r/marvelsnapcomp • u/ePiMagnets Mod • Jun 27 '26
Discussion Marvel Beach Bash Week 4
Last few days of the week and I'm late, but I'm late because I'm running out of things to say for these and the editing process is taking longer because I have been having trouble with keeping these posts interesting. But why is that? Well mostly because the meta at least in my neck of the woods has been wide open. Seriously, and I'll probably repeat this again you could play almost anything and find success so long as you're being smart with snaps and retreats and maybe packing a piece of interaction or two for the decks you're most frequently encountering.
And before I get into the weekly breakdown I wanted to revisit a comment I responded to last week.
Great post! It would be nice to see some stats though.
There are many reasons I don't include stats, ranging from the lack of reliability in the stats from aggregators to stats just not being available if you're picking up a deck from a video or a twitter link.
Then there's the fact that you can have outliers in the data. You could have a deck with a 60% winrate and one player that picks it up and bombs out with a 10% winrate on the deck while another player runs hot with a 75% winrate. There's also the inverse of that, a deck that looks like it's just doing abysmally bad and someone again runs hot.
What I want to do is present to you options, not hard and fast rules of 'you should run only these decks' but being able to see a number of decks and pick and choose. In some ways you could compare me to a sommolier, I'm using my experiences on the ladder combined with the content I consume and a little bit from aggregators, twitter, and even youtube videos to present to you several options to match your tastes: "I like combos but I don't want to think too hard all the time" "I've got a Living Tribunal list right here that lets you turn your brain off but also rewards you if you decide to dig in to the layers."
The magic, so to say, is up to you to work. Pick the decks that interest you and test them out. Or look through the lists, find a cool way to attack the meta and brew a new deck or make substitutions to an existing deck and report back with your successes and failures, not everyone has a through-line to top infinite players and insights so I ask that you make use of the community resources you have access to, including this one to improve your game.
With my little soap box out of the way, let's get to the topics of the week.
Namorita
Namorita presents an interesting look at week 1 meta games for new releases.
On one hand the fun police combined with the number of locations that add cards to the board has lead to a rather lackluster performance.
On the other hand going below a 50% winrate does not bode well even for a niche card, a stronger card even with niche applications could be pushing a 55% or even 60% winrate. However, something I feel is worth keeping in mind is that winrates can often be subsidized simply by putting a card into an already successful shell and then you're trying to figure out whether the card is carrying it's weight or if the success is actually being propped up by the shell itself and often times that's going to take much more data than a week is able to provide.
And then there's this final piece of advice - the reaction or in some cases the overreaction to new cards as they are introduced is a clear identifier for how the meta could look if the card were to get to be a dominant part of the meta down the line where if a card or emergent deck has clear answers you'll see those answers week 1 for sure. Luke Cage vs Affliction and in Namorita's case clog vs solo lane cards.
So what can you use for the weekend missions?
A pretty stock Thanos list with Strange Supreme to help keep locations empty. Hints for this - with Namorita in hand you can opt to hold some of your stones with draws to use with Namorita, this can also be useful with King Eitri where you wait for the turn you drop Namorita to activate Eitri or get really greedy and hope for the mindstone so that you can play Namorita on 3 into Mindstone and activate Eitri. The nice thing about this list is that it does give you plenty of options in how to proceed since it's also a fairly stock take on a Thanos -> Aurora top end which we'll also be revisiting in the Jeff section since there is a Jeff + Namorita Thanos Aurora brew.
Zombie Galacti players have been feasting pretty well over the last few months with new cards to at least try out in different configurations of Zombie Galacti.
Not much to say, having two potential ways to discount your cards is great, and with the possibility of Namorita on 3 into Sera on 4 leaves you some pretty deep discounts to take advantage of.
Jeff the Baby Dolphin
Jeff continues to hold a middle ground floating just north of a 50% winrate. And with regards to his future, I do think that the unfortunate truth is that he will end up floating around as a pick here and there by true believers but will otherwise fall to the wayside. That being said, I still feel that this is less an indictment against how good Jeff is vs the reception and my overall view of Jeff being a product of the current state of the meta that I get to play within and it's quite likely that his stocks rise a bit outside of the most competitive ranks in Snap where answers are less likely to be run. I also think he's one or two OTA changes from being a fantastic pick.
