I about lost my mind climbing to Infinite this season, primarily because of the way I chose to play. There was a stubborn determination to earn Infinite with the decks I wanted to, and as you will see in the data for each deck, that required a lot of games played.
In total, it took me 605 games to reach rank 100, which seems excessive as I only needed 133 cubes. That may be a normal amount. I've never paid attention to the quantity of games before.
Because of the poor cube performance of most of my deck choices, I'll also share 2 decks that have been great with cube equity post infinite, and 4 bonus decks I haven't played but I think will be strong decks to play on ladder throughout the remainder of the season.
That's 12 decks total! Including a few "budget" options, let's get started.
6. Superior Enjoyment
Stats (incomplete) - 100% WR +4 cubes (2 games)
This was the deck that I literally reached Infinite rank with. My tracker wasn't tracking perfectly, so the WR is closer to 70% and the cubes are probably +8.
I didn't play many games with this, as I was looking to play something I enjoyed to finish the climb from 98 to 100, as I had already made the climb to 99 and fallen back down six different times (four of them in that same day).
I was spiraling both mentally and in rank, so it was a good change of pace. This deck is simply a list of cards I like to play, despite it being relatively weak. It can put up good numbers, but with a lack of meaningful tech or a big finish, it will get shut down by any deck that can put out power consistently. A good combination of luck for me and bad luck for my opponent worked out to a good winrate.
As for the deck itself, it's a silky smooth style deck with an enjoyable addition of Prowler and Frigga to copy whatever you merge your Sp//dr into. Getting Nico to double with Sp//dr, then getting a copy of that, is always insane value.
I recommend you play this for enjoyment, but not for climbing.
Looking at it, with some adjustments, a deck like this could do decent with Maverick.
5. Drop Point Always Changing
Stats - 56.9% WR +14 cubes (102 games)
This is where you will see that stubborn determination to play the way I want to come out. It took 102 games to earn 14 cubes, which is embarrassingly bad. The only reason this deck is in this list is that I forced it to be by playing it so much.
I've talked a lot about that attitude of feeling like you have to "prove" that a deck can win and how that makes you play worse - I was definitely playing worse and lost many games because I messed up. It doesn't help that this deck is tough to win with. The build feels close to something, but it is highly reliant on getting a big Hit-Monkey or Werewolf by Night, sometimes even both.
Surge helps a lot with that need of Hit-Monkey or Werewolf by getting things started/moving faster, but even with that, it's really tough to be confident in this deck when you are often waiting around for Monkey to show up.
A big mistake I made when playing this was getting distracted by Prowler's move condition. Yes, the skills at 0-cost are incredible by Monkey, but that means T5 is (reasonably) the soonest you can play Prowler, but that's when you want to bounce with Beast, so you start competing with yourself. Even at 1-cost, Prowlers' skills are of great value with Joaquin Torres, so don't get too distracted by trying to get them at 0-cost only.
Bounce isn't in a great place with the meta's status currently, which makes this deck a rather un-smart thing to play, but it is what I wanted to play, so I brute forced through 102 games to make up for it.
4. Fury of the Face Furnace
Stats - 69.6% WR + 16 cubes (23 games)
As mentioned in the Chamber card preview
"Is this faceless chest furnace what it finally takes to make Devil Dino and Nick Fury meta-relevant? If so, I want that furnace cranked up to 11!"
This deck is built to turn it up to 11! I was sad to see how quickly that Chamber ramp deck took over the meta (as for some reason I have a problem with what I like becoming popular), so this was my attempt to build the Chamber deck I wanted to play. Are you seeing the theme this season?
I'm surprised, but happy to see how well this deck did, and if I had played it more, I'm sure I could have increased the cubes, and I learned to be confident in the play lines.
The inclusion of Armor and Cosmo is a meta call with all the destroy and combo decks out there. So you have The Good Dog causing some disruption and then use The Collector, Chamber, and Devil Dino to earn points where you need them.
This deck did struggle compared to the Chamber Ramp deck as Cosmo, Armor, and Deafening Chord can't do much in that match-up, and an Infinaut + Ebony Maw will always be better than Devil Dino + Sentinel.
There are some fun things you can do with Moon Girl to get two Chambers and Nick Furys that can make for some silly final turns.
3. Get Your Masses Moving
Stats - 62.7% WR + 29 Cubes (67 games)
A repeat theme from last season, where I play my favorite deck and gamble way too many 8-cubers, and the same is true here, too.
I've spent a lot of time writing about this deck on Reddit, as I love the card Ezekiel and his addition to the "Mass Move" archetype. When I want to have a good time playing Marvel Snap, this is my go-to deck.
