In the world of card games, the concept of “the meta” is inescapable. There will always be some decks that are better than others, despite the best efforts of developers and balance teams. In some formats, it may seem like there are very few viable options. In the current post-patch Marvel Snap meta, most players feel shuttered into one of three decks: Kazoo, Collector Dino, or Jubilee. No one likes having to pick between the same cookie cutter meta decks as everyone else, so I’m here to show you how to analyze the meta, counter it, and the massive increase in cube gain you can get from doing so.
Step One: Isolate The Deck or Archetype You Want to Counter
In a healthy format, there is typically a rock-paper-scissors style of balance in the meta. In your average card game, this would often take the form of something like aggro beating midrange, midrange beating control, and control beating aggro. However, if you want to build against the meta, you need to pick specific decks to counter. Here, I have decided to single out Kazoo, as it appears to be by far the most popular meta deck, as well as the most dominant.
Step Two: Identify Potential Weaknesses
Let’s take a look at a typical pure Kazoo list, taken from the last article I wrote on the different variants of the deck:
First off, what are the most powerful cards in this deck? The immediate offenders are Nakia 
NakiaOn Reveal: Give all cards in your hand +2 Power. and Strong Guy 
Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power., as well as Kazar being the namesake of the deck. Bishop 
BishopWhen you play a card, this gains +1 Power. also provides quite a lot of power throughout the course of the game, especially when played on curve. Iron Man 
Iron ManOngoing: Your total Power is doubled at this location. is no slouch as a finisher, so we might consider targeting him as well. Next, how does the deck play? Kazoo isn’t your typical aggro swarm deck. You want to buff your hand as much as possible, then play it all late into the game in one big push. That means you’re keeping a large hand size. Maybe there’s a way to take advantage of that? Additionally, if you need to play a lot of low cost cards together, increasing the costs of cards can be deadly.
Step Three: Brainstorm Counters to Exploit the Weaknesses
Let’s go through the most powerful cards in the deck first: Nakia NakiaOn Reveal: Give all cards in your hand +2 Power., Strong Guy Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power., Bishop BishopWhen you play a card, this gains +1 Power., Kazar and Iron Man Iron ManOngoing: Your total Power is doubled at this location.. That’s a lot of Ongoing effects, maybe we want to counter that with Enchantress 
EnchantressOn Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards at this location.? No, too expensive to be worth the mana unless we’re hitting multiple cards at once. Strong Guy Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power. and Bishop BishopWhen you play a card, this gains +1 Power. both often have 9+ attack, so maybe Shang-Chi 
Shang-ChiOn Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards at this location that have 9 or more Power.? Maybe, but very specific, and Bishop BishopWhen you play a card, this gains +1 Power. won’t always have 9+ attack. What about Strong Guy Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power.? In order for his effect to be live, your opponent needs to have an empty hand. What are some ways we can get the opponent to draw cards? Maximus 
MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards. and Baron Mordo 
Baron MordoOn Reveal: Your opponent draws a card, increase its cost by 1 come to mind. Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Now how can we take advantage of the large hand size of the opponent? Scorpion 
ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power. gives all cards in your opponent’s hand -1 attack, so that’s already a 3|7 in value if your opponent has just 4 cards in hand. Additionally, when playing a lot of small cards, more of that value converts to actual impact on the board. Now let’s take everything we’ve considered and compile a Kazoo list to dominate both the mirror and the meta.
Step Four: Building and Testing
By gathering everything we’ve learned, we can construct a wildly different Kazoo build that absolutely decimates the mirror, and hits every meta deck to some extent, while also providing incredible value and flexibility on its own. Below, I’ll break down every new card choice as well as show a 20-game spread of results with the deck on the Infinite ladder.
ZeroOn Reveal: Remove the abilities on the next card you play.
