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 arrival of Toxin as a Bounce staple coupled with an OTA that shut down Lockdown has made Agent Venom super popular, which was expected. However, it’s not the Agent Venom deck I had expected that rose to the top. Indeed, while Bounce’s Win Rate improved and Good Cards tried to recoup after both builds took a slight hit (via Klaw and Rockslide), Sera Control posted an amazing performance and easily took first place in this week’s Tier List.
You might wonder why, and the reason is fairly simple: Control decks shine when the meta is very predictable. In that context, they can build a targeted deck that will not only win a lot of games, but also control the Snaps and win a lot of cubes. Add in the fact that Control decks can also use the most impactful card at the moment—Agent Venom—and it starts to become clear why Sera Control put on a clinic over the last few days.
Outside this Agent Venom microcosm, three synergies are also doing fairly well for themselves. Misery has two decks with convincing results in the Silent Performers section; both would deserve a Tier 2 placement if they had more games under their belts. It is hard to say if either of the Misery decks is a contender or just a great under-the-radar pick at the moment.
On the other hand, Scream Move and Discard Dracula posted top tier numbers and took first and second place in Win Rate since the OTA. If it wasn’t for Sera Control, I might have even thought Agent Venom wasn’t that good and the OTA limited its strength.
It didn’t, but it is good to see other synergies have the potential to challenge the various archetypes Agent Venom is pushing.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Misery Destroy Mill |
| Silent Performer | Misery Darkhawk |
| Tier 1 | Sera Control |
| Tier 1 | Discard Dracula |
| Tier 1 | Scream Move |
| Tier 2 | Bounce |
| Tier 2 | Pure Move |
| Tier 2 | Good Cards |
| Tier 3 | Arishem |
| Tier 3 | Destroy |
| 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
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
den
den
Once touted as the worst card of the month, Misery has slowly built its repertoire of archetypes and is starting to convince more and more players in the community. At the moment, Misery is a big reason why Mill is a decent deck, and since it is a 4-Cost the nerf to Rockslide was acceptable since you can use Zabu to mitigate the damage.
The key with both of these decks is to accept that certain games are lost before you even play them, either because you drew poorly or because your points potential is lower than a lot of other decks in this report. However, they also represent the only builds that rely on proactive disruption in the current meta. And we know that can open a lot of opportunities for early Snaps when they go off.
The ability to Snap early is the key to performing well in this meta, and these decks do that fairly well. This is largely thanks to Misery allowing you to trigger certain abilities a second time.
Tier 1
Sera Control
den
When there is a lot of Bounce around, you have to anticipate that a deck with Killmonger will rise dramatically in the rankings. Plus, if that deck can annoy Discard Dracula, another very popular pick, it already covers a large part of the meta. This week, that deck was Sera Control. It has Killmonger + Invisible Woman for the Bounce match up, as well as Rogue for Morbius and Red Guardian for Dracula in the Discard match up.
A 57% Win Rate is quite high for a Control deck, so the 0.6 Cube Average, which beat every other deck in that metric by at least 0.1, is logical.
Potential Additions
Sage could bring more points instead of Red Guardian, but that version posted slightly worse results.
Discard Dracula
den
Scorn keeps proving to be an insane addition to Discard Dracula. In particular, the symbiote allows the deck to function even when Apocalypse is stuck at the bottom of the deck. Gwenpool was used in the past to help boost the deck’s points potential, but it seems like the 4-Cost is no longer required since the two best lists were not using the card.
Instead, the question now appears to be if Miek is back in the mix or if The Collector remains the most interesting option alongside Morbius.
Miek had better results (with a crazy 62.5% Win Rate), but fewer games to truly prove its worth.
Potential Additions
The Collector could replace Miek, and other discard abilities can always be considered. Lady Sif and Gambit look like the flexible ones that you could potentially swap.
Scream Move
den
Scream Move continues to be a very good archetype week after week, but no one seems to be talking about it. Since the OTA, the deck posted a 0.45 Cube Average, which would usually be a bit short of a Tier 1 placement, but the 59.5% Win Rate was enough to make up for it. Indeed, the gap between Discard and Scream Move was much smaller than the one between the decks in Tier 2, so it makes more sense to consider Scream Move an elite deck rather than just a good one.
Potential Additions
Silk remains the flexible option in the deck, and it’s typically replaced with a strong 1-Cost.
Tier 2
Bounce
den
Toxin made Bounce stronger overall, but it also made it pretty obvious that this was the deck to counter this week. In that context, Bounce posted similar numbers to what it did before Toxin joined the party with a 0.3 Cube Average and 57.5% Win Rate. However, it did that in a meta with a lot more Shadow King and Killmonger, so I think that shows that the deck is stronger overall.
Potential Additions
Rocket Raccoon can replace Iceman or one of the rarer 1-Costs if you are missing any of them. Shadow King is flexible, but it makes sense if you expect a lot of mirror matches. Sage and Werewolf By Night are fighting to be the other points card alongside
Pure Move
den
After testing various ideas to improve the archetype, it looks like Pure Move is back to its September build with one important exception. Back then, playing Cloak was pretty difficult because you had to play a lot of mirror matches, and the card was also beneficial for your Move opponent. With much less of Move this season, running Cloak is possible yet again, and that has given the deck more room to grow Human Torch, Dagger, and Vulture.
Scream is still a problem, but you can’t have it all.
Potential Additions
Juggernaut is the flexible card in the deck. It acts as another protective piece, but it can be any card you deem necessary in the current meta.
Good Cards
den
With both its builds impacted by the last OTA, it isn’t that big of a surprise to see Good Cards become the third place archetype with Agent Venom when it used to be the best one. It isn’t just Klaw giving +7 instead of +8. There is also more of Killmonger, which hurts your 1-Costs, and more of Shadow King, which makes Cosmo a necessary draw. Plus, there’s also more of Rogue with Sera Control gaining some momentum, which means your Cosmo can only protect one lane while your Iron Man gets stolen in another one.
The deck still is very good, but it was beaten down by a difficult week. It will have to overcome those issues in order to return to the top of the meta.
Potential Additions
Tier 3
Arishem
den
Arishem was maintaining a decent performance, but it never really managed to make progress since the Agent Venom era begun. Points wise, the deck can compete when it finds Blob and Mockingbird, but it often relies on countering the opponent’s development more than it can count on its bigger cards anchoring a lane. With a 0.2 Cube Average and 51% Win Rate, this is Arishem‘s worst performance ever.
Deadpool Destroy
den
Honestly, I only included Destroy for the sake of Agony making it into a report. Otherwise, the surge of Shadow King and Cosmo in this Agent Venom meta is just too much for Deadpool and company to exist. There is a problematic card you have to play around at every corner, so this is just an impossible meta for Destroy to navigate. As such, the 0.15 Cube Average and 50% Win Rate is pretty logical.
Closing Words
At the moment, the meta will still reward you for finding a way to beat Agent Venom reliably. If you can also get some nice results against Discard Dracula, you will have a large part of the environment covered, and you should be doing great on the Ladder. So far, the decks that are able to that are limited, and you often have to play Agent Venom yourself to boost your points potential. Misery is kind of the interesting-yet-risky pick in this mix, but it provides the most room for deckbuilding, as well as some unconventional cards that occasionally catch an opponent off-guard.
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.
More Content