Welcome to our Marvel Snap Meta Tier List for Ranked ladder mode! Each week, we review the best decks in the ever-changing Marvel Snap metagame and not only we bring you the decklists, we provide you with an in-depth report: How their ranks are justified, how to play the decks, and how to build the deck with alternate cards to accommodate for different collections.

Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Overview

Ever since I created the Silent Performers section, I have tried to emphasize how important it really is. A lot of the rising and soon-to-be dominant decks have spent some time in that section before they became juggernauts by proving their worth in tournaments or turning into Tier 1 or Tier 2 staples. InSheNaut spent a lot of time there, and it has been a Top 5 decks since becoming popular enough to rank among its peers. Something tells me that at least two of the decks in that section this week will follow that route if no changes are made to them. Usually, the sign of a Silent Performer worth investing your time into is when the same deck also posts a solid performance in Conquest. With less overall games in that mode, a low popularity deck will stand out much more compared to the wider environment we have on the Ladder.

True to this definition, Iron Patriot has already started to dominate the Conquest metagame, and it would easily be ranked next to Shuri Sauron if the deck was more popular on the Ladder. Evolved DoomWave just returned with the last OTA, so seeing it among the Silent Performers makes more sense. The deck’s performance is very promising, and it could land a Tier 1 placement if it can maintain that performance in the future. The other three decks are a mixed bag: The recently nerfed Good Cards Stature naturally lost a large chunk of its popularity; Sera Control has been on the decline lately, but it found a bit of a second wind with the metagame shift after the OTA; Devil Darkhawk is still its inconsistent self, going from a solid performance one week to being a middle-of-the-pack archetype the next. This week was a good one for Devil Darkhawk, but a lot of decks showed promise. Let’s revisit the deck once the metagame is more established.

Similar to the Silent Performers, the popular decks are also a bit all over the place. Shuri Sauron is leading the pack; it simply puts too many points across two lanes (on top of its simple play patterns). Once in Tier 2, it is difficult to see which decks are truly better than the others. Deadpool has the highest ceiling, but Armor limits it by quite a bit. Move Legion remains very strong, but it needs to regroup after the nerfs to both Legion and Captain Marvel. Silver Surfer keeps trying to find its perfect list, and it has lost a lot of momentum due to unoptimized builds. Negative Surfer and Hela Tribunal look solid with little disruption against them, but if Patriot brings Enchantress or Rogue back then these two could quickly fall back to Tier 3. In this chaos, InSheNaut seems to be the right mix of potential and stability, which is the reason why it was closest to joining Shuri Sauron in Tier 1.

Even Tier 3, which usually features decks with a big problem to solve in order to climb, is mostly punished by the amount of different builds existing in each archetype that dilute the overall performance. The three builds featured there could be in Tier 2 when we revisit this list next week, and I wouldn’t even blink.

This is the logical aftermath to an impactful OTA if you think about it. And it’s probably a great way to get hyped for the next season, as only a few decks appear to be safe. Even if you decide to go with one of them, they don’t appear to be as flexible as the ones we had before the balance changes, so you might be more open to potential counters. Let’s explore this new environment and see if we can pick up a few clues as to how one might make the most of it.

Happy Tier List, everyone!

Marvel Snap Ranked Meta Tier List

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 using data from our Marvel Snap Tracker. If a deck showed great performances with a very limited presence in the metagame, you can find it in the new “Silent Performers” section. There, I will highlight decks with an excellent Cube per game ratio but too little of a sample size to be representative of their real strength. These decks would likely be ranked in Tier 1 or 2 if they managed to post a similar performance over thousands of games.

Decks not good enough to be considered contenders but with a good representation will be ranked in Tier 3 or 4 in our chart and won’t have their own dedicated write up here but may be transferred to the main Tier List section. See those builds as decks that are good to know about, as you should face those when playing Marvel Snap. However, unless the metagame changes or a new variation of the build emerges, these decks are a notch below the dominant ones in Tier 1 and 2.

Tier 1

Shuri Sauron

Shuri Sauron

Created by den

, updated 28 days ago

2

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Already in the conversation for high performing decks before the OTA, Shuri Sauron has been a routine top archetype on Ladder for the whole season. Logically, as it did not suffer any nerfs (plus an erratic metagame), Shuri and friends were in the perfect situation to perform – and perform they did. The deck actually did so well that it was the only archetype above a 0.4 Cube Average over a large sample size. Iron Patriot and Evolved DoomWave also passed that threshold, though, so don’t look at Shuri Sauron as the undisputed best deck in Marvel Snap yet.

