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
The current Marvel Snap meta is super competitive with Agent Venom leading the way. A lot of archetypes are making small changes from one week to another. This time around, the notable changes happened in Lockdown (which ditched the Move synergy for more points), the affliction deck (which now has Hazmat and Ajax teaming up with Wiccan), and Good Cards (which figured out that a buffed Ant Man would be worth a lot of points). You’ll notice these are all Tier 1 decks, which shows that flexibility, as well as keeping your deck fresh and hard to predict, are key factors for success in this environment.
Speaking of surprises, there are a few returning and new archetypes on this report to discuss. First, Scorn looks to have helped Discard Dracula a bit, although I saw a lot of lists without the card (probably because many players decided to skip the card this week if they were low on resources). Also on the rise are Silver Surfer and Sera Control, two evergreen archetypes that often come in and out of these reports due to fluctuating popularity. Both did very well this week, and I think that’s because of their ability to control their Snaps and Retreats. That is very important in the current meta.
Finally, we have a newcomer in the report: Darkhawk Misery, a deck looking to compete for the prize of “Biggest Darkhawk of the Year”. Sitting in Tier 2, this archetype showed that disruption can still be a thing in this meta, although those decks clearly aren’t the most popular right now.
If you exclude Agent Venom, there is some nice diversity in the current Marvel Snap. If, however, you factor in the Season Pass card, you should expect to face it often, and you should probably plan for that.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Small Good Cards |
| Tier 1 | Lockdown |
| Tier 1 | Wiccan Affliction |
| Tier 1 | Scream Move |
| Tier 2 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 2 | Sera Control |
| Tier 2 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 2 | Darkhawk Misery |
| Tier 2 | Arishem |
| Tier 2 | Bounce |
| Tier 2 | Destroy |
| Tier 3 | KaZoo |
| Tier 3 | Pure Move |
| Tier 3 | Hela Discard |
| 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 & 59% Win Rate or more
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 & 55% Win Rate or more
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.
Tier 1
Small Good Cards
den
Consistently finding small adjustments to craft the very best list, Agent Venom now welcomes Ant Man, who is a potential [1/8] in the deck. The rest of the list is fairly standard with the only other change being Jeff replacing
Slowly but surely the definite best way to build around Agent Venom is being discovered. Yes, that means the best archetype in the game (with a 0.7 Cube Average and 60% Win Rate) still might have some room for improvement. That’s a scary prospect as we head into the second half of the season.
Potential Additions
Silver Sable held the spot Ant Man now occupies. If you’re missing a card, look for a low power, high impact card with a great ability.
Lockdown
den
The Move experiment in Lockdown has proven to be limited in the Ranked mode, so a few changes were needed for Lockdown to find success. Zabu, Crossbones, and Cull Obsidian are now in the mix to provide the deck with more points at the cost of flexibility. Those additions also make Goose pretty good because you can play your 4-Costs that were hit by Zabu behind it.
The deck went from Tier 3 to second overall, sporting a 0.6 Cube Average alongside a 60% Win Rate. I guess the new formula is working fairly well. This might be the beginning of a Lockdown archetype with two different decks, one for Conquest and one for Ranked.
Potential Additions
High power 4-Costs are the biggest changes for the deck. Jessica Jones could replace a missing Crossbones or Cull Obsidian. More flexible options like Iron Lad or Ms. Marvel could also work.
Wiccan Affliction
den
The affliction synergy, a routine Silent Performer over the past few weeks, has changed its support mechanic by ditching High Evolutionary for Wiccan. With the extra energy, the deck now looks to explode on the last two turns, hiding both Hazmat and Ajax rather than showing one on Turn 5. The rest of the deck is fairly standard and still built around the idea of lowering the power of the opponent’s cards.
With a 0.6 Cube Average and 60% Win Rate, this looks like a great change for the deck.
Potential Additions
Cassandra Nova fits the deck’s theme. Otherwise, look for good 2- or 3-Cost cards, as the rest of the deck is set in stone.
Scream Move
den
Although it lost first place in the rankings, Scream Move remains a fantastic archetype. Indeed, with a 62.5% Win Rate and 0.5 Cube Average, Scream Move still has the highest Win Rate in Marvel Snap. However, we’re starting to see the same issue that other decks based on an explosive start might have: opponents will not stay if you Snap a Kingpin into Scream start.
It is hard to bring some spice to the deck since you really want the same start every game. I guess the really high Win Rate will have to suffice.
Potential Additions
A clog inspired build also exists around Scream. It posted solid numbers, although they were not as high as the basic Scream Move deck:
Tier 2
Silver Surfer
den
Popping up out of nowhere, Silver Surfer reminded us that it is a Marvel Snap staple and can put up solid numbers at any point. The challenge with the deck is picking from the multitude of great 3-Cost cards that are available.
Absorbing Man was left out of this list, which I think is an odd choice with Brood and Cassandra Nova both in. Still, the deck needed space for Luke Cage and Rogue, both of which are apparently important cards in the meta considering there were no other Surfer lists to look at.
