Whew, talk about a hectic week in Marvel Snap! On Tuesday, we had the cache-breaking bug alongside US Agent's release, a very surprising patch on Wednesday, and all sorts of new datamined info about the future. Every week on Burning Questions, we address the most talked-about topics in the Snap community. This week, we're talking about the patch, alternate card releases, emotes, and proving grounds.
1) Alioth and Zabu (and, by extension, Shang Chi, slightly) finally got nerfed. Now what?
I think these three cards were due for a change sooner or later, it just happened to be sooner. I think the gameplay patterns and effect on the game that all three had was pretty unhealthy and I'm glad Second Dinner recognized it.
So, what will the game look like now? This will be one of the biggest transformations the game has seen, and there is some reason for concern.
The game had been warped around 4-cost cards for so long that it will be interesting to reevaluate their relative strengths without them having an almost built-in cost reduction. The relation value of 3 and 5 costs will shift in interesting ways as a result, and it will be fascinating to see the results. I think Darkhawk should move back down to 4-cost, where he is a more interesting card anyway. I think 4-cost cards that provide power, like Cull Obsidian and Crossbones, will float to the top, and Shang will still see a lot of play, but many other 4-cost cards will need buffs and reworks to make them viable again. Zabu allowed a lot of fringe cards to maintain undeserved play rates.
Additionally, Second Dinner needs to ensure that there are appropriate rewards for playing for priority, or the game will devolve into solitaire-style combo and / or big stats decks only. The developers are kidding themselves if they think Alioth will still fulfill that role in his current state. Playing 8 power to a single lane on turn 6 with just a chance to disrupt your opponent is never going to cut it. He would need to have more power to see play in his current state. Alioth was an unhealthy design, but he fulfilled the role of allowing midrange tempo decks, small cards, and disruptive/control strategies to exist that otherwise wouldn't be able to. The game has other priority rewards, but they are far too weak. We'll need to either buff cards like Juggernaut and Negasonic Teenage Warhead or give cards like Aero and Leader some of their previous utility back. As it stands now, I am very worried about the metagame coalescing around big stats decks only, with decks that can go large, drowning everything else out. Second Dinner just removed/weakened a great deal of the interaction Snap had without meaningfully replacing it. Personally, I don't have much interest in a game without interaction. Hopefully, we get some of the lost interaction back via buffs and new cards with more interesting designs than Alioth had.
2) Will we ever see multi-card releases?
Since the initial dump of series 4 and 5 cards, players have been wondering if we'd ever get a batch of cards again as opposed to (or in addition to) the one card-a-week drip. Second Dinner has been pretty clear that the weekly release schedule suits them, but some developments make me think we could get some extra cards sometime soon.
On a recent episode of the Snapshot Podcast, Glenn Jones discussed the idea of extra cards that aren't quite worthy of a Series 5 price tag being released in some other way.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxcuBKD5_5Dnht_JvRSnXqtaala8Z72JX6?si=tlEnvA8g7DGBcFTl
Glenn gives the example of a hypothetical “Iron Elbow” card that moves cards to the right as opposed to Iron Fist. The concept here is that some interesting or useful abilities might not be worthy of a series 5 release. Of course, abilities like this could be added to secondary abilities to create a spotlight-worthy card, but I think there is some value in being able to add niche cards to the game. There are several abilities that the team has hinted about in the past that could fit this model. For example, there was talk of a card that speeds up the turn timer or a card that specifically blocks opponent discards. Both were mentioned as interesting but perhaps too niche to stand alone on a card.
Additionally, Stephen Jarret recently said they are considering and actively discussing additional ways to release cards, such as event rewards. For this to work, the rewards would have to be easily attainable, and the cards would not be exceptionally powerful. Perhaps these types of rewards could even be released directly into series 3 after a month or so.
June is currently tabbed as Eternals month, and it's always felt like a puzzle how they plan to fit all of the datamined Eternals into one season. While this may be too early, given the breadcrumbs above were only dropped this month, it feels possible that the extra Eternals might be released in an alternative way. Whether or not it happens so soon as June, it seems clear that eventually we will get cards released in an alternative way, as a supplement to the spotlight caches.
3) What are emotes worth?
Emotes have been trickling into the game for a few months now via albums. With the addition of the cosmetics shop, you can expect to see emotes far more often. If you're easily tilted by emotes, get ready to exercise that mute button.
When reflecting on emotes in a previous edition of Burning Questions, I wondered if having a lot more emotes in the game might start to change the culture around them and make them feel less toxic. Miraculously, I feel like this may be occurring. When all we had was the Thanos Snap and Ms. Marvel thumbs up, it was easy to feel like all emotes were toxic. The newest batch of emotes, largely meme-based, seem to be understood as someone showing off their new emote lightheartedly instead of deliberately attempting to be rude. The volume and the somewhat whimsical design seem to have helped calm the fury emotes were causing. Second Dinner deserves credit for making fun, desirable emotes.