However, in addition to having a higher points ceiling on two lanes thanks to Shuri, Enchantress helps against Iron Patriot. Thus, Shuri Sauron is favored in a head-to-head against Patriot. Plus, Destroy remained extremely popular this week again, which makes the second tech card in the deck, Armor, a great way to rack up some cubes.

How to Play:
Shuri Sauron is based around the idea of cancelling negative Ongoing abilities with Sauron and abusing Shuri to create a huge amount of points. In that regard, the deck is very rigid in the mid-game since Turns 3, 4, and 5 are almost always the same: Sauron → Shuri → any card worth doubling the power. Often times, Turn 2 will also be dedicated to Armor as a way to prevent an opposing Shang-Chi from ruining your plans. Speaking of Shang-Chi, Vision is another way to play around it, as hitting a moving target isn’t so simple.

This leaves only Turn 1 and Turn 6 to be truly flexible, with Nebula or Zero taking up the 1-Cost slot and Taskmaster usually being the default Turn 6 play alongside Ebony Maw.

If this very straightforward approach can lead to a ton of points on two lanes, it also often doesn’t equate to a lot of cubes. Indeed, unless you are Snapping aggressively, the opponent can see the points coming and will rarely stay in the game once you show Shuri (and they can’t handle it). This creates two important factors to take into consideration when playing Shuri Sauron:

• You have to accept Snaps early in the game, especially when Sauron and Shuri show up.
• You need to find lines of play even when you don’t have the best play pattern with the deck, especially when the opponent does not Snap. Even without Shuri, the deck can develop a solid amount of points, and Enchantress is able to steal a few wins.

The last important point to cover is positioning, especially when you don’t draw into Sauron or Shuri. Indeed, while both cards will dictate a lot of your strategies, there are other pairings to know about:

• Nebula and Armor is nice against Killmonger, and you could even follow it up with Ebony Maw if you don’t expect Sauron to show up.
• Enchantress can cancel the abilities of Lizard, Typhoid Mary, and Red Skull.
• Taskmaster into an unprotected card is better to play with priority. On the contrary, if the target can’t be destroyed, playing without priority protects Taskmaster. Position your cards in order to gain or lose priority depending on the situation.
• Invisible Woman allows you to hide Taskmaster so it copies your last played card on Turn 6 (or the card that reveals before it behind Invisible Woman). This is a great way to lose priority and make an opposing Shang-Chi worthless.

Potential Additions:
America Chavez is the flexible card in the deck, often replaced by Sunspot, Nebula, She-Hulk, or Kitty Pryde.

Another version of Shuri has been gaining traction this week:

shuri kitty

Created by den

, updated 27 days ago

1

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Tier 2

InSheNaut

InSheNaut

Created by den

, updated 28 days ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Another deck part of the elite group that dominated before the OTA, InSheNaut had no reason to feel any worse, so it didn’t. It could very well have been a Tier 1 deck, but the gap between it and Shuri Sauron felt big enough to justify giving InSheNaut the top spot in Tier 2.

I think the biggest difference between the two decks is how simple it is to pick up Shuri Zero compared to InSheNaut, especially when it comes to Snaps and Retreats. However, with more time, I believe InSheNaut might have much more room to grow in a new metagame. Otherwise, the deck doesn’t feel too bad against the competition. Armor and Cosmo are still great tech cards that are able to leverage a good match up against a lot of popular opponents on this list.

The rise of Wave and Doctor Doom might be a little worrisome for InSheNaut, as the duo is part of the Top 2 Silent Performers this week. On the other hand, Leech is a great way to make Doctor Doom a very bad card going into Turn 6.

