Hello, and welcome back to Burning Questions, where we try to answer the questions at the forefront of the Marvel Snap community! I was away on a mountaintop last week, so we have a lot to discuss! Let's dive in!
1) What existing cards will have the new Activate keyword applied to them?
The new card mechanic teased in the roadmap has been revealed as Activate, which appears to be an ability that can be manually triggered on a card that is already in play. The datamined season pass card Symbiote Spider-Man is likely to be the first such card. Datamines indicate that Symbiote Spider-Man will merge the text and stats of that card as well as reactivate On Reveals. He seems quite powerful to me.
As for adding Activate to existing cards, the developers recently stated in the official discord that they would “be looking to update some cards, but are explicitly avoiding cards in early series to avoid adding another thing to learn for the new player experience.”
So, which cards do we think are going to get this treatment? Personally, I'd love to see Kitty Pryde get Activate to restore her launch functionality. Zabu was strongly implied by Glenn Jones when he said that they “already have a plan in place for Zabu, but it's going to be a little longer before we enact it. This response will make more sense then.”
Will Zabu be a 2-cost card that allows you to activate and discount your 4-cost cards? It seems awkward if Zabu can't allow you to play a 4-cost card on turn 3. Perhaps he'll be a 1-Cost card that would allow you to choose to play a 4-Cost early on turn 3 or two 4-Costs on turn 6 (but not both like Zabu's previous design).
What other cards might be candidates for Activate? The ideal type of card we're looking for is imbalanced, meaning either too strong or not strong enough to see much play as currently designed. Second, it needs to be a card that isn't best as a surprise Turn 6 play. Instead, it should be something that can be activated sometime in the middle turns or later and still have an impact
Before we get to the cards that I think are most likely to get Activate, I'd like to mention a couple I don't think the developers will choose. I have seen people suggest Viper as a possibility. She's faded out of the meta ever since she was changed to 3-Cost. I think it's clear that the balance team feels she would be too much of a boon to Clog and Annihilus decks if she were to be changed back to 2-cost. I'd rather see her reverted to 2-Cost than to have Activate tacked onto her. Next is Elektra. I actually think Activate would be perfect for Elektra, but I don't think Second Dinner wants her to be more powerful than she already is in the early pool meta.
The most likely cards to get Activate are War Machine and Black Swan. Neither sees much play, and both were disappointing upon release. Black Swan could remain at a 3-Cost so that you could choose either turn 5 or 6 to discount your 1-Cost cards, but War Machine would probably have to come down to 3-Cost to allow him to attack turn 5 in addition to 6.
Other cards that I considered are Mantis, Zero, Scarlet Witch, Cloak, Morph, Stegron, and Kang. Activate could also be used someday to nerf On Reveal cards that become too strong or cards like Evolved Cyclops and Thing, though I don't see any Activate nerf targets right now. Also, the datamines indicate that Activate can be given an energy cost which could act as an additional balance knob. Which cards would you like to see get the new keyword?
2) What is the best way to play Arishem?
The newest card landed like an atomic bomb. Arishem has a playrate above 50% and an even higher playrate in Conquest or when filtering to Infinite only. These rates are well above what High Evolutionary achieved during his release week. It seems like Arishem may be the best-selling new card of all time.
In other words, the best way to play Arishem is with the currently popular lists designed for the mirror match. These decks include Darkhawk, Mystique, Rogue, Blob, and sometimes cards like Leech, Super Skrull, and Enchantress to shore up the Arishem vs. Arishem matchup. In case you're unaware, Rogue can steal Blob's Ongoing, and because she copies his full text, she will also perform his On Reveal. Mystique has similar functionality. She can copy Blob and do his On Reveal, too. You can even Rogue an opposing Blob and then play Mystique to copy that Rogue, and you will merge power from your deck each time. Loki, Shang Chi, Mockingbird, and some card generation usually round out the lists tailored to the mirror.
Standard Mirror Arishem
However, the situation where nearly all decks are either Arishem with mirror counters or decks explicitly built to beat Arishem decks will slowly fade over the next few days. What underexplored cards might be promising with Arishem once the meta settles a bit?
