Snap Judgments Presents: PulseGlazer’s Top 10 Decks For Infinite in the Esme Cuckoo Season

Good morning all! It’s Friday, so let’s do something special! I’m going to spend this article covering the Top 10 decks right now in Marvel Snap. On this site, you get the legendary den’s weekly Tier Lists, which are entirely data-driven. This will not be that. Let’s discuss what that is, but if you’d like a video on this list with full turn-by-turn guides and card replacements… this is the video for you!

This Tier List is my opinion based on top meta gameplay. Some readers will ask, “if these are not top performing meta decks by the data, why should I care about them?” The answer is simple: the majority of decks proliferate downward from the top meta players. Most of the best deck builders are top meta players, and decks at that level are built to counter each other so the meta ends up spiraling downward through the Ladder.

These 10 decks are all Top Tier and presented in no particular order.

Finally, I’m not doing turn-by-turn breakdowns or card replacements for this article. If you’re interested in that (and two bonus decks), be sure to check out the video above!

The Top 10 (in a loose order of best to worst!)

1. Dera Thanos Strange Supreme

Surge has found an easy home in Thanos, the best deck in the game. This control version of the Thanos build, within a couple of tweaks here are there (some run a Mobius M Mobius, some sneak in a Juggernaut), is right now the most played deck at high infinite with tons of top players using it as one of their main decks.

This deck wants Strange Supreme to essentially solo one lane. He gets absolutely huge in Thanos, and when protected by Cosmo, many lanes just can’t compete with him. While using Strange Supreme to win one lane, the idea for the other is to use Shang-Chi, Alioth, Red Guardian – the control cards, to steal a win. That makes this not just the best deck right now, but one of the best cube rates right now.

2. Coougarrr Affliction

4ffliction is back thanks to Surge! Coougarrr, a new streamer but often top 10 player, is on fire with a deck builder,

Affliction has so many 4-Cost cards it want that Zabu just couldn’t keep up. Surge offers a good option in two to handle that, and outside of Hazmat, really, anything can be played as it’s drawn to keep a chain going. Malekith is a useful card to draw into Luke Cage or Hazmat, and Anti-Venom lets you play your heavy, costly cards. This deck struggles in the mirror – whoever draws Luke wins then – but it’s a crazy strong deck in most other circumstances.

3. SMLZ Scream

This deck gets far more power than it looks like cheaply because of Batroc the Leaper. His 1-8 to 1-12 in most games really helps scale the list up, and this is a deck that already features the best scaler in the game, Scream. This deck also wants to do some surprise clogging, adding Juggernaut to the already potent Stegron/Polaris combination, but Juggernaut is also a backup lane winner at the end of the game to Cannonball. The most interesting addition is Kingpin, as without a ton of Killmonger around, an extra way to punish opponent moves, both intentional and caused by the Scream player, is quite welcome.

4. Honifer Ongoing Thanos

Derek created Ongoing Thanos when Goliath came out, and now there are numerous versions like the control Thanos, within a card or two of one another.

Dazzler, Kahhori, Supre Skrull, and more sometimes find a home here, but Honifer is Rank 11 using Captain Carter in the flex spot. The most recent Season Pass card is really good here – it doesn’t go over the top, but with Blue Marvel, Captain America, or Spectrum, it’s more than big enough to be threatening in a lane. Add in the rest of the cheap scalers here like Blue Marvel and Speed, and this is the most consistent power output deck in Snap.

5. Devinter Clog

Devinter is all the way up to rank 13 with clog, which suddenly doesn’t have very many bad matches.

Thanos Infinity Stones, especially in the Ongoing version of the deck, make it an easy mark for clog. Even with Strange Supreme, that’s one card eaten a turn, and you can often out-clog that pace, especially as they play the stones. It’s really good against Scream since that deck needs spaces to move, though skilled players could make it difficult where to predict to clog. And it’s at least decent into basically everything else that doesn’t run Killmonger.

This one wins a lot of games locking out opponents, but not always a lot of cubes, as people retreat from their clogs. Keep that in mind, Snap early, and be wary of Reality Stone on Limbo.

6. HeartoftheCards Surfer

HeartoftheCardsSnap, a newer streamer, finished rank 8 with Silver Surfer, and has quickly become the authority on altering Surfer for diverse metagames.

Killmonger is the key here – the first time we’re seeing that insanely powerful card today. It’s got amazing synergy and power right now, being crazy effective against Thanos and Clog, while also being very strong into all the Human Torch or Batroc that are around.

Outside of that, this Surfer is distinct in that it runs a Fenris Wolf package, using Gladiator and Negasonic Teenage Warhead to give that value. With those and Killmonger, you should get an extra strong card, which also can help direct a late drawn Makkari. Add in the power of the regular Surfer package, and this is still a top deck.

7. Chamo Control Move

Chamo is back with another original deck, this one combining the move your own cards package of Scream with a good stuff mid-range deck.

Batroc remains absolutely wild power in this deck, but the real star is often Hydra Stomper. If moves aren’t impacted, Silk, Sam Wilson, and Batroc can lead to a low teens Stomper in terms of power. Adding to that power are the mid-range power package of Galacta and Gwenpool. These are a spike that’s definitely worthwhile – Galacta on turn 5 with Kitty Pryde or Mile Morales is a ridiculous power spike – but those cards are required for when you don’t see Silk or Sam Wilson and the deck stops doing much. And, of course, Power Must Be Controlled.

8. Coogarrr Affliction

Coougarrr created this version of the Affliction deck in the first place – it was he who first added the High Evolutionary and Miles Morales shell to Ajax, so it’s fitting he come up with the greatest evolution of the deck so far.

Ajax’s power is such that he really doesn’t need more than Hazmat to be huge. Yes, backup is nice, so the deck has Rocket and Groot as well as Laufey, but with just a Hazmat on 5, he’s gigantic on 6, and Abomination is free. If you add a move, you have the explosive finisher this deck needs, so what we’re really looking for here is early power.

Batroc, Silk, and Hydra Stomper being added to the early game of Sam Wilson and Kraven is a ton of power. These cards, in combination, lead to Batroc being a 1-8+, Hydra Stomper being a 3-11+, and ungodly big Kravens. This is an awesome deck, but one that’s kept in check by the power of the other Affliction deck that runs Luke Cage.

9. Sizer Move Bounce

Sizer is #2 on the Infinite Leaderboard with move bounce again.

This list is still all about the same things. It uses cheap cards to move around its three big movers – Vulture, Human Torch, and Dagger. It either sees two of them and makes them big, or copies one with Frigga. It then bounces the big cards to lose priority and avoid interaction, thus winning the game.

The deck now runs Sage as an extra big card option. Sage as an early 3-6 or 8 is fine, but really sings when copied by Frigga, giving you now another lane-winningly powerful card. Even without the Frigga or early play, sometimes the last turn is, thanks to Beast, really cheap, and just having an extra Sage to grab power can be game-winning.

This is the hardest list in the game to play though. It will take around 100 games for many to even get good with it, but the reward is there – once you know your matchups, this is crazy powerful.

10. Coougarrr Negative

Cougarrr is back with another list- this time Mister Negative, which is in a great position right now.

Mobius M Mobius is a good card and in some Thanos decks, but with the rise of Affliction, it’s often being cut for Luke Cage. Without Mobius present, Negative feasts. Esme Cuckoo has added consistency to this deck, giving it not only an extra chance to see Mister Negative, but also an extra Jane Foster, Magik, or cheap Iron Man/Gorr. This deck has play into everything, just be careful of the reality stone.