Sleeper Decks of the Week – The OTA That Changed Everything

Hello everyone and welcome to Sleeper Decks of the Week! I’m Glazer of Snap Judgments: The Official Marvel Snap Zone Podcast, and in this article, I’m going to take you through all of my favorite Sleeper decks this week. In addition to the podcast (this week’s episode features the analysis of the new patch featuring NinaisNoob and SuperTechGod!), I do my own daily videos where I scour the darkest corners of the net (ahem Twitter and the various Marvel Snap sites) to find the best decks in Marvel Snap before the meta notices.

Remember: Each deck title will take you to a video explanation of the deck, so don’t be shy – check them out! This week we’re also trying out videos from some of our favorite creators playing the decks – check those out, too, and let us know what you think!

One more big note – the OTA Update this week was gigantic and met shaking. This cannot be overstated. This week’s article will be a touch shorter since some of the decks killed by the OTA will not be featured here, as encouraging their play would be a disservice.

The Meta Decks

W Thanos

Deck Thoughts: W, our guest on this week’s Snap Judgments Podcast, won a 128-person Snap Battle Arena Tournament with this Thanos control list. A week later, that same deck is 25% of a Snap Battle Arena Tournament (if you’re interested in Snap Tournaments, join their Discord here).

This deck is great and it is absolutely everywhere. The basic gist of the deck is that it wants to play Professor X (or another 5 on Turn 4). To enable that, it uses Psylocke and the Time Stone. In addition, Iron Lad gives an extra chance at a high roll. There’s no Daredevil here, so a Professor X bad guess is supported by Klaw, Blue Marvel, and Jeff the Baby Landshark. Spider-Man allows another lock option, this time on turn 5 and Devil Dinosaur and Shang Chi are here to win a lane last turn. Add in Cosmo to stop opponent shenanigans and you’re just all set!

Jeff is really important here but can be replaced by Medusa. Luke Cage is already being changed for cards like Nebula, Daredevil, and Carnage. Finally, this is an Iron Lad deck nearly as much as a Thanos deck. You can replace Lad with Jubilee, but the deck suffers badly.

Watch our friend Combat (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

You can also watch our friend Peaceful Sea (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

Quinee + Den = Surfer

coolkg2009 – Lockdown Surfer

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

8x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

2.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.8

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: The legendary Den of Marvel Snap Zone started bringing Silver Surfer back to the meta by adding Invisible Woman and Shadow King to the deck. Quinee Equinox, an absolutely phenomenal player and deck builder, added Cosmo and Spider-Man to another build. CoolKG mashed them together and took them to a tournament.

The deck is now about knowing your opponent. If they’re stacking stats, Invisible Woman and Shadow King win. Sometimes they need to go wide, so Storm and Juggernaut or Spider-Man shut them down. On Reveal going to beat you? Cosmo is it. At the end of it all waits the Silver Surfer, buffing the board and winning the game. This made Top 8 in last week’s Battle Arena and is a truly excellent deck.

The OTA Contenders

With The Phoenix Force, The Living Tribunal, and Magik all buffed, there are new decks competing for that top spot. We’ll have many more of these next week, but these three decks are immediate contenders.

Safety’s Phoenix Force Shuri

Safety’s New Best Deck

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

3

5x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: This one was a Deck of the Day, so check that for a full turn-by-turn write-up.

Safetyblade and W, the maker of the first deck, are at worst two of the top 5 deck builders in the game (to say nothing of Den and Quinee!)

This deck has three real play lines. It can destroy The Human Torch. When it brings Torch back with Phoenix, it gets to 28 to 56 power by the end of the game, a number that is then copied by Taskmaster. There’s also the classic playline of Shuri, Red Skull, and Taskmaster. Finally, this deck can eat a Multiple Man and put 8+ power Multiple Man all over the board.

Facilitating these plays are Iron Fist and Ghost-Spider. Both costing 1 allows them to combo off with the other powerful cards. Also helping this deck is the regular Magik everywhere, as an extra turn to move can be quite overpowered. Finally, Armor and movement mean your opponent has to be perfect with a Shang-Chi to stop you. America Chavez is here for consistency.

Add it up and you have one of the toughest decks in the game that is especially good at ignoring opponent lockdown.

You need The Phoenix Force for this deck. Without Ghost-Spider, the deck takes a hit, though. I’d probably run Hulkbuster then, but be sad about it. If you don’t want America, you can try Heimdall in that spot.

Safety’s Hela Tribunal

Safe to a T – Hela

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 3 months ago

1

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

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

1x Starter Card

4.3

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

5.5

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: I love this deck. It’s the most consistent combo deck I’ve ever found in Marvel Snap.