This isn't the last time you see this type of deck on this list, so I'll be brief here.
The strategy is simple – move your cards to make Hydra Stomper big, use Hellion to get your other big cards (Kraven, Miles, Ezekiel) in the correct location. Win two lanes with Hellion + friends holding down one and Stomper holding down the other, and occasionally using Rogue and Jugg to interrupt your opponent/protect your own strategy as needed.
2. Run the Straights
Stats - 62.3% WR +43 cubes (53 games)
After pushing myself to madness trying to climb with suboptimal "off-meta" decks, I was looking for something reliable and surprising to my opponent for some high cube wins. I remembered a deck from The Fallen One's release doing just that, and with Adamantium from my pack with Maverick, it was a simple addition.
This deck gives you multiple ways to win, all with surprising power over your opponent.
One option is Symbiote Spider-Man + Fallen One + Lots of stuff turn 6. Even a simple Black Panther + Zola is enough to win on T6 when you've only played 2 cards up to that point.
Another option is Nimrod (boosted by Galacta, Shuri, or Symbiote Spider-Man), then Carnage + Adamantium Infusion.
A surprise option is Kid Omega + Black Panther + Adamantium Infusion.
An option I like that I feel most people don't account for is Nimrod (boosted in any way), then Zola it. A 6 power Nimrod isn't that intimidating, as people are doing math for 6 power going to each location, so surprise them with 12 power in each with Zola.
In some games, you won't have the cards in the correct order to do anything, or you get shut down by a perfectly timed Cosmo. Just retreat and move on to the next game. This deck is great for winning consistent 4 cube games because people are not expecting it.
If the meta starts to counter combos, this deck will suffer slightly, but The Fallen One helps get around that by getting to play out all the big stuff on a final turn.
1. Prowler Family
Stats - 61.6% WR +52 Cubes (172 games)
If this looks like deck #3 "Get Your Masses Moving" with the Prowler instead of Juggernaut, it's because it is. Why? Because I like my "Get Your Masses Moving" deck and I like The Prowler and wanted to play them together to Infinite.
So that's what I did - even if it took me 172 games to earn a measly 52 cubes. HAHAHA, that's just so bad. No wonder I was losing my mind.
As mentioned, I'll give you some more details on the deck, but I do recommend Jugg over Prowler for more consistency, even if the cool factor is hurt significantly. But JotaKingtero in my Discord has had great success with this build.
The playlines are to move your cards like Batroc and the Shield to beef up Sam and Kraven. Have Ezekiel and Silk jumping around. Get some nice value from Spider-Punk with extra moves from Web Sling, Flight Harness (skill from Prowler), and Hellion. Use Hellion in Kraven's location to win that location, and Stomper + some good power to win that location. Because of the disruption, I hold onto Hydra Stomper as long as I can.
While Prowler's coolness does add the same distraction as I mentioned in the Hit-Monkey deck, the skills do allow you to control where Ezekiel or Silk will move without having to clog yourself.
Play Hellion on Ezekiel whenever possible. It gets Ezekiel to gain +2 but will also move a card out of Hellion's location to make room for more cards to move in, and Hydra Stomper loves more moves!
Rogue is here as a sneaky tech card people never expect in this type of build (well, maybe now they do because I've been sharing this deck so much), but I could get some great cubes with Rogue.
Now the "bonus" decks
As I mentioned, the cube rate and therefore the reliability of these decks is relatively low, so I wanted to give some other promising decks I've been playing post-Infinite.
DorMarrow
Stats - 70.6% WR +23 Cubes (17 games)
A major shoutout to Heath from my Discord for cooking this deck up! Marrow is the newest released card in the Seasonal Series 4 pack.
Her ability to wield negative power, combined with her need for destruction, matches the skills of Dormammu perfectly. The rest of this deck builds itself from there, with Silver Sable helping with affliction while also being a target for destruction.
DorMarrow is very much a "win 2 locations" deck, and that's great. You have Diamondback + affliction as one location and either Ajax or Dormammu as your second. Keep that in mind as you are playing. Keep track of what the affliction is and where to plan your cards, and whether Ajax or Dormammu is going to be your big power card.
Some extra notes on Moira X.
She's perfect in this deck! But you have to be careful while playing with her. Dormammu's first skill is an additional card in your opening hand, so Moira will give you 4 cards, not 3, when she's destroyed. Additionally, when you hover, Moira X, she will always show the Dormammu skill as one of the 3 cards, so the 4th card (technically the 3rd of your opening hand) will not be displayed, but will still be copied.
