MARVEL SNAP News

Today we have some nerfs to a couple of top decks in the interest of diversifying more of the metagame, along with a handful of Power buffs. Oh, and the return of Zabu! 

• Zabu
  • [Old] 2/3 - On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.
  • [New] 1/2 - On Reveal: On Reveal: Give each 4-Cost card in your deck -1 Cost.

We know it's been a long wait to see an update to Zabu, and we hope you find this one satisfying. For quite some time our intent was to use Activate to land on a new Zabu, but we couldn't find a design that hit the right mark between too weak and too strong with that ability. This version fueled some novel strategies internally, and we like how a 1-Cost Zabu paired thematically with Shanna and Ka-Zar, so we're looking forward to seeing it in the wild. 

• Hellcow
  • [Old] 4/6 - Activate: Discard 2 cards from your hand.
  • [New] 4/7 - Activate: Discard a card from your hand.

The change from On Reveal to Activate for Hellcow accomplished our goal of adding life to a card that had fallen out of use, but we overshot the mark with regard to its strength in Hela decks. Those decks have persisted at a play rate higher than we'd like, even though the winrates have been flat. To add further pressure in the interest of a diverse metagame, we're tweaking Hellcow to be less effective in the deck. 

• Widow's Kiss (White Widow)
  • [Old] 0/0 - Ongoing: This has -3 Power. Disable this ability if your side of this location is full.
  • [New] 0/-4 - Destroy this when your side of this location is full.

An archetype we've learned a lot about over the last year is the "clog" deck, a broad term describing decks that aim to win by filling up enemy locations before turn 6. These decks were weak for a long time, but as we explored the design space they've become a consistent mainstay. Clog decks do provide a meaningful metagame pressure that we want to retain, but our current suite of clog cards has proven too strong. The decks are overperforming, but we're also challenged as designers because we want to make new cards for every archetype, but don't want to have more clog cards on par with White Widow.Moving forward, we're going to aim for more of our clog cards to have "out" clauses that let the opponent adjust their play to free up a location. This will make them more fun to play against, and also allow us to create more cards in the space. This particular change is a solid knock to White Widow, and we'll monitor her performance in its wake in case it merits more compensation. One thing we do like about it is that Red Guardian is now a combo with Yelena! 

• Viper
  • [Old] 3/5 - On Reveal: One of your other cards here with the lowest Power switches sides.
  • [Change] 3/5 -> 3/4

Similarly, our change to Viper has created a card that's very effective at its job–so effective that we think it could stand to lose a point of Power. We could've reverted to the old effect that gave away a random card, but we think this design has ended up more fun for the Viper player by enough to justify solving with an adjustment to the Power instead. 

• Kingpin, Scream, and Fisk Tower
  • [Change] No longer affects unrevealed cards.

We generally don’t let things afflict unrevealed cards unless otherwise stated, but these cards and location weren’t consistent with that philosophy. While Juggernaut specifies that he can move unrevealed cards, these don’t in turn state that they can afflict unrevealed cards. It’s important that we keep interactions consistent and predictable. If Kingpin can afflict unrevealed cards, then it gets confusing if Hazmat can’t.While we could have maintained these as exceptions or even added more exceptions, that's a slippery slope that burdens players. We've been happy with holding a line on the game ignoring unrevealed cards unless necessary for a specific function, such as Juggernaut. One reason is that it's much easier to visually track what happens to them and more consistent for implementing elements like VFX. We hope this will help keep interactions in the game intuitive and consistent. 

• Scream
  • [Old] 2/2 - When an enemy card moves, steal 2 Power from it. (once per turn)
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 2/3

We're aware that losing the interaction with Juggernaut is a knock to Scream's strength, and many players may even have been specifically excited to acquire Scream based on this combination of effects. To compensate, we’re giving Scream a small buff. 

• Grand Master
  • [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Move one of your other On Reveal cards here to the middle location. Its ability happens again.
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 2/3

Grand Master is a really fun card to brew decks with, and it's been underperforming. This extra Power shouldn't put it over the top, but removes some of the downside of leaning into a card that has some situational hurdles to climb already. 