Its goal is to get Invisible Woman out then put MODOK and Hela behind her, in that order. When that happens, the deck discards a ton of high-cost cards, brings them back, and wins. To increase consistency, the deck has the newly much cheaper Magik along with both Iron Lad and Jubilee. With Howard the Duck, either of these can guarantee you the card you need, and with 7 turns, there’s only one card in the deck you aren’t seeing.

But even then, the combo doesn’t always go off. The other playline is to put the newly buffed Living Tribunal in a lane with Iron Man and Onslaught. That is facilitated by either Magik or Electro (or both) and is absolutely stellar, especially against lockdown.

Tribunal is the secret sauce to this deck for sure. His ability to put power everywhere often leads to three 30+ power lanes. There are counters to this deck, but until they become meta, this is one of the best decks in the game.

Watch our friend Peaceful Sea (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

Turbo Sera

Turbo Miracle 2

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

0

3x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: A couple of months back, a member of our Discord named Turbo and I collaborated on a deck that used Magik in a Sera list to get around Wave. Making Magik cost 3 makes that so much better, as Magik can be played Turn 5 with a card like Kitty Pryde or Angela. Further, that Magik can lead into a Sera for an insanely explosive Turn 6 that can still match pre-nerf Bounce power. Sometimes though, the better play will be to use Scarlett Witch to remove the Limbo and steal cubes that way.

The swing spot in the deck is Rogue- she could either be another good two-drop like Medusa or Enchantress. There’s a lot of Ongoing in the metagame again right now, largely thanks to Iron Man being in a ton of decks, so stealing that with Rogue seems incredibly powerful. If there’s a lot of Armor though, Enchantress is suddenly key. However, with Enchantress, I want Zabu, and there isn’t really room for that without cutting Scarlet Witch. Heck though, there is an argument even for that and making this a Silver Surfer list.

Whatever the exact cards you settle on for your pocket meta, this deck always remains competitive near the top Cube Rates of the meta.

Galactus Is Back!

Galactus disappeared a bit after his nerf, but like any good villain, he’s back again to terrorize the meta in some new shells.

Combat Galactus Lockdown

Combat’s Galactus

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

4

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

2x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

2x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

3x Starter Card

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: This one was a Deck of the Day, so check that for a full turn-by-turn write-up.

High Evolutionary Lockdown is nerfed, but not way worse than it was, especially with this twist. This version of the deck utilized Jean Grey to really amp up the power of the Lockdown, not letting opponents take advantage of where they want to play. To further power that up though, Jean on 5 can lead to a free and clear Galactus on turn 6 that an opponent has no possible answer to.

Also secretly amazing here? Shocker. Shocker making a card 1-drop cost 0 or Galactus cost 5 is just game-winning, as you can then Jean on 5, play a card in her lane, and then Galactus elsewhere. Wasp also enables this play, as does filling that Jean lane.

This deck is obviously very expensive and needs most of its Series 5 cards. There is no substitution for Galactus, High Evolutionary, or Jean Grey. Nebula, however, can be either Yellowjacket or Daredevil. Yellowjacket is another 0 for the Galactus play while Daredevil helps decide between Jean on 5 and Spider-Man on 5. Both work just fine.

Watch our friend Combat (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

Revis Destroy Galactus

Revis Jeanrod

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

3x Series 4 Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 4)

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

3.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.9

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: Revis is another stellar deck builder and player and here he combines a pure Destroy package with Galactus. The Galactus really is brilliant here, as with Electro the classic Galactus on 5 and Knull on 6 play is open, but that play also works with Nimrod on 4 here. In fact, Shuri into Nimrod is now a common enough play that a Galactus elsewhere, putting 24 power Nimrods in the Galactus lane can win, as well.

If Galactus goes off without Nimrod or Knull, you’re very likely to have priority. Negasonic Teenage Warhead wins many of those games as an opponent tries to drop their own big card free of worry about Shang-Chi.

A Nimrod play is so strong because it’s so good without Galactus. You can Shuri on 4, Nimrod on 5, and then spend turn 6 Carnage and Venoming those huge Nimrods all over the board. This deck has no shortage of versatility or game-winning plays.

Jean is here for the Nimrod playline, not the Galactus one, though filling a lane with Jean while an opponent still needs to play there and then playing Galactus elsewhere is viable, as well.

You will need Galactus and Nimrod for this deck. Jean is perfectly fine as Deathlok and Negasonic can be Shang-Chi or Killmonger. Knull can be Death. All of these make the deck worse without breaking it.

Echo is Pretty Good?

Echo isn’t meta or one of the best cards in the game yet, but she is absolutely solid to very good tech!

LaurenWhatever is a Valkyrie

Lauren Whatever’s a Valkyrie

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

5x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

2.8

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

2.3

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: This one was a Deck of the Day, so check that for a full turn-by-turn write-up.

