August 15th - Balance Updates

We have a bevy of balance changes in a diverse set of directions today. While the metagame has overall been fairly healthy, we've seen a little too much strength isolated in a small number of decks, so we're shaking things up a bit to provide some opportunity for decks on the fringe to see more play. 

• Arishem
  • [Old] 7/7 - At the start of the game, +1 Max Energy. Shuffle 12 random cards into your deck.
  • [New] 7/7 - At the start of the game, +1 Max Energy. Shuffle 15 random cards into your deck.

"The Judge" to his peers, Arishem has certainly presided over SNAP for the last month. The play rate on release was unprecedented in the game's history, and we're happy to see a card we aimed to be fun and strong clearly hit for so many players. We gave Arishem some time to see how things would settle and whether Cassandra Nova would impact his performance, and things did even out a little bit. However, the play rate is still a bit higher than we'd like for any particular archetype, even given the inherent randomness of Arishem, so we're taking a step to reduce how often the deck can access its strongest cards, like Loki and Blob, and better challenge players to improvise with the cards Arishem generates. 

• Cassandra Nova
  • [Old] 3/1 - On Reveal: Steal 1 Power from each card in your opponent's deck.
  • [Change] 3/1 -> 3/0

Speaking of Cassandra Nova, we loved seeing how many of you enjoyed Deadpool's Diner! It was a fun way to tie-in with an awesome movie, and we were excited to debut Cassandra in a totally new way. In fact, that debut led to Cassandra becoming the most-played card in the game for a week among multiple player groups we analyze for balance–that's right, more than Shang-Chi. However, unlike Shang-Chi, Cassandra's play rate accompanied one of the highest winrate and cube rates in the game as well, and that's a combination of factors that would be inappropriate to let stand for too long. This was the latest we could make a change to impact Young Avengers season, so we're tuning the card down a touch now to ensure a more robust metagame can develop. 

• Mind Stone
  • [Old] 2/1 - On Reveal: Draw 2 Stones from your deck.
  • [Change] 2/1 -> 1/1

Other than Arishem, Thanos was another archetype heavily impacted by Cassandra Nova. We've been happy with the new "Thanos-centric" design of the stones, and we're ready to start returning strength to it in the wake of Mockingbird moving to 6-Cost. Welcome back to 1-Cost, Mind Stone. 

• Thena
  • [Old] 2/1 - After each turn, +3 Power if you played (exactly) 2 cards.
  • [Change] 2/1 -> 2/0

The existing and already powerful Angela shells quickly incorporated Thena, and have remained strong ever since. In fact, while Arishem was perceived to be the best deck for many weeks, Thena was often the best card in the actual best deck during this time. So we're making a small tweak to bring the 2-Cost powerhouse more in line with an appropriate amount of Power for the Cost. 

• Sandman
  • [Old] 5/7 - On Reveal: Players can only play 1 card next turn.
  • [Change] 5/7 -> 5/6

As often happens, the rise in prominence of the Angela shell led to a surge in Sandman recently. While that's generally expected and fine, this was the first time it had really happened with the new and improved Big Sandy. To our surprise, these multi-play Angela decks weren't even among the best matchups for Sandman decks, and it has maintained a very robust presence in the metagame ever since, with few vulnerabilities. We're never targeting Sandman to be a key player in the #1 deck, so this nerf is something of a slap on the wrist to make the deck's strongest draws more beatable. 

• Lady Deathstrike
  • [Old] 5/6 - On Reveal: Destroy each card here with 3 or less Power.
  • [Change] 5/6 -> 5/7

Another way we're grinding the edges off Sandman is by sharpening an analogous option. Lady Deathstrike can also be a reasonable way to attack swarm strategies without restricting their ability to actually play the game, so we're returning some Power here to create more competition among the options for these 5-Cost "control" slots in decks. 

• Man-Thing
  • [Old] 4/5 - Ongoing: 1, 2, and 3-Cost cards here have -2 Power.
  • [Change] 4/5 -> 4/7

A similar case can be made for Man-Thing. This card has languished as a fringe option for most of its life, but we think now might be an ideal time to give ita shot at becoming a meaningful player within the metagame. It's a reasonable counter to lean on against decks like Silver Surfer as well as Angela, and the 4-Cost slot is often hard to fill for decks wanting some strong but simple roleplayers. 

• Nocturne
  • [Old] 3/5 - You can move this once. When this moves, replace its location with a random new one.
  • [Change] 3/5 -> 3/4

We gave Nocturne a lot of rope, but in the end we needed to make a change to preserve healthy competition among the 3-Cost cards in the game. Nocturne was just becoming the default best card in too many decks, and warping the strength we started to position other cards at in future seasons. There's also something to be said for preserving the way location variance impacts the game here, as Nocturne could throw some real curveballs. 

• Angel
  • [Old] 1/2 - When one of your cards is destroyed, this flies out of your hand or deck to replace it.
  • [Change] 1/2 -> 2/3

Last but not least, we're trying a little tweak to Angel. We're not sure how much this will move the needle–it might even be considered a nerf for a small number of decks aiming to use Killmonger to get an extra destroyed card for Death. But what's become clear is that the 1/2 Angel isn't cutting it for competitive decks, so we're making this small adjustment to observe the impact and potentially inform a later change. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!