We've had a few days to let the metagame settle down after this most recent patch, so let's discuss the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, as well as an update on our Cerebro watch.
The Good
It's always great to start with the good of a patch before we get to some things that probably leave you puzzled or angry.
Quake
The overall change to Quake brought her from a card that virtually saw zero play to an actual card that can win and make a massive impact on a game. I know there were some die-hard fans of hers before the patch, but other than it being randomly generated somehow, I have not seen a Quake in a game of Marvel Snap in many months. Changing her ability to switch the other two locations instead of previously switching all three if she was played at the middle location is a fantastic change for both the game and her as a card. It turns what was essentially an RNG play previously into a high-skilled-based tech-type card.
Locations are a massive part of Marvel Snap, and a few cards help you control locations to your advantage. With Quake's new ability, you can now dictate location placement for at least two locations. This can be beneficial when you run into ill-placed locations that screw up your game plan. Let’s take this deck, for example,
Ms. Marvel Quake
I want all my ongoing cards in the middle location. However, let’s say I’m locked out of that location because of Deep Space or Isle of Silence. Well, here comes Quake, and I can move that location somewhere else. Now I’m free to play into the middle however I want. While also messing up any potential ongoing cards of my opponents.
Run into a Death Domain, let me easily switch that over to a different location and ruin my opponent's game plan with the unexpected switch. Storm one lane and then switch the flooded location to another lane.
There are many different ways you can use the new Quake, and this change is a fantastic way to make a seemingly useless card relevant to the overall game. Overall, it is a fantastic change to Quake to make her more relevant.
Kingpin/Fisk Tower
This is another good change to the overall game by changing a card that is relatively unused to have more utility and a broader effect which makes them more likely to be used and thought about when deck building.
Kingpin now is active each turn of the game that he's in on the board but instead of destroying the card, he smacks them with a -2 power tax. This has prompted several deck concepts using relatively efficient move cards to provide big power swings against your opponent.
Kingpin Move
The mirroring of this effect to Kingpin's corresponding location, Fisk Tower, makes sense from a continuity standpoint. Still, I will miss playing Aero into Fisk Tower to destroy one of my opponent's cards.
The Bad
Dracula
I think this is a bad change. I understand the reasoning behind this change, but honestly, while this might seem like a buff of plus 1, this makes the unique effect of Dracula a lot worse. With the change from “this has its power” to “gain its power,” Dracula is no longer immune to negative power effects from your opponent. This might be a small deal, but when some games are won or lost by 1 or 2 power, this can be very frustrating.
Angel
While this change seems like it’s overall good, I still think that Angel is a bad card, and while they changed it up a little bit, this doesn’t make him any more playable. I know some players want him to work, but they are going to have to buff him a little bit more for him to move into the good category.
The Ugly
Loki
Loki has taken over Marvel Snap for months now, and while this does not change his overall effect or weaken him completely, it helps lower the potential power impact on his initial placement. So why is this in the Ugly category? Mainly because this isn’t a nuisance to Loki at all. It’s a nerf to The Collector. Loki still does the same thing, and all they did was reword his text and make it so he doesn’t buff The Collector. All the cards still cost less, and they are still able to receive the benefit from Quinjet.
Overall, this isn’t a change to Loki by himself but rather a nerf to the cards he surrounds himself with. Loki's big draw is the fact that he lowers the cost of the cards that you get from your opponent's deck. This change does nothing to stop that. Sure, it stops him from adding a potential 7 extra power to the board, but when you are playing reduced-cost cards from your opponent, sometimes that 7 power does not matter. Doing cost reduction broken things is still possible every game, and honestly, having your cards played against you is still not a great feeling. So, while it is a nerf to the Loki deck and some of the initial power, this is just another change that mainly harms the cards surrounding the problem card instead of dealing with the card itself.
Loki
Now, as a disclaimer, just because it’s an ugly change doesn’t mean it does not affect the game. I believe that overall, his usage will go down because when using Loki, you’ll have to work a little harder to win games. But, the overall concept behind him is still fundamentally overpowered, and the more and more the game progresses and the energy cheat he provides, especially with help from Quinjet, will ultimately make him a consistent threat and something that will frustrate players and be overbearing on the metagame over and over.
Ms. Marvel
This change at face value seems great, but realistically, it feels ugly the more you play the game. A 4-cost 14-power card is pretty busted, especially when the cost of gaining all that power is really easy. Yes, it is slightly more difficult, and this change does take away several wins you might get when you can’t get two cards into a lane, but the cost to gain 5 power is still pretty cheap. The ease at which Ms. Marvel provides power to all three locations makes her a very easy inclusion into many different decks, and she actively pushes out other cards that could fill her spot. Thus making this change very small and mostly irrelevant. To me, that’s ugly for this week when they could have balanced her a lot better instead of essentially doing nothing besides taking 1 power away from her overall stat package.
The Irrelevant
Annihilus received an interesting change not to affect cards with zero power but only negative power cards. The main reason I’ve stuck this in the irrelevant category is that the main decks running Annihilus use a small package that includes just The Hood and The Sentry. Both of which have negative power. So, honestly, this change is just a loss of 1 power, which doesn’t amount to a lot overall. Mainly, this change again harms the use of other cards that might surround Annihilus, like Debrii.
As a general statement, patches and OTA should mix up the meta some, and I think overall, this patch is pretty irrelevant. I don’t think the meta is changing at all other than dropping Loki down a little bit and adding a couple of new tech cards. The main decks that have been performing well are still producing the same stats, and the introduction of the new cards has not provided a drastic change to the meta yet, either.
Cerebro Watch
C3
The main additions to Cerebro decks are Quake and Kingpin. Quake is essentially a more useful tech card overall, so it’s possible that you could put it in C3. However, as far as locations go, I think Scarlet Witch is a better 3-power card to help with location variance for C3.
Kingpin is slightly interesting as a new addition to C3 because he now has a new effect, but with almost zero enablers to make the best use of his effect, he doesn’t have a chance to break into the C3 decklists.
C4
This is an interesting list now that can run Ms. Marvel, and honestly, she is a fantastic card to run. This deck has some interesting game plans, and while it might not be the most competitive list, it does provide unique opportunities to play something vastly different from most of the top-performing decks.
C4
Conclusion
Overall, this was an interesting patch, but I don’t think it does much to change the overall landscape of the meta. It can be frustrating when there are some very broken and not fun abilities running around warping a tad bit of the meta. Let me know your thoughts on this patch in the comments below.