MARVEL SNAP News

PLEASE NOTE: If you haven’t updated your game yet, get the latest in the App Store!

 

[h3]Collection Level Tracker[/h3]

• We’ve added a track at the top of Collection Level that will let players more easily see how much more CL they’ll need to earn their next batch of 3,000 Collector’s Tokens.
  

[h3]Event Badges[/h3]

• We’ve added new badges to the play screen when special events are happening to make sure players know when they’re happening
  

[h3] Loading Improvements[/h3]

• We’ve improved the process of downloading and loading content data to help get players into the game faster.
  

 

[h3]Spider-Ham[/h3]
[Old] 1/1 - On Reveal: Transform the leftmost card in your opponent’s hand into a Pig, keeping its Power and Cost.

[New] 1/2 - Activate: Replace the text of a random character in your opponent's hand with "oink!"

Spider-Ham has had a lot of weird interactions that we’ve been looking at resolving for a while. Most notably, the base Cost and Power of the Pig always had the same value, so behaved unintuitively for many players with cards like Shadow King and Mobius M. Mobius. It targeted the leftmost card in hand to avoid being too strong and frustrating to reuse with Beast and the like. That mostly worked well, but meant that build-around cards that start in hand like Thanos got disabled every time, which many found frustrating to play against. Finally, Spider-Ham was intended to partially disable cards, but with the introduction of skills it was suddenly making cards useless much more often.

A few of these factors came to a head with Dormammu’s release, so we prioritized the behind the scenes work to allow us to replace card art during gameplay without fully transforming the card and took the opportunity to iron out some other issues. We also hope the new shape will give Spider-Ham players a bit more ability to influence which plays they aim to stop.
[h3]Nonfunctional Changes[/h3]
We’re rewording these cards to be more consistent with other card text, but their gameplay isn’t changing. Note: analogous rewordings may not show up immediately in non-English languages.
[h3]Silk[/h3]
[Old] 2/5 - After ANY card is played here, this moves to another location.

[New] 2/5 - After ANY card is played here, move this to another location.
[h3]
Moon Girl[/h3]
[Old] 4/5 - On Reveal: Duplicate your hand.

[New] 4/5 - On Reveal: Copy your hand.

 

Card and Location Art Fixes in 42.x

• Omega Red’s VFX should no longer reapply or replay awkwardly with certain card combinations
  
• Copycat should now display appropriate spell VFX when copying Nico Minoru
  
• Redwing’s VFX should no longer briefly display beneath the retreat button when staging the card
  
• Khonshu should now display a “Location Full” whiff VFX when appropriate
  
• Nico Minoru’s VFX should no longer display in the bottom right corner beneath the End Turn button when her spells target skill cards
  
• Visual artifacts should no longer display when Thanos' VFX trigger under certain circumstances
  
• Great Portal’s VFX should no longer distort when played
  
• Nicholas Scratch’s VFX should properly target and anchor to cards being staged
  
• Nightmare’s VFX should no long briefly display when other cards are revealed on the same turn
  
• Nightmare’s VFX and SFX should play more than once for opponents when appropriate
  
• The VFX for Merlin’s Once and Future skill should no longer be awkwardly placed or cut off under certain circumstances
  
• Dormammu’s VFX should no longer briefly display as a white tile
  
• Dormammu’s token cards should no longer be low resolution at higher upgrade levels
  
• Dormammu’s VFX should no longer persist on screen at various points during the summoning ritual
  
• Dormammu’s Winking Studios variant should display correctly at certain upgrade levels
  
• Merlin’s Polymorph should no longer be incorrectly positioned when targeting certain cards and returning to hand
  
• Cull Obsidian’s Dan Hipp variant should no longer break at higher upgrade levels
  
• Copycat’s VFX should no longer cause an Aw Snap and should be re-enabled
  
• Death’s Domain VFX should no longer be distorted under certain circumstances
  
• Skill cards should no longer display inconsistently upon reveal
  
• Skill card UI should no longer display on unrevealed cards on the board
  
• Skill cards should no longer overlap other UI elements on reveal
  

Cards Shop Fixes in 42.x

• The seasonal Free Series 3 module in the Cards Shop should collapse appropriately upon claiming
  
