Marvel Snap Best Decks for Climbing Ranked Right Now

The ranked ladder got flipped upside down this month. Visions of the Future has been running since September 2, and for most of the season it was a pure points race, because the robot takeover event had nerfed basically every answer card into the dirt. Then the September 25 OTA handed Killmonger, Cosmo, Shadow King, Alioth, and Red Guardian their old jobs back, and the whole meta reshuffled in about a week.

So if you're grinding toward Infinite right now, you want decks that can score points and still fight back. Three do that better than everything else: Deadpool Destroy, Move Tribunal, and Arishem Thanos ramp. Here's the state of the ladder, the exact lists, and how to pilot them without donating cubes.

Top Meta Archetypes This Season

Visions of the Future is the synthezoid season. Viv Vision fronts the season pass, and Sparky, the phase-shifting dog, slid straight into move decks. The new cards fed a points war early on. With the tech cards nerfed, nobody could punish greedy builds, and the numbers got silly. Move Tribunal ran a 0.9 cube average with a 62% win rate at one point, and Victoria Hand decks sat near the top with a 64% win rate.

Then the OTA hit reset. Killmonger, Cosmo, Shadow King, Alioth, and Red Guardian went back to their pre-event versions. Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Enchantress kept their robot forms, so Enchantress is a 5-cost with 8 power now. Shang-Chi returned as a 4/3 who destroys one enemy card with 10 or more power instead of all of them. Colleen Wing and Agatha Harkness each lost a point of power, and Viv Vision gained one, which is why she's all over the Surfer lists this week.

Here's the week four snapshot from the Marvel Snap Zone tracker, the first full week after the OTA:

| Deck | Tier | Cube average | Win rate | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | End of Turn | Trending | 0.65 | 61% | | Deadpool Destroy | 1 | 0.60 | 59% | | Move Tribunal | 1 | 0.50 | 55% | | Arishem Thanos | 2 | 0.45 | 56% | | Wiccan Curve | 2 | 0.40 | 56.5% | | Buff Surfer | 2 | 0.40 | 56% | | Flexible Move | 2 | 0.35 | 56% | | HelAgatha | 2 | 0.45 | 52.5% | | Scream Move | 2 | 0.25 | 56.5% | | Clogtriot | 3 | 0.25 | 54% | | Discard Dracula | 3 | 0.10 | 52.5% |

(What's a cube average? Cubes won per game, counting losses. Anything above 0.5 over a big sample is really good.)

A few things jump out. Move is still the family to beat. Move Tribunal held Tier 1 even with Red Guardian back in circulation, and Flexible Move and Scream Move both hang around Tier 2. Scream Move is really a counter build, running Scream (a 2-cost, 1-power card that steals 2 power from a moving enemy once per turn) to tax anyone who dares to change lanes.

Destroy is the headline. Deadpool Destroy climbed from Tier 2 to the top of Tier 1, mostly because Killmonger came home. He kills every 1-cost card on the board, which is fuel for this deck's own plan and a wrecking ball for everyone else's 1-costs. Kazoo was trending three weeks ago. It's gone from the list now, and that's no accident.

End of Turn is the trending deck. It half-ignores the points war: Thena grows by 3 every turn you play exactly two cards, Juggernaut shoves the other side's late plays out of position, and Mobius keeps them from cheating their costs down. A 61% win rate says the plan still works after the patch.

The Tier 2 blob is a pack of decks sitting at almost the same win rate. Arishem Thanos, Wiccan Curve, and Buff Surfer all landed at 56% or so, and the two Surfer-style decks got a card back in the OTA (Alioth for Wiccan Curve, Red Guardian for Buff Surfer). Discard took the real knocks. HelAgatha is still Tier 2, but Colleen Wing and Agatha Harkness each lost a point, and Discard Dracula is down to a 0.1 cube average.

Climbing through ranks 80 to 99, the last stretch before Infinite, the winners look a bit different: Mister Negative leads that band with a 0.9 cube average and a 60.5% win rate, and Toxic Surfer posts a 0.95. Deadpool Destroy and Discard Dracula show up there too. Past rank 80, expect weirder decks and tighter snaps.

For this guide, the three picks are Deadpool Destroy (Tier 1 and the cheapest to build), Move Tribunal (Tier 1 with the highest ceiling), and Arishem Thanos (Tier 2, but the best cube farmer of the bunch against players who don't retreat when they should).