How to Play:
In this new and improved build around She-Hulk and The Infinaut, the goal is to make the game about points – a battle you are more than suited to win. Ideally, the deck wants to play Magik on Turn 3, Leech on Turn 5, and profit from passing Turn 6 with Sunspot and Misty Knight before dropping two high power cards on Turn 7. However, there are many more play patterns in the deck to achieve victory:

• With Armor, Cosmo, and Leech, the deck has quite a formidable disruptive ability against many different decks, in addition to the ability to protect it’s own important cards.
• If Shocker hits The Infinaut, it unlocks a pattern where you pass on Turn 4, play The Infinaut on Turn 5, and then play Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. When reducing either of your 6-Cost cards, you can pass on Turn 5 and play the reduced one plus She-Hulk.
• Without Magik, you can try passing Turn 3 or 4 to play She-Hulk early and follow with a big Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. With Limbo and no Leech, you could also pass on Turn 5 to do the same “The Infinaut into Evolved Hulk” kind of pattern.
• With a hot start through the 1-Costs giving you a nice lead, you might not want to create Limbo and give your opponent more time to mount a potential comeback.

Through these various scenarios, you can see that this build of InSheNaut is actually trying to get away from the very rigid patterns Moon Girl was pushing for that made the deck too predictable. Right now, you should consider this deck a High Evolutionary tempo build, except it can play around with its energy to change which turns it develops points and which it adopts a more passive stance.

In the featured build this week, Legion is used instead of The Infinaut. That change makes the deck is a little more proactive, and it wants to play Leech or Legion on Turn 5 into Evolved Hulk on Turn 6. She-Hulk would become an option if you get Magik and can pass Turn 6, or if you have to pass some energy on Turn 3 or Turn 4.

Potential Additions:
Shocker and The Infinaut and the two cards you might look to include. The Infinaut is the points-focused alternative to the more flexible Legion, while Shocker can replace Cosmo or Cyclops if you like high rolls more than stability.

Deadpool Destroy

Deadpool Destroy

Created by den

, updated 28 days ago

2

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Although Armor is still a major hurdle for Destroy (which would easily be a Tier 1 archetype without it), Deadpool and company are still finding ways to rack up cubes. With almost 10% popularity, by far the highest in the game after the patch, Destroy is suffering from its success by drawing a lot of counters. Still, considering the deck has one of the highest points potentials in the game when its game plan isn’t tampered with, it only makes sense to see Armor be such a popular inclusion among the various archetypes.

With the nerf to Captain Marvel and Rockslide as a [3/3], Zabu lost quite a bit of popularity. This opened the 2-Cost slot for those decks, which have opted to include Armor as the default card. Sometimes, Spider-Ham takes that slot, but it isn’t much better to have Knull or Death transformed into a Pig.

How to Play:
Based around the idea of abusing its namesake card, Deadpool, this Destroy variant aims to build a humongous amount of points with the Destroy synergy. In addition to Deadpool, you can use Knull, Venom, and/or Death to challenge a lane. If possible, you want to destroy Deadpool every turn. You can add other cards to this mix, such as X-23 for extra energy or Wolverine and Sabretooth to build up Knull and reduce Death.

At its core, the deck is pretty simple to understand because every card in the deck aims in the same direction. However, success with this deck comes from avoiding your opponent’s traps and getting your points one way or another. If everything works according to plan, you could have enough points to win two games at once. A 32 Power Deadpool, a 50 Power Knull, and a free Death are nothing to sneeze at. Plus, cards like Carnage, Deathlok, and Wolverine can quickly add up to another 20 points spread across the lanes. But, even though this will beat pretty much any other deck, no opponent will stay in such a game without a backup plan.

With this in mind, your goal should be to advance your synergies safely while making sure to protect your most important cards. Don’t try to beat the opponent with a 30 point lead – a win by one is still a win. Cards like Cosmo, Armor, and Professor X, as well as decks that can move your cards, will be looking to disrupt your plan make your deck unable to function properly.

One of the keys to overcoming this deck’s challenges is priority. It makes reading the situation much simpler than trying to guess the opponent’s cards. In order to keep priority, you need to establish early points through Bucky Barnes and your other cheap cards.

Potential Additions:
Bucky Barnes for the early game or America Chavez for consistency could be added, but it has become difficult to adapt the current list of Deadpool.

Hela Tribunal

Hela Tribunal

Created by den

, updated 27 days ago

2

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

2x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

1x Starter Card

4.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Similar to other proactive decks on this list that benefited greatly from the chaotic environment after the OTA, Hela Tribunal seems to be back to what it was late in July. However, it feels like there is a much better chance for the deck to actually keep up its good performance, at least if the metagame remains based around the same decks.

