Marvel Snap OTA Update Analysis and Decks to Play: A New Meta on the Horizon

Every two weeks, Marvel Snap undergoes an “Over the Air” (OTA) update, which does not require a full patch. Cards are able to be rebalanced with their stats (Power and Energy) only via a hotfix, whereas major ability reworks are reserved for patches. This article is our in-depth analysis of the changes, how it might impact the current meta, and some potential decks you can play from the get go!

OTA Balance Update Overview

This is the kind of OTA I like to see, where the cards warping the meta are heavily nerfed and many other synergies get small buffs to make them more appealing. With this patch, Thanos Lockjaw should return to being a decent but not obnoxious deck to play against, and we also have various avenues to explore in order to find the next strong contenders.

There are already a few takeaways from this OTA, mostly because we knew what the meta was before Blob came around and started to dictate what is or isn’t good enough to play. If the Big Man is on the way out, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Darkhawk make a comeback, and Loki might gain some momentum as well (stealing cards from a Blob deck was usually a pretty bad deal). Lockdown should remain a strong synergy to build around, and decks like Good Cards Black Knight or Hela Lockjaw might finally have the highest points potential.

All the archetypes you can routinely find in our Tier List are expected to be on the rise, so anyone looking for a comfort pick should find one of these to fit the bill pretty nicely.

If you are feeling more adventurous, however, look at all these buffs that could potentially help various other archetypes!

Selene is now a solid card – as long as you have a couple of good targets in your deck. I could easily picture it alongside Ravonna Renslayer, Hobgoblin, and Green Goblin as a new disruptive package outside Annihilus. Viper is now on par with most 3-Cost cards with an ability, and, although Selene was a nice target with negative its power, The Hood is still great to pair with Viper.

Move also got two buffs with Hercules gaining a power (the card was clearly disappointing during its release week) and Dagger finally looking like a card you might consider in a Move deck. The change is a buff as soon as Dagger triggers three times. The last one for synergistic cards is Dazzler, which is now a 2-Cost and serves as a reminder that Thanos Ongoing still exists as a deck. It might be worth testing if Thanos Lockjaw disappears after the Blob nerf. I could also imagine Dazzler in an Iron Patriot deck since it has been looking for solid 2-Cost cards because it was rarely able to leverage any 3-Costs besides Brood, Patriot, Mystique, or Silver Surfer.

We also got a couple of standalone buffs with Elektra and Destroyer both gaining a power. The first one has been demanded for quite some time now, and the buff could make Elektra a nice inclusion in decks like Bounce. It could also just be a targeted Killmonger that can be played before Caiera on Turn 3. As for Destroyer, the card has been very discreet lately; the Ramp deck it shared with Nimrod disappeared when Blob took over the Electro Ramp archetype. Maybe that deck can come back now that Blob won’t be such a strong foundation to the archetype.

Overall, I am absolutely ecstatic about this patch for the simple reason it gives us a lot of exploring to do. There is a chance we will only go back to the previous meta before Blob became dominant, but, when combined with the buffs in the previous patch (notable, Quake and Kingpin) plus the nerfs to strong cards late in 2023, this OTA should only push us in the right direction.

Ready for a new Marvel Snap meta?

Thanos Control Gets Hit Much Harder Than Thanos Lockjaw

Thanos Lockjaw should be worse than it currently is, which is the expected aftermath of the big nerf to Blob. However, I think the deck with the most to worry about is Thanos Control. Indeed, while Thanos Lockjaw has plenty of power cards to build around, the Control archetype really needed Blob to ensure it was winning its second location. Now, even if you manage to land a good Professor X, you probably invested so much into its lane that the other two are tied at best, and you don’t have the guarantee Blob represented any more. On the other hand, a hot start with Thanos Lockjaw should still be able to get a solid amount of power on its lanes. If you think about it, Blob will still be a minimum of a 15 power card, which is on the higher end of the spectrum for 6-Costs. We live in an era where deck trackers are very common, so, even if you don’t get the full power, most players will be able to know when Blob is a good or a bad bet for the win.

I don’t see the deck remaining the juggernaut it currently is, and it should now be bested by other decks with a great points potential while also being much more scared of opposing Snaps. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if either the Caiera + Skaar version or the Killmonger + Death version were to remain solid decks after the OTA. Plus, the disruptive cards remain a very nice asset for Thanos Lockjaw.

Even if the environment were to change, those who genuinely liked Thanos Lockjaw for the play patterns it relied on should still have a perfectly playable deck on their hands.

Now that the big bad deck is out of the way, let’s discuss the potentially fun part of Thanos: the Dazzler buff might bring back Thanos Ongoing! That particular archetype has never really worked well, unfortunately. It’s often not able to put up enough points to compete without disrupting the opponent’s game plan. I doubt making Dazzler cheaper will be enough for this deck to change its fortune, but with all the other Thanos archetypes losing some momentum, it’s possible that Thanos Ongoing could become a decent deck with this OTA.

This is not a Thanos deck, but while we are on the topic of Dazzler I wanted to mention that the card could also fit in the KaZoo archetype pretty nicely now. Feel free to also test Elektra in there as well.

Bounce Leads the Way for the Buffed Archetypes

The Junk and Move synergy are both getting two buffs in this patch (Selene and Viper for Junk, Hercules and Dagger for Move). While doing research for this article, I found that Bounce already had some nice results with both synergies, and it should represent a nice foundation to test some of those new cards.