Getting those copies is nice for more destruction targets or afflicters, but it also creates hand clog. That hand clog can be extra problematic with Dormammu needing to add skills to your hand. Don't destroy Moira and play Dormammu's Step 1 or 2 on the same turn unless you have room in your hand - or play the Steps first and get fewer copies from Moira.
Be it from Moria X, Nico, or a double, On Reveal of the skills, you can do some fun things with extra Dormammu skills.
Repeating Step 1: extra merge of a destroyed card into Dormammu to make him even bigger
Repeating Step 2: even more affliction! With Laufey, you can get up to 3 power sucks on a location.
Repeating Step 3: this is what summons Dormammu so that you can juke out your opponent with power. As long as you have the 2 cards to destroy, repeating Step 3 will summon Dormammu to that location even if he is already on the board. I've done this multiple times to dodge Shang/Shadow King or "lie" about where the power is going to end up.
I'm loving this deck, and its power is quite surprising and oppressive!
…real biscuit boxers.
Stats - 83.3% WR +12 Cubes (8 games)
Spider-Man Noir mentioned!
Agent Venom + Gorr is a combo that I always like doing, and this version may not have the suitability of the Pixie version of this deck; it has the extreme fun factor of Noir.
This deck doesn't need Noir to pull a card for his ability to be worth it, as it will take the 8 power on any of its cards.
I've had a great win rate with the limited number of games I've played with this (and that was with Chameleon in place of Shang for a while), so I'm sharing it to give you something that matches the attitude of "I want to play the cards I want" of the decks I played, but with more win-ability.
Now onto Extra decks I haven't played this season, but recommend from experience and a read on the current and future meta.
Negative Knull
With the lack of combo-stopping decks in the meta, it is a great time to play Negative on ladder. This particular version focused on the theme of destroying cards that continues. You could swap out Cassandra Nova for Killmonger to lean more into the destroy angle, especially if Aurora brings about a Thanos Meta.
Ongoing
Ongoing continues to be a sleeper archetype in this meta. It has been for the last 2 seasons. This deck is a pretty basic "best" build of an ongoing Spectrum deck, but I suggest you take out Captain Carter for Cosmo or Luke Cage as you see needed for the remainder of the season. Even keeping this deck as is, you can get a lot of great wins.
Pixie Patriot
I played this on my climb to infinite a few seasons ago, and it temporarily got popular for a week or two, but I've since seen no one else playing it. It's still an extremely strong list to play with Valkyrie, specifically being such a great card to play in this meta. It's a lot cheaper than it looks, and it has the surprise factor that Pixie brings to a deck. It's also really fun to play.
I hope you enjoy it.
Simple Patriot (budget)
As rookiebatman pointed out in my last Decks to Infinite article, I had a lack of budget decks, so I went on the hunt to make sure I included something especially "budget" for people with lower collections. Patriot continues to be a phenomenal card for that early game on Snap. As your collection grows, you can swap out cards like Uatu for something more substantial.
This deck does have some flavorful play lines with Wave into Onslaught into Mystique, or similar things, with some small ramp from Psylock. One note on this build is that it is 100% reliant on Ultron, so you could make some adjustments to add in Squirrel Girl, Doctor Doom, or some other basic cards if needed.
This is the end, I promise.
Well, writing about 12 decks takes a lot of words, and I appreciate you taking the time to read all of them! 🤜🤛
As a final note, if you are still here, we have some cool news about an OTA for Team Clash.
Team Clash OTA Changes
I'll share what Second Dinner had to say:
After encountering balance issues with Grand Arena last month, we decided to try and schedule a "fast patch" for Team Clash to correct early warning signs. You've already collectively played way more games of Team Clash than we ever will, and here's what we've seen so far:
Thunderbolts is by far the best team.
Guardians, X-Men, and Spider-Verse are weak, Avengers is strong.
Spider-Verse and X-Men prebuilts are even weaker.
So we're making the following changes to the Team Clash cards and decks!
Buffs
- Agony: 2/3 -> 1/2
- Symbiote Spider-Man: 4/4 -> 4/6
- Toxie Doxie: +2 -> +3
- Star-Lord: 2/2 -> 2/3
- Groot: 4/10 -> 4/11
- Nightcrawler: 1/1 -> 1/2
- Wolverine: 2/1 -> 2/3
Nerfs
- Thunderbolt's ability: +2 -> +1
- Hawkeye: 1/1 +2 -> 1/2 +1
- Vision: 4/7 -> 4/6
Prebuilt Swaps
- X-Men: Esme Cuckoo -> Armor
- Spider-Verse: Vulture, Kraven -> Arana, Spider-Punk
- Guardians: Silver Surfer FS -> Rocket and Groot