Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, a weekly romp through Marvel Snap hit topics! We're still processing the bombshell acquisition announcement and we got a monthly patch! Let's dive in.
1) How can I get the most out of the new acquisition system?
Gamers love to optimize and when the new acquisition system comes to the game (either April 29th or June 3rd) people will want to get the most out of the new system. We still don't know all of the details like the prices of the packs, but here are a few principles to chew on until we get more info.
Control your pools. This is the primary way to optimize in this system.
If you're nearly collection complete, this is easy, and indeed those players will be among the greatest beneficiaries of this system. Collection complete players can get every new card at a discounted price via the Packs. If you only have a few unowned series 5 cards, it's a lot easier to get what you want from the New Series 5 packs. But that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of this principle if you're not in this situation. You can still think about the other pools: the “old” Snap Packs for series 4 and 5, called Collector’s Snap Packs. Curating these pools will remove a lot of the variance in this system and ensure that you're getting what you're targeting at discount prices.
Because Series 4 cards will only cost 3000 tokens in the shop, it's easier to shrink this pool. One strategy will be to try to get to the point of being Series 4 collection complete so that any new series 4 cards can be had at the discounted price of the New Series 4 Snap Pack. We don't know exactly how often or with what cadence we'll get New Series 4 cards, but datamines seem to indicate a big drop of several of them at the start of each season is possible.
Prioritize what you really want. Let the rest drop to cheaper packs.
One common strategy will be to use 6000 Tokens to get new cards you especially want while letting the other cards float down to the older Series 5 Collector's Packs. This strategy involves getting new cards directly with Tokens, mostly avoiding the New Series 5 Snap Packs, and spending additional tokens on the older packs. Let's say you really Surge and Xorn from next month, but you also think the other Series 5 cards are good and want them eventually. You would spend 12000 to get Surge and Xorn right away and then wait 8 weeks or so until the other cards hit the older packs and then buy those packs to try to get the remaining ones you want at a cheaper price. This does mean you need to shrink your old Series 5 pool, so this strategy is best for those mid-game and late-game players that are not close to collection complete, but have large collections.
Play “from behind.” Or cherry pick and then play “from behind.”
The New Series 5 packs cost less than the full price of a series 5 card directly from the shop. The “old” Collector's Series 5 Packs will be even less than that. One strategy could be to stay complete on older Series 5 cards to guarantee you can get everything that drops to them immediately and at a significant discount. This might take a month or so of planning and preparation by dedicating your resources to shrinking your old Series 4 pool, but this is a potentially viable way for free to play players to acquire every card, just on a two month delay.
Or you can cherry pick a few gems. This works exactly like the above strategy but you still occasionally get the few brand new Series 5 cards that you truly love immediately upon release for 6000 Tokens from the shop. This is the strategy that will work well for most low-spending players.
2) Why is Second Dinner reusing characters?
Among the things uncovered in the latest patch were cards that look a lot like repeats of the Fantastic Four.
There has been some chatter that these might not be cards that just go in your collection and that they could be generated in some way or modify the existing characters in a way similar to High Evolutionary. One of the more fun ideas proposed would be that if you Destroy the Marvel-1 rocket, these cards get added to your hand or deck. Maybe H.E.R.B.I.E. transforms them. Maybe they arrive in the Fantasti-Car. Honestly, any generation or transformation seems less likely to me than these just being new versions of these characters.
Setting aside for a moment any speculation about these specific cards, is repeating characters inherently bad? Is it lazy design? After all, there are thousands of cool Marvel characters that don't have cards, even if they don't happen to be MCU A-Listers.
While I understand the feeling that they shouldn't just make retreads of characters we already have, there are some important reasons that introducing alternative versions of existing characters is important. The first is obviously sales. If you're reading this, you're already probably a pretty committed Marvel Snap player. But unlike most other card games, Snap has a huge base of very casual players. It's very simple: it's easier to sell a casual fan Spider-Man than Paste Pot Pete. Second, it ensures that the most popular characters maintain relevance and play rate at all levels of the game. It is important to have recognizable characters for beginners. If a new player opens up a Marvel game and doesn't see any characters they recognize they're less likely to keep playing. Repeating characters means new players get to play with them and competitive and long-term players get a chance with the fan-favorite characters too! Last, is that it allows us to play these characters in new ways and with different synergies. If we do get new Fantastic Four cards, it will be fun to potentially play them together for the first time. It would be awesome to get a new Professor X that actually helps his fellow mutants instead of locking them down or a Tony Stark that uses interesting technology (skills?).
