Hello and welcome back to Burning Questions, where we run through the hottest topics in Marvel Snap! This week, Sanctum Showdown wrapped up and a Fantastic Four season is coming up next week!
1) How did you feel about Sanctum Showdown the second time around?
I would say the second iteration of Sanctum Showdown was successful. The primary complaints I see about Sanctum Showdown are that the Guardians of the Galaxy are too strong, every game feels the same between Guardians and Werewolf by Night, and that there is little comeback potential. Your enjoyment of the mode is directly proportional to how much you believe these things to be true. I know that I and the others that I saw that really enjoyed the mode felt like Guardians wasn't an especially good strategy and that playing around them was the better way to go.
The meta evolved later in the week to reflect that, with more Zoo and other strategies that don't play directly onto the Sanctum as often becoming more prevalent alongside Werewolf decks. The most important skill in Sanctum Showdown is knowing when to throw the Sanctum to set up for a better chance to win following Sanctums and the overall game. Playing around Shang Chi is also of utmost importance. I found not only that comeback potential exists, it was the way I won most of my games.
Here are two decks that play around Guardians and have strong comeback potential. The first one is from Ben Roller, who also came up with great decks for the last Sanctum Showdown as well, and the Second is the most fun deck I landed on near the end of the week.
Roller Sanctum
Sco Sanctum Move
Overall, enough new cards felt strong in the mode that the mode felt fresh. Cards like Mercury, Merlin, and Batroc all had major impacts. Other cards like perhaps Xorn, Fan Fei, or Omega Red didn't see much experimentation, even though they could theoretically have been impactful, so I still don't think the mode ever got fully solved this time.
I also felt like getting to 2000 Charms to get Astral Projection was pretty easy for anyone who interacted meaningfully with the mode, with most players taking between 50 and 80 games to get there. It was less grindy to get the primary reward than previous LTMs. Another important contributor to the success of the mode this time was the fix to opponent retreats. Ensuring that the winner gets 16 Charms even if the opponent retreats fixed one of the major frustrations with the mode and I commend Second Dinner for taking feedback and getting this important change done.
The biggest issue was the timer, which showed the time until the shop closed instead of the end of the mode, so that needs to change for next time. I'm looking forward to the next return of Sanctum Showdown!
2) Do you need Fantasticar?
A controversial change is coming next month with the addition of a Series 4 card to the Super Premium Season Pass. I've previously explained my reasoning for being in favor of this change, however I expect to see significant community pushback, which will likely be amplified because of Second Dinner's poor handling of the Kid Omega fiasco. Kid Omega has settled in as a fine, but not especially essential card. Will Fantasticar be similar or will free to play players be left behind once again?
On the one hand, it's really unfortunate that this specific card is locked behind a pay wall since it's the card that unites the Fantastic Four, both from a lore perspective and as an end-of-turn payoff for the Fantastic Four: First Steps cards coming out this month. There are a lot of players that have been eager to play these characters in a single, synergistic way that can't be done with the existing Fantastic Four characters. So, to play all of these characters together in the most flavorful way that celebrates the film and comics you need to pay money? That seems less than ideal.
However, there is one thing that salvages the situation to a degree. You don't need Fantasticar on July 8th, you want it by the time all of the new first steps cards are released. On July 29th, Invisible Woman will be the final First Steps Fantastic Four member to come out. With Fantasticar coming to Snap Packs on August 5th, you won't actually have to wait too long to get the card via in-game currencies.
Full FF
3) What's your favorite Fantastic Four cover?
I've been reading a lot of Fantastic Four in anticipation of the upcoming movie and Snap season! Here are a few of my favorite classic covers from across different eras. (In order by: Jack Kirby, John Romita, John Byrne, and Walt Simonson)
Now let's grab a couple of developer questions and answers from the official Marvel Snap discord.
4) Q: With the Lockjaw remake, one of the comments thrown by the community was that instead of changing the card, you could've made a new card with that ability and statline. And there's recent precedent for it: Jannifer Kale is activate Psylocke.
Why remake Lockjaw instead of making a new s4 card? Couldn't two similar cards exist with that ability? (there's plenty of teleporters in Marvels, X-Statix alone has a few)
How do you decide when to make a new card and when to remake an older one?
A: We did consider it, and it was a close call. The main factors at play were that 1) previous Lockjaw was underplayed and very weak, 2) we don’t want a lot of this kind of effect running around, and 3) we didn’t want to buff Lockjaw’s previous functionality to a competitive level. When Lockjaw’s strong, it’s very polarizing for players and the closest thing in our game to cheating card draw, while often cheating Energy as well.
So, in order to improve his playability, we needed a design we could feel good about positioning with more strength. This could also be compared to something like Iron Fist, Ghost-Spider, and Arana, where the minor differences and the limited number of deck slots can create reasons for players to want specific versions of similar effects, but Lockjaw is just doing a high-power thing relative to these cards.
Author's note:
I agree with Glenn's assessment of Lockjaw as a problematic card when it's too powerful. The original Lockjaw/Thanos decks are probably the strongest in the games history, while the old Lockjaw casino-style decks were incredibly hard to interact with and frustrating to play against. I would always prefer Second Dinner to rework an older card instead of creating a new, better card, but I understand the reality that the opposite will often happen.
However, Snap does a generally very good job making sure older cards still have a place and remain relevant parts of the game. Right now we are probably at an all-time low as far as truly unplayable cards go. Most cards, while perhaps not optimal or in the top tier, have some role or utility. Lockjaw was firmly in the bottom ten in play rate and, while I didn't want to see the return of Lockjaw the meta tyrant, I'm happy to have Lockjaw, the occasional treat.
5) Q: I find it really weird that Dormammu has no synergy with the location that represents his domain, unlike Death with Death's Domain and the Altar of Death.
Did he have a design that revolved around unrevealed cards at some point? If so, what made you decide to change course?
A: The Dark Dimension's function doesn't really permit much synergy-based play, given that its design prevents anything from happening unless both players make it to the end of the game.
We did consider some ritual and Dormammu elements that would "wink" at the Dark Dimension, such as starting Dormammu in play but unrevealed until the rituals complete or a ritual delaying reveals a la Lemuria, but ultimately these weren't as fun to play with as where we ended up.
Author's note:
Generally, Second Dinner likes to link cards to the locations that they have source material connections to like the White Palace having a similar effect to the White Queen. However, in this case, Dark Dimension has been around so much longer than Dormammu that it seems hard to fault them for not linking the two very closely. In fact, I find it pretty comforting that they even considered it. Thematic connections are very important, but still less important than gameplay and enjoyment.
That's all for this week! Come join me on social media for more Snap and comics talk! What Fantastic Four: First Steps card are you most looking forward to next season?