Hello, and welcome back to Burning Questions! This week, there was some compensation drama, 1-Cost cards are seeing more play, movement mechanics changes, and the Eternals season kicked off!
1) Why was the Gambit variant from the “Dealing with Demons” bundle removed?
For those of you who have been living in a social media blackout, there was really only one fiery hot burning topic this week: the removal of a bundled Gambit variant and Second Dinner's response to it. The variant was removed because the artist inserted hidden anti-Semitic and anti-Christian messages that related to Indonesian people politics in X-Men: Gold #1 in 2017. The artist was subsequently fired from Marvel, but his Gambit cover for X-Men: Gold #4 was still in the database of previously published Marvel covers and art that were made available as variants for Marvel Snap. After the artist's problematic history was pointed out to Second Dinner, they removed the variant and swapped it out of people's collections for a different Gambit variant.
Initially, Second Dinner stated that compensation for those affected would be 1200 Gold, enough to purchase a Super Rare variant. Those affected and the community at large felt this was insufficient compensation. After the public outcry, compensation was changed to 8000 Gold for the affected accounts.
Second Dinner said this via official channels:
“When determining our initial plan for the compensation of 1200 Gold, we took too analytical of an approach and simply used the Shop Value of a Super Rare Variant and thought that made sense. In that equation, we crucially left out the value of how this made our players feel. Going forward, we’re going to keep this learning in mind.”
I think there were a few problems with the initial compensation plan, but most importantly, it didn't meet the standard of previous compensation. The compensation for Kitty Pryde was generous, with every player getting Kitty Pryde for free, and during the U.S. Agent spotlight week, all caches opened while the glitch was active were refunded. To set this expectation makes it crucial to meet it for later issues. While the remaining contents in the bundle were quite valuable, it was inevitable that some people would be upset about losing a variant they chose to buy.
I am happy that, after a tense few days, the final result is so positive in this situation. Here are a few of my takeaways from this situation:
- Many people are buying these expensive bundles. The next time you hear someone say, “No one is buying that,” you will know better.
- The community passionately expressing their dissatisfaction pretty much always leads to changes being made by Second Dinner.
- I am impressed with Second Dinner's willingness to express when they're wrong and go above and beyond to make things right.
- Second Dinner needs to check variants they get from their licensing agreement with Marvel themselves rather than blindly trusting it.
✅ First community controversy
— Griffin Bennett (@GriffinWB) June 5, 2024
You always remember your first. https://t.co/5i3qaXAc8w
2) Are 1-Cost cards strong enough?
A while back, Glenn Jones stated that the balance team aimed to improve 1-cost cards as a category and make them feel more relevant. This would hypothetically strengthen cards like Black Swan, Shanna, and Elektra without needing to make changes directly to those cards. Let's check in on the progress on their 1-Cost improvement project.
Selene (1/18), Angel (2/20), Ant-Man (2/29), M’Baku (3/12), Yondu (3/12), and Rocket Raccoon (3/21) have all received minor changes this year, while America Chavez (2/29) was reworked then cost-reduced to be a new 1-Cost card.
More importantly, we've gotten new or improved cards that support or synergize well with 1-drops, such as Caiera, Mockingbird, Sasquatch, Cull Obsidian, Thena, and Gilgamesh. Currently, Zoo decks are having a bit of a Renaissance as people tinker with Gilgamesh and various 1-cost cards like Kitty Pryde, Rocket Raccoon, Nightcrawler, and others are seeing play in Thena decks that are taking the meta by storm.
More help is on the way for 1-Cost cards as well. Coming next week, Sersi will be very strong with squirrels and disruptive 1-Cost cards like Spider-Ham, Iceman, Korg, and Elektra because 2-Cost cards are a particularly safe category to transform into profitably. Additionally, Phastos,. coming at the end of June, can make them free or give them a big stat boost percentage-wise.
But the really strong help is further off. In August, Marvel Boy would be an enormous boon to 1-Costs. He looks so strong that he probably won't be released with the current numbers.
In July, we're getting a new member of the 1-Cost crew, and he has a unique ability. Hydra Bob will potentially be the first card that interacts with the Snap mechanic.