• Emperor Hulkling
  • [Old] 6/11 - At the start of the game, copy the text of a random 6-Cost card.
  • [Change] 6/11 -> 6/12

Our internal testing yielded some very powerful Hulklings, but we overcorrected on those balance results and released this card weaker than we'd have preferred to target. We know 5-Cost is a popular request, but that version of the card was in particular too strong. We're going to stick at 6-Cost and find more fun with more Power. 

• Okoye
  • [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Give every card in your deck +1 Power.
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 2/3

Last but not least, a classic card from early Series play. Okoye has been left behind by some stronger scaling 2-Cost cards lately, but Okoye also does some solid work alongside cards like Scarlet Spider. Like Grand Master, this is a fun card that's seeing less play than we'd prefer, so we're adding some Power. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!

Welcome to the chaos! It’s time for our Venom’s newest season to be unleashed into Marvel Snap. This symbiote is hungry. Good thing we have a month full of Second Anniversary celebrations, a BRAND NEW limited-time game mode, and amazing art to keep it satiated all month. Join us, or be consumed. We... are... Venom!  After losing his legs in the line of duty, Flash Thompson teamed up with the government to bond with the Symbiote to continue his fight for justice. This high-octane, Symbiote-powered government agent uses his abilities to power up those around him. It’s time to bring out your low-powered cards like Iron Man and Wasp to make some high-powered combos.[h2]NEW CHARACTER: Agent Venom[/h2] On Reveal: Set the Power of all cards in your deck to 4.
[h2]SEASON REWARDS[/h2]  It appears as though the Symbiote and its influence is spreading! A whole month full of Symbiote powered characters are headed your way. Let’s check it out! [h3]SERIE 5[/h3] When an enemy card moves, steal 2 Power from it. (once per turn) [h3]SERIE 5[/h3] On Reveal: Repeat the On Reveal abilities of your other cards here, then destroy them. [h3]SERIE 5[/h3] When you discard this, return it to your hand and give +2 Power to itself and one of your cards in play. [h3]SERIE 5[/h3] On Reveal: Return your other cards here to your hand. +2 Power for each returned. [h3]SERIE 5[/h3] On Reveal: Set the Cost and Power of your deck's top card to 0.
All of these loose Symbiotes must have triggered something. Sound the alarms, the electricity is off the charts! Starting on October 16th, Agony is available exclusively in High Voltage, a brand new limited time event that will have you spending TONS of energy and playing lightning fast games. Miss out and you’ll have to find Agony in the Token Shop as a Series 4 release starting October 31st.Want more info on High Voltage? Keep reading below![h3]SERIE 4[/h3] After you play a card here, merge this with it.
 [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, Symbiote Spider-Man, releasing as a Series 5 card on October 1st.

• Oct 1st: Symbiote Spider-Man - Series 5 Release
• Oct 1st: Scream - Series 5 Release
• Oct 8th: Misery - Series 5 Release
• Oct 15th: Scorn - Series 5 Release
• Oct 22nd: Toxin - Series 5 Release
• Oct 29th: Anti-Venom - Series 5 Release
• Oct 31st: Agony - Series 4 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]Oct 1st:[/h2]

• Scream
• Man-Thing
• Mobius M Mobius

[h2][/h2][h2]Oct 8th:[/h2]

• Misery
• Namora
• War Machine

[h2][/h2][h2]Oct 15th:[/h2]

• Scorn
• Jean Grey
• Sebastian Shaw

[h2][/h2][h2]Oct 22nd:[/h2]

• Toxin
• Elsa Bloodstone
• Zabu

[h2][/h2][h2]Oct 29th:[/h2]

• Anti-Venom
• Supergiant
• Ghost Spider

[h3][/h3]

• E.A.S.T.: After you play a card here, ALL players get +1 Energy next turn.

• Our Lady of Saints: When your revealed cards fill this, merge them into a Symbiote.

