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
With more time for decks to develop after the OTA last Thursday, the patch on Tuesday, and the new card performing pretty well, I could only expect the Marvel Snap meta to look different compared to the previous report shortly after the OTA. As it turns out, it’s very different.
Typically, a change in the meta means the Tier List has two or three new decks compared to the previous one. This week, however, there are five new or returning decks to discuss. Plus, most of these arrivals earned a great ranking; both Pure Move and High Evo Affliction landed in Tier 1 while Hela and Wiccan Move are in Tier 2.
These four, joined by Phoenix Force a little further down the list, are competing with the archetypes that emerged after last week’s OTA: Agatha Discard and Lockdown. There are also the regulars like Destroy, Junk, and KaZoo. So far, the newcomers are taking a commanding lead, which is probably because they’re a little more surprising and they get to steal more cubes from their opponents’ mistakes.
Limiting mistakes is key in the current meta. Try to punish your opponents for being overconfident or misreading certain information. To do so, cards like Cosmo and Alioth have been picking up some popularity, and Turn 6 explosive synergies have also gained some momentum.
A good example of this is Hela beating Agatha in the discard battle. The former is just coming back thanks to Hellcow now being an Activate card, so it’s fresh enough to catch a few opponents off guard who forgot how many points Hela could develop. Plus, since you typically activate the 4-Cost on Turn 6, your opponent doesn’t know exactly how strong your Hela will be (in addition to whether you actually drew it or not). On the other hand, players have experienced Black Knight creating a 14 power Ebony Blade enough to know that they should get out of the match as soon as they hear Oh Snap.
The same logic applies to Pure Move, which is more than happy to see you Snap because you have Shang-Chi or Shadow King ready for their big Vulture. The deck has been using Cosmo or Alioth to protect their cards from those plays.
There are plenty of reasons to Snap right now, and Araña has provided yet another great reason for multiple decks already. However, the challenge is making your opponent Snap in order to gain even more cubes from your best draws.
You only have to take a look at the decks in Tier 3 to see that solid archetypes that are able to develop plenty of points (like KaZoo and Big Bounce) or shut the game down early (like Stature Darkhawk and Lockdown) struggle to grow their Cube Averages. It’s not just about winning, it’s about winning as many cubes as possible.
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | 10 Power |
| Silent Performer | Ronan Darkhawk |
| Tier 1 | Pure Move |
| Tier 1 | High Evo Affliction |
| Tier 1 | Junk |
| Tier 2 | Hela Discard |
| Tier 2 | Arishem Loki |
| Tier 2 | Agatha Discard |
| Tier 2 | Destroy |
| Tier 2 | Wiccan Move |
| Tier 3 | KaZoo |
| Tier 3 | Lockdown |
| Tier 3 | Phoenix Force |
| Tier 3 | Big Bounce |
| Tier 3 | Stature Darkhawk |
| 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 or 60% Win Rate & 0.4 Cube Average
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 > 0.3
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 > 0.15
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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Both of the Silent Performers existed earlier in the season, but they never became popular enough to warrant being specifically targeted.
The 10 Power deck lost Mockingbird, which stopped it from becoming one of Marvel Snap’s finest. Since then, it rebuilt its list around Skaar, using Electro into Blink to help cheat out big cards early. That strategy has produced some nice results, and the deck would have ranked in Tier 1 if it posted the same performance over a bigger sample size.
The Ronan Darkhawk deck posted one of the highest Win Rates of the week at 63% over 170 games. However, the 0.3 Cube Average felt a little weak for the amount of games it was winning, which indicates the deck might not be surprising enough to keep opponents in the game.
Tier 1
Pure Move
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Without Alioth and Cosmo, Move is nothing but another Deadpool Destroy or Discard Dracula. They’re synergies that are able to build a ton of points, but they don’t have enough flexibility to keep opponents in the match. Except, that is, when they have a counter card.
This ease to be countered is exactly what Move capitalized on this week. The two disruptive inclusions deny your opponent the opportunity to interact with Vulture, Human Torch, or Dagger, keeping them safe and winning a location in the process.
Obviously, Araña is a big reason for Move taking the top spot in this report. She allowed the deck to produce enough points to challenge most of the top decks in that regard. However, Cosmo and Alioth are clearly a big reason why the deck stayed in a dominant position, as counter cards are as easy to use against it anymore.
Potential Additions
Beast could improve your potential by bouncing your cheap cards, but you would likely have to remove one of your protective cards to run it. It depends on whether you value creating more points or keeping the ones you already have safe.
High Evo Affliction
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It’s been a while since High Evolutionary was anything higher than Tier 3 in a Ranked Tier List. However, with a 0.45 Cube Average and 62% Win Rate over more than 300 games, this affliction-based build clearly earned its top position.
The strategy is pretty simple to grasp, which makes this deck one of the easiest to pick up—especially when compared to the other rising archetype this week, Pure Move. Your goal is to make Ajax big and Abomination cheap while your opponent’s cards lose power.
The key to victory is the positioning of your cards, which requires you to plan ahead of time where you want them. For example, you can’t play Hazmat and Ajax together on Turn 6, so one has to go earlier. If you have Shang-Chi, you could play Ajax on Turn 5 and pair the 4-Cost with Hazmat on Turn 6. On the other hand, if your Abomination still needs to be discounted, playing Hazmat alongside Red Guardian or U.S. Agent on Turn 5 makes more sense. Then you can keep the big boys for the last turn.