• A duplicate, non-functional claim flow should no longer display when opening a Series Pack that also triggers a Mastery level up
  
• Particle effects from bundles should no longer persist on the Cards Shop
  
• Series Packs should be properly available for Japanese players
  

Other Fixes in 42.x

• Fixed a rare issue that could occur that would prevent the Daily Offer shop from displaying
  
• Fixed an issue that could result in a softlock in between various tutorial and FTUE segments
  
• Android back buttons should properly function on pop-up modals
  
• Addressed some issues with UI scaling on certain carousel types
  
• Placeholder reactions and emotes should no longer be the default under certain circumstances
  
• Errant UI should no longer display on the Alliance member’s list
  
• Super Premium Season Pass carousel button should now link appropriately to the right section of the shop
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented multiple Series Packs from being awarded and opened at the same time
  

PC Fixes in 42.x

• Overdrive Missions buttons should have appropriate Hover States
  

Localization Fixes in 42.x

• Rhino’s ability text in Portuguese should no longer display in Korean…
  
• Titles UI should no longer display as
  
• Multiple unlocalized strings in Vietnamese should now be properly translated
  
• Addressed some unlocalized strings that were displaying on several new player and tutorial screens
  

[p]The Reactor is unstable… and that’s exactly how we like it. Welcome to Overdrive, an electric remix of the mode that cranks up the energy and fun! Packed with unpredictable power surges and explosive game-altering effects, no two games of Overdrive will play the same. Get ready to embrace the chaos and build some wild new decks, because it’s time to overload some Arc Reactors.[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][h2]What is High Voltage: Overdrive? [/h2][p]The original High Voltage mode condensed the traditional rules of SNAP into three action-packed turns. Each turn gives more energy so you could play more cards and line up massive combos in a short game.

For Overdrive we wanted to build on the fun of High Voltage so we made the Arc unstable… and now it's causing all kinds of havoc. Decks in this mode will have eight randomly charged cards shuffled in, and when a total of five have been played by both players, the Reactor will explode with a GIANT effect such as destroying low power characters, giving charged cards +5 power, or even transforming them into brand new cards.

There are no cubes or points to lose in High Voltage: Overdrive, so you should always feel encouraged to try and win! There’s no downside to trying out new decks or fun new strategies, so you can build a deck, jump in, and play immediately. Win matches or complete missions to earn Volts, which can be used in the new High Voltage: Overdrive shop. Use them to perform a Portal Pull, buy the new Kid Omega card, get credits, or new cosmetics. How do you play? [/p][p]High Voltage: Overdrive is played over four turns instead of the regular three of High Voltage. At the start of the game, 8 charged cards are shuffled into your deck, each getting -1 cost and +1 power. In place of the Cube where you would normally Snap, you'll have an Arc Reactor. Before the first three turns, the Arc Reactor will generate between 2-4 Max Energy to add to your total which can then be used to play out your master plan. Your opponent will always receive the same amount of Max Energy that you do, so there’s no guessing how much they have. [/p][p][/p][p]On turns 1 - 3, the Arc Reactor will randomly increase your Max Energy by 2-4 energy. There is a fourth turn, but no extra energy will be added to the Reactor, which means you’ll have at least 18 energy to spend over those turns.[/p][p]
Beneath the Reactor, you will see the Reactor effect. Each turn, that effect will increase in scale as long as the Reactor is active. Playing a charged card adds one charge to the Reactor. Once the Reactor has five charges, it will explode with the listed effect at the end of that turn. You can decide how much you want to synergize with the effect, so you can play your charged cards early or hold them as long as possible to maximize the effect.

A few of the Reactor effects, such as drawing cards, wouldn’t make sense at the end of the 4th turn, so if you happen to get one of those, a brand new Reactor effect will swap in for it.

