MARVEL SNAP: Content Creators & Top-Tier Players Discuss Golden Gauntlet Strategy & Sleeper Decks

MARVEL SNAP‘s upcoming Golden Gauntlet is going to be a terrific showcase for the mobile CCG, and some of the game’s biggest players and content creators are looking ahead to it. The third world championship for the title will see players bringing their A-game to the digital space. The Golden Gauntlet will be streaming live on Saturday, November 8, with in-stream giveaways on the MARVEL SNAP Twitch while notable figures in the space like RegisKillbin, notmydance, Bynx_plays, SuperTechGod, KMBestMS, and ItsGuestGaming highlight the competition.

With a recent balancing patch shifting some strategies and the “Arachnid Anarchy” season pass opening up a new focus on Move cards, there are a lot of potential game-changers stepping into the ring. Ahead of the Golden Gauntlet tournament, Comicbook.com sat down to chat with notable MARVEL SNAP players and content creators NotMyDance, Tuccrr, Sizerr, FaThorNewman, and ZombiezGoNomNom to get their perspective on the most dangerous deck archetypes in the current Meta and how to best approach deck building.

Dangerous Decks Going Into The Golden Gauntlet

MARVEL SNAP is a game constantly in flux, due to the mixture of regular new cards and frequent balancing updates to address issues in the meta. The latest such change-up is coming alongside the “Arachnid Anarchy” season drop, as well as the upcoming Golden Gauntlet World Championship. An open-deck tournament, the Golden Gauntlet will pit some of the game’s best players against each other, with a full scope of deck archetypes expected to be on display. Speaking with the players and content creators, Comicbook got a better view of what seems to be the core approaches to this new season and the Golden Gauntlet.

“I’ve managed to dodge all the tournaments,” NotMyDance noted with a laugh, but explained that “I think there will be variations of Move. I think the new season of MARVEL SNAP is going to introduce potentially new styles of Move as well. One of the styles that a lot of competitive players also talk about, I think, is Cerebro. I think there’s going to be some interesting buffs to that one and more tools that can use it. Lastly, I’d expect some Victoria Hand styles of decks. I think those are really solid.”

“Move is probably the best deck in the game,” Tuccrr said, noting that “Human Torch and the addition of Sparky and all these tech cards that they’re incorporating in this season. Also, I’m thinking that War Machine/Legion decks will be in there. I haven’t seen them in past seasons, but I’m seeing them more this current season. There are also the card-created decks like Arishem, Victoria Hand, and Iron Patriot. There are tech cards incorporated into that, too, and tech cards reign supreme in a tournament setting. When you’re locked into a game with an open deck list, but if you have these random cards that change potentially every round, on top of location variance, it gives you that surprise factor.

Sizerr concurred with the idea that Move decks will likely be dominant, calling the archetype one of the best in the game’s current meta. Because of this, “I don’t think many people will be playing that deck, but I do expect many people will be prepared for that deck. Besides that, there are always a lot of Arishem decks. The best Arishem player is the luckiest Arishem player. I actually respect and fear a Moonstone/Cerebro deck, especially because Enchantress has been nerfed, and going forward, Cosmic Ghost Rider will be nerfed too. I do fear those decks, because they also run Mercury in them. I also think End of Turn decks are going to shine.”

“There are two decks that I hate playing against,” FaThorNewman revealed. “Anything that runs Cosmic Ghost Rider is at the top of my list. It shuts down so many things that I like to do. Anything with that is a huge contender. Same thing with Mobius [M. Mobius]. If Mobius [M. Mobius]is in there, I think that’ll shut stuff down. Decks that run him and Cosmic Ghost Rider are my nightmare, because I don’t like to play that kind of meta techie stuff, but I think that’s a big deal.”

Newmann also noted that in the Golden Gauntlet qualifier that he was in, the winner earned the top spot with a Discard deck. “I think Discard is just always in a good spot. It’s not the easiest to tech against. It’s interesting, because there are tech cards that should be more relevant than they feel like they are. Running Red Guardian, I think that’s probably a pretty important card for dealing with the discard stuff. As far as Cosmic Ghost Rider goes, though, there’s not a ton you can do against. Maybe Cosmo, but it’s such a wasted turn three in such a competitive mode. But if it’s just gonna be everywhere, that’s what you’ve got to do.