But are they worth it? Well, they're still pretty expensive at 2200 gold, so most people aren't going to engage with them in the cosmetics shop. However, having a new, fully cosmetic, totally optional income stream added to the game is nice. Your play experience isn't affected, but you can save up for your favorite one or two emotes over time if they interest you. I got the Domino one because it seems like it will be fun to send after something statistically unlikely happens. I've seen some people surprised that they cost more than premium variants, but unlike a variant, they can be used in every game you play. Based on my observations, the community seems pretty tickled by the new emotes, so the price point didn't surprise me. If anything, the hand-wringing about the price point is most likely because Second Dinner has managed to make a cosmetic people want.
There are some great new emotes. As I said above, I'm a big fan of the Domino emote. I know each of the others has its devotees as well.
The newly datamined 3X value Darkhawk is destined to create a stir. Uptight internet users will surely take offense, but I think it's hilarious. It has been speculated that Second Dinner might find a way to give this one away, which would be a genius way to close the loop on the 3X Bundle fiasco.
The upcoming season pass “Arishem Approves” emote is set to be my personal pet peeve emote. Not because of its meaning, but because of which finger he's using! How is it his index finger rather than a sideways (could go up or down) thumb?!
Remember, emotes are optional cosmetics, so don't let FOMO get to you too much if they're not within your budget. Be prepared to see these in-game a lot.
4) Q: In the patch notes for Sandman you wrote: "Like Mobius, Luke Cage, and Professor X, Sandman is the kind of tech card we want to be careful with. If Sandman is too popular, SNAP is just a less fun game due to the permanence of that Ongoing effect, so we deliberately aimed Sandman to be more niche."
However, statistics from data aggregation sites like Snap Zone and Untapped seem to show that Sandman was already "niche" with playrate percentages in the low single digits (2-3% of all decks) and really only showing up in one (now defunct) archetype, Electro Ramp. Is there some internal metric Second Dinner uses that shows the card was more popular than we thought and wasn't niche enough, or is less than 5% still too popular for a restrictive card?
A: No, you’ve misunderstood our intent. We’re saying that before the patch, we’ve always tried to aim Sandman low but relevant. However, that has been a difficult balance point to maintain, and has often meant he just can’t do his job, seeing too little play to be a satisfying card due to the risks of seeing too much.
The patch change is also not a nerf, but a general buff. While he is less impactful alongside Electro in existing Ramp decks, he is dramatically more impactful as an unaided play on turn 5. We expect that will make him more effective as a tech card than he could be as a ramp target.
-Glenn
**The initial reaction I saw from most people was that this represented a nerf to Sandman. In practice, it hasn't played out that way. Sandman lost his utility to completely lock down games starting from turn 4, but the power increase ended up making him more viable than people expected. I think this change was a smart one by Second Dinner. Sandman, with his previous ability, was strong enough that they needed to be extra careful with his power. Making him desirable in a ramp deck while also ensuring he didn't become too oppressive turned out to be too small of an eye to thread the needle through. Instead, he now has enough power to make the final turn asymmetrical in favor of the player who has built their deck around him, but he is not worth playing out before turn five, which would make him oppressive at higher power. There is a lot of promise for decks trying to use Sandman on 5 to set up a winning turn 6.
Several content creators are having success using Sandman similarly to how Wave was once used: create a scenario where you know your single card will trump your opponent’s.
A concept. Leech Leader but with new Sandman instead. Sandman isnt great in Ramp anymore as now u usually wanna play him only on turn 5 to isolate your opponent on turn 6.
— Wesley Seek (@LambySeriesGG) April 11, 2024
Playing early stats allows u to go for Sandman on 5 into Leader/Red Hulk. pic.twitter.com/XJ6zjPdm3w
Very quick climb! Final version of the deck replacing Zola for Leader. Sandman change is 100% a buff. Deck felt insanely strong only losing 3 times my entire time (2 of the 3 due to missing ramp). Cannonball and Sandman are the true MVPs of the deck!@MarvelSnapZone @SnapDecks pic.twitter.com/une2KJR3bC
— Tom Siwula (@CabolHere) April 11, 2024
Happy Thursday!
— FaThorNewman (@FaThorNewman) April 11, 2024
I thought he was dead, but they didn't kill my Sandman!
Today, I tried out Red DoomWave.
I believe this is the deck that will get me to Infinite!
Check it out, and let me know what you think!
The video is linked below.
PEACE! pic.twitter.com/NGAwTYwk8c
5) Q: This is more of just a question but has there ever been the discussion around just making the proving geounds 1 match instead of the whole multiple rounds? I personally like when people snap when the game starts and the winner take all; it’s almost like an unwritten rule at this point.
Thanks.
A: We may make proving grounds 8 health one day…we have talked about it but there is some UI weirdness that we have to solve first. We dig that the community creates its own memes and rules and try to embrace them when we can.
-Stephen
**It is nice to know that the team is actively discussing changes to Conquest mode. I wouldn't be opposed to proving grounds going to 8 cubes, but I feel like that will be awkward from a design perspective and a new player onboarding perspective. I always snap on turn one in proving grounds and play it out as a single game, but it's hard to expect all players to learn and follow this unofficial etiquette. I still think cutting silver conquest would solve many of the issues with conquest and could eliminate the desire to race through proving grounds so much.
That's it for this week! Find me on Twitter if you've got a Burning Question! Join in on the conversation in the comments or head to the official Marvel Snap discord and submit a question in the ask-the-team channel to try to get your question featured here.