Destroy Deck Card List and Curve

Deadpool Destroy is the success story of the OTA. A 0.6 cube average and a 59% win rate put it at the top of Tier 1, and it's the budget pick of the three decks here: three Series 1 cards, one Series 2, four Series 3, two Series 4, and only two Series 5 cards (Moira X and Nico Minoru). If you've been playing a while, you probably own more of this than you'd guess.

Here's the list from the tracker's top-performing build:

| Card | Cost | Power | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Deadpool | 1 | 1 | Returns to your hand with double Power whenever it's destroyed | | X-23 | 1 | 2 | Regenerates at a random location when destroyed, and gives +1 Energy next turn | | Agony | 1 | 3 | Merges into the next card you play in her lane | | Moira X | 1 | 2 | When destroyed, adds a copy of your opening hand to your hand | | Nico Minoru | 1 | 2 | Casts a spell on your next card, and the spell changes each turn | | Carnage | 2 | 2 | Destroys your other cards here, +2 Power for each | | Wolverine | 2 | 3 | Regenerates with +2 Power when destroyed or discarded | | Killmonger | 3 | 3 | Destroys every 1-Cost card on the board, both sides | | Venom | 3 | 3 | Destroys your other cards here and adds their Power to itself | | Deathlok | 3 | 5 | Destroys your other cards here | | Knull | 6 | 0 | Ongoing: has the combined Power of all cards destroyed this game | | Death | 8 | 12 | Costs 1 less for each card destroyed this game |

How the curve plays

Five 1-costs, two 2-costs, three 3-costs, then a cliff. Knull sits at 6 and Death starts at 8, so on paper this looks like a deck that bricks. It doesn't, because killing things is your ramp. Every death cuts a point off Death's price, and most games hit eight or more deaths without even trying. By turn 6, Death usually costs somewhere between 0 and 2.

The early turns are cheap on purpose. You lay out fodder like Deadpool, X-23, Agony, and Moira X, feed them to Carnage, Venom, or Deathlok, and watch your graveyard turn into stats. Wolverine and X-23 coming back after they die is free money. More bodies to feed, more deaths on the clock, more power on Knull.

The win line, turn by turn

Turn 1: Deadpool, 1 power. Turn 2: Carnage eats him. Carnage is now a 2/4, and Deadpool is back in your hand as a 1/2. Turn 3: Venom eats Carnage, making Venom a 3/7.

Turn 5: Killmonger. He deletes every 1-cost on the field, yours included. Deadpool, X-23, Agony, and Moira X all die at once, and Moira X pays you back with copies of your opening hand, so you're holding fresh fodder again. If the other side leaned on 1-costs like Araña or The Hood, their engine dies in the same breath.

Turn 6: Knull plus Death. If eight cards died this game, Knull is carrying their combined power (easily 20 or more, since he counts their deaths too), and Death costs zero. Six energy, two cards, two lanes. The scary part for the opponent is that all that damage hides in a 0-power card and a discount, so it's tough to read how far behind they are until the flip.

Swaps if you're missing cards

The tracker data says don't touch Moira X. She's the card that pushed this build over the top, because the reload she gives you turns into points the other Destroy lists just don't have. Arnim Zola (6/0, destroys one of your cards here and copies it at the other locations) and Shang-Chi (4/3) both show up in strong lists, usually over Deathlok.

Move Deck Card List and Curve

Move Tribunal owned the season before the OTA and still holds Tier 1 after it, with a 0.5 cube average even in a week where everyone packed answers to it. It's pricier than Destroy, though. Araña, Madame Web, Sparky, and Blink are all Series 5.

| Card | Cost | Power | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Araña | 1 | 2 | Activate: your next card gets +1 Power and moves right | | Ghost-Spider | 1 | 3 | The last card you played moves here | | Iron Fist | 1 | 2 | Your next card moves one location to the left | | Madame Web | 2 | 1 | Ongoing: move one of your other cards away from here each turn | | Sparky | 2 | 1 | Activate: give the card that last moved +3 Power, then move it back | | Doctor Strange | 2 | 4 | Moves your highest-Power card(s) to this location | | Human Torch | 3 | 3 | Doubles its Power every time it moves | | Magik | 3 | 2 | Replaces this location with Limbo, adding turn 7. Doesn't work after turn 5 | | Hercules | 3 | 5 | The first card that moves here each turn bounces to another location | | Crystal | 3 | 4 | Each player draws a card | | Blink | 5 | 8 | Swaps the last card you played with a card that costs more from your deck | | The Living Tribunal | 6 | 9 | Ongoing: splits your total Power evenly among all locations |

