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Author: seconddinnermolly

April 25th – Balance Updates

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.

 

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

Patch Notes – April 10, 2024

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

GENERAL UPDATES

FEATURES

  • Cosmetics Shop – a new section in the Shop
    • Here, players can find cosmetics (that aren’t Variants) for sale on rotation.
    • Players can expect to find Avatars and Emotes available for Gold.
  • Bonus Boosters section
    • The Fast Upgrade section has been renamed to Bonus Boosters
    • Everything works the same as before, except… You get… Wait for it… BONUS BOOSTERS!
    • You no longer have to worry about having enough boosters. Just upgrade your cards as you usually would with credits and the missing boosters are included.
    • As before, there will be 3 cards available to upgrade every 8 hours.
  • New Feature: Card/Location Reaction Wheel
    • Tap-and-hold (or click-and-hold on PC) on a Card or Location to bring up the Reaction Wheel to quickly React with an emoji to your opponent!

 

AUDIO & VISUAL EFFECTS

The following Cards and Locations now have Visual and Audio Effects:

  • Leader
  • Legion
  • Mirage
  • Hazmat
  • Patriot
  • Agent Coulson
  • The Hood/Demon
  • Wakandan Throne Room
  • Triskelion

 

BALANCE UPDATES

We’ve only got a handful of changes for this patch, but we expect them to be fairly impactful, and perhaps even require some follow-up in the OTA next week–time will tell! Let’s dive in.

CARD UPDATES

  • Alioth
    • [Old] 6/2 – On Reveal: Destroy all unrevealed enemy cards here.
    • [New] 6/8 – On Reveal: Remove the text from all unrevealed enemy cards here.

Since release, Alioth has been an important but polarizing card in the SNAP metagame. It’s been hugely effective in creating more tension on turn 6, but the in-game effect can also be really frustrating. Losing your cards completely, no questions asked, is very powerful. We’re sensitive to that, so as we monitored Alioth we’ve also thought about other ways we could implement the card. With the “turn 6 metagame” fairly settled these days, it felt like the time was ripe to freshen up the purple cloud with a new effect. Our goal here is to keep a fairly similar role, but to introduce more meaningful counterplay to the effect. We expect the biggest difference will happen with stuff like Magneto now being able to defeat Alioth either way.

 

  • Zabu
    • [Old] 2/2 – Ongoing: Your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less. (minimum 1)
    • [New] 2/3 – On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.

We’re aware that Zabu is taking a huuuge hit here, but hear us out! In the last year, the game has shifted to revolve more and more around Zabu’s interaction with 4-Cost cards and their matchups. Right now, Zabu is probably at an all-time low, but the impact is still very real and 4-Cost cards that don’t have strong synergy with Zabu are at a disadvantage. We’ve been analyzing the data to better understand exactly what this has done to the metagame and what we might want to adjust, but Zabu is really clouding those measures. So we’ve decided to do something unusual here and temporarily rework this card into a state that we believe is weak enough to shift the way 4-Costs perform.

We don’t think that White Queen is suddenly good or anything–we expect 4-Costs as a group to get weaker, and decks that can still “cheat” using cards like Ravonna, Hope, Wave, etc. to be stronger as well as 4-Costs that naturally have big stats, like Cull Obsidian. We may account for that a little with subsequent OTAs, but we’re also expecting to make a larger set of impactful changes later this year. So this change is really to help us vet that work, and we also don’t expect Zabu to remain in this state permanently.

 

  • Sandman
    • [Old] 5/4 – Ongoing: Players can only play 1 card a turn.
    • [New] 5/7 – On Reveal: Players can only play 1 card next turn.

Like Mobius, Luke Cage, and Professor X, Sandman is the kind of tech card we want to be careful with. If Sandman is too popular, SNAP is just a less fun game due to the permanence of that Ongoing effect, so we deliberately aimed Sandman to be more niche. However, the low Power necessary for that balance has made it so that Sandman’s often too weak to consider playing, even in metagames where the effect would be strong. We’re trying a different tact here and switching to a temporary effect that can pack more Power because it doesn’t warp the game as much, playing more like a turn 5 “tech card” than a turn 4 buildaround.

 

  • Lady Deathstrike
    • [Old] 5/4 – On Reveal: Destroy each card here with less Power than this.
    • [New] 5/7 – On Reveal: Destroy each card here with 3 or less Power.

