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
New cards typically fall into one of these three categories:
- Flexible and strong. Should fit many decks that are looking for a card at that cost.
- Synergistic. You know where it fits, and you either like it or don’t.
- Flexible, but not really strong. Could fit many decks, but it likely won’t end up in any of them.
To kick off the The Amazing Spider-Season, both of the new cards are arguably part of the first category. Silver Sable has become a solid (although not critical) 1-Cost addition to any deck, while Symbiote Spider-Man makes sense in a lot of archetypes that allow him to merge with a strong ability.
So far, Silver Sable is clearly the better card of the two since it’s not as counterable. Symbiote Spider-Man has to deal with the Junk archetype as a whole, but White Widow and
Fortunately for us, the Marvel Snap environment didn’t really need to change. It was already pretty diverse with a sea of good decks breaking the floodgates once Arishem Loki got nerfed. With the help of bots in the new season climb, there are a staggering eight decks in Tier 1 this week. That’s the most that I can remember since I’ve been making these reports!
In this context, strong and flexible cards may have been the perfect type of card to release. Indeed, neither Silver Sable nor Symbiote Spider-Man gave a significant edge to any particular archetype. Instead, they both gave new options to many of the top archetypes and made them better overall (but still balanced compared to each other).
This is a cool meta. Let’s enjoy it!
Happy Tier List, everyone!
Marvel Snap Meta Tier List
| Tier | Deck |
|---|---|
| Silent Performer | 10 Power |
| Tier 1 | Midrange Sandman |
| Tier 1 | KaZoo |
| Tier 1 | Junk |
| Tier 1 | Good Cards Thena |
| Tier 1 | Patriot |
| Tier 1 | Arishem Loki |
| Tier 1 | Silver Surfer |
| Tier 1 | Stature Darkhawk |
| Tier 2 | Destroy |
| Tier 2 | Galactus |
| Tier 3 | Discard Dracula |
| 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 > 0.8 & Win Rate > 60%
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 > 0.6 & Win Rate > 60%
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 > 0.60 & Win Rate < 60 %
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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The deck isn’t trying to do anything crazy. You just play cards with ten power, hence the name, in order to discount Skaar. Attuma helps you get rid of a fake Mysterio or a Squirrel if you need space, and both Cosmo and Armor are your Shang-Chi protection (as well as disruptive pieces).
Early on in a season, explosive decks like this can really produce some fireworks—especially if you manage to incorporate an element of surprise. From the outside, many players might think you’re just a Zoo deck or some type of Mockingbird+Sasquatch deck with good standalone cards added to the mix. If you think about it, the only card that looks weird and could tip your opponent off is Attuma. Otherwise, they might never suspect a Skaar until it wins you the game.
Tier 1
Midrange Sandman
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Archetypes based on winning big and losing little tend to do a little worse than usual when bots are around since they feed eight cubes to anyone who knows how to manipulate them. With this in mind, decks with a high Win Rate tend to be better for grinding back to the Infinite rank. You can just fall into a rhythm against the players while getting those big wins against the bots.
In this context, it is no surprise to see the deck with the best Win Rate from last season do so well early in this season—especially now that Arishem Loki isn’t as dominant anymore. We’ll see if Midrange Sandman can keep this performance up when the Tier List only includes data from the Infinite rank next week.
Potential Additions
Maria Hill instead of Spider-Ham makes finding a 2-Cost card more reliable, but she provides less disruption.
KaZoo
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KaZoo typically shines early in a season. Not only is the deck able to win while focusing on its own development, it is also pretty good at slotting counter cards (like the Cosmo in this list) to adapt against certain opponents.
Even though the performance might dip once you’re back to Infinite, you should be able to get there reliably with some basic, fundamentally sound plays and a safe Snap and Retreat plan.
Potential Additions
Caiera is typically included to protect from Killmonger.
Junk
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Since Arishem lost some momentum, Junk has been much more of a menace. Indeed, there are fewer decks that can win a lane with just one card or develop quickly enough to avoid getting clogged. If you also factor in the fact that Junk counters Symbiote Spider-Man, you quickly begin to realize that right now is the time for the archetype to shine.
In particular, I found the trio of Titania, White Widow,
- They didn’t play there. You give them Titania and the Junk card. Then you can get Titania back on Turn 6 with a cheap card.
- They played one card. They only get the Junk card and you get a [1/5] with no drawback.
- They played two cards. The lane is now locked and you know exactly what you have to beat.
The rest of the Junk synergy is also good in a meta with more synergy and less proactive development. Either way, I expect big things from this trio in particular moving forward.
Potential Additions
Bounce Junk also posted a nice performance, although it wouldn’t have ranked this high on the list:
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Good Cards Thena
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With Junk slowly becoming the deck to beat, cheap cards that are able to grow their power or are able to move have a lot of upsides. This is precisely the backbone of Good Cards Thena, which explains its great performance so far in the new season. It also explains the preference for the Move heavy version of the deck.
Potential Additions
Killmonger is flexible if you value another card more. Juggernaut brings some disruption, but it can also be replaced. Look for good targets to buff with Gwenpool or powerful counter cards for specific match ups.
Patriot
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Patriot always has been and always will be a solid archetype to climb to Infinite and make the bots look like fools. In a diverse meta that is free of any direct threats, the archetype lived up to its reputation and posted one of the highest Win Rates in the game.
