Snapalytics: Top-Tier Trios

Last week, I crunched the numbers to identify the top-performing card pairs across six different meta zones. This week’s Snapalytics is a direct sequel. Today, I’ve prepared the top-performing three-card packages over the last week.

There were surprises among the top duos. At least, I wasn’t expecting Doctor Doom and Maria Hill to form a first-place power couple on any list. Surprises like that left me wondering if more could be unearthed by taking the card-group concept even further.

Variants

Doctor Doom

On Reveal: Add a 5-Power DoomBot to each other location.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Doctor Doom

Variants

Maria Hill

On Reveal: Add a random 1-Cost card to your hand.

Collection Level 486+ (Pool 3)

view card details Start a deck Decks with Maria Hill

Fun fact: with a single deck of 12 cards, you can make 66 unique pairs and 220 unique triplets.

I’ve found it inspirational to my deck-building and informative to my gameplay to examine top performers in a different way than usual (the usual being either single cards or whole decks). I hope you’ll get something out of this, too!

Overview

I’ll give some quick context before we get to the good stuff.

I included nearly every ranked match in the past 7 days of data collected by our Marvel Snap Tracker. “Nearly” because I excluded any deck running Agatha Harkness… again. Sorry, Ag stans, I just don’t trust her. Or, uh… you.

I wanted to make sure each trio had a big enough sample size that its performance couldn’t be explained away as just lucky or else piloted by a very skilled player. The minimum number of matches I used for each meta zone is listed at the top of its respective section. Across the board, I also required that a trio appeared in at least 10 decks.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Meta Zone

It’s an oversimplification to say that Marvel Snap has a single metagame. Matchmaking connects you to opponents in your region around your rank, collection level, and skill. As such, those factors affect which threats you’ll face most often.

I’ve divided the data into six sections (which is what I’ve been calling “meta zones”). It’s not a perfect division, but the results should be a lot more meaningful this way than if we looked at the data as a whole.

Rank Categories

Mid: Rank 30–69
High: Rank 70–99
Infinite: Rank 100+

Collection Level Categories

Mid: Collection Level 486–1999 (pool 2 complete)
High: Collection Level 2000+ (pool 3 complete)

Enough of that — let’s get to the good stuff!

The Good Stuff

For each category, you’ll see:

• Top 10 trios by usage
• Top 10 trios by win rate
• Top 10 trios by average cubes
• Honorable mentions for win rate
• Honorable mentions for average cubes

Mid Rank (30–69) and Mid CL (486–1999)

Cutoffs
Matches: 250+
Decks: 10+

Usage

Win Rate

Average Cubes

Honorable Mentions

Trios that would have made the top 5 if the cutoff was 150+ matches instead:

Win Rate

1. —
2. Armor, Dracula, & Scorpion
3. Black Cat, Hellcow, & Swarm
4. —
5. —

Avg Cubes

1. Arnim Zola, Scorpion, & Sunspot
2. Bishop, The Hood, & Sentinel
3. —
4. The Infinaut, Red Skull, & Scorpion
5. Bishop, Hit Monkey, & Rockslide

Mid Rank (30–69) and High CL (2000+)

Cutoffs
Matches: 450+
Decks: 10+

Usage

Win Rate

Average Cubes

Honorable Mentions

Trios that would have made the top 5 if the cutoff was 350+ matches instead.

Win Rate

1. —
2. Captain Marvel, Ebony Maw, & Polaris
3. —
4. —
5. Armor, Patriot, & Ultron

Avg Cubes

1. Agent 13, She-Hulk, & Sunspot
2. Killmonger, Maximus, & Wolfsbane
3. Quinjet, She-Hulk, & The Collector
4. Agent 13, Armor, & Sunspot
5. —

High Rank (70–99) and Mid CL (486–1999)

Cutoffs
Matches: 500+
Decks: 10+

Usage

Win Rate

Average Cubes

Honorable Mentions

Trios that would have made the top 5 if the cutoff was 400+ matches instead:

Win Rate

1. —
2. —
3. —
4. —
5. —

Avg Cubes

1. Bishop, Okoye, Shang-Chi
2. —
3. Ant Man, Bishop, Okoye
4. Cyclops, Mystique, Shang-Chi
5. Bishop, Blue Marvel, Okoye

High Rank (70–99) and High CL (2000+)

Cutoffs
Matches: 450+
Decks: 10+

Usage

Win Rate

Average Cubes

Honorable Mentions

Trios that would have made the top 5 if the cutoff was 350+ matches instead:

Win Rate

1. Scorpion, Shuri, & Zero
2. Scorpion, Taskmaster, & Zero
3. Klaw, Odin, & Sandman
4. Klaw, Lizard, & Sandman
5. Doctor Doom, Electro, & Sandman

