Within Marvel Snap, there is a profoundly competitive throughline that dominates every discussion across communities. This is not surprising; that’s the point: it's built to be competitive; everyone is trying to win and climb the ladder. There are rewards for each ladder milestone. On the other hand, it breeds a sense of failure and grind when you aren’t successful in reaching your goals. You feel dejected when the season closes out, and you don’t make it to the Infinite rank on the ladder. Your rank is thrown back 30 levels from your current standing, making the climb to the top a Sisyphean boulder. That shiny card back will taunt you as other players flaunt it throughout the following season. Conquest is even worse, making you feel like you have thrown away gold/opportunities if you lose out on match 5 of the infinite ticket.
So what if you didn’t care?
Take it easy! It’s just a game.
Easier said than done, of course; some of us are intensely competitive people. Throwing their proverbial fits when we swing and miss an 8-cube loss. I know I have been cursed with seeing my mistake after I snapped and ended turn, locking me in to watch my tragic turn six play unfold before my eyes as the opponent laps up an easy win.
But hear me out; the game is as much as you get out of it. If you just do your best and make sure you're having fun, the game will not grow stale or be as infuriating as you play. You can see this incense infect and spread throughout the community. People that are completely unhinged with rage over the idea of a card being unfun or a deck archetype too dull, and so they want them removed from the game. Competitive decks copied and pasted a hundred times over between each player because everyone is trying to finish ladder before the season reset–causing a sea of copy match-ups and predictable plays as players fall into a pattern. This isn’t unique to Snap; of course, this is an issue across any competitive game and is especially frequent in card games. Folks want to win, and they want to win even more when there is something to be gained at the end of the struggle. This competitive desire will continuously drive them further and further into frustration as the game diversifies and cards become more unpredictable.
So don’t fall for the trap; put as much into the game as you want to get out of it. Want a few matches between appointments or during that long meeting that could have been an email? Slap together a deck you enjoy playing and let the time go. Did you lose a few matches? Take it as a learning experience for next time!
Remembering how to have fun.
One of the best ways to keep the rage at bay is to ensure your expectations are reasonable. If you aren’t able to dedicate hours a day to the game, it may not be feasible to reach the highest rank possible this season. Aim for it if that keeps you motivated, but don’t kill yourself trying to play until the last second to squeeze out that last rank before the reset.
Play fun decks; there are countless unhinged plays that pan out when they work. Here are just a few decks I love to play when I just want to kill some time and have a laugh.
Annoy-o-tron
A deck aptly named after a particularly annoying card from Hearthstone. This deck is purpose-built to playfully bully your opponent while also stealing their cards to potentially steal the win—Mill their deck by playing Spider-Ham and Yondu. Use Mantis and Cable to swipe their combo pieces. Spider-Man and Stegron to shift around their plays and ruin their careful placement.
Negative WONG On REVEAL
This is a classic negative deck; the combo pieces don’t always come together, but when they do, the payoff is intoxicating. You love to pull off a crazy Black Panther combo with Arnim Zola after a negative Wong and Mystique to throw huge stats down in lanes your opponent thought you couldn’t reach, then hit it again with Odin to have the Arnim Zola send the Odin over to Black Panther and spike his power even higher.
Turn 7 Galactus
While this deck likely has the most difficult-to-pull-off combo, it can be one of the most surprising for your opponent. It requires everything to go right and for your opponent to completely not see it coming. First, you lay down the main pieces. Turn 3 play Magik to open up a turn 7. Turn 4 play Invisible Woman to hide your sin. Turn 5 Spider-Man into your invisible woman lane to yank a card out of the lane. Making way for turn 6’s Hobgoblin to bring down their lane points. Final turn 7 play, Galactus on the same invisible woman lane. Then Ghost Spider to yank the last revealed card you played, Invisible Woman. To see it play out, take a look at the YouTube short below:
Feeling Gucci after I pulled this off!
Ignore the emotes or turn them off if they begin to bother you.
I get it that Ms. Marvel emote right after a loss really stings, or the Thanos Snap followed by the “Snap?” quick chat right after snapping and losing feels like the most toxic FU in the world. Just remember that any game with quick chat or emotes like this always becomes a form of toxic bad manners (BM) behavior. There isn’t much you can do to turn it off globally, but you can mute opponents at the beginning of the match. It’s essential to keep in mind that the other player being toxic gets a lot of joy from your frustration. Don’t give them the satisfaction of reacting by spamming the Ms Marvel emote; just mute and move on.
There are good ways to use the emotes that aren’t automatically seen as BM. Generally, I lead a match with a quick “Hello!” emote, and if they respond, I give the Fist Bump emote. If they don’t respond, they get a Fist Bump emote when the match is over, whether I win or lose. If I miss play, I use the confused Deadpool emote. If I see a cool variant, I use the second dinner mascot emotes for wow or star-eyed if it’s a cool variant or split. Now that they allow emoting on the location itself, bad locations get the angry emote.
It’s okay to retreat.
Something the developers have intentionally designed into the game is the similarities to Poker, and a major strategy of Poker is knowing when to fold. Just like the classic Kenny Rogers song, You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em. Going into a turn 5 or 6 and seeing that you don’t have an answer to any of your opponent's next plays is a sign you should likely retreat. If you doubt for even a second that you could win the game with the cards in your hand, it’s time to retreat. If you’re counting on your opponent not having the counter to your play, assume they do and retreat. Even if you have doubled down on their snap and now you are losing 4 cubes, it’s much better to lose 4 than to lose 8. The players who routinely reach infinite every season talk a lot about this mechanic being the key to climbing the ladder. Some matches just don’t go your way, and that’s okay because the grand scheme of the game is a numbers game. If you retreat 4 times, losing 1 cube, but you win 1 match with an 8-cube swing, you’re now running in the positive despite “losing” 3 out of 4 matches. You will just add to your frustration if you stay to see it “play out,” or you gamble off a high RNG play that might not win you the game if it doesn’t work out exactly as you need it to.
Good Luck, and Always Remember to Have Fun!
Just remember to have fun is all. The game is, and will always be, a fun time if you let yourself enjoy it. Those big swing wins may be invigorating, but letting the losses get you down won’t make you enjoy it to its fullest. Mute other players if their emoting makes you crazy. Keep chugging away at the ladder, set a fun goal, play a meme deck, and do whatever makes you happy. Our brains are hardwired to remember the negative moments more than the positive; this presents a highly toxic feedback loop that continues to reaffirm the bad feelings we get while playing the game instead of the positive ones. You are going to cycle in your mind about how much you feel slighted by that particular combo deck and think that it’s overpowered or provides too much of an advantage, but you will be forgetting all of the times you beat that combo, or they misplayed and gave you a swing win.
What are some of your tips for keeping the game fun? Let us know in the comments below!