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
This is the first week of a new season, so I have to share the usual disclaimers about inflated numbers and decks looking absolutely nuts due to bots handing everybody eight cube wins.
This time around, I only used the data from rank 90 and above (including Infinite) to make this report and ignored data from the 80s. Using less of the pre-Infinite ranks should reduce the impact of bots on every archetype’s performance. Still, the Cube Averages are very high compared to any other week in the season. The Win Rates, on the other hand, look pretty reasonable; only one deck, Good Cards Agent Venom, managed to crack the 60% barrier.
Good Cards is an archetype that everyone knows is capable of posting solid results. It has been around for a very, very long time, and its flexibility always keeps it in the discussion of competitive decks. An occasional spike to the top is nothing unusual. Also, Agent Venom is a damn good card, so seeing an archetype that features it on top of this report is nothing unexpected. The second ranked deck could raise more eyebrows, though. We haven’t seen Sera Control since July, and the reason for its resurgence is, once again, because Agent Venom is a very strong card.
That is pretty much the story of this first week really. New archetypes using Agent Venom are on top, one new move deck with Scream made itself known, and the decks we have seen do great for most of the last season are still doing great. A few of them are missing, such as Arishem or Lockdown, due to a very low popularity, but I’m sure they will come back soon. Right now, most players are enjoying their new toys, and they definitely should! Second Dinner has given us some pretty powerful ones!
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | Highroll Surfer |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Agent Venom |
| Tier 1 | Agent Sera Control |
| Tier 1 | Stature Darkhawk |
| Tier 2 | Mister Negative |
| Tier 2 | Move Them |
| Tier 2 | Junk |
| Tier 2 | Bounce |
| Tier 2 | Hela |
| Tier 2 | Pure Move |
| Tier 3 | Destroy |
| Tier 3 | Patriot Surfer |
| 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.
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.
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.
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
This deck uses none of the new cards and appeared almost out of nowhere. I would attribute most of the success of this Highroll Surfer deck to its ability to surprise clueless opponents and farm bots. Even though this section is dedicated to highlighting uncommon and/or emerging decks, you don’t just get in for free. Silent Performers still have to post solid results to be included, so don’t see my attribution as a jab to the deck. Indeed, the 0.9 Cube Average is the highest on the report, which makes Highroll Surfer a potential future superstar.
To get there, however, it will have to overcome two tests. First, it has to still be around when we revisit these rankings with data from only the Infinite rank. For this first week, I also included the 90s to have more data to look at, which naturally opens the door for bots to skew the results a little. The deck also needs to survive becoming known and expected, which I believe will be the tougher test to pass. Why? Because the deck also features the lowest Win Rate in the report, barely managing 51%.
I give the Cube Average metric more weight overall, so this build is more than deserving of its spot. Still, I’ve seen enough high Cube Average and low Win Rate decks disappear after a hot streak to know this one isn’t a surefire powerhouse.
Tier 1
Good Cards Agent Venom
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If you are one of the most flexible archetypes from a deckbuilding standpoint and can include virtually any card that comes out (except for the super synergistic ones), you are bound to get some good hits eventually. Agent Venom was that good hit this week. The Season Pass card helped this archetype post the highest Win Rate of the season so far (61.5%) combined with the second best Cube Average (0.85).
Many saw the potential of Agent Venom with the Thena package since all of the cards would gain power when hit by Agent Venom. Throw in Iron Man and Mystique for their synergy with the new card and you already have six cards to build around.
From there, it didn’t take long for someone to test Darkhawk. That package provides three more targets for Agent Venom alongside another for Mystique. Sprinkle in some solid cheap cards like
Potential Additions
Juggernaut and
Agent Sera Control
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Sera is fantastic for farming bots because they don’t understand cost reduction, so the 0.7 Cubes Average here is likely higher than the deck’s real capabilities. However, the 57.5% Win Rate is much harder to fake, even if you get some free wins on the way.
Although it is a renowned archetype, we haven’t seen Sera Control in a long while in Marvel Snap. Enjoyers of the archetype have to love this comeback, but be careful: Cosmo and Alioth were in plenty of decks at the end of last season, and they could easily come back.
Potential Additions
Shang-Chi can replace another disruptive card if you don’t think Shadow King and U.S. Agent are enough.
Stature Darkhawk
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Agent Venom and Scream both push for synergistic decks, so disruption a great way to detail them and capitalize on players testing the new cards. For yet another week, Stature Darkhawk is not only the best Discard oriented build (once again beating Hela for that distinction), it also posted the second best Win Rate with 59%.
Potential Additions
Proxima Midnight can replace Swarm if you want more points with less control over them. Also, Copycat can be pretty much any strong 3-Cost. There are a few decks with Magik going around, so Nocturne has some upsides.
Tier 2
Mister Negative
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Mister Negative has continued to post solid results after returning to form at the end of last season. Some wondered if Agent Venom would be a good fit for the deck by providing a Plan B when you don’t draw Mister Negative. So far, this experiment seems to have failed.
Even without any new cards in the mix, Mister Negative is still posting nice results—especially in the Win Rate department. A 54% Win Rate is quite high for an archetype that is frequently forced to Retreat.