At the end of turn 4, whoever controls 2 out of the 3 locations will win! [/p][p]Designing High Voltage: Overdrive[/p][p] For the last year, the team at Second Dinner has been hard at work on developing new game modes, and with each one, we are building out a toolset to be able to create new experiences more quickly and reliably build off our successes. To that end, we wanted to take some of technology developments and meta-systems and add them into an existing mode to create some additional gameplay.[/p][p] [/p][p]The obvious choice was adding a new twist to High Voltage, and so we looked at some of the strengths and weaknesses of the mode to try and improve on both. We love the fast pace and big plays in High Voltage, but wanted to try out a version of the mode that prevents the mode from falling into the same few plays each game. Between the random cards added to your deck, and the powerful Reactor effects, each game will require thinking on your feet to maximize your odds of winning.[/p][p]
High Voltage: Overdrive isn’t replacing High Voltage as a game mode - we are looking at running it more in the future, and taking advantage of those learnings to continue to develop experiences to engage you - the player.[/p][p]How long will High Voltage: Overdrive be here?[/p][p]High Voltage: Overdrive is playable now, and will be here until 10:59 AM PST on the 25th of June And don’t forget, playing High Voltage: Overdrive and earning Volts is the only way to earn our newest cards: Cobra in Series 4 and Kid Omega in Series 5. If you miss out, you'll be able to find all of them in the Snap Packs as of the 16th of July. [/p][p][/p][h2]Extended Shop Hours[/h2][p][/p][p]One big piece of feedback from the Sanctum Showdown shop was that many people were sad that they forgot to spend all their charms before the event’s end. For High Voltage: Overdrive, and any event with a shop moving forward, we will leave the shop open for a little while after the event to make sure nobody misses out on one of the newest cards or cosmetics. The shop will be open until 10:59 AM PST on the 26th of June.[/p][p]

NEW CHARACTERS![/p][p]SERIES 5 Activate: Destroy the next card you play this turn to gain its Power.[/p][p][/p][p]SERIES 4[/p][p]Activate: Destroy an enemy created card here. [/p][h2]Frequently Asked Questions[/h2]

• [p]When is High Voltage: Overdrive coming to Marvel SNAP? It is live now! Keep playing until 10:59 AM PST on June 25th.[/p]
• [p]How do I play? You’ll find High Voltage: Overdrive in the game modes along with Conquest and Friendly Battles. Winning High Voltage: Overdrive games and completing the mode-specific Missions will earn you Volts you can spend in the High Voltage: Overdrive store.[/p]
• [p]What if I lose? There’s no penalty for losing High Voltage:Overdrive games, and nothing to lose by staying in the game through the final turn. Hopefully that gives you ample opportunity to experiment with deck ideas and find what works for you![/p]
• [p]What should I play? While you’re free to enter High Voltage:Overdrive with your regular decks, the mode’s rules enable you to spend more energy on a single turn unlocking lots of exciting combinations, or just the chance to play two or three of your favorite 6-Cost cards in the same game! Don’t forget that the random cards added to your deck and Reactor effects will create a much wider variety of plays than you are used to. Expect the unexpected! [/p]
• [p]Are there any cards that are off limits?[/p][p]The banned card list is a little different than regular High Voltage. While we no longer need to worry about some of the more consistently problematic interactions, forcing people to have additional cards in their deck does add a few challenges, so we adjusted the list to prevent issues with deck size, and a few cards that had technical challenges.[/p]
  • [p]Alioth[/p]
  • [p]Agatha Harkness[/p]
  • [p]QuinJet[/p]
  • [p]Black Widow[/p]
  • [p]Mysterio[/p]
  • [p]Galactus[/p]
  • [p]Loki[/p]
  • [p]Magik[/p]
  • [p]High Evolutionary[/p]
  • [p]Darkhawk[/p]
  • [p]Cassandra Nova[/p]
  • [p]Kang the Conquerer[/p]
  • [p]Thanos[/p]
  • [p]Agamotto[/p]
  • [p]Arishem[/p]
  • [p]Gorgon[/p]

[p] 

 [/p]

 Ancient forces are stirring and at the center of it all are Marvel’s most adept wielders of the arcane arts. It’s time to crack open those tomes, dust off your relics, and channel your inner mystic with Masters of the Arcane. Just make sure you don’t accidentally summon any magical beings from the Dark Dimension.
 
[h3]SEASON PASS[/h3]
Get ready to sling some serious spells, and welcome Merlin to the fray! Dedicated to protecting the Multiverse, Merlin has charged himself with manipulating events for the benefit of the continued existence of all reality. Let’s see what Incantations he’s got up his sleeve!
[h3]MERLIN[/h3]

At the start of each turn, add an Incantation to your hand.
 