This change looks fairly similar to Sandman, but it’s different in some nuanced ways. Lady Deathstrike was built around scaling with Power to provide an appealing goal for players, but that just hasn’t worked out. When Deathstrike is good, it’s often just because the base effect is useful–and those times are few and far between. Most of the time the card is simply weak, and investing in buffing it is a trap. We’ve decided to trade in “the dream” here with the goal of creating a more consistently useful card that players have to fear more meaningfully, and not exclusively in decks trying to do some gimmicks with her.

 

  • Strong Guy
    • [Old] 3/3 – Ongoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power.
    • [New] 3/3 – Ongoing: +6 Power if your hand has one or fewer cards.

We’re loosening the restriction on Strong Guy’s Power buff. The last numbers change we made was something of an experiment to see if we thought we could get Strong Guy somewhere, but ultimately combining poorly with both Apocalypse and your normal draw each turn has proven too heavy. Let’s see how it goes!

 

  • Shadow King (text update)
    • [Old] 2/2 – On Reveal: Set all cards here to their original base Power.
    • [New] 2/2 – On Reveal: Set all cards here to their base Power.

Just a small update to remove the redundant “original” from this card.

 

  • Pixie (text update)
    • [Old] 2/1 – On Reveal: Shuffle the Costs of all cards in your deck that started there.
    • [New] 2/1 – On Reveal: Shuffle the base Costs of all cards in your deck that started there.

This change makes it more clear which Costs are being shuffled.

 

Bug Fixes

Card and Location Logic Fixes in 26.x

  • Fixed an issue that caused the cards destroyed by Yondu to not always be visible to the Yondu player
  • Fixed an issue with Cannonball that could cause an exception and Aw Snap to occur
  • Players should no longer Aw Snap after White Palace triggers if their opponent’s hand is empty
  • Beast’s cost reduction should now properly apply to Nico Minoru
  • Fixed an issue that could on rare occasions cause cards destroyed by Nico Minoru to be shuffled back into the deck and seen as valid targets for Lockjaw
  • A duplicated She-Hulk created by Moon Girl being played on Grand Central should show the proper cost reductions
  • Inspecting Morph after it’s been turned into another card should now properly show that is was created by Morph

VFX & SFX Fixes in 26.x

  • Kang’s rewind VFX should now be rendering correctly on the button itself
  • Darkhawk’s VFX should no longer be disabled when he is forcibly moved
  • Knowhere’s VFX should no longer play in its previous position if moved by something like Quake
  • Corvus Glaive’s energy VFX should no longer play every turn instead of just once
  • Great Portal’s VFX should now adjust position and not always display in the center
  • When an opponent discards Swarm’s VFX should be properly positioned
  • Cards claimed off the Collection Track should now properly show the card’s asset on the track itself
  • Nico Minoru’s VFX should now display properly when she’s initially drawn to hand
  • Fixed a positioning issue with Nico Minoru’s destroy card VFX when it targeted a card that didn’t go to the graveyard
  • Hope Summers should no longer show +2 when your opponent plays her
  • Morbius’ VFX and SFX should no longer fire when the game ends
  • The VFX for cards affected by High Evolutionary should no longer be disabled when Starlight Citadel swaps location positions
  • Nico Minoru’s VFX should no longer remain on a location if she’s shuffled back into the deck by Attilan

Existing Known Issues Fixed

  • Fixed an issue that caused card sorting to often be reset to the default sort order after tapping on the Cosmetics tab
  • Flare Effects in the custom card menu should no longer be inadvertently selected behind some of the other UI
  • “Custom Card” now displays on the nameplate when viewed in a match
  • Favoriting a custom card as the Unlock Custom Card animation plays should no longer repeat the animation
  • Fixed several related issues that caused the Custom Card tutorial to softlock and require a client restart to resolve
  • Cards should now render correctly when tilted in the Artist detail view after upgrading
  • The “New” label in the Shop should no longer be obscurable by other assets
  • Tapping on a card during the Deck Building animation should no longer cause the background to unblur
  • The background scrim when cancelling a card upgrade from the post-match screen should no longer be missing
  • Card Back assets should now render properly in all areas of the game for some devices
  • Tapping on the same emote multiple times from the Collection should no longer result in the asset not loading in the preview
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Shop button on the navigation bar to become unresponsive on rare occasions
  • The pin button should no longer persist on the token shop after you’ve claimed that card but does not function
  • Corrected an issue that would occasionally see the word “Free” on the daily 50 credits icon be changed to a “0”
  • The losing player’s avatar in Conquest and Friendly battle should no longer occasionally display as a white box

