Marvel Snap Balance OTA Analysis and Decks to Play: The Dawn of a New Meta - Marvel Snap Zone (2024)

The Marvel Snap community is often pretty good at sharing its dissatisfaction toward a certain card or meta. Whether it’s Hela, Professor X + Cannonball, the latest Season Pass card (Gilgamesh) being very weak compared to the Spotlight card (Thena) in week one… We’ve had a lot to complain about lately.

I don’t know how much those complaints impacted the Balance Updates I’m about to discuss. Nevertheless, this is without a doubt one of the most exciting balance updates we’ve ever had!

Let’s get straight to the point with this massive OTA: The meta is about to be flipped on its head.

Of course, there are a few synergies that will still be excellent. Thena, Angela, and Kitty Pryde will remain an incredible foundation for points. On Reveal has been doing very well lately and was completely untouched. Junk used Professor X and Cannonball, but it still has Debrii, White Widow, and Green Goblin to lean on. Plus, Sersi has shown some promise inside that archetype as well.

You also have to keep in mind all the very strong cards that were able to impact a meta like they did in the past. Loki, The Living Tribunal, U.S. Agent, and Shang-Chi are a few that come to mind.

Overall, we still have plenty of solid synergies and good decks to rely on in Marvel Snap. Which ones will be the best? That is the 8 cube question I’ll try to answer.

The Best Untouched Decks

These might need to be slightly adjusted once we see some of the emerging synergies, but they are at least ready to go right after the OTA hits. Obviously, the Angela Gang is part of two of them, and I expect that package to play a big role in the upcoming meta.

Logically, this should also lead to cards like Shadow King and Shang-Chi making an impact as potentials answers. But if you look at the third deck named “Ravonna Alt”, it feels like it’s already figured things out. Indeed, you have the points with Angela, Thena, and Kitty Pryde, the answers with Shadow King and Shang-Chi, and even Luke Cage to anticipate an opposing Shadow King.

One important note: No more of Professor X and Cannonball doesn’t necessarily mean less of Ravonna Renslayer.

Disruption Isn’t Going Far

The biggest news of this OTA probably concerns Professor X, which looks it’s taking the biggest hit. Not only will it no longer function with Ravonna Renslayer, it also now allows any card that is able to move reach the locked location. It’s almost like Jeff the Baby Land Shark got nerfed in the process with how big the change to Professor X is. Still, if you thought you would be able to develop your synergies in peace, you might have to think again because Junk is still around.

Yes, the deck will be less obnoxious without Professor X and Cannonball feeding it easy Snaps. The potential to lock the opponent out of available space is still very real, though, in addition to Sersi making an impact alongside Annihilus and Sentry.

It should be a little weaker (which is why I didn’t include it alongside the other decks in the above category), but I can’t imagine there won’t be any form of disruption around after the OTA. Plus, it gives us a chance to see if Red Hulk is still fine as a [6/16] or [6/19]. That should still be plenty of power for the card to be worth including in your deck.

Exciting New Decks to Test!

I hope I have not killed the mood with all the existing decks that could very well be dominant after the OTA. Fortunately, there are also some buffs in this OTA that I hope will push other decks to make an impact.

I could have included Shanna in this deck instead of Debrii, but I like the disruption brought by the latter. Otherwise, this has been the best Gilgamesh deck since the card released, so it logically deserves to be on top of the list of decks to test now that the the Season Pass card is becoming a [5/9].

The Ongoing synergy went from a dominant force during the May season to an afterthought once a couple of points of power were removed from Spectrum and Luke Cage. To mitigate these nerfs, Second Dinner changed Captain America… with little to no effect so far.

Now the card is a [3/3], which I doubt will be enough without the rest of this OTA. Still, with Thanos featuring some decent results using an Ongoing based deck, there are two decks to be curious about and give a shot.

Stegron is the last buff on the list, and I think it’s the most difficult one to believe in. Sure, one extra power will always be good, but the question remains: Where are you supposed to play Stegron?

As a standalone card, I don’t really see the card being good enough. Cannonball is still a strong option, even if the OTA bumped up the cost instead of reduced the power. You would probably have to build an entire deck to test the improved Stegron, which is what I tried to do with the list above. The Angela gang is in there, of course, so it’ll probably do well. But I can’t help but think Stegron won’t be a big contributor to the deck’s chances at success.

Closing Words

Early on after the OTA, I don’t expect the meta to feel super different. There are still various archetypes that are ready to go and were already posting results with Professor X and Cannonball around. However, if Hela can’t compete on points and the meta comes down to proactive synergies (plus Loki), we could see some interesting developments.

Mister Negative could have a lot of upsides in that environment, which could then bring Mill back as its potential counter. Disruptive cards, such as Sandman and Leech, could come in and be a problem for most of these On Reveal based decks, potentially pushing Good Cards Blink to make a splash. I could have also mentioned Hammer Control, Cerebro 3, or even Galactus among the decks with potential that are never able to break through as dominant decks.

As such, even if the first few days look like nothing has changed and Thena+Angela is simply too good to play anything else, there might be a chance this OTA lives up to the hype we all felt when reading through all those changes.

Obviously, I will make sure to let you know all about the incoming meta in our future Tier Lists and other articles on Marvel Snap Zone. As usual, come and chat on theMarvel Snap Zone community Discord, or follow myTwitterpage where I share decks and biased opinions about the game.

Good Game Everyone.