It led to a decent win rate of 55% and a great Cube Average of 0.5. I would attribute those metrics to catching opponents off-guard with said Luke Cage and/or Rogue.
Potential Additions
Absorbing Man, Hope Summers, Red Guardian… There are a lot of great 3-Cost cards, and most of them can find a slot in this deck.
Sera Control
den
After a week as a Silent Performer, Sera Control picked up a lot of momentum and managed to keep its numbers on par with where they were over a lower sample size.
On paper, this deck has everything you need. There are a good amount of points thanks to Agent Venom and Gwenpool, especially when she hits Bishop, Mysterio, and
The trick here is to be super disciplined, as there is still a good amount of Cosmo, Alioth, and other annoying cards that you need to play around. Typically, a 56% Win Rate doesn’t match up with a 0.45 Cube Average, so I would say this deck is built to win high stakes matches. Be careful, though, as those can go both ways if you’re not careful.
Potential Additions
Spider-Ham and Nova can be considered in the 1-Cost slot. Otherwise, every card has a purpose, and the cheap costs give the deck its explosive potential.
Discard Dracula
den
Not seeing
With Scorn now in the mix, Discard feels like it got to the point where there are enough targets in the deck to consistently find one early. The archetype still has the one game plan of slamming points, but it might be consistent enough to work more often than not—in the hands of a disciplined pilot, that is.
Potential Additions
Darkhawk Misery
den
The sole Misery build to make it into a report since the card released, Darkhawk Misery is a very peculiar deck. It looks like it’s aimed at making your opponent’s will to play leave their body. Indeed, with the possibility to shuffle up to eight Rocks into their deck, you could theoretically make your opponent draw [1/0] cards every turn except the first.
Thanks to being particularly annoying, this deck managed to score a superb Win Rate of 59.5%. However, due to that same annoyance, the deck struggled to keep opponents in the game, which lead to a rather low 0.3 Cube Average considering the win percentage.
Potential Additions
Any cheap On Reveal that is worth triggering a second time with Grand Master makes sense. As for the late game, Absorbing Man or maybe Viper could make sense. Armor and White Widow are a cute duo you can try as well.
Arishem
den
In this ocean of super stable archetypes that are all looking to Snap on Turn 2 or 3, Arishem and its random cards are the weird ones in the class. When the draws align, the 7-Cost card can still brag about pushing one of the strongest archetypes in the game. Unfortunately, Arishem suffers from losing games just because the generated cards don’t help at all, or the key counter cards are still in the deck.
Also, the more Agent Venom grows in popularity, the worse Loki looks. I would say it’s time to turn to Cable.
Potential Additions
Loki, Cosmo, Magneto, Vision, Copycat, Jeff the Baby Land Shark. Go to our Card Tier List or pick whichever cards you think are the best for their cost and they will probably fit in an Arishem deck.
Bounce
den
This week, the best Bounce build posted a 0.35 Cube Average alongside a 56% Win Rate, which confirmed the improvement we saw in the previous report once some disruption was added to the build.
Bounce keeps experimenting with different lists in Ranked since you can’t just dominate this game mode with a lot of points. Iceman stuck around from last week’s list and serves as an Agent Venom soft counter. As for the rest, Bounce just navigates from one way to make points to another.
Potential Additions
Rocket Raccoon and other 1-Cost cards can replace anything you might be missing.
Destroy
den
Another week where Destroy is a solid archetype with the same list we’ve seen time and time again. Arnim Zola is now Attuma, likely due to Cosmo or Alioth ruining the party a little too often, but the rest is exactly same.
With a 0.35 Cube Average and 56% Win Rate, which puts Destroy in the same group as Bounce, Arishem, and Discard Dracula, maybe there isn’t a need to change anything.
Potential Additions
Arnim Zola and Shang-Chi can replace Attuma.
Tier 3
KaZoo
den
In most other reports, KaZoo claims a spot as a Tier 2 deck, but the meta has been getting super competitive lately. With that in mind, a confident pilot can likely make the 57% Win Rate and 0.3 Cube Average even better, which would be enough to make KaZoo a decent pick.
Pure Move
den
After a very convincing start last week, the Agent Venom Move hybrid hit a bit of a speed bump and only managed to rack up 0.25 cubes per match. The Win Rate is solid at 57%, though, so it must be a case of not keeping the opponent in the match when Agent Venom calls for a Snap. The deck might struggle to get it done if the Season Pass card does not show up.
Hela Discard
den
There are still some Hela Enjoyers playing this deck, which allows us to see how hard the recent nerf to Hellcow hit. At only a 0.2 Cube Average and 53.5% Win Rate, the deck is far behind the new leader of the Discard synergy, Discard Dracula.
Closing Words
Overall, you can pretty much play whatever play style you prefer and expect to have decent results. It sure helps that Agent Venom is virtually playable with any play style, of course, but even without that card there are tons of proactive and reactive decks you can pick from.
A slight nerf to Agent Venom might be needed. Otherwise, I think this is a very cool Marvel Snap meta.
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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