Additional Fixes in 26.x

  • Fixed an issue that could cause assets to be missing or broken upon initial startup after updating the client
  • Fixed an issue that prevented players from using Undo End Turn immediately after their opponent snapped
  • Using the Smart Deck Builder should no longer cause custom card lock icons to occasionally appear or disappear from variants
  • Addressed a softlock that could occur if a tutorial was triggered while in the Album tab of the Collection
  • The string for “Custom Card Unlocked” should now properly line break for all languages where appropriate
  • Card Back previews should no longer display quite so high on the screen
  • Cleaned up a weird scrolling behavior that could occur at times when accessing the shop using a link from another section
  • Fixed a visual issue that could cause the appearance of duplicate cards in a deck if you toggled between variants and base cards in the collection
  • The Next button should no longer go missing if you immediately upgrade the card before it had a chance to load in
  • Placeholder assets should no longer be briefly visible when rapidly scrolling through Avatars or Card Backs
  • Cards in the Collection should now be properly dimmed when added to a deck via the Smart Deck Builder
  • Navigation buttons should no longer be visible along the top of the screen when looking at a card’s focused detail view from within the shop
  • Hitting End Turn should no longer occasionally fail to end the turn, nor should the button’s VFX turn off randomly
  • Superfluous periods should no longer show up when editing a deck name on Android devices

Existing Known PC Issues Fixed

  • [PC] An error should no longer occur when attempting to upgrade a card immediately after using the Make Me a Deck function with it
  • [PC] The weekly missions reward UI should no longer be missing its blur effect
  • [PC] After frequently removing or adding cards to deck, the ability to remove a card should no longer become disabled until exiting and re-entering the Deck Edit screen

Additional PC Issues Fixed

  • [PC] Pressing ESC during the Custom Card tutorial should no longer cause a softlock
  • [PC] Fixed an inconsistency with how Strong Guy’s VFX were displaying on PC compared to mobile
  • [PC] The variant label at the top of the screen should now update appropriately when viewing reference tokens from the collection
  • [PC] The Smart Deck Builder tutorial should now properly show tooltips
  • [PC] Hovering over the outer edge of an Album’s icon should no longer cause it to rapidly alternate between hover states

April 4th – Balance Updates

We’ve got a solid handful of high-impact changes to the metagame coming between this OTA and our next patch, pull out your cauldrons–it’s time to brew!

 

  • Thanos
    • [Old] 6/10 – At the start of the game, shuffle the six Infinity Stones into your deck.
    • [New] 6/10 – Starts in your opening hand and shuffles the six Infinity Stones into your deck.

Given the consistent and dominant performance of Thanos, additional changes were inevitable. This is the first stage of a larger range of adjustments we’re going to make to the Thanos and Infinity Stones package. Our goal is to focus more heavily on the Mad Titan, with the expectation that narrowing the overall flexibility of Thanos decks will reduce how often these decks take heavy advantage of powerful new cards aimed at other strategies. This may be a more damaging change than you expect to the current builds, as Thanos has almost always claimed the highest winrate in the game when not drawn.

 

  • Time Stone
    • [Old] 1/1 – On Reveal: Draw a card and give it -1 Cost.
    • [New] 1/1 – On Reveal: Give Thanos -1 Cost next turn. Draw a card.

We are pursuing changes to more than one of the Stones, but because we’re not ready to execute on those just yet we’re taking an even heavier hand with the Time Stone for now. Our last change also did very little to the actual winrate of the card, and we’d rather not miss again. It’s possible we’ll return some strength in the future as other Stones change, though we intend to keep the focus on Thanos as discussed above.

 

  • Miek
    • [Old] 1/1 – When you discard a card, this gains +1 Power and can move next turn.
    • [Change] 1/1 -> 1/0

We adjusted Apocalypse slightly in the last patch to tone down Discard decks a little, and it had the desired effect on Apocalypse. However, Miek has since surged out in front on the back of a previous adjustment, and has by far the best winrate in these decks now. That’s especially concerning for a 1-Cost card, because we measure winrate when drawn and turn 1 is the least common turn on which to draw a card (ignoring Limbo). This kind of performance in spite of theoretically being much less effective to draw on turns 4, 5, and 6 is a strong indicator we should remove some Power or increase the Cost, and we prefer the former.

