Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly peek at hot topics in Marvel Snap! This week, we're talking about Affliction, cards for new players, and Grand Arena! Let's go!
1) What kind of card could help the Affliction archetype?
I talked a few weeks ago about how Affliction needed some help. With numbers being so big, it's hard for the little ticks of Affliction to add up to victory in the same way they used to. Unless you're triggering Hazmat 16 times with some crazy combo, Affliction decks can match the power we're seeing from the other side. Now, the Invisible Woman Pre-constructed Grand Arena deck, based on Hazmat, is having a hard time competing, and most players are tossing all the Affliction cards in favor of combos and tech to hide. What kind of card could help this archetype compete?
It needs another large scaler. The big payoff is Ajax, but the era of winning games with a single large 5-Cost Ongoing and cobbling together enough power elsewhere to win is long behind us. Ramp got Chamber recently, and this is the type of card Affliction needs. A cheap scaler that can get truly large.
How about something like this design:
After any card’s Power changes, this card gains +1 Power.
This design could go wild in an Affliction deck, but would be flexible enough that it would see play elsewhere, too.
The other ability that could help out Affliction is one the devs have been reluctant to introduce: halving.
On Reveal: Cut the power of the opponent’s highest card here in half (rounded down).
Wording it is tricky, and adding division to the mental load on players isn't something to be taken lightly, but the game has been increasing in complexity for a while, and the player base is ready for an effect like this. This is the type of effect that could help Affliction stay relevant as bigger and bigger cards enter the game.
2) What are the best Series 5 cards for a new player?
The best Series 5 cards are very different from the best Series 5 cards for a very new player. What cards fit best with early Series cards and can help a low CL player construct an actually competitive deck?
The answer to this has changed over time. The most common answer since its release has been High Evolutionary. It can be combined with cards; every player has to unlock an entire archetype. However, I would argue that without any higher series cards like Star-Lord, Master of the Sun, Grandmaster, Warlock, Superior Spider-Man, Diamondback, Fin Fang Foom, Red Hulk, and many more, you don't really have access to the full breadth of High Evolutionary decks. He's no longer what I would recommend for very new players. Even Arishem shines brightest when paired with a bunch of other Series 5 cards. And, sure, cards like Merlin and Kate Bishop are super flexible, but they're not going to help you stomp other low Collection Level players.
Here are the two cards very low Collection Level players can get the most out of and would make great first Series 5 acquisitions:
Moonstone packs a lot of punch in one card, can be used in a variety of low-CL decks, and remains relevant as your collection ages. And once you get Mystique, you're off to the races. She’ll let you scale way beyond other low CL players and bots. Moonstone is as good for what you have as she is for what you won't be facing. There's Enchantress at low CL, but a lot of the more complex tech isn't going to be a worry until you progress to a higher CL.
Nico is indeed flexible, but she can actively help you win games at low CL. She's excellent in Zoo decks, and she's a key piece to run a consistent Destroy deck as you unlock those pieces. Her Destroy and draw spell is so much more powerful than other things going on at low CL, that you'll be dominating through consistency with her over a large sample of games. None of her spells are bad — they're all useful in different contexts. Nico is a card that is good right away and stays useful later on.
3) Who is your favorite Grand Arena Champion?
Mr. Fantastic and Hulk are frontrunners for best Champion, but my favorite so far has been Invisible Woman. She allows you to steal wins with Shadow King while enabling shenanigans of her own.
My favorite deck has been this one:
Now, let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap Discord and grab some developer Q&As!
4) Question:
Is the red dot too powerful?
Feels like we've had the ghost notification dot since forever, patch after patch.
How is such a small thing still not fixed? Is the codebase too messy? Is it just not a "priority"?
Answer:
The dreaded Red Pip! As far as I'm aware, the only remaining issue with the red pip notification is on the "Game Mode" tab on mobile. That issue has been fixed internally and is slated for a future release.
The other Red Pips should be clearable once investigated/interacted with. If there are other issues beyond what's stated above, please share and we'll get it investigated.
-Griffin
Scosco's Note:
You heard the man! Head over to the official Marvel Snap Discord to report your red pips! Seriously, though, “that issue has been fixed internally and is slated for a future release” regarding red dots is something I will believe when I see it. The demise of the red dot has been claimed in the past, only for the infection to come back stronger. Don't hold your breath for a pip-free game unless you're Atlantean.
5) Question:
Is there a world in the near future where the team stops limiting themselves to 3 lines of text per card and fixes Galactus's awkward, one-of-a-kind self-referential textbox?
Answer:
Having a novel template is not in and of itself something we consider problematic; plenty of other CCGs have examples of an unusual template choice on a high-profile card. We'll prioritize updating text that we think is misleading or fails to match the in-game effect, but as Galactus is also fairly novel in what he's doing there's less risk of that.
And no, we don't have any intention of using more than 3 lines of text at this time. Something that's easy to forget is that our game is localized in several languages, and one of the reasons we keep it shorter in English is to ensure it can remain legible in those languages.
Scosco's Note:
I don't see FS Galactus’ text as a problem at all. If anything, it's kind of charming and quirky. Not to dunk on the OP or anything, but the slavish devotion to some analytical consistency in wording strikes me as overly sensitive to things that don't fit together neatly. The goal of a card game should be comprehensibility, not a system of logical consistency. That would be more of a constraint than a tool. Embrace a little oddity now and then! Novel and weird is good!
That's it for this week! Let me know what you're cooking up for Grand Arena! And check out my new YouTube show, Series 6, where we talk with interesting guests about Marvel Snap topics they're interested in!