Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly look at the hottest topics in Marvel Snap! This week we're talking about the OTA, the “steal” mechanic, and the Peak!
1) What do you think of the change to Scream’s functionality?
I'm in the minority on this, but I greatly prefer this functionality over all of the other permutations I've seen. It's both more intuitive and more interesting that when Scream and Rocket & Groot are prevented from afflicting a card, they don't gain any power. They haven't stolen anything! The only downsides I see to this are:
- Luke Cage, a card that is already too strong, is getting stronger, despite his small nerf
- It makes makes the Scream decks position worse
But neither of these things should stand in the way of more interesting design and neither should some slavish devotion to mechanical logic. I understand it's a little weird that Cage being turned off later would turn on various afflictions but wouldn't give Scream or Rocket & Groot their bonuses. In the end, making “steal” mechanically distinct is the more interesting choice and that should trump other concerns.
The entire balance situation around Luke Cage and afflict is a problem, but that doesn't mean design choices like this are wrong, it means Cage and the various afflictors need to be rebalanced. Cage is becoming a design constraint, but it's also difficult to solve by just changing him because then the Affliction cards are all way too powerful. It can and should be done though. Thankfully, the patch notes made reference to this and specifically mentioned “a better division of labor for some of these roles” which was incredibly reassuring to hear. Likewise, if Scream decks are too weak, they should be buffed. The Spider-Man change will help keep her viable and there are many other changes that can be made if she's not.
2) Why in the world was Hela changed?
This is a good example of a change that wasn't made for balance reasons and had everything to do with design.
I am a huge fan of this change, at least from a design perspective. Weakening Hela by giving the minions she summons back less power was always a brute force, inelegant change. I never liked it for that reason, but I was also happy to see Hela fall from the ranks of the most played decks. In the end, Hela was never going to be interesting as a card that can place several 6-Cost cards onto the board. Any past attempts to build “small ball” Hela decks that leverage Silver Samurai or other such cards always had limited success. At 9-Power you can build a less fully dedicated Hela deck that just tries to bring back Black Cat plus maybe Gorr or Death. Now Hela returns to the rightful place she occupied before: not necessarily at the top of the meta, but as the experimental deck puzzle that attracts dedicated deck brewers. I think the new Hela has a good chance to be quite strong, but if, after some time, no one has been able to do anything interesting with her, she is easy to buff. She also has knobs to turn for a nerf since her 9-Power is a significant part of her card now.
3) Are the Ka-Zar and Onslaught changes relevant?
Absolutely! Especially if you're a low series player. Try out this relatively low-budget zoo deck! Higher series upgrade options include Nico Minoru, Hydra Bob, Red Guardian, Caiera, and Mockingbird.
OnKa Zoo
Between these changes and the change to Mr. Fantastic, the early game meta got quite a shakeup yesterday!
4) Q: Now that Deadpool’s Diner’s second release has completed, will there be an infographic like the first Deadpool’s Diner?
A: Due to the fact that we had the holidays directly after DPD and the designers/data teams would be out, we didn't plan to create one. By the time we were back in January, we felt it would be old news. That was the plan from the beginning.
Just to clear the air on this, DPD wasn't as well-received as the first go-around and the numbers indeed reflect that. Your feedback has been vital and the team is looking into improvements for whenever it returns again.
-Griffin
Author's note:
It's no surprise that, now no longer novel, Deadpool’s Diner had a colder reception its second time around. I think the mode could be improved by making the reward threshold lower, smoother progress along the path, and free entry to the lowest table. However, in the end, the mode just doesn't feel different enough from ladder to develop its own format or enough fans for whom it's their favorite way to play. Some complaints were that it felt too cutthroat and “sweaty,” but if the mode itself were more interesting and people didn't feel forced to play so much of it for a reward, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. I'm glad to see them take this mode back to the drawing board.
5) Q: What drove the change to “The Peak” location?
Just curious about what the driving force was behind this location being changed, was there a high % of retreats when it was revealed? I have always found it a fun location for negative and didn't see it as much of a problem myself when playing other decks.
A: While evaluating our locations, one of the metrics we weighed was how often a location's appearance led to an unforced (no snap) retreat prior to turn 4. That event is a significant indicator that the presence of the location is damaging the game for the player, as they'd rather lose a cube than play at all. The previous version of The Peak scored too high here relative to other locations.
-Glenn
Author's note:
While the old version of the Peak certainly had its fans, it was among the more disliked locations and most were happy to see it go. It's great to see that the development team not only looks at data that indicates that players see a location and immediately want to avoid it, but also that they are willing to act on it. The new Peak will be fun when it's in the location rotation and not a featured location. I do have to say though, if you all weren't snapping on the Peak you were missing out! I often insta-snapped on Peak to successfully bluff my opponent out of the game. At least for me, the old Peak meant free cubes!
That's it for this week! Check back next week for more Burning Questions! Come find me on Bluesky (@scosco) and/or Twitter. Hop in the comments and let me know what you think of the OTA!