How the curve plays

Three 1-costs, three 2-costs, four 3-costs, one 5, one 6. You'll float energy all game, and that's fine. This deck spends cards and activations, not energy. Quick rules refresher, since it matters here: Activate abilities cost nothing, work once per game, and can't be used the turn the card comes down. Madame Web isn't Activate at all, she's Ongoing, so her move is free every single turn.

The curve is really a chain. Iron Fist and Araña set up your next card to move the moment it lands. Ghost-Spider and Doctor Strange relocate cards already on the board. Hercules catches the first thing that moves into his lane and flings it somewhere else, which is one more free move for your payoffs. Blink is the late-game cheat, swapping a small body for something bigger from your deck.

The win line, with math

Human Torch is the paycheck. Play him as a 3. Every move doubles him, so two moves later he's a 12. Now use Sparky: +3 Power makes him a 15, and the bounce back doubles him to 30. Doctor Strange can drag him across the map for another double if a lane gets left open.

Then The Living Tribunal turns one fat lane into three winning lanes. Say your board adds up to 60 power. Tribunal splits it into 20, 20, and 20. Against someone sitting on 25, 18, and 12, you just stole two locations with one card. That's why this deck doesn't care where its power physically sits. Magik covers the games that need more time: turn 7 means an extra draw, an extra round of moves, and one more chance to set up the split.

What to watch out for

Red Guardian (3/2) is back and he's a problem. He strips the text off the lowest-power enemy card in his lane, and your engine is built out of 1- and 2-power cards like Madame Web, Sparky, and Araña. Scream (2/1) steals 2 power from a moving card once a turn, so Scream decks can bleed you dry. Shadow King resets a giant Torch right back to a 3. If you keep bumping into these, the recommended swap is Cosmo (3/3) over Crystal (3/4), and it also helps to hold your key pieces until the last turn or two.

Ramp Deck Card List and Curve

Arishem Thanos is the weird one, and it's quietly climbing: Tier 2 with a 0.45 cube average and a 56% win rate. Fair warning up front, this is the opposite of a budget deck. Seven of the twelve cards are Series 5, including both namesakes.

| Card | Cost | Power | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Valentina | 2 | 3 | Adds a random 6-Cost card to your hand with -2 Cost and -2 Power | | Shadow King | 2 | 2 | Resets all cards here to their original Power | | Kang | 3 | 4 | Game start: becomes 4 Kangs carrying the text of random cards that cost 3 or more | | Galacta | 4 | 6 | Each turn, the first card you play at another location gets +2 Power | | Cosmic Ghost Rider | 5 | 7 | Removes the text from front-row enemy cards here | | Legion | 5 | 7 | Replaces the other two locations with this one | | Enchantress | 5 | 8 | Removes abilities from all Ongoing cards here | | Blob | 6 | 0 | Merges cards from your deck into this until it's gained 13 or more Power | | Mockingbird | 6 | 9 | Costs 1 less for each of your created cards in play | | Eson | 6 | 10 | End of turn: puts a created card from your hand here | | Thanos | 6 | 12 | Game start: shuffles the six Infinity Stones into your deck | | Arishem | 7 | 7 | Game start: shuffles 12 random cards into your deck. On turn 3, get +1 Max Energy |

How the ramp works

Arishem is the ramp. From turn 3 on, you have one extra energy each turn: 4 on turn 3, 5 on turn 4, 6 on turn 5, and 7 on turn 6. That last turn fits a 6-cost plus a cheap card, or two discounted bigs. Thanos pads the engine with six Infinity Stones, all 1-cost, which cycle through your deck and keep your hand stocked. Your deck is 24 cards total, so you'll draw your bombs a little less often than a normal list would. The flip side is you almost always draw something playable.

Kang looks like a joke and isn't. One Kang becomes four 3-cost bodies with random abilities stacked on them, and each of those copies counts as a created card. Which brings us to the real engine.

