The current season - Guardians Greatest Hits, is the first season we’re getting small balance updates on a weekly basis, so the meta has been rather healthy and constantly shifting. Like always, there’s one deck that’s very polarizing, but since the cards in that deck have been in the game for a while, and weren’t used enough, I’m happy that they’re getting their time in the spotlight, and I think the game is progressing in a healthier direction, and we can look forward to the next seasons, since Second Dinner is paying a lot more attention to the meta.
We’ve gotten plenty new cards already in this season like Nebula, Iron Lad and Howard The Duck, and unlike a lot of the previous pool 5 cards we’ve received, Iron Lad is getting used in a lot of decks, and we can only assume that he will be used even more once Howard The Duck becomes a little more popular.
10.Patriot
Patriot has been up and down the meta, but he’s always been a fun deck to play that relies on buffing weaker cards that don’t have any effects and making them way more useful. This deck has a decent amount of utility and it’s good at countering Galactus, who’s pretty popular in the meta right now.
With the addition of Super Skrull being pool 3, this deck has gotten a lot more balanced and way more fun to play. Super Skrull will copy all of your opponent’s effects, which is often really useful, especially since Darkhawk decks are really good in the meta currently, and even if not against Darkhawk, Super Skrull will bring you a lot of value and sometimes even the playing field against Sera decks. Your finishing cards are Ultron and Onslaught and both of them offer a lot of versatility, and they’re useful in different scenarios.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck offers a fun and unique playstyle, focused around buffing all of the cards on your field significantly, the biggest enemy of this deck is Enchantress, so you have Cosmo to protect yourself, and in mirror matches Super Skrull will come in clutch
- Debrii is a card that gives you a lot of value, because she is able to clog up your opponent’s locations with rocks, while on your side, the rocks will be powered up and actually useful
- Cosmo is your go to card to counter your opponent if they’re playing some On Reveal cards and you can accurately gauge where they’re playing their cards, and he can also protect your Ongoing cards from a surprise enchantress
- Mystique is a versatile card since almost any Ongoing effect you copy with her will bring you a lot of value, and my favorite card to copy with her is Super Skrull against decks that run a lot of Ongoing effects, since then you’re virtually unbeatable
- Onslaught and Ultron are your turn 6 options, Onslaught will double your Ongoing effects giving you a lot more value on your board, and Ultron can swarm the board with 1-cost 1-power drones who don’t have any effects and will get buffed by all of your cards
Card List:
- Wasp
- Squirrel Girl
- Misty Knight
- Shocker
- Mystique
- Patriot
- Cosmo
- Debrii
- Super Skrull
- Blue Marvel
- Onslaught
- Ultron
9.Dino Hawk
Darkhawk has always stood his place in the meta game, not necessarily being a tier 1 deck, since Zabu got nerfed, but still making a huge impact in any deck he’s played. After a series of nerfs we got recently making the locations that add rocks to players’ decks less likely to appear and lowering Rock Slide’s power, Darkhawk is still strong in the meta, which speaks volumes about how useful and strong this card is.
This deck is geared toward using Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur to their fullest potential by adding cards to your opponent’s deck, and still having some good tools to make Devil Dinosaur a really valuable card. We have Rockslide and Korg who focus on making Darkhawk more powerful, and we also have Sentinel, Agent Coulson and Moongirl as support for Devil Dino. Moongirl is the most valuable card in this deck, since she has synergy with everything else in the deck like Quinjet and Zabu who will lower the cost of your important cards, and she also sets it up so that you can play 2 Darkhawks or 2 Devil Dinosaurs in a game to create a lot of value.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck is highly flexible since it has at least two really good win conditions, and some really good cards like Mystique and Moongirl that enable your win conditions
- Darkhawk and Devil Dinosaur are your big hitting cards that give you a lot of power on the board, but keep in mind that you need to carefully play around them, since Darkhawk is almost useless if you didn’t play Rockslide or Korg, and Devil Dino can be rather disappointing if you have few cards in your hand
- Moongirl is a key card in this deck, since she perfectly sets up Devil Dinosaur on the next turn if you have him in your hand, but she also enables you to play out 2 Darkhawks which can give you a lot of value
- Mystique is also a great card that finishes game for you since she can copy a strong Ongoing effect from Darkhawk or Devil Dinosaur and get you enough power on board to secure 2 locations
Card List:
- Korg
- Quinjet
- Zabu
- Sentinel
- Mystique
- Cosmo
- Agent Coulson
- Darkhawk
- Shang-Chi
- Moongirl
- Rockslide
- Devil Dinosaur
8.Sandman Ramp
Electro and Sandman is an archetype that has been present in the game for a while now. Its success vastly depends on the meta and on how many players are relying on playing out a lot of cards each turn as their win condition. Sandman completely counters a lot of Combo decks and especially Sera decks, so you can look at this deck as sort of an anti-meta option that you can play.
