MARVEL SNAP News

This week is slightly heavier on nerfs and sideways changes than usual, as we'd like to reshape the existing metagame a touch. We're hoping a couple of the existing top decks will slide into more even positions within the larger field. While the current metagame is fairly healthy on our internal metrics, it's not as healthy as some have been and we'd like to aim more closely for those targets while keeping things fresh. 

• Captain America
  • [Old] 3/3 - Ongoing: Your other cards here have +1 Power.
  • [New] 3/2 - Ongoing: Your other Ongoing cards here have +2 Power.

As you may have seen in various social media discussions, we've been reluctant to buff Captain America. The reasons for that aren't necessarily obvious, but they include keeping the early game simple and maintaining existing tutorials. However, this change we eventually arrived at shouldn't threaten either of those.  While Spectrum is a strong deck on the competitive side, the Spectrum deck performs worse for newer players with smaller collections. This should be a tidy buff to that archetype for early Series play. 

• Spectrum
  • [Old] 6/7 - On Reveal: Give your Ongoing cards +2 Power.
  • [Change] 6/7 -> 6/6

Of course, the Cap change is a pretty decent buff to existing strong Spectrum decks too. We want these decks to hold a spot in the metagame, so we've given it a lot of rope while waiting to see if cards like Enchantress would be enough to fight back. However, the deck has remained a top performer and approached levels that would require a rebalance–that made the Cap buff above more dangerous, so this is a small compensatory nerf to keep things in balance. 

• Luke Cage
  • [Old] 3/4 - Ongoing: Your cards can't have their Power reduced.
  • [Change] 3/4 -> 3/3

One of the best cards in the top Spectrum decks, Luke Cage does extra work by also hampering afflict decks a bit, making it harder for them to contend for the metagame crown. A slightly weaker Luke Cage is good for these decks, and also paves the way to slot Luke into successful Cerebro shells once more. 

• Baron Mordo
  • [Old] 2/3 - On Reveal: Your opponent draws a card. Set its Cost to 6.
  • [New] 2/3 - On Reveal: The top card of your opponent's deck costs 6 until turn 6.

Baron Mordo has long been one of the weakest cards in Marvel Snap, often functioning as a worse Yondu for players in that the drawback could mean your opponent just gets a free card. This tweak to the original design maintains the disruptive intent, but makes sure the effect is more strictly negative for your opponent. 

• Grand Master
  • [Old] 2/0 - On Reveal: Move one of your other On Reveal cards here to the middle location. Its ability happens again.
  • [Change] 2/0 -> 2/2

This is a significant but fairly straightforward change to a card beloved by many players that's failed to find a role in the metagame. While we often aim cards high on release, Grand Master was a unique case where we felt our testing was unlikely to identify the best possible thing to do with the card–it's just got so many potential applications. It turns out that we were too conservative, so we're trying out a sizable buff. 

• Werewolf By Night
  • [Old] 4/4 - After you play a card, move there to gain +2 Power if it has an On Reveal.
  • [Change] 4/4 -> 3/1

Werewolf By Night is a card we've been reticent to let live at 3-Cost, as the sheer amount of leaping can get out of hand fast. That said, in the months since its original release we've also seen a lot of strong and successful experimentation among 3-Costs, and Werewolf seems a lot more fair in today's world than it did upon release. Plus, being able to start with a small amount of Power is more evocative of the werewolf canon we want the card to communicate (starting weak, becoming a monster). 

• Leader
  • [Old] 6/2 - On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest Power played this turn, but on your side.
  • [Change] 6/2 -> 6/3

Probably not a lot of Leaders on the balance bingo cards at home, but this card has been languishing of late. We were hopeful that Leader's stocks would rise with the release of Red Hulk, as that made Leader a clean answer to one of the best 6-Cost cards in the game, but that's not what wound up happening. This buff isn't likely to move the needle in a big way, and we wouldn't want to–Leader's not a card players enjoy seeing too often. Even so, there's enough room to improve that we feel confident a point of Power will be a small, but helpful, bump. 