Namora works very well in Arishem since it's usually pretty easy to meet the conditions required to get 16 points of power out of her when you can play her on turn 4. In general, already powerful 5-Cost cards feel especially powerful in Arishem decks. Playing cards like Sera, Doctor Octopus, Lady Deathstrike, Iron Man, Vision, Professor X, and Hobgoblin are great when you can play them earlier than normal. Powerful 5-Cost cards will likely be what Arishem builds of the future rely on.
Storm has impressed me in Arishem builds, especially on those rare occasions that I wasn't playing against another Arishem deck. Crossbones has been a solid follow-up on turn 3. Other follow-up options include Jessica Jones, evolved Cyclops, and Mockingbird. Any of the various 4-Cost 6-power cards that are making it into Arishem decks will do in a pinch as well.
3) What is your favorite 0-Power card?
Some clearly powerful cards are honorable mentions, like Knull and Arnim Zola. They're powerful, but I don't play them as often as my favorites below.
My favorite 0-Power card is Iron Man. He's the original and still the best. He has such a unique ability to swing a lane. One thing I love to do with Iron Man is play him on turn 5 and use him as bait. Opponents will often avoid contesting your Iron Man lane and will instead attack the other two lanes.
Next might be a surprising choice, but I enjoy Taskmaster. Outside of Shuri decks, Taskmaster can be played in ramp, destroy, or even Zoo decks. He will copy a card’s current power. It can be fun with Nidavellir and Ongoing cards that you manage to get out early somehow (like Darkhawk, Ronan, or Devil Dinosaur). One fun trick is to hide him with Invisible Woman or Supergiant so that he reveals last and can copy your turn 6 play like Blob, Gilgamesh, or a card played into the same lane as your turn 4 Shuri.
The new kid on the 0-Power block is Sage. She's just so efficient for her cost, and works incredibly well with cards like Ravonna, Odin, and Goblins that you've sent to your opponent. She makes an excellent plan B in a Namora deck or to shore up a Wong lane in that deck to contest all three lanes. She was massively underrated before launch but she may actually be the best new card from the last two months.
Now, let's head over to the official Marvel Snap Discord and grab a couple of questions and answers to analyze.
4) Q: Hey team, Arishem is a Blast! I’m curious: given the Galactus esque animation in game, was Arishem designed to always generate cards or initially you thought of giving him another effect? On the topic: for such cool cards, do you finalise them first and then ask the vfx team to make the animation or viceversa?
A: We always develop VFX at the end of design. Sometimes some work is concurrent, but generally VFX is the second-to-last thing we finalize (with Cost/Power being the last).
-Glenn
Author's note
The Arishem animation is awesome, but with how heavily people are playing it, I think I might become tedious relatively quickly. Maybe they can make these start-of-game animations optional somehow. The team has ramped up the quality of VFX on recent cards. I look forward to cool animations for cards like Hydra Bob, Kate Bishop, Cassandra Nova, and the new Symbiotes.
5) Q: Are you able to share where you have landed generally on how borders will be provisioned in the game (at least for now)?
Interested broadly, but some specific questions that come to mind:
Will every new border that is added to the game be available for purchase with gold in the custom card shop?
If not, will reward/bundle/event borders be unique/exclusive? Borders feel like they have very different pressures at play to variants.
Any plans to allow consumed borders to be removed in some way from the card they are applied to?
As an example of my thinking: cards continue to roll out, so I imagine a lot of players might not completely engage with something like a distressed red border now if it's going to be impossible to ever make a complete distressed red deck with new cards a year from now.
A:
-Some borders will be in the shop and some will be exclusive to events / promotions
-They will sometimes be exclusives and sometimes not. For example, the neon green and silver metallic ones from the login bonus are not exclusive. There is a new matte and distressed border style that will debut in Diner. They will not be exclusive to Diner but will be only available from events/bundles/promos. We are still experimenting with how many border consumables to give at once and will keep iterating there.
-No plans to allow them to be removed once applied at this time. If it becomes an issue we can consider it down the road.
-Stephen
Author's note
This is our first confirmation that some borders will be exclusive and unavailable in the shop's cosmetics section. The first bundles with borders in them are coming on July 18th and will be expensive bundles that include a new matte black border. These will be pricey bundles and likely appeal to players who favor inked finish on their cards. As someone who likes to have all-matching borders, I haven't engaged much with the border system yet. I expect that to be the case until there is a way to get quite a few borders for a reasonable price simultaneously.
That's it for this week! Find me on Twitter and join in the conversation in the comments!