On Reveal: Replace this location with a new one and give Merlin +2 Power.
 


On Reveal: Shuffle your lowest-Power card here into your deck to get +2 Energy next turn.
 


On Reveal: Transform your lowest-Power card here into one that costs 1 more.
   NEW CHARACTERS!
Power is not given. It is earned... or summoned. And that’s exactly what we’ve had to do to bring you none other than DORMAMMU. Hope you don’t regret inviting him to the party!
[h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


On Reveal: Return all your discarded and destroyed cards to hand with +3 Power.
 [h3]SERIES 4[/h3]


After you play a skill, +1 Power.
 [h3]SERIES 4[/h3]


Activate: Next turn, you get +1 Energy.
 [h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


On Reveal: Add Tao Mandala to your hand.
 


On Reveal: Copy the text of one of your Ongoing cards here onto your other characters here.
 [h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


On Reveal: Replace the text of each card in your hand with text from a random card of the same Cost.
 [h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


Game Start: Begin a Summoning Ritual. (Add step 1 to hand.)
 


On Reveal: Merge your highest-Power destroyed card with Dormammu to continue. (step 1/3)
 


On Reveal: Dormammu steals 1 Power from EACH card here to continue. (step 2/3)
 


On Reveal: Destroy 2 of your characters here to summon Dormammu. (step 3/3)
 [h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


When this permanently gains Power, add Flames of the Faltine to your hand. (if in hand or in play)
 


On Reveal: Afflict an enemy card here with -3 Power.
 [h3]LIMITED TIME EVENT / SERIES 5[/h3]


Activate: Destroy the next card you play this turn to gain its Power.
 [h3]LIMITED TIME EVENT / SERIES 4[/h3]


Activate: Destroy an enemy created card here.
 [h3]New Card Release Schedule[/h3]New Series 5 cards will launch weekly as the spotlight card in the Card Shop and will also be available in the Seasonal Series 5 SNAP Packs. All New Series 4 cards that are not part of a limited time game mode will be available immediately in the Seasonal Series 4 SNAP Packs. All new Series 4 and 5 cards will remain in their respective Seasonal SNAP Packs for both the current and following season. Additionally, the previous month’s Season Pass card will be added to the Seasonal Series 5 SNAP Packs on the first day of the new season.

• Jun 3rd: Morgan Le Fay- Seasonal Series 5 Release
• Jun 3rd: Nicholas Scratch - Seasonal Series 4 Release
• Jun 3rd: Jennifer Kale - Seasonal Series 4 Release
• Jun 10th: The Ancient One- Seasonal Series 5 Release
• Jun 16th: Kid Omega Limited Time Event Release
• Jun 16th: Cobra Limited Time Event Release
• Jun 17th: Nightmare - Seasonal Series 5 Release
• Jun 24th: Dormammu - Seasonal Series 5 Release
• Jul 1st: Clea - Seasonal Series 5 Release

 

[h3]Limited Time Game Modes[/h3]

Welcome to High Voltage: Overdrive! This new game mode puts an epic twist on the High Voltage you already know and love. But don’t worry, we know you love High Voltage so we’re not getting rid of the original, this is just a super fun new way to play! Kid Omega and Cobra will be earnable through missions and winning SUPER fun games. This limited time game mode will be available from June 16th - 25th, and the shop will be open until June 26th to make sure you have time to redeem your rewards!
 

[h3]NEW LOCATIONS[/h3]

• Camelot: After turn 5, set all cards here to 5 Power.

 

• Astral Plane: After this turn, add a 0-Power copy of a card from hand here.

 

[h3]BRAND NEW ALBUMS[/h3] Get all new Variants, Emotes and other Rewards by completing two new albums!



We can’t get enough of Pandart Studio’s work, so we made another box for you to open and unleash. Available Jun 3rd.

Collect 3: Premium Mystery Variant

Collect 6: 3 Cosmic Black Borders

Collect 9: Nico Minoru - Pandart Studio Variant

Collect 12: 6000 Collector’s Tokens
 


Get out of this world with a brand new album of cosmic themed Dan Hipp variants in this new album available on Jun 17th.