The goal with this deck is to lockdown and control what your opponent can and can’t do, while still being able to play out a lot of power on each location and overpower your opponent in that way. The early game consists of you playing Sunspot and/or Nebula if you’re able and then hoping to draw into Electro or Wave as they set up the rest of the game for you. Playing Doctor Doom earlier, before turn 6 is huge value, since then on turn 6 you can play Odin and double the amount of DoomBots you’re getting. If you play Sandman, your opponent won’t be able to play more than 1 card per turn, which will inevitably lead to their loss if you can play out Doctor Doom and Odin who will bring a lot more value on the board than anything your opponent can play unless they have a way to stop your from doing your combo.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck can severely limit what your opponent can do and heavily impair a lot of the popular combo and Sera decks that will be seen further down in the list
- Sandman can lock you and your opponent out from playing more than 1 card each turn, which is great for you since your deck is built to overpower them with sheer value in those exact situations
- Electro and Wave are your tools for bringing out your more powerful cards earlier, and they’re really important for the success of this deck
- If you play Doctor Doom out earlier and manage to play Odin during the game on Doctor Doom’s location, you’re going to get a lot of value, which is often enough for a victory if you have Sandman on the board
- Sunspot and Nebula are good tools for getting some power early in the game which can make a lot of difference later on since not a lot of other cards fit in this deck and give nearly as much power as those two
Card List:
- Sunspot
- Nebula
- Jeff
- Electro
- Wave
- Jubilee
- Sandman
- Aero
- Doctor Doom
- Odin
- America Chavez
- Magneto
7.DeathWave
DeathWave is another archetype that has been in the game for a while and relies on Wave to make its combos successful. Since Wave’s effect of setting all cards to 4 energy applies before the cost reduction from She-Hulk and Death, we have a way to play them out for 0 energy on the last turn and play another card on top of that to seal the victory.
As we’ve said - Wave is the key card in this deck. Everything happening before Wave on turn 5 is mostly built up for lowering the cost of Death and trying to put some easy power on the board with cards like Bucky Barnes and Deathlok. On turn 5 you can play Wave as set up for turn 6 to play out She-Hulk and Death and an additional card. That card should usually be something like Aero, since your opponent will likely be able to play out only one card due to Wave’s effect, or Doctor Doom who can spread power evenly on all locations to make it even harder for your opponent to overpower you.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck has a really explosive turn 6 that can get you a lot more power on the board than a lot of other decks.
- Wave is your tool for setting up that powerful turn 6, since she will make She-Hulk and Death usually cost 0 or cheap enough for you to be able to play them both out, and probably an additional card
- Doctor Doom and Aero are great options that you can play out alongside She-Hulk and Death who already bring you a lot of value on board. Aero will prevent your opponent from being able to play their card where they want, and Doctor Doom will get you a lot of value across all locations
- The rest of this deck is aimed at destroying a lot of cards and enabling Death to be cheaper, while still being able to put a decent amount of power on the board
Card List:
- The Hood
- Squirrel Girl
- Yondu
- Bucky Barnes
- Carnage
- Killmonger
- Wave
- Deathlok
- Aero
- Doctor Doom
- She-Hulk
- Death
6.Dracula Apocalypse Discard
Discard decks are always fun to play, since they are rather unpredictable and slightly counter intuitive since you can discard important combo pieces, but I think that’s part of their charm. This is the most balanced version of the Dracula and Apocalypse combo aimed around easily getting a lot of power on the board.
As we’ve stated - the main pieces of this deck are Dracula and Apocalypse. Your goal is to play Dracula on turn 4, discard your entire hand with MODOK on tur 5, and then on turn 6, depending on the board state, you can decide to play either Apocalypse or America Chavez and let Dracula discard and get the power of the card that you don’t play out. Another really important card that can get you a lot of value is actually Swarm. Discarding him a few times will fill your entire hand with Swarms that you can play out on the last turn alongside whatever you’re playing. The only flaw of this deck is that it’s usually very predictable since your opponent can see exactly how much power Apocalypse will have, as well as knowing how many Swarm’s you have in your deck.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck lets you choose how you diversify your power on turn 6 really efficiently. If you do your combo, you’re going to be able to contest any location you want, while also needing to only win 1 more to win the game
- Dracula and Apocalypse are cards that synergize really well. If Dracula discards Apocalypse, you will get a LOT of power on his location, and if you don’t need that much power there, you can instead play Apocalypse and let Dracula discard America Chavez
- Swarm is a really good card that you can discard a few times each game to get massive value, you can discard him easily with Colleen Wing, and then surely with MODOK if he’s in your hand by turn 5
- MODOK synergizes with every card in the deck and is a really important combo piece. Discarding cards like Wolverine, Swarm and Apocalypse gives you additional value and sets up your turn 6 perfectly
Card List:
- Nebula
- Morbius
- Wolverine
- Swarm
- Colleen Wing
- Storm
- Lady Sif
- Dracula
- Hell Cow
- MODOK
- Apocalypse
- America Chavez
5.Sera Surfer
When Silver Surfer was released as a Season Pass card a few Seasons ago, he was the strongest card in the meta and a deck really similar to this one was able to overpower everything else in the meta. Now after the nerf has settled in, the players have found him to still be viable and actually a rather strong deck.