ZombiezGoNomNom explained his views on the current meta is that “Honestly, probably the big ones are the Move-focused combo decks, because those are some of the few ones that haven’t been nerfed in a while. It’s one of the decks in the game that requires a lot more skill. I know some of the people who are going to be playing in the event have played a lot of that deck, and they’re very, very good with it. So I don’t expect it to be the most popular deck of the event, probably far from it, but I do think it is one of the best ones. Even if it doesn’t get the win, I think it’ll be pretty high up along the bracket.”

Sleeper Decks To Keep An Eye Out For During The Golden Gauntlet

While those are the decks that players seem to be most concerned about, there are other archetypes and playstyles that don’t get as much attention but can still earn players an upset. Some of the best sleeper decks in MARVEL SNAP are the ones that other players don’t see coming, according to the content creators and players we spoke to.

“I think the best styles of decks are the ones that people don’t pay attention to,” NotMyDance argued. “They aren’t the ones that people don’t play a lot. You can look at a deck and think it looks atrocious, but in actuality, if someone has played that deck for a hundred games, it’s going to be better than someone who is using a “Pro” deck but has only played it a few times. I think those players can do a lot more than people think. I think that’s going to be very interesting, especially in an open deck list format.”

Tuccrr cited a few specific deck formats that might surprise fans. “I think people are seeing a lot of Cerebro 4, especially with Mercury. I’m kind of thinking [Silver] Surfer might be in a very interesting spot. It’s not been as popular recently because a lot of these other cards scale more vertically. But I think a Shadow King, even in your own lane, can offset whatever your opponent is trying to do. It can be a crucial surprise factor.“

“I might see more of that in this tournament. Cougarrr won the last tournament with a Hydra Stomper deck. We have some more Hydra Stomper decks this time around. We may be seeing something like that. I think ultimately the best sleeper deck, the one I think that could go really far, is something like Affliction. I don’t think Luke Cage is very popular at the moment, and Affliction has all sorts of different rhymes of reasons to kind of scale with — as offset what opponents want to do with a Red Guardian tech card.”

For Sizerr, “Moonstone decks are my sleeper choice.” This focus on Ongoing decks specifically cited the typically common Mister Negative/Iron Man/Living Tribunal combo, but that’s not the one he thinks are going to pick up steam. “Pick some ongoing stuff, generally speaking, that is not necessarily tribunal or negative. Those decks will sooner or later meet someone who counters them. I doubt they will win. They can have a good run, but after winning 12 games in a row, someone’s going to have a counter. Moonstone can offer some surprises.”

FaThorNewman noted that it won’t be surprising to see so many Move-heavy decks, arguing, “I don’t think that’s a big surprise.” However, he too was focused on the versatility of a good Victoria Hand deck. Citing how surprises like a good Morgan Le Faye deck can seemingly come out of nowhere, “I think that with where the meta is right now, things like that can still just pop up. I imagine we’ll see destroy, I imagine we’ll see discard, I imagine we’ll see move, but I think that some Victoria Hand stuff will probably be in there as well. It’s the little things. I’d love to have a Sandman deck that actually works, but with Mobius [M. Mobius]it’s not happening. I think some Patriot stuff probably makes sense as well. Le Faye with Air Walker works incredibly well. There are a lot of different pieces that you know you don’t see because they’re difficult to play. But if you’re going into something like [Golden Gauntlet], you need something that puts out a good amount of power.”

ZombiezGoNomNom agreed, noting that “I think traditional decks like Discard are good. I think decks like really get an edge in these types of events are the ones people don’t have experience playing against. You get taken off guard a little bit. You don’t know what the total point output is going to be. The more established archetypes, it’s kind of easy to predict. Maybe I don’t know how big Knull is, but I know it’s going to be big enough to win a lane. I think deck building is often harder than actual gameplay, because you also need to be a better player to be a better deck builder. There are some really great deck builders in this event, so I’m curious to see if they come up with anything that is really surprising. Last time, we had a very diverse top eight in terms of decks, and this time I think it’ll be similar.“

The Key To Good Deck Building In MARVEL SNAP

Deckbuilding for something like the Golden Gauntlet is a different beast than standard play, something that all of the players and commentators on hand explained. Comparing his approach to deck building in regular play against something like the competitive space, NotMyDance noted that “I think on one hand, I’ve been playing a second account where I don’t have half as many cards and I have to build decks incredibly differently… I’m trying to build a big combo together. I want to make sure that all the pieces work in and out with each other to make this really big thing happen, and make for an explosive finish at the end.”