More 1-Cost cards are relevant than at any time since the early days of the game. 2-cost cards are having a particularly strong moment, while 4-cost cards have waned in importance since Zabu was given a time-out. The dynamic between Cost and strength continue to be intriguing. I think Second Dinner has made significant headway in their quest to make 1-Cost cards important, and I expect several of the upcoming balance changes to involve 1-Cost cards as well.
3) Where is Ikaris?
It's the Eternals season, and I, like many, am left wondering how they settled on the characters they did. Arishem is a no-brainer, but Gilgamesh is a bit of a surprise. It is puzzling that Ikarus wasn't included in a season based around the Eternals. Druig and Ajak would also have made strong choices if we're basing things on the Eternals film.
Glenn Jones recently said this in response to a question about why Ikaris wasn't added to the game for the Eternals season.
“Given the range of characters available among the Eternals, we knew we could do another season of them down the road and wanted to plan accordingly. We like to feature a diverse range of powers and characters for creative and mechanical reasons, and we already had art in the works for Gilgamesh. So Ikaris made sense to delay given some overlap with Gilgamesh (big strong dudes) to ensure each season had a satisfying spread.”
Here are four less prominent Eternals characters that I'd love to see get their own card if we get a second Eternals season.
Karkas
Karkas is a wonderful Jack Kirby creation. The Snap variants would be amazing. He's a monstrous Deviant, but he's got a gentle soul. Any card based on him should reflect that dichotomy rather than just being a big stat stick type of card.
Uranos
Uranos is a menacing villain in more recent Eternals comics. He believes that the Eternals shouldn't just destroy all deviants but also all non-Eternals, including humans and mutants! A powerful, annoying Snap card would suit him perfectly.
Starfox
Starfox, also known as Eros, may be less prominent now, but there was a time when Eros was the most well-known Eternal. He was even more famous than his cultural icon of a brother, Thanos. He possesses super strength but also has persuasion abilities and can make people fall in love with him. It would be interesting to see how that was implemented on a Snap card.
The Unimind
Not really a character, per se, the Uni-Mind is the collective intelligences of the Eternals. I have no idea how this would be implemented as a card, but I would love to see the attempt.
Now, let's jump into the ask-the-team channel on the official Marvel Snap Discord to get a couple of questions and answers from the devs.
4) Q: We lose so many strategies with this change now. I was wondering what made you guys change the way move and reveal work.
We were able to do plays like Legion followed by Nocturne to guarantee a lane. We had cool strategies with Cloak + Hercules + move cards. We had ways to dodge Shang-Chi or Shadow King.
Now we don't have any of that, and I can't really see what was the problem with the previous interactions.
A: The purpose is stated in the notes--this change resolves both the displayed game state (cards move when they visually move) and a number of bizarre, nonintuitive interactions.
One of the obstacles to strengthening Move cards in general has been how complicated they can make our gameplay, so I'm optimistic that this change will pave the way for us to strengthen some of Move's options once we see how the change impacts different cards.
-Glenn
Author's note
While there are some edge cases, like always being able to guarantee Nocturne changes a location before cards reveal, this is generally a nerf to move cards. In particular, Kraven and Hercules have felt more awkward. However, I think this was a vital change. We lose some subtlety and skill, but inconsistency in the movement mechanics was among the most common questions/complaints I heard from new players. This was an important first step, and the second step will be to modify the movement cards to make up for this. For example, Kraven should have a clause like Thena and Miek where he gains his power after the turn.
5) Q: What is the teams reasoning for using this voiceline for Venom? Isn't "We are Venom" much more iconic and accurate to the character (even the cards behaviour, with him absorbing multiple "hosts" at once by destroying them)
Is there any chance this voice line will be altered in the future?
A: The voiceline will be changed in a future update to "We are Venom". It may take a couple of months due to our patch cycle, but the change is already set to come.
-Stephen
Author's note
This is exactly the type of commitment that makes me thankful for the Second Dinner team. They could have so easily left this as is rather than devoting resources to such a tiny change, but instead, they admitted their mistake and will correct it. Having to hear the discordant “I am Venom” too often would have become a pet peeve of mine and other lore nerds.
That's it for this week. Want to share your own opinions on the topics above? Head to the comments! Have your own Burning Question you want an answer to? Hit me up on Twitter.