Best Series (Pool) 3 Advanced Decks

Marvel Snap Pool 3 cards are the most impactful in the game, and the ones that can be make or break for a lot of players. When one enters Pool 3, they officially step in a different world of Marvel Snap, with many more ways of building a deck, various synergies and play patterns, and some of the most impactful cards in the whole metagame.

Currently, even with Series 4 and Series 5 cards making a huge impact, several Pool 3 decks are still able to compete and provide a solid chance at climbing the ladder, especially with new cards from Series 4 joining via Series Drops every month. The trick in order to be able to exploit Pool 3 cards to their fullest is to look for the full range of possibilities around the card, a big difference compared to Pool 1 or 2.

Indeed, up until this point, cards were relatively straightforward as to what they could do, and how to build or play around them. In this next step, you will have a chance at creating much more flexible builds with various play patterns, and different options on how to conduct the game, based on your opponent and the various locations. Deckbuilding wise, the big emphasis in Pool 3 is to make sure you know where you are going with your deck. If you manage to build a strong core, then you can use the flexible cards to complement your idea, and have a deck able to both push for its own agenda, or annoy the opponent.

Pool 3 features many cards worthy of being the core of your deck, Sera, Mister Negative, Wong, Patriot and others. You will also meet some cards that can seemingly help any kind of strategy and make sense in the overall goal of their deck, such as Aero, Leader or Magneto for example. So welcome to Pool 3, the biggest land of your Marvel Snap journey so far. There are a lot of things to discover, and this guide is here to help you get started on the best decks you might face while in Pool 3.

Sera Control

Pool 3 Sera

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

6x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

2.7

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

One of the best decks in the game for a while now, Sera Control also has a way to be built with Pool 3 cards only, the “toxic” variant.

In this one, we are looking to use Sera’s cost reduction to pull off an explosive turn six, where we will both develop some points, and impair our opponent’s card. The trick is to use Luke Cage‘s ongoing ability to not suffer from Hazmat or Typhoid Mary‘s negative effects.

Before we get to the planned turn five into six play pattern, we have a couple of cards we can just play proactively in order to develop some points onto the board. Also, it is important to simply drop the cards we don’t anticipate playing on turn six, as them being on the board contributing to our total will always be better than having them sit in our hand for the whole match.

• Turn Two, we have Zabu which is a super safe play. Lizard can be a consideration, but could forces us to use Enchantress there later on.
• If the opponent has a worthy target, it is fine to play Killmonger a this points. Similarly, if we have Hazmat already, Maximus giving cards to our opponent isn’t the end of the world.
• On turn four, unless there is a good target for oneof them, Shang-Chi and Enchantress are better kept for turn six. Omega Red kind of tells our plan to the opponent, but it’s better than doing nothing. Typhoid Mary is a good to play.

If you have Zabu, or read this piece after it dropped to Pool 3, you can upgrade the deck to this:

Toxic Sera

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

1

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Sera Surfer

Sera Surfer

Created by den

, updated 26 days ago

6

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

With Silver Surfer joining Pool 3 in May, the other archetype built around Sera is now a free to play deck. Similarly to Sera Control, it is another great one, as Sera Surfer has routinely been posting top 5 numbers in Marvel Snap for the past few months.

The deck follows a pretty simple play pattern that culminates into an explosive Turn 6 and hopefully catches the opponent off guard. When Sera is in play, the deck is able to play three 3-cost cards, providing one of the most explosive late turns available in Marvel Snap.

On Turns 2, 3, and 4, you will usually just play a card and focus on spending your energy efficiently and advancing your game plan. Apart from the Storm–Juggernaut duo on Turns 3 and 4, there aren’t many synergies going on. Look to play cards you won’t be able to fit in on Turns 5 and 6 but still need to have in play. Usually, Nova is better to be played on Turn 4 with more information available rather than on Turn 1. It also disguises our archetype from the opponent better.

Turn 5 will usually be a Sera play, if you can. If you don’t have Sera, it can be a 3-cost plus a 2-cost (Goose can lock a location from a big card being played by our opponent while barely impacting us). On the last turn of play, the deck has many play patterns. The general game plan is dumping two 3-cost cards followed by Silver Surfer in order to surprise the opponent with power.

The deck is also upgradable with Series 4 and 5 cards, such as Jeff, the Baby Land Shark for flexibility, Iron Lad for some high roll potential. There is a Zabu build looking to include a few 4-cost cards such as Absorbing Man, Shang-Chi or Enchantress as well.

SheNaut

Pool 3 SheNaut

Created by den

, updated 30 days ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

A rather discreet combo oriented deck, SheNaut has been a top five archetype in Marvel Snap for a bit now, yet, never picked up in popularity. The goal with this one is to create a super explosive last turn, where we will be able to play She-Hulk and The Infinaut at the same time, developing a ton of points in the process.