First, Wave and Doctor Doom are barely a problem for the deck, as Hela Tribunal is only playing one card a turn most of the time. Then, less of Move Legion means a much more reliable time landing combos with Invisible Woman or keeping Iron Man and Onslaught on the same lane. Also, among the Ongoing hate cards Patriot could bring back, only Super-Skrull feels like a problem, as we can use Invisible Woman to protect our cards from Enchantress and Rogue (although it could hurt if MODOK is revealed early).

How to Play:
This deck looks to merge two synergies in the hopes that one makes it through and scores a lot of points. Here is what you are looking to accomplish:

• Discard your hand with MODOK and bring everything back with Hela to summon a ton of points at random.
• Have Iron Man and Onslaught together on the same lane with The Living Tribunal in play. Make sure to maximize points on the Iron Man lane.

For one of these two play patterns to happen, you need to use your support cards to maximize your chances of pulling it off:

• Invisible Woman can hide MODOK, which will only reveal on Turn 6 and before the Hela that you also played behind Invisible Woman. The card can also serve as protection from Enchantress for your Ongoing combo.
• Magik allows you to play MODOK on Turn 5 if you haven’t drawn Hela yet, giving you two more turns to find your second combo piece. Otherwise, the card enables the Iron Man → Onslaught → The Living Tribunal pattern on Turns 5, 6, and 7.
• Jubilee can pull a piece of the Ongoing combo or give you a shot at Hela if she’s still in the deck. Iron Lad serves the same purpose, albeit with a slightly different ability.

Potential Additions:
Hela Tribunal isn’t exactly a flexible deck. You could try to add stability to it with America Chavez instead of Magneto or The Infinaut. Otherwise, Crystal is another possibility for more card draw. Last, the deck used to include Echo in the past as a way to help against Cosmo.

Move Legion

Move Legion

Created by den

, updated 27 days ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Although the middle of Tier 2 is the worst ranking Move Legion has had since its rise at the start of the season, the deck seems like it dealt with its two nerfs pretty well. As it stands, Legion remains a staple in the deck because controlling the locations is still key to the deck’s success. Captain Marvel, on the other end, is a different story.

The card is still very popular across the board, but it was not part of the best performing list this week. As expected, the combination of Captain Marvel at four power and Doctor Doom‘s DoomBots at five power hurt the Cosmic Avenger very much. She probably remains a decent card with Kraven or another tool that can benefit from her ability. Still, the card has disappeared from the Good Cards archetypes, showing that this is clearly the more impactful nerf of the two.

The focus on decks with a higher point potential, as well as the nerf to Good Cards, is probably the bigger reason as to why Move Legion has declined a bit this week.

How to Play:
Mostly looking to build points proactively, Move Legion relies on Kraven and Angela to anchor your lanes. Either card is able to grow to eight, maybe even ten, power over the course of a match.

Then, with one lane contested via points, the second lane can be challenged through three different means:

• You can easily get points on a locked or unplayable location with Silk, Nightcrawler, and Jeff the Baby Land Shark.
• You can play a disruptive game with Legion, Spider-Man, and Shang-Chi.
• You can win a second lane on points with Silk, Spider-Man, or a 1-Cost Miles Morales all representing good points for their costs.

Overall, it feels like once this deck is in the lead, its flexibility allows the pilot to dictate how the rest of the game will go. It does require some anticipation skills, but it has the ability to reach any location, develop points, and play counters, which gives you all the tools to turn an early lead into a successful Snap.

Potential Additions:
Captain Marvel remain a popular inclusion in the deck. Otherwise, the usual “Move your opponent’s cards” criterion can also be considered.

Negative Surfer

Negative Surfer

Created by den

, updated 27 days ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
This almost feels like a ritual at this point. Whenever the weekly changes shake the metagame enough, Mister Negative makes some sort of a return. The deck is great when it comes to competing based on points, as it can hide most of its potential until the last turn and adapt to the opponent’s spread. Wave could be a problem in the future if it gains more momentum, and the same goes for Leech if InSheNaut picks up in popularity. If either were to happen, Mister Negative would probably be sent back to Tier 3.

Until then, and as long as the metagame remains a messy, chaotic battle of points, Negative Surfer should remain a solid deck to run.

How to Play:
Just like other Mister Negative decks, your goal is to play your signature card as early as possible so you can draw as many Negatived cards as you can. To make that happen, you have Zabu to get it down a turn earlier and Magik to give you an extra draw. At times, Bast can be enough to have a fighting chance, but it is considered a backup plan more than anything else.

