Continuing our State of the Costs series, where we break down how each Cost category is doing in the metagame, we enter the second phase with the second and last low-cost category. We’ve already discussed how 1-cost cards are in a solid position regarding both win and play rate. With 2-cost cards, we enter a field with better diversity and potential while slightly sacrificing ease of use and play.
2-Cost: Go Big Or Go Home
2-cost cards are often regarded as the main “early-game scalers” in Marvel Snap since you rarely have to do much to get them to 10+ or even 15+ power. Morbius, for instance, needs 1 M.O.D.O.K. to reach 10 or 12 power instantly. The same goes for Dagger if we look at Move decks or Dazzler if we talk about Zoo.
These cards have a reputation for going taller than most 4,5, and, sometimes, even 6-cost cards. Although most have a sub-5% meta share, their ability to gain power with the correct synergies cannot be denied. Surprisingly, though, the 4 faces of 2-cost cards, at the moment, aren’t known for gaining power but for usability, disruption, and tech, like the ones listed below.
Jeff, as we all are familiar with, has been a prevalent card in the meta since the prime days of Lockdown back in 2023, and staying relevant for this long is already an achievement in and of itself. With a strong 13.17% play rate, he’s among the 10 most popular cards in Marvel Snap right now, and compared to prior weeks, his relevancy has increased dramatically after the buff to War Machine and his deck in general.
Busted Lockdown
After the effect-change to War Machine in the recent patch notes, the famous “Legion Control” archetype has soared in popularity, amassing a 1.5% meta-share with a strong 54.3% cube rate. Jeff is a common addition to this deck, and his versatility makes him fairly popular with other meta decks that want a reliable card for that extra 12th deck slot, like the Patriot deck, which is also in fantastic condition these days.
With Clog decks still being the dominant deck in the meta with a colossal 61.44% meta-share (seeing as how they effectively counter Hela), it’s no surprise that Kate Bishop and White Widow are both in the Top 20 regarding play rate. Kate has drastically moved up the ranks to become the 4th most popular card in the game, even beating out Jeff. Her arrows make her slightly more versatile than White Widow, like the grapple arrow being a key component in Move decks, which are seeing more play after the release of Madame Web and Araña back-to-back.
Lastly, I want to touch up on arguably the best tech card in Marvel Snap – Shadow King. This is perhaps the only low-cost card you’ll see in Arishem decks, and with a subtle 2-cost ability that nullifies power-oriented monsters like Cassandra Nova, Venom, and Blob (all of which are fairly popular in the meta), you can see why he’s in such demand. Popularity-wise, he’s doing great with a 9.73% play rate, with an adequate 54.66% win rate. However, the main reason why Shadow King is doing so well is not because he decreases your opponent’s power but because he increases yours.
High Evo
High Evolutionary has suddenly shifted to become the #1 deck regarding win rate while entering the Top 10 in popularity. As seen, the main goal of this deck is to constantly lower your opponent’s power with cards like Scorpion, Hazmat, and Cassandra Nova while also buffing Ajax to the point where he reaches 15+ power.
This is where Shadow King comes into play; this one card obliterates more than half of the High Evo deck, reducing cards like Cass and Silver Sable to their base power while resetting your own cards’ power so your opponents’ prior efforts go to waste. SK has a strategic position in the current meta, and this is perhaps the strongest we’ve seen him compared to the last few months.
Rising Stars Among The Category
In our first article of the series, we mentioned how the growing popularity of Bounce decks is a key reason why 1-cost cards are so important these days. Of course, no Bounce deck is complete without Falcon, which is why he’s risen from the ashes and is in the best spot he’s ever been. Although the numbers suggest he’s on the lower end with just over a 4% play rate, nearly every Bounce deck, sitting with the 4th strongest win rate in the game, is using him.
Several high-infinite players use Falcon in conjunction with popular 1-cost cards like Silver Sable, Nico Minoru, and The Hood. Additionally, with cards like Agent Venom and Toxin arriving next month, the general consensus is that Bounce will be even more popular than it already is, albeit with a few changes in strategy. Regardless, any positive reinforcement for this deck is a win for Falcon, so expect to see this winged hero even more soon.