In order to get this combo going, we need a bit of a set up:

• First, we have to play Psylocke or Magik in order to be able to skip six energies, discounting She-Hulk to zero.
• Then, we need to make sure our opponent cannot block our combo, using cards like Sandman.
• Last, we still needed to develop a bit of points, so our last turn does not have to do everything on its own.

The first part of the plan is quite self-explanatory. Magik can come down on turn five, so we can pass turn six, and Psylocke can be played on four, so we have six energy to pass on five. The second part of the plan relies on the information we can get out of our opponent. Where are they going to invest their points, and do they have a way to counter ours, are the two most important questions to ponder. Last, as we would ideally like to duplicate She-Hulk with Moon Girl, we have to manage our hand to create the necessary space. This is the reason the deck is playing so many cheap cards, so we can dump them early and build the perfect hand to duplicate.

If you purchased the last Season Pass, I would highly recommend playing Nebula in the deck.

DoomWave Dinosaur

Pool 3 DoomWave Dino

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Starter Card

3.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

During your Pool 2 journey, you probably saw a lot of Devil Dinosaur, the archetype being one of the best during that part of the Marvel Snap progression. Once in Pool 3, Devil Dinosaur remains a solid win condition to build around, but often needs to be mixed with another strong win condition to become a complete deck. In this mix with the DoomWave archetype, one of the best in Marvel Snap at the time of writing. We are mixing the Devil Dinosaur package and the Wave, She-Hulk and Doctor Doom trio together to form a cohesive deck.

For the first four turns, we are simply playing an up-tempo deck, looking to use our energy, and spreading our points across all lanes. Then, we need to decision which win condition we want to push in order to win the game:

• It can be as simple as Devil Dinosaur on five and Doctor Doom on six if you are ahead already.
• It can be Wave into Devil Dinosaur and She-hulk, for big chunks of points on specific lanes. Or Doctor Doom and She-Hulk to spread our points across the board.
• With Moon Girl or White Queen, we can also create new combinations for turn five and six, an opportunity to be creative and catch our opponent off guard.

Likely, once you unlock Zabu and Darkhawk, both cards waiting in Series 4, but soon dropping to Pool 3. You should move on to the Darkhawk variant of the DoomWave archetype. If you have Nebula, you can also consider this take on the deck:

DoomWave Nebula

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Patriot

Patriot

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2x Starter Card

3.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

One of the first archetypes centered around a card you might see in your Pool 3 adventure is Patriot, a card that brings back most of the No Ability “vanilla” cards you dismissed back in Pool 1. In this deck, Misty Knight, Shocker, and Cyclops are making a comeback, and actually represent the core of this deck, alongside its signature card: Patriot.

The concept is simple, we want to pair a certain type of cards with the buff that will make them stronger, and then use Mystique and Onslaught in order to duplicate that buff and get even stronger. This deck has three different buffs, which can totally work together and buff the same cards:

• Patriot looks to strengthen our vanilla cards in the deck, helping them go from a card nobody would think about playing to a threat for the opponent on the lane they are played. Wasp, Misty Knight, Shocker, Cyclops are the card which can receive Patriot‘s +2 buff. Also, the Squirrel from Squirrel Girl and the Rock from Debrii are considered No Ability cards.
• Ka-Zar buffs our 1-Cost cards, getting some small numbers to become a more reasonable contribution. Squirrel Girl, Misty Knight and mostly Ultron‘s Drones are affected by Ka-Zar.
• Blue Marvel is the nice guy, he will buff every of your cards in play, no distinction, everyone gets a +1.

Ideally, the perfect setup would be to decide as early as possible which locations we intend on fighting for, and which will serve as the recipient for our buffing cards. Indeed, with Patriot being a 1 power card, Mystique a 0 power card or Blue Marvel a 3 power card, the location they are being played on can often be difficult to leverage to our advantage. Even with Onslaught or Ultron contributing more to the points total, it is rare we have a fighting chance against an opponent who decided to heavily invest into that location. With that in mind, it is important to make sure we are really strong on the other two lanes.

At the time of writing, Enchantress is quite a popular card in the metagame, pushing Cosmo to be a must include in Patriot. Without that threat, the deck would likely play Cyclops, The Thing or another cheap, flexible card.

For the complete detailed deck guide, click here:

DeathWave

Death Wave

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

4

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.4

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The best deck in the game for quite some time, a lot of the popular tech cards in the current metagame are due to DeathWave’s dominant run before and during the global release period. For example, did you know Aero became such a feared card up to the point she needed a nerf because it was discovered to be a great card in the DeathWave deck. It allows you to control the opponent’s turn while we can freely play Death for free somewhere important. The big popularity of Armor, one of the recurring cards in the 2-Cost slot in Marvel Snap is largely due to the destroy mechanic being amongst the strongest one when left unchecked.