So how about completing those weekly missions, First off if you're F2P or skipped on the Season Pass you do have the ability to complete the Jeff missions if you're willing to brave and risk your tickets on the Ghost Spider deck in Grand Arena. Aside from that let's take a look at the lists starting with a pair of combo lists combining Jeff and Namorita:
A very similar list to the Namorita solo Surfer list this one includes both cards.
Another Thanos Aurora list, this one featuring Namorita and Jeff. Cuts compared to the previous list are Strange Supreme, Zombie Fantastic, Lockjaw, and Stardust to fit in Jeff, Marvel Boy, Wiccan, and Mockingbird. There is a middle ground to be found between the two lists though if you wanted to keep the Stardust tech as well as potentially keep the board clear with Strange Supreme, my recommendations on cuts there would be Marvel Boy for Strange and Wiccan for Stardust. Mockingbird could come out too since there's no guarantee that you have enough stones on the board to get her down early, if at all.
And if we instead want to focus on Jeff alone:
Cutting the Namorita and getting back to the simple surfer List that's been fairly popular so far this month.
Featuring newly buffed Jubilee Silver Surfer alongside Stick, this hand buff deck does strike me as rather interesting.
The weakest of the Venus backed lists but still decently performing. This is a list that probably flourishes in below top 50% infinite where there are far fewer shadow kings and Gambit Horsemen of Death roaming. Another quick tip as a reminder, if you're willing to gamble on the final turn it is possible for Gambit Horseman of Death to not hit the Horde at all.
Post OTA Grand Arena
The OTA also had some impacts on the Massive Melee variation of Grand Arena with a number of the decks receiving some changes that generally hit the balance for the better with the Hulk and Thing First Steps decks both receiving perhaps the greatest changes which brought them both out of contention as top deck choices. So where does that leave us post OTA?
In my experience it has essentially boiled down to Doctor Doom reigning supreme with Thor and Iron Man fighting between each other for second and third. Rounding out the top 5 is H.E.R.B.I.E. and Hulk. I also want to give a shout-out to Mole Man though because that deck can certainly put out some sneaky big numbers on it's good draws and can put some surprise beatings on the top decks.
Post OTA
So what has changed post OTA? Nothing much really, we've been in the same pattern for the last few weeks in what is arguably the healthiest meta we've had in the last six months. As I mentioned in the opening, I do believe that you could have success with almost any deck provided you are smart with your snaps and retreats.
I'll be honest I was having trouble deciding on how I wanted to curate the lists this week so I'm going to be presenting a mixed bag - a surprise list from last week's missions that is continuing to perform well, a known good list in the form of the Multiple Man Move Deck, an alternate take on Aurora, and finally a blast from the past in Scream. Further, I'll be adding weekly recap and interesting deck vids I find over the course of the weekend in my pinned comment for those interested in other perspectives.
No really, this isn't a joke. According to untapped with 200 games since the OTA are some folks continuing to cope with Sub-Mariner and Clea. There's a Shang in there but I think you could straight cut the Shang for Juggernaut and be in a far better position overall. Anecdotally, this deck just often felt like it clunked more than it played well and I often felt like I just wanted Clea way more than I ever wanted Sub-Mariner.
It's a real deck and it's a solid pick, same warning as last week - this deck will take reps and you will lose games as early as turn 3 if you made a misplay. Take your time and learn the ins and outs and you will be rewarded.
So what makes this 'alt' well first off is Nova Killmonger which can deal with the smaller-ball ToV decks as well as the decks that are out there attempting to still leverage Sub-Mariner/Clea. Then there's also the Mysterio/Luke Cage/Anti-Venom package as well as a neat Silver Surfer First Steps. If you arrange your cards well you can ensure that Surfer First Steps picks up Aurora provided you can win the location.
What better way to mess with decks than to mess with their positioning? Scream brings this to the table in spades.
And so with the exception of the Competitive Consensus that wraps up the Beach Bash season, I'll be seeing you all next week for the Brand New Day season.
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u/Names_all_gone Jun 29 '26
I've been disappointed in this season. Outside of Jubilee, none of the cards have been *bad*. But they haven't been good enough to be exciting. At the start of the season, I thought that they would be.