 

  • Crossbones
    • [Old] 4/8 – You can only play this at locations where you are winning
    • [Change] 4/8 -> 4/10

There’s been a lot of debate around which downside is stronger or weaker between Crossbones and Cull Obsidian–we’ve decided to let you all settle it in the streets. Either way this is probably Cull’s game to lose, just because there are multiple good decks where Cull already shines, but it’ll be fun finding out. Plus, we’d like to add a little bit more support for Skaar.

 

  • Sabretooth
    • [Old] 3/4 – When this is destroyed, return it to your hand. It costs 0.
    • [Change] 3/4 -> 3/5

Many are saying “3/5 is the new 3/4,” and they may be onto something. We’ve been fairly happy with how many of these 3/5s are working out, and we expect to make more changes over time to balance out the range of Power among our lower-Cost cards as the game grows deeper. Sabretooth is fairly analogous to Black Swan as a “vanilla” card with no effect unless you lean into it during deckbuilding, but Destroy-based decks are also very competitive when it comes to exactly which 12 cards make the cut.

 

  • Angela
    • [Old] 2/2 – After you play a card here, +1 Power.
    • [New] 2/0 – After you play a card here, +2 Power.

Angela’s back! The metagame has shifted to create more space for the “small ball” decks that leaned heavily on Angela to scale for late Power, so we’re adjusting in kind. Will this be enough to return decks like Silky Smoove to the metagame, or do they need more help? Time will tell.

 

  • Baxter Building
    • [Old] Whoever is winning this location gets +3 Power at the others.
    • [Change] +3 -> +4

Do you get it? Yeah, you get it.

 

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

New Season: Thunderbolts

Thanos was right. Or maybe you consider Dr. Doom just a normal capitalist do-gooder? Look, we get it… The Green Goblin was just an adult being pestered by unruly teens. This season we celebrate what some might call “Villains,” but others might just say they are simply misunderstood.

 

 

SEASON PASS

Can this former leader of the Masters of Evil, write a new chapter for himself? True to his character, Baron Zemo’s ability allows him to recruit more characters to your team!

NEW CHARACTER: BARON ZEMO

On Reveal: Recruit the lowest-Cost card from your opponent’s deck to your side of this location.

 

SEASON REWARDS

 

 

NEW CHARACTERS!

Launching alongside Baron Zemo are fellow Thunderbolts alumni and antiheroes. Certainly, they would never do anything to hurt us… right?

SERIES 5

When your opponent ends a turn with unspent Energy, +4 Power. (if in hand or in play)

SERIES 5

Ongoing: 4, 5, and 6-Cost cards here have -3 Power.

SERIES 5

On Reveal: Afflict the lowest-Power enemy card here with -2 Power and remove its text.

SERIES 5

On Reveal: Add a Widow’s Kiss to your opponent’s side of this location. 

 

Ongoing: This has -4 Power. Disable this ability if your side of this location is full.

SERIES 5

On Reveal: Add a random 6-Cost card to your hand. Give it -2 Cost and -3 Power.

 

 

So, when can you expect new cards?

You can expect new cards to be released weekly – starting with last month’s Season Pass Card, Hope Summers, releasing as a Series 5 card on April 2nd.

  • April 2nd: Hope Summers – Series 5 Release
  • April 2nd: Red Hulk – Series 5 Release
  • April 9th: U.S. Agent – Series 5 Release
  • April 16th: Red Guardian – Series 5 Release
  • April 23rd: White Widow – Series 5 Release
  • April 30th: Valentina- 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.

 

 

SPOTLIGHT CACHES!

April 2nd:

  • Red Hulk
  • Sebastian Shaw
  • Echo

April 9th:

  • U. S. Agent
  • Jeff the Baby Land Shark
  • Mirage

April 16th:

  • Red Guardian
  • High Evolutionary
  • Lady Deathstrike

April 23rd:

  • White Widow
  • Snowguard
  • Nico Minoru

April 30th:

  • Valentina
  • Blob
  • Knull

 

 

BRAND NEW LOCATIONS

  • Castle Zemo: The first card you play here switches sides.

  • Thunderbolts Tower: After turn 5, give all cards here -2 Power.

 

 

BRAND NEW ALBUMS

Get all new Avatars, Variants, and Emotes by completing three new albums!

This month, we’re releasing three new albums with a little something for everyone. Collect them all to unlock new ways to show off to your opponents!

Step into the alternate universe, with Villains from 3099 on April 12th.

