Balance Update: March 26, 2026

Hey folks! Today we’re going to be adjusting Star-Lord into a shape that we think we’ll be comfortable with for the long term as well as toning down some of the copying interactions of Gambit, Horseman of Death. After that we’ve got some buffs in store that we hope will shift the metagame slightly towards a more midrange state to help alleviate some of the over-the-top pressures of the past few months. Let’s go ahead and jump in!

Star-Lord, Master of the Sun

[Old] 4/3 – On Reveal: Next turn, you get +1 Energy for each turn you’ve ended with unspent Energy. This gains that much Power.
[Change] 4/3 > 5/8

This is a large shift for Star-Lord. While his play rate has gone down considerably following his nerf and the release of new content, Star-Lord is still at a metagame share we just feel uncomfortable with in the long term. It has been several months of decks having difficulty competing with large over the top strategies and Star-Lord’s presence has necessitated fairly heavy and specific tech to keep him in check.

We feel like this nerf is a better shift for the long term health of the game while still allowing Star-Lord enough Power to allow larger combo decks if you are willing to commit to him while increasing the window for counterplay to be effective.

Cannonball

[Old] 5/6 – On Reveal: Move the highest-Power enemy card here away. If you can’t, destroy it with a Rock.
[Change] 5/6 > 5/5

With the Star-Lord nerf as well as a sneaky nerf to Mr. Negative coming up, we think it is a good time to make another small nerf to Cannonball. While we do want to prop up more midrange centric gameplay, Cannonball and Mercury have been strong with relatively high ubiquity for some time. As with Star-Lord, we think this is an adjustment that will improve the health of the game for the long term.

Frigga

[Old] 3/4 – On Reveal: Add a copy of the last card you played to your hand. (if able)

[Change] 3/4 > 3/3

Gambit Horseman of Death

[Old] 3/3 – Objective: Play 5 total Cost of created cards Randomly destroy up to 4 total Cost of enemy cards. (0/5)
[New] 3/3 – Objective: Play 6 total Cost of created cards Randomly destroy up to 4 total Cost of enemy cards. (0/6)

Much of Gambit’s strength has been in how well his Objective component scales with creating additional copies of himself – with the ability to destroy large swaths of an opponent’s deck when the Copy strategy is firing on all cylinders. While this has created a new and unique deck, we do worry about how fun the deck is to play against too frequently given its apparent strength.

We want to generally tone down that gameplay by increasing the opportunity cost of requiring more Created cards necessary to trigger Gambit, as well as slightly lowering the points output of the deck when it is having its best draws. While Frigga draws will still produce a powerful output, decks that play more expensive characters will have a greater chance of generating enough points to be competitive regardless.

Gorr The God Butcher

[Old] 6/-1 – Ongoing: +2 Power for EACH On Reveal card in play.
[Change] 6/-1 > 6/1

Thor’s Mjolnir

[Old] 0/0 – On Reveal: Give Thor +6 Power.

[New] 0/0 – On Reveal: Give Thor +7 Power.

Beta Ray Bill’s Stormbreaker

[Old] 0/3 – On Reveal: Double Beta Ray Bill’s Power.
[Change] 0/3 > 0/4

We’re buffing Gorr, which we hope will have the secondary effect of nerfing Mr. Negative. Negative and Star-Lord are two of the largest offenders to the aforementioned “over the top” meta.

While we have seen metagames in the past where Gorr in fair applications was able to be a dominant force, it has been a very long time, and we wouldn’t mind seeing some uptick in him seeing play normally.

The Hammer buffs are a part of this section as we do think there is some risk here in Jane Foster losing a role in the metagame. We’ve made some incremental adjustments over time to the Hammer bros strategy, so ideally even if Jane becomes weaker in the context of enabling more unfair Negative lines, she can be propped up by the more classic applications of finding various Norse weaponry.

Strange Supreme

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

[Change] 2/1 > 2/2

Caiera

[Old] 3/4 – Ongoing: Your 1 and 6-Cost cards can’t be destroyed.

[Change] 3/4 > 3/5

Weapon X Wolverine

[Old] 2/2 – After one of your other cards is destroyed, +1 Power. After every 3rd time, improve this effect by 1. (0/3)

[Change] 2/2 > 2/3

Viv Vision

[Old] 3/3 – At the start of each turn, give all cards in your hand +1 Power if you’re winning here. Otherwise, move this to another location.
[Change] 3/3 > 3/4

Rounding things out for today, we have some pretty standard number adjustments. Worth calling out are Caiera, who now that she is up to a closer-to-rate Power we hope may also be able to alleviate some of the pressure Gambit is putting on low to the ground decks, as well as Viv Vision. Viv is a card we’ve always been careful about buffing as she is very sensitive to each additional Power she receives in the same manner as cards like Iron Patriot. That said, her numbers have been suppressed for some time, and we’ve seen large dips in some classic archetypes that she has the ability to prop up, like Silver Surfer. We’re hopeful that she’ll encourage some additional diversity in the metagame.

We’re optimistic that these are some large and positive shake ups for the ladder heading into part two of our X-Men seasons. Happy Snapping!