I love Valkyrie, but she is super hard to play well in a dedicated deck – this is true for the next deck, too. While I love her, she is LaurenWhatever’s very favorite card in the game, so she made the most consistent Valkyrie deck so far.

This deck’s goal is to use Echo to sit in one lane stopping Ongoing cards and then to win another lane with lockdown, whether Storm, Professor X, or Spider-Man. At that point, a Mister Fantastic, Ant Man, or a Demon with Valkyrie win the game.

Watch our friend AZ Snap (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

Thanos Echo

Den Thanos Zoo – Cosmo, Armor, Kazar, Spectrum

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

0

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

4x Series 5 Ultra Rare – Collection Level 486+ (Pool 5)

2x Recruit Season

3.5

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.7

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: There’s not a ton to say here – it’s the same theory as the last deck with two different ways to win the Valkyrie lane – Blue Marvel and Soul Stone. The Thanos shell also offers the ability to go over the top with Thanos or Devil Dinosaur. I think Luke Cage may be wrong here, but Cosmo, Ka-Zar, or Armor would all make some sense in that spot.

This version runs Invisible Woman to lose priority in the Valkyrie lane. That could also be Ghost, but either does the job really well! Enjoy!

Miscellaneous Cool Stuff

Keen Jean Orkaland

Keen Jean Orkaland

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

2

2x Collection Level 1-14

2x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

4x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

1x Recruit Season

1x Starter Card

3.2

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

3.6

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: This one was a Deck of the Day, so check that for a full turn-by-turn write-up.

Jean Grey on 3 or 4 does a great job of forcing a lane to be challenged. This deck uses numerous powerful cards to pump those up – Ant-Man, Punisher, Mojo, and Warpath all help that Jean Grey lane be a win. If you can pile all those cards there, you’re looking good. But you don’t want all of them there.

You’d also like either Mister Fantastic or Klaw to be in that lane. If one of those is there, on the last turn a gigantic Orka can win another lane adding the two from Fantastic or six from Klaw to his 16. If you need more power, you can try going wider with Spectrum. Either option works great!

The only high series card here is Jean, but she’s a requirement – the entire deck is built around her.

DMoney Guardians of the Grey

Deck Thoughts: DMoney is an amazingly accomplished player and he’s built a crazy fun deck around the power of Jean Grey.

Jean forced a play into a lane and Guardians cards outpower (almost) everything when that can be guaranteed. Nebula can be elsewhere, growing contentedly, while Iron Lad has almost nothing but good hits in this deck. Storm offers an alternative to Jean, as Nebula in a Storm lane or another Guardian are crazy strong.

If that isn’t enough, Silk often ends up in Storm lane and Doctor Doom puts power there, too! Jeff the Baby Land Shark is great for seemingly filling a Jean lane or adding power to a Storm one. If these lanes are all taken care of, you can instead spend the last turn dropping Gamora and Rocket Racoon in one spot, a 16-power play last turn to go over the top. There are just so many ways to get power all over the board here!

Jean Grey is needed for this deck. Silk is great here for Storm and Jean, but can be any good, cheap card. The most obvious of these is the missing Guardians leader, Star-Lord. Iron Lad, too, is a stellar card here, and much harder to replace. I’d probably try Klaw for extra power in multiple lanes. Finally, Jeff can, as usual, be a good 2 or Nightcrawler.

Watch our friend DMoney (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

Lamby Ramp

Lamby’s Degen Sandman

Created by PulseGlazer

, updated 2 months ago

2

1x Collection Level 1-14

1x Collection Level 18-214 (Pool 1)

1x Collection Level 222-474 (Pool 2)

7x Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

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

4.6

Cost

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

4.2

Power

0-
1
2
3
4
5+

Deck Thoughts: Maybe this belongs higher up? This deck is unsolved and there are major disagreements between Lamby, the game’s likely best player, and KM Best, likely the game’s most influential one, over whether or not this deck wants to run Galactus. I also think this deck was way better into the Bounce meta than the currently evolving one.

This is seemingly a standard ramp deck – it runs Sandman to limit the opponent’s board and then goes wider than they can match, but it has one very notable twist. It can play Spider-Man on turn 4 after Electro then Arnim Zola and lock off two lanes.

The final turn is then one of the following: Doctor Doom, Leader, or Jeff the Baby Landshark and Iron Lad. Any of those into locked-off lanes are often just wins your opponent can’t really interact with, except that now The Phoenix Force can drag 8-power Multiple Man into those lanes.

Watch our friend FaThorNewman (Subscribe here!) play the deck:

Wrap up

Thanks for reading! Check back all next week so much more great content from Marvel Snap Zone!