As Ajax is starting to make a comeback, with his addition to the High Evo shell resulting in Marvel Snap’s strongest concurrent deck, Hazmat is slowly becoming more prevalent. Having a solid 55.1% win rate and a massive climb to having a 5.55% meta share, she is arguably the best low-cost power-reducing card, right alongside Silver Sable.
Besides the Ajax package, the traditional Toxic-Junk Clog archetype is also keeping Hazmat as a must-include card, and, as we mentioned, Clog is all the craze right now, which is why the win rate for a low-cost card like this seems reasonable. Furthermore, with Scream, another power-snatching 2-cost card coming to the game next week, we expect that the toxic playstyle isn’t going anywhere, so there’s further hope that Hazmat will continue to be in meta-relevant discussions.
Underplayed 2-Cost Cards That Need Your Attention
If we look outside the obvious choices, there are a couple of 2-cost cards that have massive potential at first glance but are either too niche to be played or have been power-crept to the point where they don’t come across as viable. As such, this section of the article highlights some of the cards in this category that aren’t having their time in the sun.
Many players undermine the sheer importance of locations in a game of Marvel Snap, especially the ones with ongoing effects like Bar With No Name, Castle Blackstone, The Nexus, and many others. Thus, having a low-cost location manipulator that doesn’t have a randomness element to them is a huge game-changer, and the best example among them is Quake. Unfortunately, besides Magik and Legion, location manipulators, like Quake, aren’t doing too well these days, which has a measly 0.74% meta-share. Her disruption and surprise factor is highly under-utilized, given her sheer versatility.
According to players, she feels a bit “too general” in a meta-game where big power is needed, and Quake isn’t offering too much 2/3. Perhaps an extra point of power could put her in a worthwhile position, especially since we could see the emergence of C4 with Agent Venom next month.
Oh, Loki… how far you’ve fallen. Of all the cards in this category, Loki's history is the most interesting by far. After several months of trying to rework this card, Second Dinner finally tamed the beast after dropping him down to a 2/2. Despite being in the Top 50 cards in play rate, Loki is almost exclusively tied to Arishem decks, and Arishem's sheer dominance has inflated Loki's popularity.
In reality, this card barely sees any play outside the Arishem shell, and seeing as how Loki was the meta-defining card in both his 4-cost and 3-cost phases, it's a little unfortunate to see him so limited nowadays. His only saving grace is the 55.86% win rate, which does seem amazing on paper until you realize it's rarely because of Loki himself and mostly because of Arishem's other random cards carrying the deck over the victory lap.
Finally, we have another card that’s seen a steep decline in play after the mid-range Thena-Angela deck started to become less dominant. Ravonna was a key card in that deck and was so crucial for it to work that she was consistently among the game's Top 5 most popular 2-cost cards. Now, she’s barely seen in the Top 15, and while that’s still strong on paper, it’s nowhere near the height she was in her prime.
Unlike Loki, Ravonna’s had the same cost for quite some time, and although she was nerfed to a 2/2 from the previous 2/3, the main reason she’s had a weak 50.97% win rate is because of the decks she’s played in—Mister Negative, Tribunal, Angela-Thena, and C3. None of the aforementioned decks are being seen in the meta because they fall so easily to something like Enchantress and Shadow King. At one point, Ravonna had a place in Clog decks, but with the introduction of Kate Bishop and White Widow, there was no reason to keep her in those decks anymore.
1-Cost Vs. 2-Cost: Which Is The Best Low-Cost Category Right Now?
As mentioned earlier, 2-cost cards are where we start seeing a greater focus on tech and disruption, which is why the most popular cards in this category focus on those aspects. However, having twice the requirements of a 1-cost card is still a big ask, and unless you’re something like Shadow King or Kate Bishop which has many options and uses, there’s not a big place for you.
Let’s take a look at Madame Web, the newest 2-cost card released as of writing this article. While she essentially offers free Moves every turn, which is HUGE for the archetype, it’s still not seeing enough play because of how few decks utilize it. The same goes for a former champion like Zabu, who’s pretty much limited to Wiccan decks nowadays. Compared to 1-cost cards, there’s a significantly low number of must-have 2-cost cards to compete in the meta, and these lackluster options hurt this cost type the most. Both Zabu and Madame Web are still struggling to maintain strong play rates of 5.49% and 2.7%, respectively.
