Table of Contents
After the OTA, the metagame is in a weird, but fairly good place at the moment.
Weird because we have very few decks to discuss. Indeed, Sanctum Showdown has many players busy outside the ranked mode, especially those who punched their ticket to Infinite already. Plus, the OTA did a great job at improving the Zombie Horde synergy while toning down the rest, meaning we don’t have that surefire archetype available at the moment.
This last part also induces a good environment, as it means the metagame is wide open, with no archetype forcing you to adapt against it. There are popular ones, such as Move or Zombie themed decks. Yet, none is posting numbers we could consider oppressive.
As a result of this metagame with little data about it, our tier list will a bit smaller than usual. The key takeaways are the massive improvement of the Zombie Horde synergy, and Move or Arishem Thanos remaining strong, generic picks.
Behind those are a flurry of decks with either very few games to back up their performance, or a metric keeping them out of contention. For example, Supergiant Rocks posted a 53% win rate, enough to be ranked in this Tier List, but had a -0.15 cube average, which kept it out of being ranked. The same could be said of Pixie Energy, which featured the buffed Warlock. That deck had a 0.2 cube average, on the lower end but enough for Tier 3, yet is held back by its 48.5% win rate.
The same could be said for Move Tribunal sporting a 47% win rate
There were other examples of such decks, left out of being discussed because they felt too much of a flight risk. Instead, let’s focus on those decks with a proven track record following the OTA, and allow the others extra time to find their footing after the OTA.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Trending | Zombie Miracle 0.8 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate |
| Trending | Good Cards Zombie 0.5 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Arishem Thanos 0.65 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 1 | Pure Move 0.45 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Supergiant Hand 0.6 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 2 | Deadpool Destroy 0.3 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Black Hand Discard 0.4 Cube average / 53% Win Rate |
| Tier 3 | Nimrod Destroy 0.55 Cube Average / 51% Win Rate |
Are you still chasing that elusive Infinite Rank? Here are the Top 5 performers in the ranks 80 to 99!
There is a lot more games to look at in those ranks compared to Infinite. Either Sanctum Showdown stopped many during their ranked cimb, or maybe the current metagame is simply more competitive and difficult to navigate.
| Deadpool Destroy | 0.85 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate |
| Toxic Surfer | 1.1 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| Hela Discard | 0.5 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate |
| End of Turn | 0.45 Cube Average / 59% Win Rate |
| Sauron 10 Power | 0.3 Cube Average / 58.5% Win Rate |
Here is my usual annoying advice because I’m a coach and I like to think this helps people: Focus on controlling the stakes of each game and building trust in both your deck and your decision making abilities. Once you feel confident, feel free to take more risks. Reaching Infinite is all about understanding the process of grinding cubes. Also, constantly changing your deck limits your ability to learn the game fundamentals, as you are always focused on learning how to pilot the new deck.
Trending
There are a ton of decks based on the Zombie synergy following the OTA, but a clear 12 cards deck still has to emerge, as most decks range from 50 to 100 games. One thing is clear however, some sort of disruption, or flexibility in how the points are spread around the locations is required.
Indeed, whether we look at the Miracle or a more flexible core, the best list for each feature a way to catch the opponent off guard.
In the Miracle build, Mockingbird and Sasquatch already represent a way to adapt on turn six, but Juggernaut was added to the mix for another way to win a location. As for the “Good Cards” Zombie, Werewolf By Night represents that flexible element, while Ghost Rider”] gives the deck another 5-cost when Zombie Giant-Man doesn’t show up, or winning through points is not an option.
It is difficult to build for flexibility around the Zombie Horde synergy, considering we have to include specific cards, on top of Zombie Scarlet Witch demanding certain synergies as well. Yet, that balance feels required for the Zombies to post their best performances.
den
Performance: 0.8 Cube Average / 63% Win Rate
den
Performance: 0.5 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
Tier 1
Arishem Thanos
den
Performance: 0.65 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
When there isn’t a clear better deck, the one with the best snap opportunities tends to have an edge. Arishem Thanos also has to deal with a good bit of randomness, but the way Marvel Snap works, a bad hand costs you 1 when a good hand collects two to four.