The created-card engine

Mockingbird is the payoff. She costs 1 less for every created card you have in play, and this deck creates cards nonstop: all 12 Arishem specials, every Kang copy, whatever Valentina hands you. With three or four created cards on the board, she's a 6/9 that costs 2 or 3. Eson then pulls a created card out of your hand and drops it on the board at end of turn, for free. When you just need a dumb chunk of stats, Blob merges half your fat 24-card deck into himself and shows up as 13-plus power.

The rest of the list is answers. Shadow King resets a pumped Human Torch or a stacked lane. Cosmic Ghost Rider erases text across a front row. Legion copies his location over the other two, which can delete a location the other side built their whole plan around. Enchantress eats Ongoing decks for breakfast, and Ongoing is half the ladder right now.

Why it climbs anyway

Two reasons. First, 7 energy on turn 6 lets you answer something and still drop a bomb in the same turn. Second, and this matters more, the other side never knows what's in your hand, because twelve of your cards are random. Opponents call bluffs they shouldn't call, stay in games they've already lost, and snap scared. The tracker gives this deck a better cube average than half of Tier 2 off a 56% win rate, which is basically a math reward for other people's bad retreats.

If you're missing pieces, Kang is the agreed flex slot. Agamotto (5/10) is the popular upgrade if you own him.

Mulligan and Piloting Tips for Each Deck

There's no mulligan, so the retreat button is your mulligan

Snap deals you three cards and you keep them. You draw one per turn, so by the end of a normal game you've seen 9 of your 12 cards, or 10 with Magik in play. You can't ship a bad hand back. What you can do is leave before the cubes go up. Retreating before anyone snaps costs one cube, every time. Losing small is a skill, and it's most of the climb.

The snap decision counts as your mulligan too. The best time to snap is when you can see your line and they can't, which is usually the turn before your big play lands.

Destroy keeps and decisions

Keep one eater (Carnage, Venom, or Deathlok) plus fodder like Deadpool, X-23, or Agony. Moira X in the opening hand is a sneaky-good keep, since dying is literally her job. If your first three cards are all 3-costs and up, that game is probably a one-cube retreat, and that's okay.

Killmonger timing is the skill test. On turn 3 he snipes their 1-costs early and cramps engines like Araña. On turn 5 he's a board wipe that fuels Death and Knull in one shot. The default is turn 5 unless their 1-cost is clearly doing something degenerate.

Watch for Enchantress, because Knull is an Ongoing card and she swings in as a 5/8 these days. The safe lines: hold Knull until the final turn, or build a fat Venom as a second win condition so one card can't erase all your work.

Move keeps and decisions

Madame Web or a mover (Ghost-Spider, Doctor Strange) plus Human Torch is the dream hand. Torch with zero ways to move him is a trap keep, pretty though it looks. Snap while the chain is in hand and still hidden, before Torch doubles and they start retreating on their own.

Piloting is mostly sequencing. Don't drop Torch on turn 3 with no mover behind him. Remember Sparky can't activate the turn he's played. Check what Red Guardian or Scream could do to a lane before you commit the engine there. And remember Tribunal doesn't care which lane holds the fat stack, so you can park everything somewhere safe and let him spread the wealth.

Ramp keeps and decisions

Arishem and Thanos start every game on schedule, so your keeps are the supporting cast: Galacta plus one answer like Shadow King is a solid hand. With 24 cards plus random extras, play what you draw and don't wait for perfection, because the perfect draw isn't coming.

Count your created cards as they land. That count is Mockingbird's price tag and your snap signal in one. When Eson and a discounted Mockingbird line up for turn 6, that's usually the moment. Against move decks, save Shadow King for the giant Human Torch, and remember your 7-energy turn 6 means you can play him and still drop a threat after.

Climbing math that actually matters

Cube math beats win rate. A retreat costs 1 cube, a snapped loss costs 2, and a double-snapped loss runs 4 or 8. Four clean one-cube retreats cost the same as one game where you snapped, they snapped back, and you hung around to lose it. Grinding to Infinite is mostly admitting defeat early and often.

Two habits pay for themselves. Snap the turn before your big reveal, not after it, because after the flip they just leave for cheap. And stick with one deck. Every list here has bad matchups and awkward lines, and swapping decks every ten games means you never learn them. Pick the one that fits your collection and ride it to Infinite.