“When I’m building a deck for the Golden Gauntlet or if it’s a competitive tournament, I think one of the bigger things that you want to do, and as much as I don’t like a lot of tech cards, but tech is important. There is a very fine balance between how much tech you need to be actually running inside of your deck to actually be beneficial, and that doesn’t make your deck slower. It needs to be able to still complement what you want to do with it. Recently, they’ve nerfed more tech cards and made them a little bit worse, so that you can’t just run a tech soup pile, which I appreciate. I think a lot more of that has come into what tech cards you use in your deck that would still benefit what you’re trying to do. I think one of the best examples of that is the recent style of Enchantress, Supergiant stuff, where you can really use those cards and then connect to the rest of the deck, but then have a very good answer for whatever else your opponent’s trying to do.”

The approach to standard deckbuilding is something that Tuccrr kept in mind too while reflecting on the trick to deckbuilding some surprises, “When it comes to a tournament setting, I like having surprise cards, whether that is a card generating card or something like a Hulkling. I really enjoy Hulkling, I was using a Hulking and Black Knight deck for my first Golden Gauntlet, and Hulking was able to be a surprise factor that you can’t account for every single game. Whereas for a tournament setting, you definitely want more of those surprise factors and probably more tech. In Conquest, you can have some tech and surprise factors, but you may not need as much just because you kind of have a more narrow scope of where you’re at. Whereas in a tournament setting, it’s an open deck list, you kind of need to have counters to what you think are the main three or four decks.”

For Sizerr, there’s an importance to how players explore new combos and counters that makes deck building a tricky proposition. “You don’t want to be facing a matchup where you don’t stand a chance. In MARVEL SNAP, even if you meet a counter deck, you always have a chance. It’s a card game where anything can happen. Generally, my approach is different in that I want to be a bit prepared and tech-ed against a variety of match-ups. In Conquest or tournaments, though, you’ve got to battle it out to the best of your ability. I’m going to be playing Move, so public enemy number one is Mercury. Exploring new ways to deal with cards like Mercury is the best way to prepare.“

“I’m a terrible deck builder,” FaThorNewman said, explaining that “is not an area where I’ve ever felt I’ve been as strong. In the previous Golden Gauntlet I played in, I brought Moira X and Victoria Hand, I brought in a deck no one else was going to play. I started with a deck that looked promising. I reached out to another content creator, who’s really good at the game, and asked, ‘What can you tell me? What should I do? They said, ‘You have got to add variance. You’ve got to make sure your opponent has no idea what’s going on… I had the Infinaut/Legion/War Machine decks, but they’re so consistent. It’s all about consistency and variance. Building for this, you’ve got to have outs against a bunch of different decks. It’s not about playing a bunch of tech stuff; you have got to also find a way of putting power out there. Victoria Hand, for me, is a great way to do that.

For ZombiezGoNomNom, the most important thing to keep in mind in the tournament space is to know the game “inside and out. I can see from a competitive standpoint, if you want to do the best you can, knowing it all. But I just like seeing all the different things, what people come up with. That’s definitely made me more excited for this one… I felt very confident in most of my games last tournament, because I knew all the decks I was going against. Some you can predict the output of better than others. But if it was going up against something I’ve never played against before, that’s exciting. Obviously, the deck lists are public, so you can see what they have. But it’s different when you know you’re playing against something you’ve played 1000 matches against versus a deck you’ve never run into before. That’s one of those things that can really catch you off guard. I think that’s true of most good players, being able to go through the deck builds and understanding the matchup, and learning the pros and cons of your deck versus their deck. It’s really something you can fall back on. When you don’t have that, you kind of have to figure it out on the fly.”

Catch the live broadcast of the MARVEL SNAP Golden Gauntlet World Championship Series Finals on Saturday, November 8th, live on the official @MARVELSNAP Twitch and YouTube channels. Pre-show coverage begins at 10:00 AM EST/07:00 AM PST, live coverage at 11:00 AM EST/08:00 AM PST.