 [h3][/h3] October 16th-24th!High Voltage is a limited time mode that makes the world’s fastest collectible card game even faster! In this mode there’s no snapping, just 3 turns with more energy and more cards to make even BIGGER power swings.In High Voltage, you will start the game with 2 cards, and draw 2 new cards each round. On each of the 3 turns, you and your opponent will gain the same amount of randomized energy to try and play out your best strategies. And to make sure it stays fast, certain locations and characters will be restricted, so no playing Magik to slow things down!And don’t forget, playing High Voltage during the event is the ONLY way to unlock our newest card, Agony, for FREE! Miss out and you’ll need to find Agony in the token shop as a Series 4 card, available on October 31st. [h3][/h3] Two years! We could not have made it this far without YOU! In an effort to thank our amazing community, we wanted to throw a party for our Second Anniversary. Boosters, Credits, Variants, Borders and more are all up for grabs just by logging in daily starting on our anniversary, October 18th. Check it out![h3]Login Rewards (October 18-26th)[/h3]Login for seven days between October 18-26th to make sure you get these great free rewards. Play and get free stuff, it’s that easy!

• Day 1: 65 Random Boosters
• Day 2: 250 Credits
• Day 3: Title: Live, Love Snap
• Day 4: 2 Neon White Card Borders
• Day 5: Premium Mystery Variant
• Day 6: 155 Random Boosters
• Day 7: 1 Cosmic Orange Card Border

[h3]Community Vote for FREE Variant[/h3]
To give back to the community, we’re letting YOU pick a free Variant. Head to the website at marvelsnap.com to cast your vote for your favorite Variant. The Variant with the most votes will be delivered to EVERYONE for FREE in their inbox, so make sure you tell your friends to vote![h3]Toonpool Deadpool Bundle[/h3]Everyone’s favorite Merc is back and feeling loose! You’ll be able to catch this special bundle from October 22-27th.

• Toonpool Deadpool Variant
• 1 Matte Red Border
• 1200 Gold
• 500 Credits

Price = $9.99 [h3][/h3] [h3]TNew Shop Feature: Collector's Vault[/h3]Starting on October 24th, we're introducing a new shop feature that will give you the chance to acquire rare or exclusive bundle Variants that you may have previously missed.Once the Collector's Vault appears in your shop, you’ll see six random, unowned, and unique Variants for base cards that you already possess. The Vault opens for the first time from October 24-29th and will come back periodically.To be eligible for the Vault, Variants must have been bundle exclusives and released at least one year before the Vault's opening. [h3][/h3] Get all new Avatars, Variants, and Emotes by completing four new albums!So many Venomized Variants in one spot, what could go wrong? Check out the new album now!

• Collect 3: Wolverine Avatar
• Collect 6: 1000 Collector’s Tokens
• Collect 9: Wolverine Variant
• Collect 12: Venom Emote

Instill fear in your enemies with the new and fearsome Peach Momoko Nightmare Variants! Coming to you October 9th.

• Collect 3: Ghost Spider Avatar
• Collect 6: Ghost Spider Variant
• Collect 9: 1 Spotlight Cache Key
• Collect 12: Carnage Emote

Become one with Carnage in this awesome new album! Check out the Carnage themed Album on October 15th.

• Collect 3: Carnage Avatar
• Collect 6: 1x Matte Red Border
• Collect 8: Carnage Variant
• Collect 9: Cletus Kasady Reaction Set

Hungry for a snack... or two... or a dozen? Complete the Venom Album launching October 21st, and become one with everybody's favorite symbiote!

• Collect 3: Venom Avatar
• Collect 5: 1x Matte Black Border
• Collect 7: Venom Variant
• Collect 8: Eddie Brock Reaction Set

 [h3][/h3] Get your fill of terrifying Variants with this seasons’ latest Shop Takeovers. All of your favorite Venomized Variants, plus 12 new Peach Momoko Nightmare Variants are debuting to fill your spooky season needs!Finally, A chance to grab all of your favorite Venomized Variants, including a brand new X-23 Venomized Variant! October 1st will be a full shop takeover and you will continue to see multiple Venomized Variants in the shop until October 9th.Give your opponents a fright with 12 BRAND NEW Peach Momoko Nightmare Variants. Look for them in the shop from October 9th! This is your best chance to fill up the brand new Peach Momoko Nightmare Album! [h3][/h3] Spider-Man 2099 thought he would swing by and drop off this super cool new Variant just for you! Watch your favorite MARVEL SNAP Twitch streamers to earn Boosters, Credits, and the all-new Spider-Man 2099! Drops will be available from October 3rd-10th. Don’t miss out!