• Leech
  • [Old] 4/2 - On Reveal: Remove the text from cards with On Reveal abilities in your opponent's hand.
  • [Change] 4/2 -> 5/5

Speaking of unexpected outcomes, we've decided to take Leech back to 5-Cost. Our primary Leech target with the initial move to 4-Cost was Annihilus, though we did see value in strengthening one of the few answers to a handful of other powerful endgame threats. However, Annihilus wasn't substantially affected by the increased presence of Leech, and the winrate for Leech itself grew higher than we'd hope to see against other strategies, narrowing the range of competitive viability with the game. Of course, we've also heard the public discontent around leaning this hard on Leech as a valve within the metagame, and we've determined we don't want this card bearing that kind of weight. That said, 5/3 was just not really playable, so we're giving back some more Power in an effort to keep Leech meaningful. 

• Sentry
  • [Old] 4/10 - You can't play this at the right location. On Reveal: Add a -8 Power Void to the right location.
  • [Change] 4/10 -> 4/8
• The Void
  • Change: 4/-10 -> 4/-8

We have determined it's necessary to weaken the Annihilus shell in the interest of metagame health, and this adjustment is in pursuit of that goal. We'd hoped to avoid it entirely–Sentry at 10 Power is a more interesting card, especially with stuff like Skarr. To that end we've explored potential revisions to Annihilus instead, but weren't able to find a change we could stand on confidently in time for this OTA. We may revisit Sentry later if that work proves more fruitful, but for now we're just reducing some of the bite that combo packs by reverting Sentry to its original stats. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!

This week's OTA update features a handful of small tweaks to Power, with more sizable buffs to a pair of baddies from the Age of Ultron. 

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

 We're happy that the latest update to Lady Deathstrike created space for this card in the metagame. However, its performance indicates we overshot that mark by just a hair. Deathstrike has become one of the best cards in the game for the last few weeks, and even the top performer in some Annihilus shells–that's right, over Annihilus himself! Given we're seeing those decks overperform a little bit, we're addressing both issues by taking away a little Power here. 

• Darkhawk
  • [Old] 5/4 - Ongoing: +2 Power for each card in your opponent’s deck.
  • [Change] 5/4 -> 5/3

 It may sound surprising, but Darkhawk has continued to soar after moving to 5-Cost. In fact, it's spent the majority of the time since as one of the highest winrate cards in the game–often the highest! We've given it a few weeks to see if the metagame would demonstrate the kind of healthy churn we like to see, but after little to no change on this count we're taking action. We want Darkhawk to continue playing an important part in the metagame, but there's a delicate balance to preserve around having too many Rocks. 

• Leech
  • [Old] 5/3 - On Reveal: Remove the text from cards with On Reveal abilities in your opponent’s hand.
  • [Change] 5/3 -> 4/2

 It's been a while since Leech terrorized the SNAP ladder. Shifting it to only affect On Reveals solved the frustration Leech created, but at 5/3 the stats have been too weak to compete with other 5-Cost cards, even with this effect. In particular, Hela's new access to Energy gain has meant a 5-Cost Leech can't always stop the big resurrection plan. At 4/2, Leech can more effectively address popular threats like Hela, Annihilus, Jane Foster, and Cannonball. Besides, we can't help but root for our favorite Morlock after seeing that brave face on X-Men '97. 

• Psylocke
  • [Old] 2/1 - On Reveal: Next turn, you get +1 Energy.
  • [Change] 2/1 -> 2/2

 We previously nerfed Psylocke to 2/1 when Thanos was overperforming, as Psylocke was contributing a lot to the Mad Titan's win percentage. Now that Thanos has settled into a healthier position, and with some future adjustments to come, it's appropriate to revert Psylocke back to 2 Power. 

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

 Similar to Psylocke, we weakened Sauron a touch during an era of specific overperformance. Given the era has passed, we're returning that Power now. 