Believe me, I love obscure characters and will cherish every one of them we get. But while repeating characters is something that should be done carefully and with sensitivity, I do think it's important for the long-term health of the game.
3) What were your favorite spotlight variants?
Now that spotlight variants are going the way of the dodo, let's take a look back at the greatest hits of the spotlight key system. Here are some of my personal favorites. I forced myself to exclude the comic book cover variants because that would just be my entire list! One of them is the Gwenpool variant from this week! It's nice to see the system go out with a bang (but also good riddance, the variants are cool, but not when you were hoping for a new card).
4) Q: While watching various content on the rework of the card acquisition system, I couldn’t help but wonder if the new direction you’re taking has been at all influenced by the way with which you’re adjusting, nerfing, buffing and reworking cards. The main parallel I’m observing is the introduction of multiple levers with which you can adjust a given item; be it a card or the whole economy.
For the better part of two years, your balancing changes have been very to the point and well executed, utilizing different aspects of a card, such as the Cost, Power, and different numbers in the text boxes to achieve the necessary result. It seems to me like this is what’s being attempted with this overhaul of the card acquisition system. A number of different Snap Packs, adding variety and choice; the TBA prices, subject to change as well if need be; the amount of Season whence cards can be pulled; the amount of achievable Collector’s Tokens, etc. For example, it looks like you're doing less "Alioth" (few levers, a total text box change needed as nerf) and more "Agamotto" (many numbers that can be adjusted).
Has this crossed your mind, been a target, or a happy coincidence if so?
A: I wouldn't say these are linked or influencing one another. They're only really connected in that these kinds of updates are premised on the same core concepts of adaptability and extensibility, which are just fundamentally strong qualities to have in most game systems.
-Glenn
Author's note:
Hopefully the new system proves more adaptable than the current one. As we patiently await the reveal of the pricing for Snap Packs, one thing I've been wondering about is if the prices of these might be variable. At the very least the additional themed packs (e.g. ‘X-Men,’ ‘Discard,’ ‘Creator Deck of the Week's) seem highly likely to utilize some kind of dynamic pricing depending on the pool of cards they draw from. The system is getting simpler—not many mobile games actually reduce the number of in-game currencies—but hopefully it is better for players and deemed acceptable for the bottom line of the company as well. One of the bigger issues with the Spotlight system is that it was clearly viewed as too generous by Second Dinner (or at least someone at Second Dinner) and they gradually trimmed at its edges after it was implemented. A notable example was weekend missions going from 1000-2000 to 200. Hopefully that doesn't happen with this new system.
5) Q: How will Strange Supreme work with Mysterio illusions? Absorb the two, revealing the real one? Not absorb any until the reveal? Absorb all three?
A: He'll be equally able to absorb all 3--he can't tell them apart either.
Author's note:
Well, there goes any plans I may have had to play Mysterio on a Strange Supreme deck. He also won't be able to absorb opposing goblins, since they aren't created, they started in the opponent’s deck, but I'm sure we'll get a few hilarious Acid Arrow clips. So, what are we thinking here gang? What cards do we think will be the best to absorb with Strange Supreme? There's always Goblins or Tigers to absorb, but that feels like it's not taking advantage of Strange Supreme’s cool ability enough. Obviously Iron Patriot and Valentina can give us some exciting targets. Maybe we should use Frigga or Nico to copy something powerful that Strange Supreme will magnify. Let me know what you're cooking up for the odd sorcerer.
That's it for this week! I did a special edition of Burning Questions covering the most pressing questions about Snap Packs, so be sure to check that out too! I had a reader request to make these articles longer, so if you made it this far, let me know what you think about the article lenght! Come find me on Bluesky (@scosco) and head to the comments to join in the conversation!
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