• Watch 2 hours to earn: 65 Spider-Man 2099 Boosters
• Watch 4 hours to earn:250 Credits
• Watch 6 hours to earn:Spider-Man 2099 Variant

We take Seconds very seriously around here, so we’re going big with a Second Twitch Drop for the Marvel SNAP Second Anniversary. Drops will be available from October 18th-24th. Don’t miss out!

• Watch 2 hours to earn: 155 Random Boosters
• Watch 4 hours to earn:350 Credits
• Watch 6 hours to earn:Premium Mystery Variant

Head over to marvelsnap.com/twitchdrops to link your accounts today. [h3][/h3]With all of these great events, a new limited-time game mode, new cards, and new art happening this month we can only hope that the Symbiotes will be too busy to turn their attention to us. Get out there and play while we have them distracted, and make sure you share your favorite moments with us on Discord and social channels!

While today's update is "all numbers," we expect it to give the metagame a little shake-up as we wind down the latest Spidey season. I'm sure the symbiote suit will work out just fine for Pete this time around! Things really seem to have settled down as we head into a nice, mellow October–just another easy Halloween for the webhead. 

• Hela
  • [Old]6/6 - On Reveal: Resurrect all cards you discarded to random locations with -2 Power.
  • [New]6/7 - On Reveal: Resurrect all cards you discarded to random locations with -3 Power.

Hela’s seen a resurgence in popularity with Hellcow’s change to Activate and Black Cat’s buff to 10 Power. While her win and cube rates haven’t been out of line, this change has strengthened the deck by making it easier to resurrect more Power with less risk than before, which can feel frustratingly difficult to contest for many decks. We’re taking some additional Power away from the resurrected cards as a bit of compensation for this added strength, but balancing it a touch with more Power for Hela. 

• Marvel Boy
  • [Old]3/2 - After each turn, give 3 of your 1-Cost cards +1 Power.
  • [Change]3/2 -> 3/1

Ever since Marvel Boy’s release, Zoo decks with tons of 1-Cost cost cards have been riding high. We’re glad to see this deck back in contention at the top of the metagame, but the games with an early Marvel Boy tend to put up some particularly strong numbers. We’re making a slight ding here to make it a little bit easier to challenge the Zoo deck for multiple locations, given how often Gilgamesh can win them one.. 

• War Machine
  • [Old]4/7 - Ongoing: Nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere.
  • [Change]4/7 -> 4/6

With the recent change from an On Reveal ability to an Ongoing one, War Machine has really taken off. We’re excited to see the decks with Ebony Maw and The Infinaut that players have been perfecting for a long time finally get their day in the sun. However, War Machine’s win rate has been among the highest in the game, and a lot of that has been in decks focusing on using Storm and Legion to deny the opponent any turn 6 plays. Those decks have a place, but because they can be frustrating to play against repeatedly, we don't want them headlining the metagame. We're taking War Machine down a peg by removing Power, since that recent buff turned out a bit stronger than expected. 

• Symbiote Spider-Man
  • [Old]4/6 - Activate: Merge your lowest-Cost card here with this. Copy its text like it just revealed.
  • [Change]4/6 -> 4/7

You’ve all found a ton of awesome things to do with Symbiote Spider-Man, from retriggering Doctor Doom to safeguarding the Power of Human Torch. But a lot of those strategies have been a bit inconsistent, and when they don’t pan out, Symbiote Spider-Man has been underdelivering on board presence. To ensure those cool things are less risky, we want to raise the floor so that Symbiote Spider-Man contributes a meaningful amount of Power the rest of the time. 

• Galactus
  • [Old]6/5 - On Reveal: If you’re winning this location and this is your only card here, destroy all other locations.
  • [Change]6/5 -> 6/6

Galactus’s stats have been lagging as we’ve added more 3/5s to the game, and we’ve been looking at buffing him for a while. One reason we waited was that we were wary of his interaction with Symbiote Spider-Man–our internal testing didn't reveal this to be problematic, but we can't ever know we've "solved" a deck for sure. Now that we’ve seen the potential to create a higher-Powered Galactus hasn’t proven too frequent and frustrating in the real world, we’re comfortable boosting Galactus up as we’d hoped to. 