• Klaw
  • [Old] 5/4 - Ongoing: The location to the right has +6 Power.
  • [New] 5/4 - Ongoing: The location to the right has +8 Power.

 It's been exciting to see Ongoing-based decks claiming their due at the upper ranks over the last week. One card that has continued to suffer in an awkward "in-between" spot is Klaw, as a 5-Cost card that's fairly restrictive. Because Klaw has a novel restriction and gameplay reward, we're adding Power to the Ongoing effect to further emphasize those unique elements. 

• Ultron
  • [Old] 6/8 - On Reveal: Deploy four 1-Power Drones to each other location.
• Drone
  • [Change] 1/1 -> 1/2

 A metagame threat in the early days, Ultron's gotten weaker as decks increased their focus on filling each location and more efficiently concentrating Power. The Drones already have predators in the metagame thanks to Killmonger and Lady Deathstrike, and Ultron himself is quite vulnerable to Cannonball. This is a lot of Power to add to Ultron, so we might need to come back and take some away from Ultron himself, but we decided not to do so preemptively in case it wasn't necessary. We'd rather see Ultron make a splash once more than continue to flounder. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!

Think your Monday morning commute is tough? Try hopping from one reality to another to fix broken timelines and save entire universes from collapse. This season we welcome a multidimensional misfit group of mutants, each with their own quirks and powers. So, grab your reality-hopping passport and get ready for a wild ride through the multiverse with Blink and the Exiles!  Blink originally used her powers of teleportation to send the X-Men to the moon, but we know you have bigger plans, which is why Blink will be using her powers to open a portal and swap the last card you played with a higher-cost card from your deck![h2]NEW CHARACTER: BLINK[/h2] On Reveal: Swap the last card you played with a higher-Cost card from your deck.
 [h2]SEASON REWARDS[/h2]   Now that you’ve used Blink to trade that Wasp for a Magneto, let’s see who else is getting pulled into battle![h3]SERIES 5[/h3] You can move this once. When this moves, replace its location with a random new one. [h3]SERIES 5[/h3] On Reveal: +2 Power for each different Power among all other cards here.


[h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


On Reveal: Give +5 Power to each of your cards alone at another location.


[h3]SERIES 5[/h3]


Costs 1 less for each card you played last turn.
 [h2]So, when can you expect new cards?[/h2]You can expect new cards to be released weekly - starting with last month’s Season Pass Card, Baron Zemo, releasing as a Series 5 card on May 7th.

• May 7th: Baron Zemo - Series 5 Release
• May 7th: Nocturne - Series 5 Release
• May 14th: Sage - Series 5 Release
• May 21st: Namora - Series 5 Release
• May 28th: Sasquatch - Series 5 Release

New Series 4 and Series 5 cards appear in the Spotlight Cache and the Token Shop. As you level up your Collection Level, Spotlight Caches become available for you to unlock a Series 4, Series 5 card, Spotlight Variants, or more. [h3][/h3] [h2]May 7th:[/h2]

• Nocturne
• Caiera
• Selene

[h2][/h2][h2]May 14th:[/h2]

• Sage
• Legion
• The Living Tribunal

[h2][/h2][h2]May 21st:[/h2]

• Namora
• Skaar
• Black Knight

[h2][/h2][h2]May 28th:[/h2]

• Sasquatch
• Ravonna Renslayer
• Havok

 [h3][/h3] 

• Panoptichron: Cards that didn't start in your deck get +2 Power

• Cancun: Power here doesn't count toward winning the game.

 [h3][/h3] Get all new Avatars, Variants, and Emotes by completing three new albums!We like to move it, move it. Check out the new Dan Hipp Album on May 7th.

• Collect 3: Werewolf By Night Avatar
• Collect 6: 1000 Credits
• Collect 9: Heimdall Shocked Emote
• Collect 12: Werewolf By Night Variant

[h2][/h2]Don’t “Blink”… or you’ll miss some of our favorite Rian Gonzalez pieces dropping on May 15th.