  • Collect 3: Sandman Avatar
  • Collect 6: 2000 Credits
  • Collect 9: 3099 Cardback
  • Collect 12: Sandman Salty Emote

Don’t miss the 3099 Shop Takeover on April 12th and 13th to help fill out your collection!

New 3099 variants include:

  • Arnim Zola
  • Killmonger
  • Klaw
  • Sandman
  • Shocker

Are your eyes always pointed up at the sky? Here comes a cosmic Dan Hipp album on April 19th.

  • Collect 2: Captain Marvel Avatar
  • Collect 4: 1000 Tokens
  • Collect 6: Captain Marvel Variant
  • Collect 8: Captain Marvel Shrug Emote

We can all get excited about this one! A new Kim Jacinto album drops May 3rd!

  • Collect 3: Moon Knight Avatar
  • Collect 6: Spotlight Cache Key
  • Collect 9: Moon Knight Variant
  • Collect 12: Moon Knight Emote

Don’t miss the Kim Jacinto Takeover on May 3rd and 4th to grab these awesome new variants!

Check it out to see the brand new Nightcrawler Kim Jacinto variant!

 

 

TWITCH DROPS


Watch your favorite MARVEL SNAP Twitch streamers to earn Boosters, Credits, and a sweet Mystery Variant! Drops will be available from April 19th-26th. Don’t miss out!

  • Watch 2 hours to earn: 65 Random Boosters
  • Watch 4 hours to earn: 350 Credits
  • Watch 6 hours to earn: Mystery Variant

Head over to marvelsnap.com/twitchdrops to link your accounts today.

 

 

These new heroes are all trying their best, but they’ll need your help to make the right choices. Can’t wait to see what new decks you come up with. SNAP you later!

Character Spotlight: War Machine

Military veteran James Rhodes is ready for combat in his advanced armor — iterating upon the arsenal of Tony Stark-created designs — to create the War Machine!

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere.

Brothers In Armor

With his own suit of armor, James Rhodes forged a heroic identity either flying solo or with the Avengers.

They may not always see eye to eye, but James “Rhodey” Rhodes and Tony Stark have formed a close camaraderie since they first met. Rhodes provides a helping hand in a fight – with the help of his War Machine armor, he can level the playing field.

The Walking Arsenal

War Machine’s firepower capabilities are deadly – and frequently increasing. Much like Iron Man, War Machine can lift a massive amount of weight. The War Machine computers provide Rhodes with all the information he needs about a target (or an ally). In case he needs to make a fast escape, War Machine’s flight enables him to make a speedy getaway!

War Machine’s unparalleled combat tech is represented in MARVEL SNAP by his unique effect:

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere.

War Machine’s one-of-a-kind technology enables you to play your cards at ANY Location the turn following his On Reveal effect.

That means you can overcome the pesky effects of The Vault, Big House, Crimson Cosmos, Sanctum Sanctorum, Kyln, Morag, and Flooded Locations!

Additionally, cards with effects that would normally disable them from being playable, such as The Infinaut or Ebony Maw, will become playable the turn after War Machine is revealed!

March 21st – Balance Updates

Hope you enjoyed the AvX event this month! We’re rolling back those changes today, and debuting our next OTA. This week has plenty of changes, but our primary balance concerns are restricted to weakening the Thanos and Discard decks that have been dominating the metagame for a couple of weeks. Other than that, we’re just distributing buffs to a handful of cards that could use a little help–including the beloved Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

  • Captain Marvel
    • [Old] 4/4 – At the end of the game, move to a location that wins you the game. (if possible)
    • [Change] 4/4 -> 4/5

Captain Marvel at 4/5 proved to be one of our strongest cards last year, but times have changed. The deck Captain Marvel most strongly supported has been substantially weaker in the new metagame, and at 4/4 Captain Marvel hasn’t seen the level of play we’d like. Given we think the metagame can tolerate the stronger card once again, we’re excited to try this buff and hope it can stick long-term for one of our most exciting cards and characters.

 

  • Apocalypse
    • [Old] 6/8 – When you discard this, put it back with +4 Power.
    • [Change] 6/8 -> 6/6

Discard decks have moved from the middle to the top of the metagame over the last month, fueled by some strong and exciting new releases. We want Discard to be a great deck, but it’s been just a hair too strong. Apocalypse is the single best-performing card in the dedicated Discard archetype, so we’re taking away a little bit of its base Power. We considered reducing the triggered buff ability instead, but when possible we prefer to push strength into the “dreams” of our cards, and Apocalypse has an exciting one to grow.