• Negasonic Teenage Warhead
  • [Old]3/2 - After an enemy card is played here, destroy it. (once per game)
  • [Change]3/2 -> 3/3

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has been in a similar boat, to a smaller degree. Resetting her ability with Symbiote Spider-Man has the potential to blow up a lot of Power, but it's proved easy enough to adapt to Symbiote Spider-Man’s looming combos. So we're giving Negasonic the Power she needs to perform better on her own. 

• Black Panther
  • [Old]5/4 - On Reveal: Double this card’s Power.
  • [Change]5/4 -> 5/5

Black Panther has long been one of the most exciting "combo cards" in Marvel SNAP. The combo is awesome and has the potential to take over games with the likes of Wong and Arnim Zola. We think that’s a cool deck as long as there’s enough counterplay to it, so buffing Black Panther should help the deck compete when it doesn’t draw enough of the full combo, albeit making the combo easier to stop preemptively with Shang-Chi. That's good, on the off chance this buff makes such a deck too prevalent. 

• Kraven
  • [Old]2/2 - When a card moves here, this gains +2 Power.
  • [Change]2/2 -> 2/3

We’ve been glad to see all the experimentation around new move decklists with Madame Web and Araña, but the rising tide hasn’t lifted all boats. Kraven has struggled to compete with Madame Web asking to be played on the same turn, so we wanted to give him a little extra Power to keep the decision interesting and hopefully prompt even more diversity among move builds. 

• Hercules
  • [Old]3/4 - The first time another card moves here each turn, move it to another location.
  • [Change]3/4 -> 3/5

Hercules has similarly been struggling to make a major contribution to move decks. When the setup is just right he does amazing things, knocking cards like Human Torch and Vulture back and forth between his location and Madame Web’s. But when that doesn’t pan out, he’s not contributing enough. Given we've just introduced some fun new movement cards to the mix that have room for more strength, we’re happy to give Herc some extra Power. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!

PLEASE NOTE: If you haven’t updated your game yet, get the latest in the App Store![h2]PATCH HIGHLIGHTS[/h2]Activate more Activate!previously announced, we’re updating two older cards to now feature the new Activate mechanic: Black Swan and Hellcow. The Balance section below will cover this in more detail.

• Black Swan
  • [Old]3/5 - On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 1-Cost cards cost 0.
  • [New]2/3 - Activate: Until the end of next turn, your 1-Cost cards cost 0.

 

• Hellcow
  • [Old]4/8 - On Reveal: Discard 2 cards from your hand.
  • [New]4/6 - Activate: Discard 2 cards from your hand.

 [h3]Changes to Gold offers:[/h3]

• We're evolving our Gold bundles to bring you more frequent, balanced, and exciting deals on the Webshop.
• The current Bonus Double Gold offers will be phased out 30 days after this patch, so if you've been waiting to take advantage of these offers, now's the time!
• While we know these offers have been popular, they've also had unintended effects on the overall balance of the game's economy. That's why we're making this change to ensure a healthier economy moving forward.
• New players will no longer see these offers, but they'll have access to the new offers.

 

• Black Swan
  • [Old]3/5 - On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 1-Cost cards cost 0.
  • [New]2/3 - Activate: Until the end of next turn, your 1-Cost cards cost 0.

We revealed earlier that Black Swan and Hellcow would be changing to Activate as a bit of an experiment in seeing how the mechanic could be used to freshen up some older cards where On Reveal wasn't quite getting the job done. We didn't reveal that doing so would also come with some stat updates. Making an effect an Activate can be riskier, because it requires playing the card earlier in the game to time it properly. For Black Swan that's extra true, because playing Swan on turn 5 still won't be fast enough to get the Cost reduction–remember, Activate resolves with your other plays, so you can't activate for a same-turn Cost discount. So we're dropping the Cost to ensure more opportunities to get Black Swan into play.It's possible this update won't land Black Swan in a better position, and we're open to a reversion in that case. However, the risk seemed appropriate given Black Swan has been languishing on multiple metrics. 

• Hellcow
  • [Old]4/8 - On Reveal: Discard 2 cards from your hand.
  • [New]4/6 - Activate: Discard 2 cards from your hand.