Then, even if there are much more reliable builds around, although 59.5% win rate is very reliable, Arishem Thanos is a great pick in this unclear metagame.
Potential Additions
Quake and Galacta are the two flexible slots in the deck based on the best performing builds. The 2-cost can be any strong standalone such as Merlin, Gorgon, Iron Patriot… while Galacta could be any strong card you value particularly.
Pure Move
den
Performance: 0.45 Cube Average / 60% Win Rate
Move alternates from a fantastic performer to one barely worth discussing from a week to another. Maybe it is due to plenty of players picking up the deck and messing up its stats, or the rest of the metagame adapting as they see Move is on the rise.
Either way, this was a great week for Pure Move, sporting the best win rate in the game amongst decks with more than 150 matches recorded in Infinite. We’ll see if next week follow the typical trend and Move loses momentum.
Potential Additions
There are other cards to look at in the Move synergy (Doctor Strange, Iron Fist…) if you missed one from the deck. Otherwise, Cosmo and Juggernaut serve as protective pieces, and could be a different type of disruption.
Tier 2
Supergiant Hand
den
Performance: 0.6 Cube Average / 55.5% Win Rate
Even with this super cube average, I couldn’t rank Supergiant Hand in Tier 1 due to the gap in win rate with the ones above. Plus, due to this being a mix of two synergies, I can’t dismiss the possibility of a great first week on the back of opponent’s not playing optimally for lack of information.
Nevertheless, this is a solid first showing for another hybrid Supergiant build. The Darkhawk list had catastrophic numbers this week (-0,15 cube average) while Iron Hand doesn’t see much play lately. This could be a way to save parts of each synergy.
Potential Additions
Killmonger, Red Guardian and Mobius M. Mobius are flexible inclusions. Grand Master and Nico Minoru makes sense in the deck, while most disruptive cards you could fit behind Supergiant as a surprise on the final reveal also make sense.
Deadpool Destroy
den
Performance: 0.3 Cube Average / 59.5% Win Rate
Another deck with one fantastic metric and a more average score on the other, Deadpool Destroy seems to be great at the moment. Unfortunately, that deck keeps giving the opponent way too much information about its potential early in the match, largely limiting its ability to keep the opponent in high stakes matches.
A solid pick for those who want to focus on a strong win rate, but don’t mind winning low stakes matches to climb.
Potential Additions
Agony and Wolwerine battle for the 12th spot in the deck, while the other 11 look settled as the deck’s core.
Tier 3
Black Hand Discard
den
Performance: 0.4 Cube average / 53% Win Rate
Another mix with Victoria Hand while the base archetype doesn’t see much play, although this one isn’t as impressive as the Supergiant build. Still, in a weak with a lot of archetypes failing to post good numbers, or enough games to be worth discussing, this Black Knight – Victoria Hand build managed to do both.
Plus, that makes it the best discard build this week by default, which sort of makes sense as Red Guardian is back to be a popular card.
Potential Additions
Shadow King is a flexible disruptive card, but the counter to the Zombie Horde synergy. Emperor Hulkling could be Giganto or another high power 6-cost card. I’m sure Red Shift and Agatha Harkness would be a decent duo in this deck.
Nimrod Destroy
den
Performance: 0.55 Cube Average / 51% Win Rate
The Zombie Horde is mostly a points driven deck at the moment, meaning other builds able to challenge on that front are also doing pretty well. Arguably, if Nimrod Destroy is amongst those decks, although the 51% win rate tells us the snaps and retreats must have been on point, other archetypes should also be able to compete.
Potential Additions
Surge, Nico Minoru and are support cards one can swap for anything they would find more valuable.
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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