Past that step, the deck functions just like a Surfer deck that wants to develop points by the end of the game. Ideally, you are able to keep your Negatived cards in hand until the last possible moment in order to prevent the opponent from knowing how much they have to beat. However, don’t hold onto your cards if you suspect a Professor X, Wave, Leech, or other such limiting card from your opponent on Turn 5 – especially if they Snap. Take a moment to consider the logic behind the Snap, as they likely know exactly what you are playing by now.

Here are your two main synergies to develop points on several lanes:

• Wong into Ironheart, Wolfsbane, and Silver Surfer on the same lane. Ironheart and Silver Surfer should help support the second lane really well.
• Iron Man copied by Mystique on two separate lanes.

Potential Additions:
Rogue and other tech cards didn’t seem to help the deck’s performance very much. Still, almost any card with higher cost than power can be considered, especially if it’s a 3-Cost card.

Silver Surfer

Sera Surfer

Created by den

, updated 28 days ago

2

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

9x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Rank Justification:
Silver Surfer remains an enigma week after week. The deck features one of the strongest things you can do in the game currently with Forge, Brood and Absorbing Man, alongside the ability to adapt its list when it comes to including tech cards. But there are so many versions of Silver Surfer when I look at the data that the archetype looks like a hot mess.

One thing I noticed is the list that still runs Nova and Killmonger does worse compared to lists with an extra 2-Cost and a different 3-Cost. My guess is that, because Destroy is very popular, Killmonger‘s usefulness has been limited to only Turn 6 because of X-23 and Deadpool. Plus, with Armor in a lot of lists, Killmonger is very unlikely to destroy the opponent’s 1-Cost cards. Nova is also stopped by Armor, especially because you usually want to play it on Turn 1 or Turn 4 and that gives the opponent time to play Armor on the same lane.

I don’t expect Silver Surfer to remain so low in the rankings next week – especially if the community agrees on a list – but this start is looking pretty rough for the archetype after the last patch.

How to Play:
The deck follows a pretty simple play pattern that culminates into an explosive Turn 6 and hopefully catches the opponent off guard.

On Turns 2, 3, and 4, you will usually just play a card, focus on spending your energy efficiently, and advance your game plan. Your two most common patterns are Forge, Brood, and Absorbing Man, or the tried and true Storm and Juggernaut. Otherwise, play cards you anticipate you won’t have the energy for later on.

If you are running tech cards like Rogue, Killmonger, or Shadow King, you will be looking to keep them for Turn 6 in order to get the most effective use. As such, you need to play the more proactive cards during the early turns. Usually, Nova is better played on Turn 4 with more information available rather than on Turn 1. It also disguises your archetype from the opponent better and let’s you play with your space more efficiently.

On Turn 5, the deck typically runs a card dedicated to this turn – which is most often Sera. While these are the go-to plays most of the time, Forge and Brood have a second opportunity to be played on Turn 5, which sets you up nicely for Silver Surfer plus a counter card on Turn 6. In this build, you could also consider playing Armor on Turn 6 if you have priority in order to negate an opponent’s important effects before focusing on points.

Turn 6 will almost always have Silver Surfer included, plus another 3-Cost (or two with Sera on board). While Silver Surfer is a big buff to all of your lanes, it is usually correct to focus on two lanes for the end of the game – especially if you kept a Shadow King or other such card that is able to flip one in your favor on its own.

Potential Additions:
Even though I just discussed its weaknesses, Nova plus Killmonger is still a popular duo. Then, Cosmo and Maximus are easy to include over Rogue. Kraven, Goose, or any strong standalone 2-Cost card can replace Armor.

Tier 3

Tier 3 is really close to Tier 2 if I’m totally honest, apart from Discard Dracula. It’s a little behind Thanos Death and Evolved Lockjaw in terms of Cube Average. Otherwise, there isn’t much to say about these decks since they’ve been around for a while now. Thanos Death has started to include Professor X and is slowly shifting towards a more Control based approach. Lockjaw and Discard are still rocking the same lists they have been for the past several weeks, with similar results apparently.

Thanos Death

Thanos Control

Created by den

, updated 27 days ago

2

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

3x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Evolved Lockjaw

Evolved Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 27 days ago