So if we moved Black Swan down to 2-Cost, why are we shrinking Hellcow? Well, not all effects are created equal! Being able to time the discard on Hellcow makes it substantially stronger than the On Reveal in a couple of key ways, not the least of which is you can now curve Hellcow into MODOK without risking losing your MODOK. To reflect that shift in strength, we weakened Hellcow a little bit while we see how strong it proves to be. 

• Sword Master
  • [Old] 3/7 - On Reveal: Discard a card from your hand.
  • [New] 3/7 - On Reveal: Discard an odd-costed card from your hand.

Similar to how we updated Moon Knight, we've decided to create an alternate option with Sword Master. We did debate changing the stats–and yes, it does look weird that Moon Knight is a 3/3 and Sword Master is bigger. However, in addition to discarding an enemy card, Moon Knight just has more and stronger synergies: Apocalypse, Proxima Midnight, Stature, and even Wolverine. Sword Master has X-23, Ghost Rider, and maybe a different kind of Hela deck? Given the gap and our Sword Master decks not feeling too scary, we decided to wait and see rather than preemptively adjust the Power down. [h2]Card and Location Logic Fixes in 32.x[/h2]

• Restored the check order of cards like Mystique hidden behind effects such as Invisible Woman or Dark Dimension to its former behavior
• Players now can properly retreat from a match on Turn 6 if Mount Vesuvius is destroyed
• Players now can properly retreat from a match on Turn 6 if Mount Vesuvius is disabled by an effect like Snowguard Hawk
• Resolved an issue with Forge that could cause an infinite looping Fast Forward to play under certain circumstances

[h2]Card and Location Art Fixes in 32.x[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where one of Cannonball’s variants didn’t display split backgrounds properly in-game
• Cleaned up Namora’s VFX timeline to be a bit snappier
• VFX for The Ice Box should no longer display differently between players
• Hand Full VFX should display properly when Black Knight is in play but Ebony Blade can’t be added to hand upon discard (ex: Helicarrier discarded)
• Nocturne’s VFX now plays properly when moved to another location by another card
• Resolved an issue that could result in Professor X’s VFX being removed from a location if he was forcibly moved
• Fisk Tower’s VFX no longer triggers inadvertently when cards move away from the location
• Fixed an issue that was causing Mockingbird’s VFX to trigger at the start of a match before any other cards were in play
• Silver Samurai’s base card art no longer loses its split background when upgraded to Frame Break quality
• Copycat’s SFX should no longer trigger for the opposing player when drawn
• Blue Stardust no longer has green particles
• Sakaar’s art asset has its background returned
• Fixed a rare issue that could result in Foil finishes displaying as Gold or Prism on occasion
• Copycat’s VFX no longer displays an exclamation point

[h2]Other Fixes in 32.x[/h2]

• Fixed a number of asset related exceptions that were occurring and causing noticeable performance issues and Aw Snap errors
• Resolved an issue that could result in a perpetual loading spinner when you restarted the app after a League had ended
• League-related toast messages should no longer occasionally appear at the start of matches
• Card Effects and Flares should no longer occasionally be over-sized when viewed in certain Card Detail and Reward Detail views
• Displayed Card Backs no longer revert to the default in Conquest after the first round
• Fixed an issue that was causing the “Hold to Confirm” text prompt to only display if the player was already holding on the button and not when they tapped
• Upgrading a card in the post-match screen and then clicking on a card in play from post-match should no longer result in overlapping card detail views

[h2]Alliance Fixes in 32.x[/h2]

• Players should be able to properly search for Alliances even if they do not meet the requirements to join the Alliance
• Fixed a timing-related issue with completing Alliance bounties that could result in a single bounty being claimed more than once
• Cleaned up some clipping and z-fighting issues for Bounty icons
• Alliance descriptions with multiple line breaks no longer causes the roster to be unable to scroll to the bottom
• Member icons and avatars no longer clip into the surrounding UI when the roster is scrolled through

[h2]PC Fixes in 32.x[/h2]

• [PC] Fixed an issue that was preventing card backgrounds from displaying for cards shown in the carousel

[h2]Existing Known Issues Fixed[/h2]

• Fixed the volume of some VO lines in certain languages that were too low
• Text descriptions for some custom borders no longer have overlapping text in Vietnamese
• The infinity split button should now be properly disabled when all possible splits for a card have been unlocked
• Emote assets should no longer blink into existence when viewing Album rewards

The metagame has largely been settling into a time of peace. Arishem's play rate has steadily trended downward since our last change to Loki, and hasn't appeared to hit bottom yet as of these notes. Symbiote Spider-Man has shaken things up, but no decks new or old are presenting as outliers on win rate and cube rate at this time. As such, we're taking a light touch on the competitive changes and mostly pushing up a few older cards. 