Silver Surfer decks have a big flaw of having to mostly include 3-cost cards to be able to get the most out of Silver Surfer’s effect. The goal here is to play out a variety of your 3-cost cards to stay in control of the game and then buff them all at the end with Silver Surfer. Sera, of course, helps this very much by letting you play three 3-cost cards on the last turn, when you know more about what your opponent is going to do and then you’ll be able to accurately gauge what cards from your hand you should play where to get the most value and undermine your opponent. Luckily, 3-cost cards are really useful and usually have some really nice effects, so by correctly using them, you’ll almost always manage to stay ahead of your opponent.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck is great at choosing how to diversify your power across all locations. Playing multiple 3-cost cards on a location early on can make it so that you easily secure it, but you can also spread them out more and wait for the final turn to choose where you need the most power
- Sera lets you save your cards for the last turn and choose how you need to spread out your power. She’s also good at saving some cubes since you will be able to gauge more accurately how much power you and your opponent will have after the last turn, so that you can retreat if you know you can’t beat your opponent, or stay in the game and win more cubes
- Juggernaut is my favorite 3-cost card because he’s just so good for that mana value. He can move your opponents cards from a location before they’re even revealed and make sure that your opponent can’t get power on a location they really might want to
- Killmonger is a great counter to a lot of decks based around playing out a lot of cheap cards, but also for Sunspot and Nebula who are in a lot of decks as good 1-cost cards that get you a lot of value. He also has synergy with Nova who will buff your entire board by +1 power if you destroy him with Killmonger
Card List:
- Nova
- Goose
- Scorpion
- Brood
- Mister Fantastic
- Silver Surfer
- Storm
- Juggernaut
- Killmonger
- Polaris
- Maximus
- Sera
4.DoomWave
DoomWave is a deck that seems like it’s quite similar to the DeathWave deck that was previously featured. They use some of the same core cards, but the gameplay is vastly different, since instead of trying to put some power on the board early, this deck focuses a lot more on controlling the board state instead.
This deck has good cards that all synergize well with Storm. You want to use her early in the game to lockdown a single location and win it since you have a lot of cards that let you do that like Jessica Jones, Sunspot and especially the new Season Pass card Nebula. After winning one location, your goal is to be able to secure another one with some control cards like Enchantress and, of course, Goose. Goose synergizes amazingly with She-Hulk and Doctor Doom, since they’re able to bypass Goose’s downside. Wave is still at the center of your turn 6 play, since you’re going to want to play her on turn 5 and then play out She-Hulk and another card on turn 6.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck focuses a lot more on being able to lockdown some locations and restrict your opponent from playing their deck normally. Cards that let you do that best are Storm and Goose
- Wave is your centerpiece and she enables you to play She-Hulk and hopefully Doctor Doom on the last turn
- Doctor Doom is great in this deck since you can prevent your opponent from playing cards by flooding some locations with Storm and restricting powerful cards with Goose, but Doctor Doom bypasses all of those restrictions and gives you 5 power on all locations with his DoomBots
- She-Hulk is really powerful when played on turn 6, and she synergizes with a lot of cards in this deck like Goose and Wave
- Sunspot and Nebula are good at generating a lot of value on a single location for very little energy. You also have Armor in the deck to protect them since a lot of decks run Killmonger as a tech card to remove Sunspot and Nebula since they’re really popular now
Card List:
- Sunspot
- Nebula
- Goose
- Armor
- Jeff
- Storm
- Wave
- Jessica Jones
- Enchantress
- Doctor Doom
- America Chavez
- She-Hulk
3.Nimrod Galactus
Galactus decks are really fun and interactive, but due to him becoming too popular, they’re also really easy to predict, so you have to learn the deck in and out to know how to effectively snap and have a positive cube gain.