• Collect 3: Silk Avatar
• Collect 6: 1000 Tokens
• Collect 9: Gambit Swoon Emote
• Collect 12: Silk Variant

[h2][/h2]Chibi lovers unite! The Oops, All Chibi Rian Gonzalez album is releasing on May 31st.

• Collect 3: Iron Lad Avatar
• Collect 6: 1000 Credits
• Collect 9: Iron Lad The Thinker Emote
• Collect 12: Iron Lad Variant

 [h3][/h3] Two new shop takeovers to help you complete those new albums!Don’t miss the Rian Gonzales shop takeover on May 15th and 16th to help fill out your collection, including a brand new Jubilee variant!And if you thought we were done showing off Rian, think again! A chibi focused shop takeover will arrive on May 31st and June 1st to help you collect all of your favorite Rian works with a BUNCH of new variants including Miles Morales, Wolverine, Dracula, and Cyclops! [h3][/h3] Watch your favorite MARVEL SNAP Twitch streamers to earn Boosters, Credits, and two amazing X-Men ‘97 Trading Card Variants! Drops will be available from May 7th to the 15th, just in time for the X-Men ‘97 finale! Don’t miss out!

• Watch 2 hours to earn: 65 Random Boosters
• Watch 4 hours to earn: 350 Credits
• Watch 6 hours to earn: Mister Sinister and Bishop X-Men ‘97 Variants

Head over to marvelsnap.com/twitchdrops to link your accounts today. [h3][/h3] While we can’t teleport you to work, we do know you’ll love these new characters. See you on the battlefield!

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

• Custom Card: Let’s try this patch note again… When editing a Custom Card, you can now assign split combinations (such as “Ink and Black Glimmer” or “Foil and Rainbow Tone”) you’ve earned on one variant to any other variant artwork for that character.
  • As a result, when you Infinity Split a card, you are guaranteed to not get a duplicate combination per character.
• Collectible Borders: Always wanted a gold border to match your gold finish? Good news! We’ve added Collectible Borders that can be applied on a character-level basis. We’ll be adding more borders and more ways to earn them in the future!
  • For now, you can check out the Cosmetics Shop in each character’s Custom Card interface to purchase the following borders:
    • Metallic Copper
    • Metallic Silver
    • Metallic Gold
    • Neon Green
    • Neon Purple
    • Neon Red
    • Neon White
    • Neon Blue
    • Neon Yellow

 

• Spectrum and Magneto have new VO lines.

 [h2]Card and Location Logic Fixes in 27.x[/h2]

• Reference Tokens should now should their own Cost/Power rather than the stats of the primary card they’re associated with

[h2]VFX & SFX Fixes in 27.x[/h2]

• Heimdall’s VO should no longer be playing as Doctor Doom’s in some languages
• Limbo should once again update the turn counter appropriately on the turn it’s triggered
• Sanctuary II should have SFX in all instances now

[h2]Other Fixes in 27.x[/h2]

• Card backs should once again be rendering correctly for Card and Location abilities that show them
• Rarity test casing should be consistent between labels
• Clicking on Set as Favorite when going through the Custom Card flow should no longer result in a softlock
• Clicking on Make Me a Deck when you are already at the max number of decks should no longer result in an exception being thrown or a softlock occurring
• The UI for Custom Card editing should be properly closed when you click to Save changes

[h2]Existing Known Issues Fixed[/h2]

• The End Turn button should no longer become unresponsive due to a VFX timing conflict
• Nico’s VFX should no longer show incorrectly for her opponent when she’s returned to hand and replayed
• Darkhawk’s Tribute variant gets his wings back
• Set As Favorite should no longer become unresponsive when claiming Album emote rewards
• The dropshadow of the title asset on the Cosmetics screen should no longer be misaligned
• After buying a card from the Token Shop, the other timers should always show a correct timer
• Fixed an issue that could, on rare occasions when using the Smart Deck feature, see the cards not render properly and be invisible in the Deck Editor view
• There’s no longer a superfluous tab indicator on the new emotes panel

[h2]Existing Known PC Issues Fixed[/h2]

• [PC] Fixed an issue that occasionally caused the End Turn VFX to not display
• [PC] It should no longer be difficult to preview the Spotlight Cache cards from the carousel due to the buttons being too small

Welcome back! We'll be resuming our "OTA, Patch, OTA, Off" cadence after this week, assuming future patches continue to land as scheduled. We're largely happy with the metagame at the moment, so today's changes aim to weaken one threat in particular while distributing a handful of buffs to more fringe cards. 