Plus, even if the archetype wants to focus solely on its own development and spread enough points to contest all three locations, cards like Copycat and Sandman bring some disruption without the need to put in extra effort to make them. The duo is joined by Silver Sable, the deck’s 1-Cost card of choice currently. If any of those cards are good to play on curve, feel free to slam them; otherwise, your deck doesn’t need them to develop points and be a menace.
Potential Additions
Red Guardian or Nebula can replace any card you might be missing. Super-Skrull will win you the mirror match.
Arishem Loki
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Still in the discussion of competitive decks after it was the main target for nerfs in the Young Avengers, Arishem Loki has kept a very good Win Rate so far. However, its Cube Average is looking significantly worse than it was in the past, indicating the deck might be struggling to keep its opponents in the game when it gets a hot start. It could also mean that it is losing more of the contested matches.
The biggest change is the popularity of Arishem, which is logically on the decline with new cards to play and several recent nerfs. A lot of other decks are still running Cassandra Nova, though, so it would be interesting to see how good Arishem Loki could be if that card wasn’t so mainstream.
Potential Additions
Strong standalone cards remain this archetype’s bread and butter. If you lack a card, simply look for another ability that is able to make an impact in most matches.
Silver Surfer
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Completely unfazed by the new season, Silver Surfer has continued to run the exact same list, albeit with a little less success due to some of the other emerging decks. Still, the 3-Cost based archetype is a safe pick, just like Patriot. These decks have been around forever, and they’re great for anyone who is looking to climb to Infinite.
Potential Additions
Sera can bring some more energy cheating on top of Hope Summers, and any strong 3-Cost card could make sense in a Silver Surfer deck.
Stature Darkhawk
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One of the most popular decks in the game, Stature Darkhawk isn’t losing any momentum despite Arishem‘s waning popularity. This shows that the deck’s success comes from more than just one good match up into a popular opponent.
With the new season, Stature Darkhawk changed nothing in its list. Honestly, I was expecting to see Silver Sable make an appearance here. Indeed, the card has become a solid 1-Cost for many archetypes, so a deck that is looking to play almost exclusively odd costed cards felt like a logical landing spot. There was a list with Silver Sable instead of Spider-Ham, but those performed much worse than the one featured above. Either the new card just doesn’t fit, or it is Nico Minoru that has to go.
Potential Additions
Swarm and Proxima Midnight battle for the best discard target in the deck. Feel free to pick your favorite.
Tier 2
Destroy
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Just like Silver Sable in Stature Darkhawk, I was eager to know how impactful Symbiote Spider-Man would be for Destroy. And, just like Silver Sable, it seems like the best lists around Deadpool quickly ditched the Season Pass card. Instead, most of them capitalized on Attuma since it’s a card with “destroy” written on it.
It seems like we are back to the age old debate of Shang-Chi, Arnim Zola, or Lady Deathstrike. The only difference is Deathlok is no longer included in the deck now that Attuma has taken its spot.
Potential Additions
Arnim Zola, Nimrod, Lady Deathstrike, or Deathlok all fit the destroy theme and can contribute in their own ways.
Galactus
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Galactus has several lists available at this point. Both Wiccan and Symbiote Spider-Man have opened new ways to trigger the Eater of Worlds. Still, it is the list from two months ago that has posted the best results this week. And its performance has only improved now that Destroyer can be played behind Galactus.
The difference maker is the disruption brought by Killmonger, as well as the ability to play even when you don’t get Galactus thanks to Ultron. This makes the deck able to compete in more games, and you avoid being forced to Snap all your early Galactus opportunities (many of which end up being punished, especially in a meta with quite a lot of Junk decks around).
Potential Additions
Here’s another way to build around Galactus:
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Tier 3
Discard Dracula
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Discard posted a nice Win Rate—just like every other deck in this report—but it had a pretty weak Cube Average considering it is the first week of the season and bots are everywhere. This has always been Discard Dracula’s biggest weakness: the deck is forced to Snap super early, or the opponent won’t stay against your on curve Morbius and Dracula.
If they do, it usually means they can counter you, and then you are bound to lose four to eight cubes and drag your average down. Which is exactly the case here.
Closing Words
Disruptive players can play Junk or Stature Darkhawk, proactive players have Patriot, Silver Surfer, and KaZoo to enjoy, and players who are looking to do a bit of both can turn to either Good Cards decks or Arishem Loki. At the end of the day, the only archetype that is missing from this list is a combo oriented one, but Copycat, Spider-Ham, Cosmo, and Sandman are gatekeeping those.
Looking at the “struggles” of Destroy and Discard, I can guess that super synergistic builds give too much information early on to be in the top tier. This conclusion also holds true for Galactus, an archetype with multiple lists where the best one is also the most flexible.
I know many players don’t necessarily enjoy these contested metas where you never truly know if you won the game or not. It makes the Snap button difficult to click on, and every turn can be a brain teaser trying to figure out where to position your cards or guess the opponent’s next move. Fortunately, the bots are here to make it all better. They help make sure that everyone can climb one way or another.
Next week we’ll have a clearer look at the archetypes that are able to perform when they don’t get that little boost, as there will be enough games played to only analyze what is happening inside the Infinite rank.
Until then, I wish you best of luck on your climb. If you don’t know what to play, there are plenty of options to pick from!
To reach out about this report or if you were looking for some coaching, 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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