Collect 3: 2000 Credits

Collect 6: 4 Neon Purple Border

Collect 9: Grand Master - “Golden Ticket” Emote

Collect 12: Kate Bishop - Dan Hipp Variant
  [h3]SHOP TAKEOVERS[/h3]

Grab these awesome Pandart Studio variants feature in the shop for two full days starting on June 3rd.
 


Prepare for your next trip to space. A very cosmic Dan Hipp shop takeover is here for two days starting June 17th.
 

[h3]TWITCH DROPS[/h3]
Make sure you watch your favorite MARVEL SNAP Twitch streamers to earn Boosters, Volts, and MORE VOLTS! We’re also giving out an amazing Iceman Variant in recognition of Pride month! Drops will be available from June 17-23rd. Don’t miss out!

• Watch 2 hours to earn: 155 Iceman Boosters
• Watch 4 hours to earn: 1,000 Volts + 1 Ice Border
• Watch 6 hours to earn: 2,000 Volts + Iceman Envar Anime Variant

  
Whether you’re channeling the Faltine’s fire or beckoning the Dark Dimension’s ruler, this is your moment to master the arcane. Pick your master. Claim your power. Reshape reality. And don’t forget to share your best new decks and plays in Discord and tag us on your socials!
 

PLEASE NOTE: If you haven’t updated your game yet, get the latest in the App Store!

[h2]PATCH HIGHLIGHTS[/h2]

The next step in our self-publishing journey for Marvel Snap is coming... releasing our first entirely self-published build next week, June 10! This means everything will be handled by Second Dinner now, including in-game logins, customer support, web shop, and more.

What does this mean for players next week?

• Get ready to download another new build next week. The old one will stop working shortly after.
  
• We're launching a brand new web shop - with lots of launch month goodies, rewards, and celebrations!
  
• With the start of the new season later today, June 3, the Web Shop Milestone track will be temporarily disabled on the current web shop. The Milestone track will return with the debut of the new web shop next week.
  
  • This means that all purchases made on the webshop during this downtime will NOT contribute toward the Webshop Milestone track.
    
  • Purchases made during this downtime will NOT be retroactively added to the new Webshop Milestone track when it returns.
    
  • To offset the downtime, the Webshop Milestone track will be reduced by 10,000 Web Points when it returns.
    
• You'll be hearing more from us about other updates and expected changes as we continue through the transition.
  

If you have a Guest Account (an account that is not attached to an email), PLEASE link your account to an email before June 9. Guest Accounts may have issues logging in once the June 10th build patch goes live which could last for up to 24 hours.

If you have additional questions, please reach out to customer support for further assistance in linking your Guest Account. Your accounts and all progression will NOT be lost!

[h2]FEATURES[/h2]

Card Acquisition

• Players will now receive the base card for free when obtaining a Variant for a card they don’t own!
  
• This change will be retroactively applied to all cards in players’ existing collections. So if you don’t currently own any base cards for which you have Variants, those base cards will be automatically rewarded with this patch.
  

Cards Shop

• We’ve added a welcome pop-up for new players’ first visit to the cards shop!
  
  • New players will now receive 4,000 tokens upon receiving this popup, up from 3,000 tokens
    
• You can now purchase 8,000 and 12,000 token packs from the card shop
  

[h2]GAMEPLAY[/h2]

High Voltage: Overdrive! (Coming June 16th - 24th)

• This new game mode puts an epic twist on the High Voltage you already know and love. But don’t worry, we know you love High Voltage so we’re not getting rid of the original, this is just a super fun new way to play! Kid Omega and Cobra will be earnable through missions and winning SUPER fun games.
  
• This limited time game mode will be available from June 16th - 24th, and the shop will be open until June 25th to make sure you have time to redeem your rewards!
  
• Stay tuned for more details coming closer to launch.
  

[h2]ART, VFX, AND AUDIO[/h2]

• Deep Space now has VFX and SFX
  

[h2]CARD UPDATES[/h2]

• Now that players have gotten a chance to get used to looking at card text tooltips and the skill card frame with Agamotto’s Ancient Arcana, we’re removing the “(Banish this.)” text from the skills. This isn’t a functional change; they’ll work the same way they’ve been working. The wording was somewhat misleading since this is a property of the skill card type, not an effect on the card, and so confused players in combination with cards like Iron Lad.
  