• Red Hulk
  • [Old] 6/11 - When your opponent ends a turn with unspent Energy, +4 Power. (if in hand or in play)
  • [Change] 6/11 -> 6/9

Red Hulk has been the best 6-Cost in the game since release, and even created upticks in a handful of other options that effectively countered one big play, like Leader and Spectrum. Elements of the strength and its counters were intentional, given the mechanic revealing Red Hulk to your opponent was a novel bit of mechanical space we rarely explore. We expected that to mean Red Hulk's cube gain rate would be much lower when compared to similarly winning cards, due to it being very difficult to get the final double, so part of the card's baseline strength was compensation for that downside. However, Red Hulk's cube gain rate has also been quite strong, leading to today's nerf to level the playing field. In fact, some of us have wondered how many 8-cube games Red Hulk was stealing by "tricking" opponents into countering the big guy, only to lose to a combination of smaller cards! 

• U.S. Agent
  • [Old] 2/3 - Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -3 Power.
  • [New] Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -4 Power.

On the flip side, U.S. Agent released a bit on the weak side. The change to Zabu reducing the number of 4-Cost cards in play combined with the resurgence of Angela-based swarm decks probably reduced the potential impact of U.S. Agent. However, the data doesn't indicate that this card is too far off the mark, so we're just improving the effect a little. 

• Jean Grey
  • [Old] 3/3 - Ongoing: Players must play their first card here each turn. (if possible)
  • [Change] 3/3 -> 3/4

No, this isn't just because we're all loving X-Men '97–although that's definitely true! Jean has stood on the edge of a balancing knife for some time now, with an effect that can be frustratingly strong. However, with the metagame seeing a major uptick in big combos like Annihilus and Hela, along with Angela-based decks easily evading the effect's downsides, now seems like a good time to explore pushing a bit more Power into one of the strongest X-Men. Jean's Ongoing can uniquely hurt specific opponents alongside tech cards like Cosmo and Echo, offering players who enjoy a more controlling strategy a new way to play. 

• Stature
  • [Old] 5/6 - Costs 1 if your opponent discarded a card this game.
  • [Change] 5/6 -> 5/7

Similarly, Stature has proven that one more Power is within reach. This has been an unusual card to monitor, as every now and then we'll see Stature temporarily vault into our Top 10 cards on internal metrics, but never make a prolonged stay. After seeing the cycle often enough, we've chalked it up to the cyclical presence of Mobius M. Mobius in various decks. With Pixie decks that always play Mobius performing well lately, it's fair game to give Stature a small buff in compensation for that vulnerability. 

• Mantis
  • [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: If your opponent played any cards here this turn, copy one of them into your hand.
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 1/2

Admittedly, we were quite conservative on the previous functional change to Mantis, going with 2/2 out of concern for the card becoming annoying against enemy Venoms and the like. Since those fears proved unfounded, we're restoring Mantis to 1/2. 

• Jane Foster
  • [Old] 5/8 - On Reveal: Draw all cards that Cost 0 from your deck.
  • [Change] 5/8 -> 5/9

Last but not least, the Mighty Thor! It's no secret that we think the Asgard-themed deck built around finding and slamming various hammers is a lot of fun, and players seem to agree. It's an archetype that flirts with competitive play fairly often–as this is being written, Beta Ray Bill is on the rise–but struggles to maintain such performance. In fact, we're chalking part of that up to the new Sandman punishing turn 5 Jane especially well. Adding a bit of Power for those games where you have to prove your Worth the hard way makes sense. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!