 

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

Thanos has become a bit of a problem for the metagame. When we adjusted Time Stone, we briefly mentioned that the design of Thanos can be constraining. Specifically, the versatility of the Stones give the deck a lot of room to maneuver and adapt to whatever the metagame becomes. In all cases however, the strongest Stone in the deck has consistently been the Mind Stone. We considered removing its second draw, but ultimately that’s a very appealing part of the card. So for now, we’re taking the unusual approach of making it a 2-Cost card. We don’t think this is likely to fully solve the “Thanos problem,” but hopefully it meaningfully addresses the archetype while we investigate a wider range of solutions.

 

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

We buffed Psylocke many months ago, and since then the card has enjoyed a range of interesting homes. In recent months, Psylocke’s use has become restricted to almost exactly Thanos, where its performance is surprisingly among the strongest cards in the deck. Given we’re looking for some ways to shave strength away from Thanos in the current metagame, that makes reverting Psylocke’s buff a logical step, albeit a small one.

 

  • Adam Warlock
    • [Old] 5/4 – After each turn, draw a card if you’re winning here.
    • [Change] 5/4 -> 5/5

As previously discussed, we made the last change to Adam Warlock with an abundance of caution. Since then, we’ve seen it was a very minor improvement for a small number of decks, so we’re going to push on a little bit more. We believe the design could go to 5/6 fairly easily, but one of the archetypes we’re interested in here is Cerebro-5, which can be a difficult deck to serve. So we’re trying the smaller buff to see how that goes. None of this is to say that we won’t pursue other Costs or a more dramatic rework later, but for now we’re going to try nudging things more softly.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy

 

Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy have struggled to keep pace with even the early Series metagames, as their risky abilities don’t offer quite enough compared to alternatives. In addition to boosting their total Power potential, we’re taking the opportunity to try lining their buffs up on the same Power gained, rather than having different combinations of Power for each card.

 

  • Rocket Racoon
    • [Old] 1/2 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +2 Power.
    • [New] 1/1 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +4 Power.

 

  • Star-Lord
    • [Old] 2/2 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +3 Power.
    • [New] 2/2 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +4 Power.

 

  • Groot
    • [Old] 3/4 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +2 Power.
    • [New] 3/3 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +4 Power.

 

  • Drax
    • [Old] 4/6 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +2 Power.
    • [New] 4/5 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +4 Power.

 

  • Gamora
    • [Old] 5/7 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +5 Power.
    • [New] 5/8 – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +4 Power.

 

—

 

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

LIMITED-TIME EVENT: AVENGERS VS. X-MEN!

Choose your side, and gain bonuses for a limited time!

During this month’s Imbalance Patch, choose a side in the Avengers vs. X-Men conflict! Pick your favorite team, fill your deck with its strongest heroes, and gain in-game Power bonuses. For the Avengers, fortifying a specific location with teammates gives that location +3 Power. Meanwhile you can deploy X-Men anywhere and once you’ve played enough of them, they’ll all receive additional Power. Check it out!

Avengers assemble!

Locations with 3 Avengers have +3 Power.

To me, my X-Men!

Once you play 4, X-Men have +1 Power.

AVENGERS

  • Ant-Man
  • Black Panther
  • Black Widow
  • Bucky Barnes (and Winter Soldier!)
  • Captain America
  • Captain Marvel
  • Daredevil
  • Doctor Strange
  • Echo
  • Falcon
  • Hawkeye
  • Hercules
  • Hulk
  • Iron Fist
  • Iron Lad
  • Iron Man
  • Jessica Jones
  • Luke Cage
  • Mockingbird
  • Moon Knight
  • Ms. Marvel
  • Nova
  • Quake
  • Quicksilver
  • Rescue
  • Scarlet Witch
  • Shang-Chi
  • She-Hulk
  • Spider-Man
  • Spider-Woman
  • Stature
  • Thor
  • Vision
  • Wasp
  • Wong

X-MEN

  • Angel
  • Armor
  • Beast
  • Bishop
  • Cable
  • Cannonball
  • Colossus
  • Cyclops
  • Dazzler
  • Forge
  • Gambit
  • Havok
  • Hope Summers
  • Iceman
  • Jean Grey
  • Jubilee
  • Kitty Pryde
  • Magik
  • Mirage
  • Multiple Man
  • Namor
  • Negasonic Teenage Warhead
  • Nightcrawler
  • Pixie
  • Polaris
  • Professor X
  • Psylocke
  • Rogue
  • Storm
  • Strong Guy
  • Sunspot
  • White Queen
  • Wolfsbane
  • Wolverine
  • X-23

Character Spotlight: Hope Summers

Introducing the courageous power parodier, who was forced on the run since birth due to her immense potential — Please welcome, the “Mutant Messiah,” Hope Summers!

