finding a way to climb up the rankings in the Ranked mode.
Potential Additions
U.S. Agent, Rocket Raccoon, Iron Man, Sage, or basically any cheap On Reveal or synergy card can be a consideration in the deck.
Mister Negative
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The Black and White archetype is far from popular currently; it basically plays a similar but less reliable game plan than Agent Venom. Still, apart from Cosmo, there is very little in the current meta to stop Mister Negative‘s best draw. Zabu could have brought Mobius M. Mobius back, but that doesn’t seem to be the case so far.
Of course, this deck will require a mastery of the Snap and Retreat mechanic, but at a 0.35 Cube Average and 57% Win Rate, Mister Negative has rarely looked so good.
Potential Additions
Knull and Arnim Zola can also work as a duo, but then you probably want Black Panther as well (which tells your opponent were to play Cosmo.)
Tier 3
KaZoo
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KaZoo isn’t a bad archetype, it simply feels outmatched in this meta. Bounce is more flexible, Agent Venom brings more power, and both Control and Destroy are using Killmonger. Leading up to Infinite, KaZoo is still great, but you quickly start to feel outmatched at you climb the ranks.
Discard Dracula
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A points-heavy meta isn’t that bad for Discard Dracula; it’s kind of the only environment that suits the deck. Cosmo, on the other hand, is more annoying to deal with, as is the fact that you need to find Morbius and Dracula to compete with most decks right now. Gwenpool was added to the mix to help, and it did, but it wasn’t enough to make Discard Dracula more than a decent archetype.
Lockdown Move
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One of the best Conquest archetypes, Lockdown simply struggles to get it done in Ranked. You basically always tell the opponent leave if you can’t beat me, or stay and take my cubes if you can when you Snap.
A new build is starting to emerge with Misery, Electro, and Viper that is looking to add yet another way to lock your opponent out of the match. It should produce another sure fire way to win two cubes, but Lockdown needs to win more than this to climb the rankings.
Closing Words
Those looking to climb have their work cut out for them. The “Snap on Turn 2 if you have Agent Venom” formula is reigning supreme at moment. Others who are maybe in search of more exotic play patterns can turn to the new Zabu, to Scream, or even to Arishem to play something that doesn’t use Agent Venom.
The second category likely won’t win as much, but you could very well find the way to beat the Season Pass card. And you’ll win a lot of cubes in the process.
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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