The metagame has settled down a bit from the most recent patch, so it’s about time we look at where the dust has landed on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!
The Good
Voices and Visual Effects
With Thanos as the only card that received any change, there isn’t a lot of Good in this patch besides the added visual effects and the Series drop. Both Beast and Black Knight (via Ebony Blade) received some flashy visual effects, which are always an appealing addition to the game. A couple of voice lines were added for Venom and Hawkeye— these changes might be minor, but extra polish always benefits the game as a whole.
Series Drops
Series drops are always welcome because they allow players to obtain cards they normally wouldn’t have for cheaper or free. While Mirage, Martyr, Echo, Howard, and Silver Samurai aren’t the strongest cards dropping to Series 3, they all have unique deck-building ramifications and abilities to consider when playing. The more people who have and use these cards, the more players and developers can see how well or how poorly these cards fare at all levels of the game.
This is a tricky one to assess. One on hand, playing Thanos himself has become fantastic— his body often becomes a game-winner thanks to the change to the Stones. The win rate stats have jumped about 3% for Thanos himself when he played. So realistically? The changes over the last few months to Thanos have finally done the job they intended to. Instead of being a deck centered on the utility of the Infinity Stones alongside generically good cards, the deck now actively uses the Stones to play Thanos as a win condition. However, the flip side is that these changes don’t actually improve Thanos as a deck; instead, the deck has just moved sideways, power-wise. His stats are still about the same, with little movement except for the when-played statistic for the Mad Titan himself. I assume that Thanos will take a lot longer than a week for players to adjust to and learn to use effectively. Take a look at the stats for Thanos pre and post-patch:
They haven’t changed a lot, but Thanos (both the card and the deck!) feels new, fun, and not overbearing. That’s a good thing! It’s possible down the line that he will be a real meta contender again— without being as overly oppressive as before.
The Bad
With only one change to one card the Bad is that… there was only one change to one card. There is a lot of unrest within the Marvel Snap community about certain cards and how they affect how the game is played. Now, I’m not so much a believer that public outcry should determine which cards should be changed— but, even accounting for bias within the community, I am inclined to believe the opinions of skilled players who invest a lot of time into the game. For example, even though Michael Jordan doesn’t make the rules of basketball, I would still listen to his opinion on how the game could be improved. Take, for example, two cards that I am sure you have seen before:
I don’t work for Second Dinner, so I do not know what the internal metrics on these two cards look like. However, what I do have is metrics from game-tracking sites like our very own Snap.Fan. Both cards make up most of the metagame, yet they’ve not received a change for multiple balance changes. The metagame has warped a little around their interaction, and the addition of Thena that allows you to Professor X a lane and then just continue to gain power has exacerbated this even more. That is frustrating to feel from a player's perspective. Many players have expressed their frustration regarding these cards on almost every social platform— so to see no change again to the “villains” of Marvel Snap is just a bad look.
The Ugly
It's hard to put things into specific categories when most changes can fall into multiple categories. So, for this next change, I’m putting it in the Ugly category— even though it has a sprinkle of Good. They changed how moving cards work. No longer is it a two-step process, where physical movement and move staging are separate actions; instead, cards now move and resolve first, regardless of play and movement order. I’ve categorized this as Ugly because it makes things less complicated, but it ultimately removes player decision-making. Complexity is a tricky thing to balance. The game doesn’t want to be so complicated you need an advanced degree to play, but it doesn’t need to be so simple that gameplay is boring. Move has always been the mechanic with the most complex and trickiest lines. With this change, this is significantly reduced. You no longer need to worry about the order; movement always happens first. Simplifying and making the game more intuitive is a good move. But, while it makes things simpler, Move’s complexity makes skill expression more important within the archetype. Now, cards like Kraven, Nocturne, Multiple Man, and Phoenix Force have lost several more niche play lines, and many move cards have ultimately just received a Nerf. Multiple resources had already explained the more complex interactions, and just playing with Move cards was often enough to learn the basics of most of the “confusing” interactions. Though we have simpler interactions, Second Dinner has nerfed move cards and left much less room for skill expression. Now, the sprinkle of Good. This makes the game state easier to manage and assess on any given turn. It will eventually allow for more move interactions to be introduced without fear of making a complex interaction that’s either overpowered or too confusing that it leaves even seasoned players befuddled. This change is probably a whatever for most people, but for those who love interaction and complexity, it helps them express their skills. It doesn’t seem like a net positive. I would love to discuss everyone's thoughts on the move change— comment below with your thoughts!
Cerebro Watch
There is nothing to report. Well…
This wasn’t a change for balance reasons, but Beast got a visual effect buff, so let’s talk about his inclusion in C2.
C2 Beast
With the addition of White Widow and some other good tech cards like Shadow King and the versatile Nico Minoru, bouncing your low-cost cards and moving some of your power around makes C2 even more versatile. This is a pretty fun list, and moving my power to a different lane is really nice. Give it a shot!
Conclusion
Overall, I think this patch left me disappointed. There were no new major features, no really big card changes, and no meta-shakeup. Instead, we received a lot more of the same and a side helping of more controversy for Second Dinner. I am hoping the next OTA offers a fresher shakeup and that, later, the features discussed in the roadmap help breathe a bit more excitement into the game.