After you play a card here, you get +1 Energy next turn.

Born Wanted, On The Run

Following the events of the infamous M-Day, when the Scarlet Witch stripped the majority of mutants’ abilities away, it seemed that mutant-kind was no longer and would eventually be entirely wiped out. That was until, for the first time ever, a baby was born with her mutant gene immediately detectable upon birth — Hope.

Her very existence caused the X-Men’s mutant-detecting computer, Cerebro, to go completely offline. The tale of her immense power reached the ears of many across the multiverse, and she quickly became the most sought after target of people and organizations with both good and ill intent.

Even fellow mutants such as the time-traveling X-Man, Bishop, viewed Hope’s existence as a major threat, believing that she would be the cause of countless lost lives. Bishop pointed to Hope Summers as the likely cause of his home, Earth-1191’s dystopian fate, and plotted to slay her for destroying his Earth.

In a rush to protect her, Cable and Deadpool tracked down and whisked baby Hope off to safety. Cable brought Hope up as his daughter, traveling through the timestream evading enemy forces which seek to hunt her down, and training her in self-defense tactics.

Through Hope and Cable’s journey across the timestream, Hope learned survival and warfare tactics, and honed her mutant powers to become capable of imitating the powers of any other mutant she encounters. Once she became fully self-capable of honing her powers, Hope joined forces with several mutant-protecting groups, including the X-Men and X-Force.

A Power Befitting The Messiah

Hope is an Omega Level mutant with the ability to manipulate the powers of other mutants in her close proximity — granting her near-limitless potential, as she may replicate an infinite number of mutant abilities.

Hope’s primary ability, Power Mimicry, enables her to copy the powers of any nearby mutants. Unlike other mutants with similar abilities, such as Rogue, Hope does not need to make physical contact and the person whose powers are copied suffers no negative effects. The powers she duplicates are at full capacity and she has complete control over them, but will fade away with increased time, usage, or distance from the target. Hope also has immunity to other power absorption abilities, as demonstrated when Rogue’s ability had no effect on her.

Hope’s Power Mimicry ability is represented in MARVEL SNAP through her unique effect:

After you play a card here, you get +1 Energy next turn.

Everyone wants to chase Hope Summers down in order to harness her immense power — in MARVEL SNAP, you are rewarded for chasing Hope down by playing more cards at the location she occupies!

Try using low-cost cards to get a benefit from her ability more quickly, and use cards that move or return to your hand, such as Nightcrawler, Silk, Spider-Man, Falcon, and Kitty Pryde, to trigger Hope’s energy boost over and over!

April Brand New Albums

BRAND NEW ALBUMS

Get all new Avatars, Variants, and Emotes by completing three new albums!

This month, we’re releasing three hot new albums with a little something for everyone. Each album has exclusive new content to help you flex your accomplishments in game!

Feeling mystical? Break out your Tarot variants on March 12th.
  • Collect 3: 155 x Random Boosters
  • Collect 6: 1 x Spotlight Cache Key
  • Collect 9: Tarot Card Back
  • Collect 12: Professor X Thinking Emote

Do you wear your sunglasses at night? You’ll enjoy this Midnight Suns album on March 12th.
  • Collect 2: Doctor Strange Avatar
  • Collect 4: 2000 Credits
  • Collect 6: Premium Mystery Variant
  • Collect 8: Doctor Strange Emote

We’re all excited for this one. Max Grecke lovers get their own album on March 20th!
  • Collect 3: Iceman Max Grecke Avatar
  • Collect 6: 2000 Collectors Tokens
  • Collect 9: Iceman Max Grecke Variant
  • Collect 12: Thor Confident Emote

New Season: Avengers vs. X-Men

This season, we’re tackling the age-old debate that has divided scholars, destroyed friendships, and puzzled the internet for years. No, not whether pineapple belongs on pizza (it does). We’re talking about a showdown more epic than the endless “Gif” vs. “Jif” pronunciation war (It’s Gif). That’s right, it’s time for the Avengers vs. the X-Men! Are you Team Avengers or Team X-Men? This season will put your allegiances to the test. The future of all mutants, and possibly even the world, revolves around our biggest season yet.