Zero ZeroOn Reveal: Remove the abilities on the next card you play. starts off as a pure 1|3, which is an absolutely premium stat-line for a 1-drop. Additionally, if you are in a matchup where your opponent is not playing Strong Guy Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power., or even worse, one where they benefit from having a large hand size (Collector Dino for example) you can use Zero ZeroOn Reveal: Remove the abilities on the next card you play. to remove Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards.’s effect, making the pair between 4|10 and 4|16 in value with no downside. Last but not least, if you have no good targets for Zero ZeroOn Reveal: Remove the abilities on the next card you play.’s effect, you can simply play him last on turn 6 with your other 1-drops, since this is a Miracle build after all.
ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power.
Scorpion ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power. is the most technical choice of the new cards in this list, and the most difficult to explain in concrete terms. Bishop BishopWhen you play a card, this gains +1 Power. is typically a very powerful card in Kazoo lists, gaining an average value of around 3|7-3|9 per game without buffs. Scorpion ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power. provides extremely close, although slightly lower, raw value since as mentioned in the current meta hoarding hand size is very common, with most players either on handbuff or slow control decks. However, looking at the 3-mana slot in Kazoo, you always want to play Nakia NakiaOn Reveal: Give all cards in your hand +2 Power. on turn 3 if you have it. Holding Scorpion ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power. to turn 4 is significantly better than having to hold Bishop, a scaling card, to turn 4, and is orders of magnitude better on turn 5 than Bishop BishopWhen you play a card, this gains +1 Power.. But the most powerful aspect of Scorpion ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power. is its impact on the mirror. Since both you and your opponent will be playing very similar 1-drops with very similar stat-lines, reducing their 1-drops by 1 power means that they can no longer match you card for card. This allows you to create differentials in certain lanes and forces your opponent to over-commit, letting you dominate where and when you want. Last but not least, against the Swarm Combo variant of Kazoo, debuffing Swarm with Scorpion ScorpionOn Reveal: Afflict cards in your opponent's hand with -1 Power. is equivalent to a -3 or even -4, not just -1.
MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards.
The true pièce de résistance in the mirror. Dropping Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards. on turn 6, turning off Strong Guy Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power. for your opponent is absolutely devastating. Not only does your opponent lose 6 power, you also get a 3|7, for a raw effective power difference of +13 for just 3 mana. This makes Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards. not just an incredible card in pure stats for cost, but also an irreplaceable tech card to dominate the mirror. As mentioned before, if your opponent is on Collector Dino or if you need to play him early to empty your hand, you can always just play Zero ZeroOn Reveal: Remove the abilities on the next card you play. + Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards. on turn 4 and get just great value in general. Against slow control decks, you hardly even need to Zero ZeroOn Reveal: Remove the abilities on the next card you play. since they are only playing one card per turn regardless, and Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards. also helps you get overtop Sandman 
SandmanOngoing: Players can only play 1 card a turn. games where normal Kazoo is dead in the water.
Statistical Breakdown of Anti-Meta Miracle Kazoo
I played 20 games in Infinite rank with this deck, recording all relevant statistics from each game. As you can see, I ended with a crushing 90% win rate, losing only to terrible locations for the deck and a single brick. Over the course of the 20 games, I gained an average of just under 5 cubes per game, which is extremely above average, showing just how consistently the deck was able to turn seemingly losing positions into free cubes using the surprise tech cards like Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards.. In one game, I played against an opponent that had Okoye 
OkoyeOn Reveal: Give every card in your deck +2 Power. on 1, Nakia NakiaOn Reveal: Give all cards in your hand +2 Power. on 3 and even ended with Hellcow 
HellcowOn Reveal: Discard 2 cards from your hand. yet I still won from shutting off their Strong Guy Strong GuyOngoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power. with Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards.. Another game against Collector Dino, I was able to put out a total effective power of 63, showing even further the strengths of Maximus MaximusOn Reveal: Your opponent draws 2 cards.. Even if you don’t want to play Kazoo, if you want to break the meta and get an advantage on ladder make sure to keep these concepts in mind when deckbuilding and you’re sure to be well on your way to Infinite!
Footnote: Feel free to check out my Twitter @StellaTetris if you want to see more gameplay of this deck or have any questions on card choices and strategy!