Potential Additions
Black Widow and Rogue (or some other disruptive card) can replace Shang-Chi, which is the flexible card of the build.
Junk
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Compared to the two archetypes above, Junk has many different lists, which drags the archetype down a bit. if I only considered its two best decks, Junk would have topped the list with the best Cube Average and the best Win Rate. Unfortunately, there are other Junk lists that would have been ranked at the bottom of Tier 3 with hundreds of games played, and that’s something I can’t ignore.
This is why I ranked Junk at the bottom of Tier 1; the archetype is definitely good enough to be part of the elite group when the build is right. However, it is important to be aware that Junk can be punishing to play, especially if you build it wrong or struggle to recognize your opponent’s deck early in the match.
Potential Additions
There are many ways to build around the Bounce+Junk concept right now. Compared to the featured list above, this one had a weaker Win Rate (57% compared to 62%) but a slightly better Cube Average.
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Tier 2
Hela Discard
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If you believe social media, Hela is back and wreaking havoc in the Marvel Snap meta. In reality, Hela is back after a long summer of being a non-factor following its nerf, but it isn’t the problem that many want you to believe it is.
Sure, it might be the easiest deck to get results with on this list, especially below the Infinite rank. But the 0.35 Cube Average and 57.5% Win Rate doesn’t indicate a problem deck in any way (despite being solid scores).
Potential Additions
Black Knight can replace Blink or Red Hulk to bolster your early game, at the cost of an unfortunate draw late in the match.
Arishem Loki
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Over a small sample size and with good random cards, Arishem remains one of the strongest decks in the game. However, once you expand the amount of games, the results become a bit more reasonable. This week, for example, there was a list with a 0.5 Cube Average and a 63% Win Rate and another one at 0.3 and 53%, respectively. Both had only one card different (Magneto in the first and Copycat in the second), so it is hard to imagine Magneto being the reason the first deck did so much better. Instead, the fact that the first list had only 100 games recorded when the second one had more than 300 must have played a big role in each deck’s result.
I’m a believer in big sample sizes, hence why Arishem Loki is in Tier 2 this week.
Potential Additions
A non-Loki list had incredible results over a small sample size of less than a hundred games. It’s definitely a new avenue to explore for the Arishem Enjoyers.
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Agatha Discard
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After a great weekend, Agatha was met with more decks that could develop enough points to take it head on, mostly thanks to Araña. The list of decks that are able to develop 25 to 30 points on a location is pretty long currently, which limits how confident you can be in an early Snap with Black Knight in your hand. Plus, if the opponent is not able to match your hot start, most of the community has learned to leave those games. This explains the solid 57% Win Rate with only a 0.3 Cube Average.
Potential Additions
Silver Sable or Nebula can replace Hydra Bob, and there are plenty of strong 3-Costs (Copycat, Speed, Nocturne, Cassandra Nova…) to replace Makkari.
Destroy
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With Araña in the mix, Destroy’s points potential has clearly improved. There is nothing as good as a cheap buff to get the Deadpool chain of destruction started. However, this didn’t translate to much of an improvement yet, probably because Destroy is still playing the exact same kind of game plan. Even if your Deadpool can grow to bigger numbers than it did in the past, it means nothing if your opponent Retreats the same way they did before.
This is still a solid archetype overall, but you need to find a way to keep people in the game when your draws align.
Potential Additions
Attuma and Nimrod can be Shang-Chi and Deathlok to focus the deck more around Deadpool and give you more potential to interact with your opponent.
Wiccan Move
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Even though Wiccan isn’t the flavor of the week anymore, the 4-Cost remains a solid foundation to build around, especially with cards like Maria Hill and
The Good Cards build with Thena and company has disappeared, probably because it was weakened by the surge of Shadow King countering the very popular Pure Move deck. With Pure Move in the upper tier, it is hard to recommend this deck for any reason other than than the synergy speaking to you. Otherwise, there is an alternate build down below with a great Win Rate (61%), but it’s hard to know how good it is due to a small sample size.
Potential Additions
Here’s another way to build around Wiccan that uses Pixie as a second energy cheating engine.
Tier 3
Tier 3 has plenty of familiar faces this week. There’s a mix of archetypes that are either too predictable for their Win Rates to translate into a great Cube Average (KaZoo, Lockdown, and Stature Darkhawk) or too gimmicky in how they operate to post consistent results (Phoenix Force and Bounce).
With an experienced pilot, any of these decks should be able to climb reliably. However, most aren’t very flexible in how they develop, and they will push you to Snap early at the risk of being met with a counter card a few turns later.
KaZoo
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Lockdown
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Phoenix Force
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Big Bounce
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Stature Darkhawk
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Closing Words
The past week was filled with balance updates and an impactful new card, which has lead to the meta featuring many new faces and some returning juggernauts as well. Right now, I would lean towards the more flexible archetypes if I had to bet on which ones will still be around in the next Tier List. However, apart from Hela (which seems to be the center of attention on social media), no deck is particularly targeted. Instead, protective cards like Cosmo and Alioth are there to make sure your points are safe. They allow you to Snap if your early hand allows for it, even without knowing if your opponent is running a Shang-Chi or Shadow King.
This battle of specific cards will probably last until there’s an archetype that can beat Pure Move on points while resisting Junk eating their board space. Until then, Marvel Snap will be an uncertain territory where your opponents’ Snaps could mean they are about to counter you, or drop a bucket of points on the board.
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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