The goal is to set up the game so that you can play out Galactus, preferably on turn 4, and then overpower your opponent on the only location that remains after Galactus is played. You have a lot of good cards geared around making Galactus more powerful - like Doctor Octopus. Doctor Octopus can pull out a few good cards from your opponent’s hand and make it so that they can’t use their counters for you later on in the game, and give a lot of power to Knull if you manage to get him out in the same game. Wave and Electro are necessary for bringing Galactus out earlier, so that you have enough time and resources to overpower your opponent.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck can reliably change the game from having to win 2/3 locations, to fighting over only 1 location. This is really good since the deck is built around being to overpower your opponent in those situations
- Jeff is a fun card that was featured in a lot of decks on this list as a good card that can help you win when there are some bad locations on the board or if your opponent is running some kind of lockdown deck. But in this deck he’s necessary since he counters one of the biggest counters to Galactus - Professor X
- Shuri and Nimrod are really valuable cards that give you insane value when they’re played together. Once Galactus destroys the locations, he will also destroy Nimrod, which can make it so that you have 2 or 3 10 power Nimrods on Galactus’ location. Beware of Shang-Chi if you’re planning to do this
- Doctor Octopus is a great way to pull out some of your opponent’s most important cards that can counter Galactus, but he needs to come to your hand in the right moment with a good set up to be useful
- Electro and Wave are your tools for bringing out Galactus earlier, Electro is a little better however, since he lets you play more cards early like Doctor Octopus
Card List:
- Yondu
- Jeff
- Electro
- Wave
- Shuri
- Taskmaster
- Nimrod
- Doctor Octopus
- Knull
- Galactus
- Destroyer
- Death
2.Sera Hit-Monkey Control
Sera Control decks have always been powerful and fun to play because of their interactiveness, and they’ve only gotten better since Hit-Monkey was added to the game in the last season.
The goal of this deck is to be able to play out a LOT of cards on the last turn and be able to overpower your opponent with Hit-Monkey and Absorbing Man, while also being able to counter your opponent with some really good tech cards like Shang-Chi and Enchantress. When Zabu and Sera combine their cost reduction effects, this deck becomes a lot more powerful and consistent on the last turn. Bishop, Hit-Monkey and Absorbing Man usually bring you a lot of power on board, but you don’t have to play out all of them and can let Shang-Chi and Enchantress take care of the most problematic cards on your opponent’s side of the board.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck is able to put out a consistently strong amount of power if you save your core cards for the last turn, but it’s also really good at screwing up your opponent’s strategy with some good control cards
- Hit-Monkey and Bishop are your core cards that bring the most power on the board. They both rely on you playing out a lot of cards and have good synergy with the rest of the deck
- Mysterio is a really underrated card that brings you a lot of value in this deck. Playing Mysterio gives a significant buff to Bishop and Hit-Monkey as well as Absorbing Man if you manage to play them all together
- Sera and Zabu are your cost reduction cards that end up bringing you a lot of value when they’re both on the field. Just playing Sera is good, but having Zabu on the field as well will make your turn 6 way stronger than expected
- Shang-Chi and Enchantress are great cards that can disrupt your opponent if they’re relying on Ongoing effects or powerful cards, which most decks are
Card List:
- Nova
- Hit-Monkey
- Zabu
- Scarlet Witch
- Sentinel
- Mysterio
- Bishop
- Killmonger
- Absorbing Man
- Shang-Chi
- Enchantress
- Sera
1.StatureHawk
Stature with Darkhawk has been holding down the meta by having a lot of really valuable plays. It’s trickier to pilot than most other decks that were featured on the list, but once you get it’s really powerful and it can put out a lot more value on the board than most other decks.
The goal of the deck is to be able to play out powerful cards for rather cheaply. Playing Black Bolt will make Stature cost only 1 energy on the next turn, and playing Polaris will lower the cost of Miles Morales to 1 as well, giving you a lot of ways to make your plays more efficient and valuable. Darkhawk, Rock Slide and Korg are an archetype for themselves, and they’re able to put a lot of value on the board by themselves if you draw them early enough. You also have quite a few good cards that can interrupt whatever your opponent is playing like Shang-Chi and Enchantress while still being able to put out a lot of power on the board.
What This Deck Excels At:
- This deck can easily out-tempo all other decks in the meta currently, because of how valuable all cards in the deck are, while also usually having a really powerful turn 6 with Stature and some other cards depending on the situation
- Black Bolt and Stature have really good synergy, being able to put 8 power on the board, possibly discard a good card from your opponent’s hand and lower the cost of Stature to 1. I really like that this card, who was once considered one of the worst in the game (it’s still not very versatile) is in a tier 1 deck and I think that’s rather healthy for the meta
- Polaris is able to clog up your opponent’s location if they commit a little too much there, but she’s mostly used because she gives good value for her power and she enables you to play Miles Morales for only 1 energy on the next turn
- Zabu is really impactful, since he lets you play Darkhawk and Rockslide on the last turn if you haven’t played either of them already and haven’t drawn into Stature. He’s good in other scenarios as well, because this deck has quite a few 4-cost cards
Card List:
- Nebula
- Korg
- Zabu
- Jeff
- Polaris
- Darkhawk
- Shang-Chi
- Enchantress
- Miles Morales
- Rocks Slide
- Stature
- Black Bolt