• Cards that overwrite their own text like Prodigy will now display their original versions as reference cards on the zoomed-in view so that players can see how they ended up with their new text.
  

[h2]LOCATION UPDATES[/h2]

• We’ve updated some backend logic to reduce the number of games with multiple locations that make it hard to play cards (like Sanctum Sanctorum and Death’s Domain).
  

Card and Location Art Fixes in 41.x

• Resolved a number of issues that were caused by a particular element across a number of card and location related VFX
  
• Kate Bishop’s Akram variant should once again display her fingers
  
• Misery’s Envar Studio variant should have a more cleaned up parallax effect in 3D rarity
  
• Sanctum Infinitum should no longer throw an exception upon first reveal
  
• Several Skill cards should no longer show art elements extending beyond their frame
  
• Many of the cards that were previously missing reaction sets on their Mastery track should now have them
  
• Xorn’s VFX should no longer be cutoff along the edges of the screen when played on the outer locations
  
• Joaquin Torres' SFX should play correctly when hovered over 1-cost On Reveal cards
  
• Some cards that previously displayed unintentionally dark with an ink finish at certain rarities should now be consistently shaded across all rarities
  

Cards Shop Fixes in 41.x

• Players should no longer see periodic issues around items being unavailable or otherwise being unable to purchase items from the Cards Shop
  
• The reward flow when opening Snap Packs should no longer be interruptible and all contents received by the player should be shown
  
• Pinned Cards in the Cards Shop should no longer become unpinned when otherwise interacting with other elements of the Shop
  
• Repeatedly pinning and unpinning cards should no longer occasionally result in an Aw Snap exception
  
• The Cards Shop info and details UI should no longer be cutoff in some languages
  
• Some elements of the Cards Shop that were not properly translated in all languages should now be properly localized
  
• Players with a negative gold balance should be able to fully interact with the Cards Shop
  
• Resolved an issue that would occur when opening Series Packs that were delivered to players' inboxes
  
• Cleaned up and removed some unnecessary red notification pips from elements of the Cards Shop
  
  • Note: This is still a work in progress as the team wants to make more adjustments in future releases.
    
• Some UI spacing issues in the Cards Shop should be resolved
  
• Some font scaling issues in the Cards Shop should be resolved
  
• The displayed refresh timer for Daily Cards should no longer just show as 0h0m when the player unpins after having all slots previously pinned
  

Other Fixes in 41.x

• The Shop should no longer scroll to the top upon claiming or purchasing items
  
• Players should no longer be able to get into a state where their inbox no longer shows delivered rewards
  
• Resolved a number of data migration errors that occurred or could occur for a small number of accounts since the release of our previous major release
  
• A rare issue that was preventing some players from collecting certain reward types should no longer occur
  
• The Ultron Calculating emote should no longer be mirrored when used by your opponent
  
• The text of some bundle contents should no longer be covered by other UI elements
  
• The scaling of some UI elements in the Missions tab and details should be more uniform
  
• The scaling of some UI elements with various Login Bonus rewards should be more uniform
  
• Cards should no longer be cut off in some instances on the Banned Cards list for future game modes that use the feature
  
• Season XP awarded through the inbox should once again display the XP icon appropriately
  

PC Fixes in 41.x

• Surge’s VFX should no longer be misaligned on cards for PC players
  
• Players should be able to click in the negative space of a detailed view within the Cards Shop to close the UI
  

Localization Fixes in 41.x

• The string for “Ultimate Variant” should be correctly scaled to fit the UI in Japanese
  
• The strings for “Card” and “Character Mastery” should be properly translated and scaled to fit the space within the Collection UI in Thai
  

Hey, it's been a while! We're glad to be back to the routine with an OTA this week, and aim to resume our regularly scheduled programming soon–we know everyone enjoys a consistent pace. However, we will be having a slight stutter in June as well, while our team works on some architectural updates under the hood. That means you can expect to see OTAs on June 5th and June 26th, and hopefully things will be back to normal for July.

[h2]Metagame Refresh[/h2]

With a lengthy reprieve from OTAs, the metagame did settle into a more rigid structure than we'd like to see. To that end, we're making several nerfs to high-profile cards in our top decks, aiming to ensure some churn within the metagame.