I think it’s probably just a good meta for Mister Negative.
Potential Additions
Cassandra Nova is the flexible card, but there aren’t very many low power, high impact cards left to play instead.
Move Them
den
Agent Venom is the superstar that I anticipated it to be, but it had plenty of strong foundations to be slotted in. Scream, on the other hand, had to elevate an archetype that many had lost faith in if she wanted to be part of the Marvel Snap meta. Congratulations Scream, you did it!
There are many lists using the “move your opponent’s cards” concept so far. They all include the same foundation, but the last two or three cards differ. For example, Magneto and Alioth are popular inclusions, but they didn’t appear in the best performing list. Instead, early tools like White Widow were preferred because they provide a target for Spider-Man and a bit of clog at the same time to help Juggernaut or Cannonball.
Potential Additions
Nebula is flexible, especially if you are not good at drawing it early (a skill I have yet to perfect).
Junk
The most reliable archetype of the previous season isn’t off to a hot start so far. The 55% Win Rate and 0.5 Cube Average is pretty good, but they only placed Junk in the pack of “fine” archetypes this week. For context, this archetype lead that same pack for most of September.
Hazmat and Ajax were cut to include Shadow King and Doctor Octopus, probably due to the increase in explosive decks with Agent Venom. Typically, Junk is pretty good at limiting space before these types of strategies can get set up for their final turn. Maybe it is time to go back to a faster way to clog the board.
Potential Additions
Shang-Chi can replace Doctor Octopus.
Bounce
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With Agent Venom in the mix, Bounce has returned to being a well-oiled points machine with the flexibility to reposition a lot of those points in the last two turns. Unfortunately, Bounce is also too focused on creating points and lacks some of the disruptive ability that is often required to be among the best archetypes in the game. As such, the deck can get butchered by a well-timed Cosmo or Alioth, and it also struggles to keep opponents in the match when it Snaps.
The numbers are decent, though. Bounce held a 55% Win Rate while being the most popular deck in the game, a feat that is often synonymous with a slightly worse performance. Still, in order to reach the higher tier, Bounce needs to mix things up a little.
Potential Additions
Spider-Ham, Shadow King, or some other disruptive card can help the deck be more flexible.
Hela
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Hela is an exceptional bot farmer, so it is no surprise to see the Goddess of Death performing well early in the season. It could have been much higher on the list if I included some of lower ranks to make this report. But my focus was on the top, and the total lack of flexibility after the second nerf to Hela made the deck hard to lose four cubes against. Once you get to Turn 6, your opponent has all the information they need to make an educated decision on their best course of action.
Sometimes, the decision is to stay in the match and lose to a lucky spread of points, which is exactly how Hela is feeding its Cube Average and Win Rate at the moment.
Potential Additions
Red Hulk is another 6-Cost you could consider.
Pure Move
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You would think the release of a card that specifically limits Move would hurt the synergy, and it did; the once best deck in the game is now a low Tier 2 contender. In addition to Scream joining the game, Agent Venom also boosted the points potential of many decks. But, thanks to Cosmo and Alioth, Pure Move can still combat these archetypes fairly well.
This is the moment where we find out how improved the Move synergy became over the course of the previous season. The best archetypes always find a way to stay relevant, even when the meta isn’t good for them, and the 57% Win Rate leads me to me believe that Pure Move can do it.
Potential Additions
Cloak can be played to replace any card you’re missing.
Tier 3
Destroy
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The meta features a lot of Shadow King, Shang-Chi, and other counter cards that benefit from Agent Venom boosting their power. Another popular synergy is the one around Scream, which moves your cards around and disrupts your ability to destroy your cards if you don’t have priority.
Honestly, the fact that Destroy is on the report is good enough. This meta is tough for Deadpool.
Patriot Surfer
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Patriot has been struggling to get going lately, turning to cards like Invisible Woman to add some surprise into its well-known strategy. In this new build, Agent Venom allows you to play a lot of cards that are otherwise impossible to include, which gives the deck some explosive power. Compared to other decks using the Season Pass card, Patriot Surfer is much further down the list, but it is yet another piece of evidence for the impact of Agent Venom‘s arrival.
Closing Words
Agent Venom has the potential to take over Marvel Snap if we don’t plan against it. Bounce, Sera Control, and Good Cards all are great, which means you can pick whichever play style you want with the Season Pass card and do well. However, Agent Venom pushes for an explosive type of style and rewards you for boosting cards in your deck and keeping your opponent in the dark regarding the true power you hold in your hand.
This has always been one of the most powerful ways to play Marvel Snap, so, once again, it’s no surprise to see Agent Venom thrive early. However, this meta also features a lot of limiting synergies like Junk, Stature Darkhawk, and Lockdown. Even simply including Cosmo and Alioth in proactive builds can mess up your plans. I believe these should have a fighting chance once the community learns how Agent Venom decks play and they start to lose the benefit of the surprise factor.
The new card got an edge on Week 1, which is typically what happens. The real battle for Marvel Snap domination starts now.
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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