 

 

SEASON PASS

We now introduce Hope Summers, the first child born after M-Day, the Mutant Messiah. She could either be the savior the X-Men need or the uncontrollable host of Phoenix that the Avengers fear.

NEW CHARACTER: HOPE SUMMERS

After you play a card here, you get +1 Energy next turn.

 

 

SEASON REWARDS

Not to be left out of the fight, Cyclops is entering the battle as our newest Emote!

 

 

NEW CHARACTERS!

Each week this month, we’ll be sending extra forces into the battle, starting with Pixie who launches alongside Hope Summers!

SERIES 5

On Reveal: Shuffle the Costs of all cards in your deck that started there.

SERIES 5

Costs 1 less for each of your cards in play that didn’t start in your deck.

SERIES 5

On Reveal: Move the highest-Power enemy card here away. If you can’t, destroy it with a Rock.

SERIES 5

On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, nothing can stop you from playing cards anywhere.

 

So, when can you expect new cards?

You can expect new cards to be released weekly – starting with last month’s Season Pass Card, Black Swan, releasing as a Series 5 card on March 5th.

  • March 5th: Black Swan – Series 5 Release
  • March 5th: Pixie – Series 5 Release
  • March 12th: Mockingbird – Series 5 Release
  • March 19th: Cannonball – Series 5 Release
  • March 26th: War Machine – 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.

 

 

SPOTLIGHT CACHES!

March 5th:

  • Pixie
  • Mobius M. Mobius
  • Spider-Ham

March 12th:

  • Mockingbird
  • GhostSpider
  • Man-Thing

March 19th:

  • Cannonball
  • Kitty Pryde
  • Ms.Marvel

March 26th:

  • War Machine
  • Silk
  • Silver Samurai

 

 

BRAND NEW LOCATIONS

  • Krakoa: Your first play here adds its Power to the top of your deck.

  • Utopia: 3 and 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.

 

 

BRAND NEW ALBUMS

Get all new Avatars, Variants, and Emotes by completing three new albums!

This month, we’re releasing three hot new albums with a little something for everyone. Each album has exclusive new content to help you flex your accomplishments in game!

Feeling mystical? Break out your Tarot variants on March 12th.
  • Collect 3: 155 x Random Boosters
  • Collect 6: 1 x Spotlight Cache Key
  • Collect 9: Tarot Card Back
  • Collect 12: Professor X Thinking Emote

Do you wear your sunglasses at night? You’ll enjoy this Midnight Suns album on March 12th.
  • Collect 2: Doctor Strange Avatar
  • Collect 4: 2000 Credits
  • Collect 6: Premium Mystery Variant
  • Collect 8: Doctor Strange Emote

We’re all excited for this one. Max Grecke lovers get their own album on March 20th!
  • Collect 3: Iceman Max Grecke Avatar
  • Collect 6: 2000 Collectors Tokens
  • Collect 9: Iceman Max Grecke Variant
  • Collect 12: Thor Confident Emote

 

 

BRAND NEW VARIANTS

There are 30+ New Art Variants coming to the game this season – including 4 brand-new Max Grecke variants debuting in this month’s shop takeover!

Shop Takeover: Max Grecke – March 20th and 21st

  • Debrii
  • Galactus
  • Scarlet Witch
  • Killmonger
  • Black Widow
  • Mister Fantastic
  • Human Torch
  • Invisible Woman
  • The Thing
  • Silver Surfer
  • Hulk
  • Ironheart
  • Carnage
  • Bishop
  • Black Panther
  • Blue Marvel
  • Wolverine
  • Dr. Doom
  • Deadpool
  • Captain America
  • Thor
  • Vision
  • Sera

 

 

TWITCH DROPS

Watch your favorite MARVEL SNAP Twitch streamers to earn Boosters, Credits, and a sweet Mystery Variant! Drops will be available from March 19th-26th. Don’t miss out!

  • Watch 2 hours to earn: 65 Random Boosters
  • Watch 4 hours to earn: 350 Credits
  • Watch 6 hours to earn: Mystery Variant

Head over to marvelsnap.com/twitchdrops to link your accounts today.

 

 

We know you’re going to have a lot of fun building around these new cards, but will they test your allegiances? Can’t wait to see what decks you build in the wild. Have fun!

© 2025 MARVEL

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