Avg Cubes

1. Cosmo, Goose, & The Infinaut
2. Goose, The Infinaut, & Sunspot
3. Klaw, Odin, & Sandman
4. America Chavez, Goose, & Moon Girl
5. Doctor Doom, Klaw, Sandman

Infinite Rank (100+) and Mid CL (486–1999)

Cutoffs
Matches: 750+
Decks: 10+

Usage

Win Rate

Average Cubes

Honorable Mentions

Trios that would have made the top 5 if the cutoff was 650+ matches instead:

Win Rate

1. Lady Sif, MODOK., & Swarm
2. Apocalypse, MODOK, & Morbius
3. MODOK, Morbius, & Swarm
4. Apocalypse, MODOK, & Swarm
5. Lady Sif, MODOK, & Morbius

Avg Cubes

1. Lady Sif, MODOK, Swarm
2. Apocalypse, MODOK, & Swarm
3. MODOK, Morbius, & Swarm
4. Apocalypse, Lady Sif, & MODOK
5. Lady Sif, MODOK, & Morbius

Infinite Rank (100+) and High CL (2000+)

Cutoffs
Matches: 400+
Decks: 10+

Usage

Win Rate

Average Cubes

Honorable Mentions

Trios that would have made the top 5 if the cutoff was 300+ matches instead:

Win Rate

1. —
2. —
3. Armor, Vision, & Zero
4. —
5. —

Avg Cubes

1. Bishop, Rockslide, & Shang-Chi
2. Korg, Mysterio, & Zabu
3. Korg, Mysterio, & Rockslide
4. Bishop, Korg, & Zabu
5. Bishop, Mysterio, & Rockslide

Highlights

Well, the top trios turned out quite a bit less spicy than the top duos, huh? It’s a bit disappointing, but not useless. It confirms something we all felt — Sera Control, Shuri, Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur are dominating the game at all levels. The lack of any big surprises might be explained by shifting from pairs to triplets. Increasing the portion of a deck we’re looking at had a strong tendency to draw out packages with higher synergy instead of any unusual groupings.

There were still some things that were interesting or surprising. Here are some that jumped out at me:

• Shuri and Darkhawk were represented as top performers in every meta zone except Infinite rank at the mid collection level range (486–1999)
• At the mid collection level range (486–1999), the Discard archetype performed very well below rank 70 and above rank 99, but didn’t crack any of the top 10 lists at ranks 70–99
• Many of the top-performing trios from Shuri decks included Aero — maybe her presence in the meta has declined enough that she’s a very effective surprise?
• The top-performing trios from Darkhawk decks at mid rank (30–69) and high collection level (2000+) all include Green Goblin
• At lower collection levels, players that got one or two high-power cards (Shuri, Darkhawk, Galactus) from the token shop (or got lucky!) are dominating others at their rank

Some notes, there are some bundles that look like they might just be “good card combos”, but pretty much all of them represent Shuri decks. If anybody thought the Shuri nerfs were enough (and I don’t think hardly anybody did), they’re wrong. She’s still dominating at every level of the game, often at both win rate and at average cubes earned per game.

I think the increased dominance of Shuri and Darkhawk across meta zones is an excellent demonstration of how much a meta can shift by having cards leave pool 5. Like, we all knew Shuri and Darkhawk were strong, but it became so much more apparent as they became accessible enough for many more players to get them. They’ve been super strong all along, though. And players who picked them up early got to enjoy pre-nerf monsters without a metagame that’s trying to counter them.

Well, at least the next round of Shuri nerfs are just a few days away. That’s a change that’s bound to significantly shake up the meta, and I can’t wait!

Conclusion

The top-performing card trios may not have revealed much that’s flying under the radar, but it ended up serving as an alternative look at the top archetypes. Instead of looking at entire decks, we can look at small packages that are common in some archetypes, and in some cases may even be shared across several.

The best way to use this analysis is either to pick a top-performing archetype in your meta zone and run with it, or else to better understand what some of the biggest threats are in your meta zone so you can build around them! The metagame is going to undergo a big shakeup with the imminent adjustments to Shuri, and then after that we’ve got weekly card adjustments coming which will lead to the metagame evolving faster than ever before.

Staying on top of a constantly shifting metagame is crucial for winning games and, more importantly, winning cubes. Our news, insights, analyses, and guides will help you maintain a competitive edge in a dynamic game environment.

Don’t forget to check in for next week’s Snapalytics, which is shaping up to be a banger (I promise it’s not the top-performing card quartets).

This analysis was powered by the data from our Marvel Snap Tracker. If you play on PC or Android, consider giving it a download! It has many features including a live overlay, syncing your collection to our site, and powering useful tools like the Meta Snapshot over at MarvelSnap.Pro.