So where does DeathWave get most of its power ? It’s a pretty simple pattern:

• Step 1: Get at least two cards destroyed during the first four turns of the game. Ideally, look to develop points at the same time, using cards like Bucky Barnes, Carnage or Deathlock to anchor your lanes.
• Step 2: Play Wave on turn five.
• Step 3: You can now play any card in your hand plus Death, which should cost two or less energy at this time. You can also fit in She-Hulk, which should cost two if you only played Wave on turn five.

If you manage to get up to four destroys, Death becomes free with Wave’s ability, and you have access to one of Marvel Snap’s most powerful turn six play : Death plus She-Hulk plus Doctor Doom.

For the complete detailed deck guide, click here:

Lockjaw On Reveal

Lockjaw

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4.1

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Regularly labelled the “high roll” archetype, as the core strategies relies on summoning random cards from our deck. Lockjaw is amongst the card every deckbuilder loves to have at its disposal in order to try a ton of different combinations around. Once you understand the different parts of the deck, you can actually have a lot of fun trying all the various options to find the ones that suits you best.

Here is a typical deck breakdown:

• Core Cards: Lockjaw because it is its namesake deck – Jubilee for cheating big cards – America Chavez for draw consistency – Wasp as the best Lockjaw trigger – two to three more big cards to summon, usually, the bigger, the better, hence why The Infinaut, Giganto and Magneto are included here.
• Flexible Cards: Nightcrawler and Vision, you can move them out of Lockjaw‘s lane if they get summoned to get more of your signature card. Thor and Jane Foster Mighty Thor, for the synergy around Mjölnir, which serves as another free activator for Lockjaw down the line. Dracula basically serves as a second Jubilee, and a way to get a big card’s power without the cost.

Once you understand the role of each card in the deck, you can actually find a ton of small packages to test for yourself. Most of the time, On Reveal cards tend to do great in the deck, as they can get triggered multiple times through being cycled with Lockjaw. Korg or Iceman have seen play in the archetype in the past.

Gameplay wise, the key is not to get carried away by your Lockjaw lane and actually remember Marvel Snap requires you to win two lanes. As such, you have to think about the cards you want to use alongside Lockjaw, and those who can serve to anchor the second location you covet.

Discard Dracula

Pool 3 Discard Dracula

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

4x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

3x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

The discard synergy is one that is associated with fast, flooding based decks until you reach Pool 3. Then, you will unlock some key cards to get the discard archetype towards something combo-oriented, especially as you get Dracula added to the mix.

In a perfect world, this deck is looking to challenge all lanes in the match, using one of its anchors to do so:

• Morbius and The Collector are able to grow to six, eight points with a good hand, which is more on par with a 4-cost card.
• Dracula can win a lane on its own when we get to discard Apocalypse a couple of times during the game.
• Discard card are actually worth a solid amount of points for their cost. Colleen Wing, Sword Master and Hellcow add up to 16 points together, which can win a lane at times.

Storm and Iceman are the two odd-looking cards in the deck. Storm is used to support Morbius, The Collector and Dracula, as these cards are able to dominate a lane on their own, we can expect to capitalize on their ability to grow once the lane has become unplayable. Iceman is simply slotted as a good 1-cost card, it can be replaced with Sunspot or Wolverine.

When talking about this deck, you will most of the time see MODOK and Nebula being mentioned in the deck. Both season pass cards are great to include, but aren’t available for a Pool 3 only exercise yet.

Worthy Considerations

Outside these top ranked decks in the current metagame, here are other decks worthy to consider when limited to pool 3 cards only:

Cerebro 2

Cerebro 2

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

6x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

1.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Electro Ramp

Electro Ramp

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.1

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Hela Discard

Hela Discard

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

0

1x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

6.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Kazoocula

Kazoocula

Created by den

, updated 1 month ago

4

1x Collection Level 1-14

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

3x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

1x Recruit Season

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Closing Words

I truly believe all the decks on this list to be strong, like Infinite material kind of strong. However, the key point when you will start playing in Pool 3 are your snap and retreats. Up until Pool 2, you could always get away with it, facing enough bots to get some grinding done, or capitalizing on your opponent’s inexperience of the game. Once you enter Pool 3, you will have to be a little more careful, as strategies will diversify, and players will have picked up more experience under their belt.

Another emphasis of Pool 3 is the frustration often associated with collecting all the cards, as it will start being much slower than compared to Pool 1 and 2. You might feel robbed of losing to a card you do not have yet, or helpless against certain strategies you are facing for the very first time. This is all part of the experience, and it is important to detach ourselves from simply trying to grind cubes, and instead trying to learn this new environment. Comfort will come back sooner than you expect it, and you will be back on the grind in no time, as long as you allow yourself this precious time to get settled in Pool 3, the toughest one in Marvel Snap.

Have some questions about a deck, missing some cards and need advice? Feel free to reach out to the Marvel Snap Zone team on Discord, or find me directly on Twitter.

Good Game Everyone.