[h2]Strange Supreme[/h2]

• [Old] 2/2 - Gains +2 Power from merging. End of Turn: Merge one of your created cards into this.
  
• [Change] 2/2 -> 2/1
  

[h2]Cap's Shield (Sam Wilson)[/h2]

• [Old] 0/1 - Ongoing: This can't be destroyed. Give your Cap +2 Power when this moves to Cap's location.
  
• [Change] 0/1 -> 0/0
  

[h2]Time Stone[/h2]

• [Old] 1/1 - On Reveal: Give Thanos -1 Cost. Draw a card.
  
• [New] 1/1 - On Reveal: Give Thanos -1 Cost.
  

We're taking aim at the current metagame tyrant with a smattering of small changes that should weaken some of today's strongest cards, fostering additional competition in the midrange archetypes especially.

An obvious candidate was Strange Supreme, who has proven to be a force alongside the Stones in Thanos. That's definitely a role we knew the card would play, but Supreme's strength has exceeded our expectations enough to merit a nerf. It may not seem that this Power update will have a big impact, but It's easy to remember the blowout games where Supreme got huge enough to force a retreat.There are plenty of close games that tend to be worth a lot more cubes!

Our first swing at Sam Wilson was light, in part because we didn't want to make a huge shift. While very popular, Sam was a solid card in a lot of decks rather than being the best card in a very strong one, which is generally what we'd like to see. Since then, Sam's stock has continued to rise and fuel the metagame's strongest decks, so we're shifting our approach to better compensate for the consistency Sam affords by moving base Power to Sam. This weakens the Shield's impact on the early game, and specifically makes it worse fodder for Strange Supreme.

Alongside these changes, we're taking more direct aim at Thanos by removing a draw from the Time Stone. A major strength of Thanos has become the deck's capacity to justify playing more "tech cards" with lower Power than other decks can sustain, because the Stones turn into Power without using slots via Strange Supreme while Thanos himself has become a very efficient play. We love to see that–we want Thanos in play! Time Stone has been the strongest Stone at enabling Thanos while adding access to all the tech cards, so this change should have a large impact.

[h2]Hazmat[/h2]

• [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Afflict all other cards with -1 Power.
  
• [Change] 2/2 -> 3/3
  

While Thanos has earned the majority of players' ire, the other candidate for "best deck" has quietly been an afflict-based deck leaning hard on Hazmat, by far the worst matchup for Thanos. Beyond supporting a very strong deck, Hazmat also constrains our design space by being arguably the best enabler for synergy designs–a similar challenge we've encountered with Luke Cage. We'd like to create more room for those cards to exist at a more diverse range of strength, so we're going to explore weakening Hazmat in this role and monitor how that impacts the performance of other designs. This will also make the one-two punch of Luke Cage and Hazmat more difficult to deploy.

[h2]Sauron[/h2]

• [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards in your hand and deck.
  
• [New] 1/3 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards in your deck.
  

Backed by the relatively recent buff to 2/2, the Sauron deck has quietly positioned itself as one of the best decks in the metagame for a while. We've been fine to let it fly a little under the radar, but the changes above are aiming to create a lot of shifts at the top. We don't want to leave this heir apparent in the pole position, given all of its tough matchups are receiving nerfs and the deck itself is pushing out other midrange strategies that don't often deploy 20 power by turn 4. To that end, we're narrowing Sauron's effect to create more pressure on the drawbacks of cards like Ebony Maw and Starbrand, pushing players to navigate the downsides more often.

[h2]Makkari[/h2]

• [Old] 3/4 - End of Turn: Runs from your hand to a random location. (if possible)
  
• [Change] 3/4 -> 3/3
  

It's taken a while, but Makkari has begun carving out some significant space in decks, whether that's as a bonus 3-Cost in Silver Surfer or extra Power in decks that rarely fill locations or play their entire hand. However, she's also become one of the highest-performing cards in those decks, with a winrate on par with Silver Surfer himself! That's a bit too extreme for a card that's as random and "free" as Makkari, so we're taking away a little Power here.

[h2]Tidying Up[/h2]

These aren't the spiciest changes, but we're making a couple minor quality of life updates.

[h2]Text Update: Kahhori[/h2]

• [Old] 4/6 - On Reveal: Each card in your hand gives one of your cards in play +1 Power.
  