• Sandman
  • [Old] 5/6 - On Reveal: Players can only play 1 card next turn.
  • [New] 5/7 - On Reveal: Next turn, cards cost 1 more. (maximum 6)

We've relied on Sandman to be a negative pressure against strong decks that can threaten several cards at the end of the game. However, we've seen over time that when the metagame provides Sandman with that kind of an opening, those decks tend to become a frustration unto themselves. In some ways it's reminiscent of Leech, and we're pursuing a similar adjustment. Softening the penalty on Sandman will make it less effective at locking down the game, while still meaningfully impacting enemy plans to play tons of cards. 

• Mockingbird
  • [Old] 6/10 - Costs 1 less for each of your cards in play that didn't start in your deck.
  • [Change] 6/10 -> 6/9

Mockingbird has been one of the strongest cards in a couple dominant decks lately, so we're taking away a Power here. It's not uncommon for some players to assume that a 6/9 may be stronger than a 6/10, due to the vulnerability to Shang-Chi, but this has never been the case in the past. If, by some chance, it proves true for Mockingbird, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

• Aero
  • [Old] 5/9 - On Reveal: Move the last enemy card played anywhere to this location.
  • [Change] 5/9 -> 5/10

We're aware one of Mockingbird's roles of late has been providing some amount of support for Skaar, so we looked for a few candidates near 10 Power that felt ripe to receive a buff. Aero was just such a card, and an ideal candidate among 5-Costs given the ability isn't strictly beneficial. 

• Black Cat
  • [Old] 4/9 - If this is in your hand after the turn, discard it.
  • [Change] 4/9 -> 4/10

Likewise, Black Cat's seen a big dip following adjustments to Hela and Black Knight, so we're adding a Power here as well to see how it impacts the play rate. 

• Ghost Rider
  • [Old] 4/3 - On Reveal: Bring back one of your discarded cards to this location.
  • [Change] 4/3 -> 4/4

Ghost Rider's an exciting card, and we'd like to find the right spot for it to feel like a fun miniature combo for decks to play. We know from the early days of the beta how strong 3-Cost Ghost Rider was, so we decided not to risk such a drastic change. We'll see how some Power goes and evaluate from there. 

• Moon Girl
  • [Old] 4/4 - On Reveal: Duplicate your hand.
  • [Change] 4/4 -> 4/5

Another card capable of fueling some unique combos, Moon Girl's time in the sun faded pretty fast once Loki hit the timeline. We'd like to explore pushing this card back toward some of that former glory, and in fact we started by trying a 3-Cost version internally… but it was totally cracked, so don't expect to see that change anytime soon. We might have considered more Power here, but given how strong decks with Mockingbird have been lately we erred more cautiously. 

• War Machine
  • [Old] 4/7 - On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere.
  • [New] 4/7 - Ongoing: Nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere.

Many players noted that the new activate keyword had the potential to benefit War Machine. We also thought that might be true, but it turned out that even at 3/5 War Machine wasn't quite as effective as one would hope–a card that packs most of its punch leading into turn 6 just isn't an ideal home for activate. So we're going with the backup plan here, changing the On Reveal to an Ongoing. 

• Agatha Harkness
  • [Old] 6/14 - Agatha starts in your hand and plays your cards for you.
  • [New] 6/14 - Agatha starts in your hand. She plays your cards for you on even turns.

We're as excited as everyone else to see Kathryn Hahn back for Agatha All Along, so we decided to celebrate by letting our own Agatha out to play a little bit. You'll find Agatha more interested in an equal partnership these days, sharing turns with the player rather than keeping them all to herself. We haven't adjusted any other functionality–you'll still see her showing up in your hand as a bonus card, too! — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!