Control decks are really mighty in Marvel Snap and played by many top players. In this short guide, I want to briefly explain to you why they are so strong and also some solid decks that are meta right now, next to other style decks that you can find in my current meta of decks in Marvel Snap.
The Elements of Control Decks
Control decks work around cards that limit the number of cards that can be played or manipulate the cost of cards to mess up with your opponents’ plan and synergies.
Imagine your opponent plays a deck with many lower-cost cards and you force him to only play one card per turn where he needs to get multiple cards on the board – this makes his power on the board so weak that you can easily take over.
Or you control his ability to play into one location where you’re leading, which means you have already one location of two in your hand and there’s little to nothing your opponent can do about it.
What makes destruct decks so strong? This will make opponents fear as you can break their ability to find their win condition effectively while having a deck designed around the fact to control positions, amount of cards played, etc.
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Thanos ControlS+With several synergies combining the recently new cards with Thanos makes a pretty Control-focused deck that can limit your opponent's deck potential
Future Prediction: Thanos is back in the meta with the new cards and OTA changes and comes back with a bang as probably the most consistent and strongest deck right now.How to play this deck- Evolutionary LockdownS+Unlocking the abilities of the cards without abilities that will reduce your costs and lower your opponent's power along control-heavy cards will give your opponent a really rought time dealing with you
Future Prediction: Probably one of the biggest winners in the rank meta recently with a huge jump of how new decks evolved and took over - this deck is now one of the strongest.How to play this deck - Sera ControlSControl the board but primarily be able to play a lot of cards to counter what your opponent is up to makes this deck very powerful, espcially on the last tunr where you can easily overtake
Future Prediction: More on a decline now against the new decks that took over, espcially the control decks with Thanos and High Evoutionary give this deck a hard time in the meta.How to play this deckMore Control Decks - High EvoAUsing High Evolutionary to add the evolution abilities to the cards without abilities and then play them around Wave to lockdown opponent power and gain synergies and benefits
Future Prediction: Still a reliable deck but the way the top decks can build power is sometimes too much and is has been declining a bit in the recent weeks, espcially with control decks being that strong now.How to play this deck - Zabu DevilHawkB+The evolution of the initial Darkhawk deck that created a ton of buzz in January and post-Zabu nerf this is the deck still on the very top with cards that increase your handsize to scale Devil Dinosaur and shuffle rocks inot your opponents deck to scale up your Darkhawk.
Future Prediction: How often did I predict this deck to fall out of the meta? Well, often enough and each week it still works for players that know how to play it and so it does now.How to play this deckMore Control Decks - Basic ControlThe classical control deck, using cards to interrupt and limit the way your opponent can play his synergies turn by turn with cards that lock down locations, limit the cards your opponent plays or manipulate the energy costs or power of them
Future Prediction: Still annoying to deal with and less about a certain deck type. If you're good at playing a control deck, this deck can still get you very far but compared to other decks above harder to play and doesn't work every single time.How to play this deckMore Control Decks - Legion LockdownYou Legion along Magik to heavily disrupt your opponent as you can either use Legion to transform Limbo to make sure you get to play Turn 7 or use Legion to not play Turn 7 to catch your opponent off guard. Also, any location that can turn around on Turn 6 or 7 can be great to play Legion.
Future Prediction: New deck with legion that performs strong with control and occasionally with Legion as your win condition. Hasn't entered full meta, yet.How to play this deck - Electro Sandman RampI love this deck a lot as you can play it two ways, either by using Electro to reduce your cards cost and then use Wave as well to get a grat final push where you can drop two 6-cost cards or you use Electro to be able to play 5-cost and 6-cost cards on earlier. You can use Leech on Turn 4 to already block your opponents abilities and with your 6-cost cards you always be able to find a win condition on the last turn.
Future Prediction: With Spider Ham Electro Ramp can be played successfully although not as strong as it used ot be quite a while ago. The reason it still performs is Wave as you can really mess up the combo lines of Bounce archetype decks right nowHow to play this deckMore Control Decks - Thanos JunkCombining Thanos with control cards can give more lines and you can basically ruin your opponents side with junk and keep your side solid to take over.
Future Prediction: Thanos with Junk/Control seems to make it more back into the meta recently and is becoming more viable. I am actually surprised how this deck has been growing in strength week-by-week and it is now a secure mid-field performer and one to even push for higher ranks if you know when to snap and when to retreatHow to play this deckMore Control Decks - Attuma DestroyerControl-heavy with a good amount of win conditions, this deck let you build solid power and controlyour opponent's possibilities.
Future Prediction: A quite fresh deck that makes some appearences right nowHow to play this deck - Nebula ControlA control-archetype deck build around Nebula, other GUardians of the Galaxy and new cards that can hold up and deal with other meta decks pretty good.Shut down lanes while playing cards that scale well and generate more power is the game-plan here while trying to prevent your opponent to get his comos or synergies done.
Future Prediction: Not a deck to dominate, but one to shut the other decks down and take a victory when they don't draw into their linesHow to play this deck - Toxic Sera ControlThis deck doesn't try to build up much power yourself, it relies on blocking your opponent to synergize through their decks to build much power (Enchantress, Shang-Chi and Killmonger helps a lot) and then using negative effects on their cards to decrease their power and with Hit Monkey at the end you have still the option for a power push.