This deck has Vulture instead of Dagger and some very decent results heading into the OTA: a 0.35 Cube Average over a few hundred games. With Dagger being a decent card to bounce back in your hand, plus all the Move cards being cheap already, I could easily picture the 2-Cost routinely growing to double-digit power levels in this deck. Alongside Werewolf By Night and Human Torch, we have three cards that are able to grow nicely and challenge a location, and the deck even has enough room to include Shang-Chi for disruption.

Based around the same Bounce core, Selene obviously pushes you towards a more disruptive plan with cards like Green Goblin, Iceman, and Quake to derail your opponent. You logically have less power to develop here since you don’t have cards like Human Torch or Dagger to rely upon to grow your power. Bishop serves as the second power card alongside Werewolf By Night, and you can use the Demon and some disruptive cards to contest other locations. Elektra could also find its way into this deck in case there are some 1-Costs that are worthy of being destroyed early in the match. InSheNaut, for example, can warrant running the newly buffed 1-Cost card.

Unfortunately for Viper, having just The Hood as a good card to send to your opponent didn’t feel strong enough to include the card in the deck.

Apart from Bounce, there are plenty of archetypes worthy of having a look at with the buffs. Here are some ideas for decks with a nice Cube Average that use some of those cards already.

Good Cards, Lockdown, and Discard Battle to Become the Best Deck

Blob limited a lot of archetypes from performing as well as their power level would have you believe. If the card becomes less oppressive (which should happen), there should be a delightful battle to figure out which will be the next best archetype in Marvel Snap. Here are some likely contenders:

Darkhawk was in the conversation for best deck in the game before Blob released, and it slowly disappeared from the conversation as the card took over. Depending on how much momentum Blob loses following this patch, Darkhawk could jump back in the conversation for the best archetype very quickly.

I personally like the Annihilus variant of Lockdown (switch Medusa, Jessica Jones, and Vision for The Hood, Sentry, and Annihilus), but this one has been the most popular version since the Ms. Marvel nerf. More importantly, the Lockdown archetype as a whole has been Thanos’s fiercest competition over the past two weeks, which logically makes Lockdown an easy pick for a top archetype in the near future. However, Lockdown was annoyed by Darkhawk in the past because the card is one of the best to play on a Flooding location to take the lead.

Hela is another deck with a very high ceiling when it comes to points, but Black Knight holds the better Cube Average going into this OTA and it will have the privilege of representing the Discard synergy in this debate. With our first candidates, they really never relied on their sheer amount of points to get the job done (which Black Knight often has to do). If Blob is indeed much weaker with this update, Black Knight could rise as one of the best ways to develop a ton of points, and we might even consider replacing Shang-Chi for different disruption like Mobius M. Mobius or Cosmo in order to protect the big cards rather than have to deal with the opponent’s.

It is difficult to figure out how much room Destroy will have going forward – especially if it rises to be a top performer and there isn’t a bigger threat to counter. However, just like Lockdown over the last two weeks, Destroy was among the few archetypes that were able to post a constant, solid Cube Rate in the Thanos meta.

Honorable mentions:

These three all have a shot at being great, but I can’t ignore the fact that they haven’t been performing like the other four recently. However, because they are all established archetypes and have lists ready to go, I could easily see any of these archetypes representing a good comfort pick after the OTA.

Loki should get the biggest boost from a meta that is once again based around the Good Cards synergy because it would make the stolen cards really good to play more often. Move is just a simple synergy to pick up, and it has a form of disruption that should work against almost any opponent (plus you can always slot a specific tech card if needed).

As for Sera Control, the deck has been under-the-radar for the past two weeks, but it posted some very solid numbers recently and can quickly adapt to any kind of meta. It might take a little bit more time than the other two to find an ideal build, but it could end up being the best one once it does.

Closing Words

No matter how big a balance update is, there will always be some solid archetypes left out and ready to compete immediately while others have to be refined and/or tested. Then, even if a large part of the community has been very vocal about how great it will be once Thanos Lockjaw is toned down, I don’t necessarily expect the meta to feel new on day one. I fully expect some known archetypes to rise early on and dominate until the community puts in the time to test the various ideas that will emerge after this OTA.

I wouldn’t worry if the first wave of solid decks aren’t the ones we wish to see. Instead, let’s just consider the first step towards the next meta: we need to know which of the decks Blob was keeping in check have what it takes to replace Thanos Lockjaw, and which were bound to disappear eventually. As such, I will welcome the Lokis, Darkhawks, and Destroys I will meet on the ladder; beating them would give my Ongoing Thanos or Selene Bounce deck a lot of credit going forward since I know I’m not winning only because everyone is also playing some wacky deck.

I’m super excited to see where this OTA will take us and whether the combination of the previous nerfs we got ten days ago plus Blob today will amount to a different environment. Of course, I’ll be on the lookout for the best performing decks, and you can expect our next Tier List to come out over the weekend to let you know all about it.

Until then, have fun with Marvel Snap. The time looks just right for it! Also, if you wanted to discuss the patch, find me on the Marvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow my Twitter page where I share decks and biased opinions about the game. You can also join our weekly group coaching sessions if you are a premium member where we will experiment around the OTA together!

Good Game Everyone.