• [New] 4/6 - On Reveal: Each card in your hand gives one of your other cards in play +1 Power.
  

This is just a text update to clarify that Kahhori ignores herself for her buff effect.

[h2]Location Enabled: Isle of Silence[/h2]

• Ongoing effects are disabled here.
  

We disabled Isle of Silence (oh, the irony) due to a VFX bug occurring with a few cards, especially Iron Patriot. We've addressed that issue and are simply adding this location back to the pool.

[h2]Buffing Cards[/h2]

Beyond the updates targeting metagame balance specifically, we've got a variety of updates for aiming to push some underperforming cards into limier lights, and a few small changes for clarity.

[h2]Storm[/h2]

• [Old] 4/5 - On Reveal: Flood this location. Next turn is the last turn cards can be played here.
  
• [Change] 4/5 -> 3/2
  

[h2]Flooding[/h2]

• This is the last turn cards can be played here.
  
• Functional Change: Flooding no longer "combos" with Legion
  

[h2]Flooded[/h2]

• Cards can't be played here.
  
• (No change)
  

We previously changed Storm to 4/5 primarily to weaken her synergy with Legion, as a War Machine + Legion deck was proving popular and frustrating. That gave us the opportunity to explore different potential executions on the way Storm worked, but along the way we also decided to evaluate how Legion should work with similarly timed locations, as Flooding itself was inconsistent. We built it that way in part because so many playtesters expected Legion to flood the board in a single turn.

In the end, rather than change the explicit functionality of Storm, we decided that copies of locations would not inherit the turn timing status of the original. This will weaken the interaction with Legion by delaying the copies of Flooding for another turn, meaning we can safely move Storm back to 3-Cost.

[h2]Toxie Doxie[/h2]

• [Old] 2/1 - On Reveal: Give 2 cards in your hand +2 Power. You can't play them next turn.
  
• [New] 2/3 - On Reveal: Give 2 characters in your hand +2 Power. You can't play them next turn.
  

Toxie Doxie was aimed to be a novel addition to cards that benefit from "handbuff" effects, like Sebastian Shaw and Mister Sinister. However, the card released a touch on the weak side, and hasn't been able to earn its slot in those decks. We're taking the soft and simple approach here with a buff to Toxie's own Power, along with a text correction to make it clear that Toxie ignores skills.

[h2]Hercules[/h2]

• [Old] 3/5 - The first time another card moves here each turn, move it to another location.
  
• [New] 3/5 - The first time another one of your cards moves here each turn, move it to another location.
  

This is a fairly minor change, but we've seen a surprising number of pleas to limit Hercules to your own cards. We're happy to try it out and see what happens, especially with more automated movers like Xorn, Batroc, and Topaz in the game now.

[h2]Annihilus[/h2]

• [Old] 5/7 - On Reveal: Your cards with Power below 0 switch sides. Destroy those that can't.
  
• [Change] 5/7 -> 5/8
  

The story is almost completely opposite for Annihilus, who immediately joined the metagame in a big way before sliding into obscurity. With players filling locations a bit more often and additional disruption like Strange Supreme weakening "Clog" strategies, Annihilus has room to receive some more strength.

[h2]Electro[/h2]

• [Old] 3/3 - On Reveal: +1 Max Energy. Ongoing: You can only play 1 card a turn.
  
• [Change] 3/3 -> 3/4
  

The Power will continue to increase until morale improves! Electro is a card that tells a great story and has a lot of interesting potential synergy options, such as War Machine and Blink. We don't want to disrupt the card's base function, as it's a pretty satisfying card–we just want it to win a bit more. To that end, we're once more increasing its Power.

[h2]Cerebro[/h2]

• [Old] 2/0 - Ongoing: Your highest-Power cards have +2 Power.
  
• [New] 3/0 - Ongoing: Your highest-Power cards have +3 Power.
  

Cerebro saw a small surge when we shifted from 3/0 to 2/0, but has since then had a rough go of things. Some of that is the "splash damage" it takes from cards that are targeting Ongoing, but there's also a stronger metagame and more cards that threaten to impact Cerebro. So we're going to try something a little stronger for one of our favorite deckbuilding challenges.

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That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!