That being said, this category is still in a much better position than 4, 5, and 6-cost cards, and there’s even further hope for these low, even-cost cards. According to the datamines for the upcoming month, we could see a massive boost to Bounce decks with the introduction of Toxin, a 2-cost card that is essentially a power-oriented Beast. Looking further beyond, we also have Fenris Wolf, which looks like an absolute monster if it stays unchanged. So, for all my 2-cost fans out there, watch out for these cards since they could determine this cost’s fate in the coming weeks.
Is The “Vanilla” 2/3 Stat Line Still A Thing?
Many professional Marvel Snap players and developers agree that the game has considerably strayed away from the vanilla stat line it set when it initially launched. Looking at this Cost category, it seems that 2/3, the original stats set by the card Shocker, is now deemed subpar. As mentioned earlier, 2-cost cards are known for their huge scaling, usability, and tech, and if a card doesn’t provide either of those (suppose it’s often played as a combo piece instead), then it’s considered a bad card.
Black Swan has stayed in a troubling position since release, even though she had the premium 3/5 stat line. With the recent patch, Second Dinner shifted her down to a 2/3 and changed her On-Reveal to an Activate ability. It feels like a good trade-off; Black Swan’s now easier to play but sacrificed her premium stats for a vanilla alternative. In truth, unfortunately, with a laughable 1.37% meta share and a subpar 52.79% win rate, players agree that this card “went from bad to worse.”
Why? Her ceiling to gain power has remained unchanged—you can only use her once, and she’ll remain a 2/3 for the rest of the game. Of course, you can Bounce her with Beast, but the Activate trigger makes that interaction extremely clunky. On top of that, a 2/3 doesn’t feel good to play, especially when you know you can get the same functionality or even better from a stronger 1/2 or 3/5. It feels like she’s stuck in the middle, where she’s not easy enough to play as a one-time 2-cost card, and her power isn’t enough to make a difference in a lane. This is why the 3/5 stat line is becoming the norm. Despite the higher requirements, playing a 5-power card can make the difference between winning and losing a location, and Black Swan losing that authoritativeness is a considerable blow.
Besides this specific example, several cards in this category suffer from the problem: Quake, Baron Mordo, Valentina, Collosus, and many more. Of course, they haven’t been altered by Second Dinner for a few weeks, but Black Swan being a new 2/3 and performing so poorly shows that a 2-cost needs to either have massive power potential or functionality to be useful. The newer and upcoming cards in this cost category have set the bar high.
Looking At The Future: Are 2-Cost Cards Going To Dominate?
Besides Toxin, the Symbiote month looks extra spicy for 2-cost cards since we’re getting 3 brand-new entries for this category. I briefly discussed Scream when discussing Hazmat, but there’s so much more to this card than meets the eye. Since she steals 2 power from your opponent’s cards, we are looking at the first-ever 2-Cost card that gains +4 effective power when its ability is triggered, which is even more than Dagger and Thena. Scream is also looking to be highly meta-relevant because it’s an ideal counter for Move decks, a rising archetype thanks to Madame Web and Araña.
Alongside our new early-game scaler, the hype surrounds our next Season Pass card, Agent Venom, which sets the power of all cards in your deck to 4. Not only is this a huge win for C4 decks, since Agent Venom can buff Cerebro and Mystique in that archetype while also making Luke Cage a viable addition, it’s also a wakeup call for the mid-range Thena package, which has laid dormant for a few weeks. This card feels like a 2-cost Valkyrie or Bast with a higher ceiling, so the possibilities are wide and exciting. There’s also the fact that Agent Venom can easily slide into Bounce decks since most of them have a base power lower than 4.
As seen, the three 2-cost cards releasing next month have completely separate strategies, advantages, and preferred deck types. All of them seemingly show great promise, and I’m interested to see how they perform and how the community tends to play around with them to make a dominant deck potentially.
Conclusion
Wrapping up the low-cost phase of our series, it’s clear that players want replayability and low-commitment cards in their decks. For now, tech and disruption-based 2-cost cards are defining the category, and going forward, it’s highly likely that this trend will continue. After all, when you have all your counters and big-power cards in a small form factor, why go for larger options anyway?
We hope you now have a better understanding of 2-cost cards in the current meta game and which cards in this category are thriving. If you think we missed a few underdogs, let us know about them in the comments below!