Welcome back to Burning Questions, where we investigate and speculate on trending topics in the Snap community. Today, we'll cover the deck credit issue, cash tournaments, and Luke's Bar. Happy New Year!
1) How important is giving credit for a deck?
The community has been discussing the concept of deck credit lately. While it's unlikely to be the first person to ever play a 12-card list, giving credit is a kind gesture. Here are some perspectives from the community on this topic.
Just want to throw out my takes here
— Savage Yeti Gaming (@SavageYetiYT) December 30, 2023
1) If you take a deck from another creator, give credit. its not hard and its goes a LONG way for us little guys
2) It is a 12 card deck, so I understand arriving to the same list as someone else its not impossible.
1/2
People think deck building is like painting an original masterpiece, when in reality, it is closer to building with Legos.
— Jeff Hoogland (@JeffHoogland) December 30, 2023
Which isn't to say you can't build neat things with Legos, more so just the odds the thing you built is truly unique is just far smaller.
Deck credit in @marvelsnap is frustratingly polarizing.
— W (@W_MarvelSnap) December 30, 2023
I get it, “lol 12 card game who cares”.
But in fringe cases, it’s not wrong for a player to want credit for pushing the meta in new and exciting ways. Especially when it’s evident it was their new and exciting idea.
I have an honest question/thought experiment for the anti-deck credit people
— Chris “bootman” Boutté (@bootmanmstz) December 30, 2023
What if a person was intentionally seeking out decks from unknown creators and taking credit as their own? Like that was their entire strategy.
Would you be OK with that?
Giving deck credit isn’t hard, and requires minimal effort that goes a long way in uplifting your peers. Here’s my process to make sure I don’t forget.
— Chase Pitzer (@ChasePitzer) December 30, 2023
1: Bookmark the list/creator
2: Put creator name after deck name
3: When you share, check bookmark for their handle.
So personally I think deck credit is good even if you came up with similar/same ideas. It’s hard to make ‘12 cards’ work well in a given meta game, even within an old archetype. You can’t throw just anything together. But I never assume malicious intentions from not doing so.
— Revis (@RevisSnap) December 30, 2023
The individuals above presented valid points and intriguing perspectives. However, I would like to emphasize a few key points:
- Obviously, you should give credit if you get an idea from someone. Period. No one is arguing the opposite.
- The main reason people get upset about deck credit is that it is difficult to get views on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. Giving credit is a great way to help others grow.
- On the other hand, it's not wise to assume malicious intentions and accuse someone of stealing a deck, especially on behalf of someone else.
- A large number of players do not engage with Snap's social media, view content related to it, or use tracking tools. Therefore, the first person to play a particular deck may be among these players. It is also possible that many players may have similar ideas about a deck without interacting with each other. This means we only have a limited understanding of the entire player base.
- No matter how unique a deck list may seem, it is not necessarily original. People are often credited for originating a deck or combo when someone else played it beforehand.
- When accused of stealing a deck, most of the time, the accused didn't do it. Instead, they may have had a parallel idea, seen it in a game, or on a stat website.
- Just because you think you created a new deck doesn't mean you did. People accuse others of taking decks all the time that they only think they made first.
2) Will there ever be official (possibly in-person) cash prize tournaments open to everyone?
Up until now, only content creators have been invited to participate in cash prize events that involve Second Dinner, Marvel Snap, or Nuverse. These events were either Conquerors events or Twitch Rivals. However, the recent road map listing for "In-game events" has given hope for tournament-style play, which may be closer to in-game missions or a Marvel Snap competitive scene.
But will there ever be cash prize tournaments for everyone? Games like Hearthstone and MTG Arena have official tournaments, and organized play has always been important in paper card games like Magic, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh. However, there are several reasons why official tournaments like this are unlikely for now.
Firstly, creating an open tournament requires specialized in-game interfaces and external organization in the form of day-of judges and technical support, as well as lead-up planning. The Second Dinner team is small, and they have made comments in the past about shifting team members and resources around to different projects. It seems unlikely that they would want to move personnel to work on organized play, as opposed to these in-game events. So, it's unlikely to expect an open tournament to originate from Second Dinner anytime soon.
Secondly, Nuverse, the parent company of Marvel Snap, was largely responsible for organized events like Twitch Rivals and Conquerors. With the shuttering of ByteDance, large-scale events have become increasingly unlikely. Nuverse is also responsible for advertising, such as video ads, Twitch Drops, special events, and some sales. Therefore, it's unlikely that an open tournament will happen anytime soon.
Lastly, there are few financial incentives for organized play. Organized play in other games is mainly marketing designed to sell products. The planned in-game events are a gameplay experience designed to increase usage and engagement. This is different from a tournament circuit, which would require significant investment. For Second Dinner to become involved in eSports, would mean they feel it's worth it as a marketing tool. However, the balance between competitive players and casual players is more pronounced in Marvel Snap, as it is a mobile-first game and there is a robust collection aspect to the game. In a game where the majority of players are casual, spending resources on a competitive circuit makes more sense as it has a higher chance to draw in or retain players.
3) How can I win Luke's Bar?
There are several small interactions in the game that the game doesn't explicitly teach you. You usually learn them by seeing them in the game, sometimes when your opponent uses them to beat you.
One of these interactions is sticking a card onto Luke's Bar. It looks impossible because Luke's Bar states that "after you play a card here, return it to your hand." However, there are a few ways to make a card stay on the bar.
The primary way to get a card to stick is to make sure that there's no room in your hand. If you have a full hand of seven cards and you play Sentinel onto Luke's Bar, the card you played will have no space to return, so it will stay on the Bar.
Another way to get a card to stick on the Bar is to play a card that generates tokens like Brood or Mr. Sinister. The card will reveal, generate its tokens, and bounce back to your hand, leaving the tokens behind. You can also generate tokens from another lane with cards like Squirrel Girl, Shanna, and Dr. Doom. However, Mysterio's illusions will be bounced back to your hand.
That's it for this first edition of 2024. Hit me up on Twitter or leave a comment below if you have a burning question.