Future Prediction: With some new cards and the strength of Sera, this deck is still and again quite high in the list (although not that commonly played by that many players compared to the other decks here).How to play this deckMore Control Decks - Nebula Lane ClogClog up enemy locations to find your win condition while pressure them to play where you want them to play
Future Prediction: new deck for the Guardians' Greatest Hits SeasonHow to play this deck - Iron GalactusUsing Howard to get more insights on what Iron Lad will be doing and how your potential Galactus play will turn out, this Galactus deck gains more stability in draw lines
Future Prediction: As all Galactus decks it requires you to snap and retreat at the right time to make overall cube gains.How to play this deck - Magik She-HulkNot a deck with specific synergies, more good cards that go well along each other to find your win condition with the extra turn magik generates for you.
Future Prediction: Works well this season now after the recent patch but not sure if it will make meta. Fun to play for sure, though.How to play this deck - Junk ControlThis deck basically excists only to use disrupting and controlling cards to mess with your opponents synergies. It might requeire some skills to play but will teach you a lot about reading your opponent. This is a force-to-retreat deck that normally doesn't have the value for a showdown but whenever you see your opponent struggling a little or you getting under their skin, snap and let them retreat will help you win. If you see them snap, go out as you normally don't have the showdown value here.
Future Prediction: Works around opponents with stronger decks not drawing into their lines. Requires some skill and has little to none showdown value but can gather cubes in the right hands.How to play this deck - Ronan SeraStuffing your opponent's deck with trash card to prevent drawing and also scale up Ronan on your side is a effective deck.
Future Prediction: With Master Mold, this deck becomes a lot more efficient to play and it can be really frustrating to face it with the Sentinels that stuff your hand you can't get rid of.How to play this deck - Dino ControlThis early Pool 3 control deck with Devil Dino is insane and uses Daredevil to foresee your opponents' semi-last move so you can very reliably find your win condition and push really far, up to infinity without much problems.
Future Prediction: A solid deck and a good start into Pool 3, although Devil Dino is more and more on the decline this deck will not be as meta-defining as it used to be end of 2022. Still, if you lack some of the cards above give it a shot, it performs well as all control decks do these days and with Leader in the meta anywayHow to play this deck - Leech LeaderThis deck follows less of a synergy in total but it uses cards that are significantly stronger than normal and providing great value on their own. This means they either disrupt enemy synergies well early (Scorpion, Armor, Cosmo) or have great return value for the energy spend (Sunspot, Lizard, Maximus). With White Queen you can draw your opponents win condition Shang Chi destroys any high-power cards, Leech disrupts their last turn, Aero and Magneto move cards around to keep your tiles clean and Leader basically copy your opponents move if you have the lead in 2 locations by the beginning of Turn 6.
Future Prediction: Yes, Leader got changed but is still a viable card and you have the other strong cards to find your win condition with this deck.How to play this deck - Reach N RevealThis is a new an exciting deck with many win conditions, great meta countering and loads of options to play and it dominates very well recently. You have Sunspot and Storm to lock down one location while being able to get more power into it later and then strong end-game moves to win a second location.
Future Prediction: It's a very basic deck and most played by newer players that don't have the advanced cards. Works fine but not top-of-meta deck in Marvel SnapHow to play this deck - Stormy ShannaIncluding Shanna in a control/Zoo deck is amazing as you can scale your positive power buffs of Zoo cards and you gain some extra reach through her ability.
Future Prediction: Shanna can be a little RNG so if you look for a very consistent deck in Marvel Snap, plaiyng one that spawns random cards might not be for you. Overall still a solid deck and one that absolutely makes fun to play.How to play this deck - Ghost ControlWorks around Shang-Chi and Enchantress as great and reliable counters through Ghost, reduced by Zabu to form a very stable deck to punish your opponents by revealing second every time.
Future Prediction: Not too many right now but I think Ghost will become more popular once more available to more players.How to play this deck - Quake ControlQuite an off-meta deck that uses locations hifting to steal cubes when opponents snap. Snapping back and gain big but retreat if things are not going your way.
Future Prediction: People have reached Infinity with this deck without being in the meta, simply as shifting locations is something players aren#t that aware of but it's not meta-depending.How to play this deck - Valkyrie ControlPlay all the Infinity Stones, ideally for free through Quinjet or Beast and scale them up through Ka-Zar and Blue Marvel. The beauty here is that you can use Professor X to lock down one location you have the lead in and Valkyrie to scale down high-power cards your opponent has
Future Prediction: With many cards that ramp up a lot of power, this deck comes into meta more and more ans you interrupt combos and scale down the high-power cards accross the boards quite well.How to play this deck - Kingpin SurferMove your opponent cards around to find your win condition with locked locations, buffing them up or using Kingpin to simply crush their 3/4 cost cards on the last turn. With Sera you even have the ability to make a lot of plays on the last turn
Meta Dependency: Not really a meta deck but if you're into a disruptive control deck, this is a lot of fun and can gain quite some cubes in the right handHow to play this deck - Snowguard ControlUse control-heavy cards along Snowguard to push your opponent agisnt the wall by leaving them only little options and taking great locations effects or negate the ones that are not in your favor
Meta Dependency: Not a meta deck univerally but sometimes with weird featured locations it can work well to gain some cibesHow to play this deck - Move ControlCombine cheaper movement cards and enabler to build power while also using control cards ony our opponent to gain a lead
Meta Dependency: Move is not on top of the meta right now but with Ghost Spider we will absolutely see some momentum in the next weeksHow to play this deck - Negasonic GalactusUse the calssic Galactus lines along Negasonic Teenage Warhead to defend your lead in the location you played Glactus in
Meta Dependency: Like any Galactus deck this depends a lot how well Galactus performs and how much you enjoy playing GalactusHow to play this deck
Conclusion
Control decks are incredibly effective and once you know how to play them, there’s little your opponent can do as you control what’s happening and they are more scared and hope you won’t mess up their plays too much – a great way to intimidate with a snap even if there’s not much you really can do.
